7 



i 



OF FOREST-TREES. 215 



kept clean by pruning them to the middle shoot for the first two years, CHAP. XV. 

 and so till the third or fourth. When you transplant, place them at eight, '^-^'v-^ 

 ten, or twelve feet interval. They will likewise grow of layers, and even 

 of cuttings in very moist places. In three years they will come to an in- 

 credible altitude ; in twelve be as big as your middle ; and in eighteen 

 or twenty arrive to full perfection. A specimen of this advance we have 

 had of an Abele-tree at Sion, which being lopped in February 1651, did, 

 by the end of October 1652, produce branches as big as a man's wrist, 

 and seventeen feet in length ; for which celerity we may recommend 

 them to such late builders as seat their houses in naked and unsheltered 

 places, and that would put a guise of antiquity upon any new inclosure ; 

 since by these, whilst a man is on a voyage of no long continuance, his 

 house and lands may be so covered as to be hardly known at his return. 

 But as they thus increase in bulk, their value, as the Italian Poplar has 

 taught us, advances likewise : which, after the first seven years, is 

 annually worth twelvepence more : So as the Dutch look upon a plan- 

 tation of these trees as an ample portion for a daughter, and none of the 

 least effects of their good husbandry ; which truly may very well be 

 allowed, if that- calculation hold, which the late worthy Knight* has -sir Richard 



J <^ Weston. 



asserted, who began his plantation not long since about Richmond, that 



destroyed by the other trees wliich were suffered to over-hang it, and rob it of its nourish- 

 ment, from the fear of taking them down, lest, by admitting the cold air, the Tulip-tree 

 might be injured. — The young shoots of this tree are covered with a smooth purplish bark ; 

 they are garnished with large leaves, whose foot-slalks are four inches long; they are ranged 

 alternate : the leaves are of a singular form, being divided into three lobes ; the middle lobe 

 is blunt and hollowed at the point, appearing as if it had been cut with scissors. The two 

 side-lobes are rounded, and end in blunt points. The leaves are from four to five inches 

 broad near their base, and about four inches long from the foot-stalk to the point, having a 

 strong mid-rib, which is formed by the continuation of the foot-stalk. From the mid-rib 

 run many transverse veins to the borders, which ramify into several smaller. The upper 

 surface of the leaves is smooth, and of a lucid green; the under is of a pale green. The 

 flowers are produced at the end of the branches, and are composed of six petals, three with- 

 out and three within, which form a sort of bell-shaped flower, whence the inhabitants 

 of North America give it the title of Tulip. These petals are marked with green, yellow, 

 and red spots, and make a fine appearance when the trees are well charged with flowers. This 

 tree flowers in July, and when the flowers drop, the gernien swells and forms a kind of cone, 



but these seldom ripen in England. Mr. Catesby, in his Natural History of Carolina, 



says, " There are some of these trees in America which are thirty feet in circumference ; the 

 " boughs are unequal and irregular, making several bends or elbows, which render the trees 

 " distinguishable at a great distance, even when they have no leaves upon them. They are 

 " found in most parts of the northern continent of America, from the Cape of Florida to New 

 " England, where the timber is of great use, the trunk being frequently hollowed, and made 

 *' into boats big enough to carry a number of men." 



