320 



A DISCOURSE 



old leaf made an ignorant gardener of mine eradicate what I had brought 

 up with much care, as dead : Let this, therefore, be a warning. The 

 leaves are thin, pretty long, and bristly ; the cones are small, and grow 

 irregular, as do the branches. It is a very beautiful tree. The ponder- 

 ous branches bend a little, in which it differs from the Libanus Cedar, 

 to which some would have it allied ; nor are any found in Syria. From 

 the deep-wounded bark of this tree exudes the purest of our shop tur* 

 pentines. From it also comes the drug Agaric. That it flourishes with 

 us a tree of good stature, not long since to be seen about Chelmsford 

 in EsseXj sufficiently reproaches our not cultivating so useful a material 

 for many purposes, where lasting and substantial timber is required : For 

 we read of beams of no less than an hundred and twenty feet in length, 

 made out of this goodly tree, which is of so strange a composition that 

 it will hardly burn : Et rohusta Larix igni impenetrabile lignum ; for 

 so Csesar found it in a castle besieged by him. The story is recited 

 at large by Vitruvius, lib. ii. cap. ix. ; but see what Philander says upon 

 the place, on his own experience. Yet the coals thereof were held far 

 better than any other for the melting of iron, and the lock-smith ; and, 

 to say the truth, we find they burn it frequently as common fuel in the 

 Valtoline, if at least it be the true Larix, which they now call Meleze. — 

 There is abundance of this Larch timber in the buildings at Venice, 

 especially about the palaces in Piazza San Marco, where I remember 

 Scamozzi says he himself used much of it, and infinitely commends it. — 

 Kor did they only use it in houses, but in naval architecture also. The 

 ship mentioned by Witsen (a late Dutch writer of that useful art) to have 

 been found not long since in the Numidian sea, twelve fathoms under 

 water, was chiefly built of this timber and Cypress, both reduced to that 

 induration and hardness, as greatly to resist the fire and the sharpest tool; 

 nor was any thing perished of it, though it had lain above a thousand 

 and four hundred years submerged. Tiberius, we find, built that famous 

 bridge to his Naumachia with this wood ; and it seems to excel for 

 beams, doors^ windows, and masts of ships ; it resists the worm. Being 

 driven into the ground, it is almost petrified, and will support an 

 incredible weight ; which, and for its property of long resisting fire, 

 makes Vitruvius wish they had greater plenty of it at Rome to make 

 joists of, where the forum of Augustus was (it seems) built of it, and 

 divers bridges by Tiberius ; for thatj being attempted with fire, it is long 



