316 A DISCOURSE 



BOOK 1. mountains; and the learned Meibomius, in that curious treatise of his, 

 '"^'y^^ De Fabrica Triirmium, shews that there were such trees brought out of 

 India or Ophir. In the mean time, Mr. Purchas informs us that Dr. Dee 

 writ a laborious treatise almost wholly on this subject, but I could never 

 have the good hap to see it, wherein, as Commissioner for Solomon's 

 timber, and like a learned architect and planter, he has summoned a jury 

 of twelve sorts of trees ; namely, 1. The Fir ; 2. Box ; 3. Cedar ; 4. Cy- 

 press ; 5. Ebony ; 6. Ash ; 7. Juniper ; 8. Larch ; 9. Olive ; 10. Pine ; 

 11. Oak ; and 12. Sandal-trees, to examine which of them were this Almug, 

 and at last seems to concur with Josephus in favour of Pine or Fir ; who 

 possibly, from some ancient record or fragment of the wood itself, might 

 learn something of it ; and it is believed that it was some material both 

 odoriferous to the scent, and beautiful to the eye, and of fittest temper to 

 refract sounds, besides its serviceableness for building ; all which pro- 

 see piin. pcrtics arc in the best sort of Pine, or Thya, as Pliny calls it ; or perhaps 

 xvT.' c^p!" xi! it was some other rare wood, of which the Eastern Indies are doubtless 

 ophras?' hS" the best provided ; and yet I find that those vast beams which sustained 

 !ii!"er'iib?'xi'v! the roof of St. Peter's church at Rome, laid, as reported, by Constantine 

 ''^ "^^n the Great, were made of the Pitch-tree, and have lasted from A. D. 336, 

 lib. xxiv. cap. jjown to our days, above one thousand three hundred years. 



15. But now whilst I am reciting the uses of these beneficial trees, 

 Mr. Winthorp presents the Royal Society with the process of making tar 

 and pitch in New England, which we thus abbreviate. Tar is made out 

 of that sort of Pine-tree from which naturally turpentine extilleth ; and 

 which, at its first flowing out, is liquid and clear ; but, being hardened 

 by the air, either on the tree or wherever it falls, is not much unlike 

 the Burgundy-pitch ; and we call them Pitch-pines out of which this 

 gummy substance transudes. They grow upon the most barren plains, 

 on rocks also, and hills rising amongst those plains, where several are 

 found blown down, which have lain so many ages, as that their whole 

 bodies, branches, and roots have perished, some certain knots only of the 

 boughs remaining entire, (these knots are that part where the bough 

 is joined to the body of the tree,) and lying at the same distance and 

 posture as they grew upon the tree for its whole length. The bodies 

 of some of these trees are not corrupted through age, but quite consumed, 

 and reduced to ashes by the annual burnings of the Indians when 

 they set their grounds on fire, which yet has, it seems, no power over 



