Sylva Part 22

Upon what therefore has been produc'd of expedients for the melioration of the air by plantations of proper trees; I cannot but wish, that since these precious materials may now be had at such tolerable rates (as certainly they might from Cape-Florida, the Vermuda, or other parts of the West-Indies); I say, I cannot but suggest that our more wealthy citizens of London, every day building and embellishing their dwellings, might be encourag'd to make use of it in their shops, at least for shelves, counters, chests, tables, and wainscot, &c. the fancerings (as they term it) and mouldings; since beside the everlastingness of the wood, enemy to worms, and those other corruption we have named, it would likewise greatly cure and reform the malignancy and corrosiveness of the air.

_Sabin_, or, as we call it, savine, not for dignity to be nam'd with the former; but for its being absolutely the best _Succedaneum_ to cypress, (which the rigour of our climat is not so benign to): If our gardners did only increase and cultivate it for the other's defects, and bring up nurseries of them for pyramids, and other tonsile and topiary works, they would oftner use it instead of cypress: As to its other quality, it has, indeed, an ill report, (as most other things have when not rightly apply'd,) whilst there is nothing more efficacious for the destruction of worms in little children, the juice being given in a spoonful of milk, dulcified with a little sugar, which brings them away in heaps; as it does in horses and other cattel above all other remedies.

There is another berry-bearing savine in warmer climats, which also resembles the cypress, commonly taken for the Tarrentine cypress, so much celebrated by Cato, which grew to n.o.ble standards: But that, and the Melesian, worthy the culture, are rare with us, and indeed is as well supply'd by the more hardy, as well as the Swedish juniper, and other shrubs. The sabine is easily propagated by slips and cuttings sooner than by the seeds, though sometimes found in the small squamous seed-cases.

_Tamaric_, (growing to a considerable tree) for its aptness to be shorn and govern'd like the sabine and cypress, may be entertain'd, but not for its lasting verdure, which forsakes it in Winter, but soon again restores it. It was of old counted _infelix_, and under malediction, and therefore used to wreath, and be put on the heads of malefactors: But it has other excellent properties, in particular sovereign against the spleen, which as{281:1} Camden tells us was therefore brought first into England by Grindal Archbishop of Canterbury: They also made cans to drink, out of this wood.

_Thuya_; by some call'd _arbor vitae_, (brought us from Canada,) is an hardy green all the Winter, (though a little tarnish'd in very sharp weather) rais'd to a tree of moderate stature, bearing a ragged leaf, not unlike the cypress, only somewhat flatter, and not so thick set and close: It bears small longish clogs and seeds, but takes much better by layers and slips, as those we have before mentioned, and may be kept into the same shapes, but most delights in the shade, where the roots running shallow, the stem needs support: The leaf being bruised between the fingers, emits a powerful scent not easily conquer'd, seeming to breathe something of a sanative unguent, and (as I am told) makes one of the best for the closure of green and fresh wounds: But that those curious utensils and works of the turners, bowls, boxes, cups, mortars, pestles, &c. are of this material (as is pretended) and pa.s.s under the name of _lignum vitae_, (or rather of some of the exotic, more close and ponderous wood) as Brasile, log-wood, &c. is a mistake: Upon recension therefore of these exotics, I cannot but encourage the more frequent raising the rest of those _semper-vivents_, especially such as are fittest for the shrubby parts, and furniture of our groves, mere gardens of pleasure, which none but the ever-green become. To these we might add (not for their verdure only) other more rare exotics, _styrax arbor_, and terebynth, noting by the way, that we have no true turpentine to be bought in our shops, but what is from the larch; whilst apothecaries subst.i.tute that which extills from the fir-tree, instead of it: All of them minding me again of the great opportunities and encouragement we have of every day improving our stores with so many useful trees from the American plantations; for which I have the suffrage of the often-cited Mr. Ray, who is certainly a very able judge: Might we not therefore attempt the more frequent locust, sa.s.safras, &c. and that sort of elm, or sugar-tree, whose juice yields that sweet _halymus latifolius_, and several others for encouragement? But

14. I produce not these particulars, and other _amaena vireta_ already mentioned, as signifying any thing to timber, the main design of this treatise, (tho' I read of some myrtils so tall, as to make spear-shafts) but to exemplifie in what may be farther added to ornament and pleasure, by a cheap and most agreeable industry.

