OF FOREST-TREES. 



303 



at first, yet do they perfectly abhor all stercoration ; nor will they much CH. XXII. 

 endure to have the earth opened about their roots for ablaqueation, ^— '"N'"^ 

 or be disturbed : This is also to be understood of Cypress. A Fir, for 

 the first half-dozen years, seems to staqd, or at least make no considerable 

 advance ; but it is when thoroughly rooted, that it comes away miracu- 

 lously. That honourable and learned knight. Sir Norton Knatchbull, 

 whose delicious plantation of Pines and Firs I beheld with great satisfac- 

 tion, has Jissured me, that a Fir-tree of his raising, did shoot no less than 

 sixty feet in height in little more than twenty years. The same speedy 

 growth may be observed in the trees belonging to Sir Peter Wentworth 

 at Lillingston-Lovel ; Cornbury in Oxfordshire ; and other places • but 

 especially those in Harefield-park, in the county of Middlesex, belonging 

 to Mr. Serjeant Nudigate, where there are two Spanish, or Silver Firs, that, 

 being planted there anno 1603, at two years' growth from the seed, are now 

 (1679) become goodly masts: The biggest of them, from the ground to the 

 upper bough, is eighty-one feet, though forked on the top, which has not 

 SL little impeded its growth ; The girt or circumference below is thirteen 

 feet, and the length, so far as is timber, that is, to six inches square, seventy- 

 three feet ; in the middle seventeen inches square^ amounting by calcula- 

 tion to one hundred and forty-six feet of good timber. The other tree is 

 indeed not altogether so large, by reason of its standing near the house 

 when it was burnt, about forty years since, when one side of the tree 

 was scorched also ; yet it has not only recovered that scar, but thrives 

 exceedingly, and is within eight or nine feet as tall as the other, and 

 would probably have been the better of the two, had not that impedi- 

 ment happened, it growing so taper and erect, as nothing can be more 

 beautiful. This, I think, if we had no other, is a pregnant instance, 

 as of the speedy growing of that material, so of all the encourage- 

 ment I have already given for the more frequent cultivating this orna- 

 mental, useful, and profitable tree, abounding, doubtless, formerly in this 

 country of ours, if what a grave and authentic author writes be true ; 

 Athen£eus * relating, that the stupendous vessel, built so many ages * Deipnosoph, 

 since by Hiero, had its mast out of Britain. Take notice, that none of 

 these mountainous trees should be planted deep, but as shallow as 

 may be for their competent support. 



10, The Picea, already described, grows on the Alps among the Pine, picea. 

 but neither so tall nor so upright, but bends its branches a little, which 



