300 



A DISCOURSE 



BOOK I. you would rather set the Pine as they do peas, but at wider distances, 

 •^"y^^ that when there is occasion of removal, they might be taken up with the 

 earth and all ; 1 say taken up, and not removed by evulsion, because they 

 are, of all other trees, the most obnoxious to miscarry without this 

 caution ; and therefore it were much better, where the nuts might be 

 commodiously set and defended, never to remove them at all, as it gives * 

 this tree so considerable a check. The safest course of all, were to set 

 the nuts in an earthen pot, and, in frosty weather, to show it a little to 

 the fire ; the entire clod will come out with them, which are to be re- 

 served, and set in the naked earth, in convenient and fit holes prepared 

 before-hand, or so soon as the thaw is universal. Some commend the 

 strewing a few oats at the bottom of the fosses, or pits, in which you 

 transplant the naked roots, for a great promotement of their taking, and 

 that it will cause them to shoot more in one year than in three : But to 

 this I have already spoken. Other kinds not so rigid, nor the bark, leaf, 

 cone, and nuts so large, are those called the Mountain-Pine, a very large 

 stately tree. There is likewise the Wild or Bastard Pine and Taeda, clad 

 with thin long leaves, and bearing a turbinated cone : abundance of 

 excellent resin comes from this tree. There is also the Pinaster, another 

 of the wild kind ; but none of them exceed the Spanish, called by us 

 the Scotch Pine, its tall and erect growth making it proper for large and 

 ample walks and avenues. Several of the other wild sorts incline to 

 grow crooked. But for a more accurate description of these coniferous 

 trees, and their perfect distinctions, consult our Mr. Ray's most elaborate 

 and useful work, where all that can be expected or desired, concerning 

 this profitable, as well as beautiful tree, is amply set down. Hist. Plant, 

 lib. XXV. cap. i, 



5. I am assured, by a person most worthy of credit, that in the terri- 

 tory of Elsasz, (a country in Germany where they were miserably dis- 

 tressed for wood, which they had so destroyed, as that they were reduced 

 to make use of straw for their best fuel,) a very large tract being newly 

 ploughed, (but the wars surprising them they did not sow,) there sprung 

 up the next year a whole forest of Pine-trees, of which sort of wood 

 there was none at all within less than fourscore miles ; so as it is verily 

 conjectured by some, the winged seeds might be wafted thither from the 

 country of Weteravia, which is the nearest part to that where they grow. 

 If this be true, we are no more to wonder how, when our Oak-woods 



