OP FOREST-TREES. 265 



with boards of this material ; For the cogs of mills, posts to be set CH. XXI. 

 in moist grounds, and everlasting axle-trees, there is none to be compared ""-"^v^ 

 with it. It is likewise used for the bodies of lutes, theorboes, bowls, 

 wheels, and pins for pulleys ; yea, for tankards to drink out of. 



Notwithstanding what Pliny reports concerning its shade, the stories 

 of the air about Thasius, the fate of Cativulcus, mentioned by Caesar, 

 and the ill report which the fruit has vulgarly obtained in France, Spain, 

 and Arcadia, I shall venture to say 



Quam multa arboribus tribuuntur crimina falso ? 

 How are poer trees traduc'd ? 



The toxic quality was certainly in the liquor, which the good fellows . ^^^^ 

 tippled out of the bottles * made of this tree, and not in the nature of the 



xrr vinis in Gallia 



wood: which yet Plinv affirms is cured of that venenous quality, fa"^, monife- 



• T 1 , ra fuisse com- 



bv driving: a brazen wedffe into the body of it. This I have never tried, pertum est — 



TLIN. lib. xvi. 



but that of the shade and fruit I have frequently, without any deadly 



•ness quarters, and for hedges, for which service it is excellently well adapted> as no tree 

 bears clipping so well. 



These trees may be easily propagated by sowing their berries in autumn, as soon as 

 they are ripe, or in the spring, upon a shady bed of fresh undunged soil, covering them over 

 about half an inch thick with the same earth. The bed must be carefully cleared from 

 weeds, and if the season prove dry, it will be proper to refresh it with water now and then, 

 which will promote the growth of the seeds, some of which will come up in the spring, but 

 the greatest part wiU remain in the ground until autumn or the spring following. 



The plants, when they come up, should be constantly cleared from weeds, which, if 

 permitted to grow amongst them, will cause their bottoms to be naked, and frequently de- 

 stroy the plants when they continue long undisturbed. 



In this bed the plants may remain two years ; after which, in autunn, there should be 

 a spot of fresh, undunged soil prepared, into which they should be removed the beginning 

 of October, planting them in beds about four or five feet wide, in rows about a foot 

 asunder, and the same distance from each other in the rows, observing to lay a little 

 mulch upon the surface of the ground about the roots, as also to water them in dry weather 

 until they have taken root, after which they wiU require no farther care, but to keep 

 them clear from weeds in summer, and to trim them according to the purposes for which 

 they are intended. 



Volume I. S S 