FOOTNOTES:

{255:1} Le Bruyn.

{258:1} In Itin.

{268:1} _A cerasunte_. Indeed Servius, l. 2. _Geor._ 1. says, it was earlier in Italy; but hard and wild and usually call'd _corna_, and sometimes _corno-cerosa_, perhaps the black-cherry.

{276:1} _Hadrian. Junius Animadv._ l. 1. c. 20.

{277:1} _Fumifugium._

{281:1} _Elizab._

CHAPTER V.

_Of the Cork, Ilex, Alaternus, Celastrus, Ligustrum, Philyrea, Myrtil, Lentiscus, Olive, Granade, Syring, Jasmine and other Exoticks._

We do not exclude this useful tree from those of the glandiferous and forest; but being inclin'd to gratify the curious, I have been induc'd to say something farther of such _semper virentia_, as may be made to sort with those of our own, (especially of the next Chapter.) I begin with the

1. Cork, [_suber_] of which there are two sorts (and divers more in the Indies) one of a narrow, or less jagged leaf, and perennial; the other of a broader, falling in Winter; grows in the coldest parts of Biscay, in the north of New-England, in the south-West of France, especially the second species, fittest for our climate; and in all sorts of ground, dry heaths, stony and rocky mountains, so as the roots will run even above the earth, where they have little to cover them; all which considered, methinks we should not despair. We have said where they grow plentifully in France; but by Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ l. 16. c. 8. it should seem they were since transplanted thither; for he affirms there were none either there, or in Italy, in his time: But I exceedingly wonder that Carolus Stepha.n.u.s, and Cursius, should write so peremptorily, that there were none in Italy; where I my self have travell'd through vast woods of them about Pisa, Aquin, and in divers tracts between Rome, and the kingdom of Naples, and in France. The Spanish cork is a species of the _enzina_, differing chiefly in the leaf, which is not so p.r.i.c.kly; and in the bark, which is frequently four or five inches thick: The manner of decortication thereof is once in two or three years, to strip it in a dry season; otherwise, the intercutaneous moisture endangers the tree, and therefore a rainy season is very pernicious; when the bark is off, they unwarp it before the fire, and press it even, and that with weights upon the convex part, and so it continues, being cold.

2. The uses of cork is well known amongst us, both at sea and land, for its resisting both water and air: The fisher-men who deal in nets, and all who deal with liquors, cannot be without it: Ancient persons prefer it before leather for the soles of their shooes, being light, dry, and resisting moisture, whence the Germans name it _Pantoffel-holts_ (slipper-wood) perhaps from the Greek ?a?t?? & f?????; for I find it first applied to that purpose by the Grecian ladies, whence they were call'd light-footed; I know not whether the epithet do still belong to that s.e.x; but from them it's likely the Venetian dames took it up for their monstrous _choppines_; affecting, or usurping an artificial eminency above men, which nature has denied them. Of one of the sorts of cork are made pretty cups, and other vessels, esteem'd good to drink out of for hectical persons: The Egyptians made their coffins of it, which being lin'd with a resinous composition, preserved their dead incorrupt: The poor people in Spain, lay broad planks of it by their beds-side, to tread on (as great persons use Turky and Persian carpets) to defend them from the floor, and sometimes they line or wainscot the walls, and inside of their houses built of stone, with this bark, which renders them very warm, and corrects the moisture of the air: Also they employ it for bee-hives, and to double the insides of their _contemplores_, and leather-cases, wherein they put flasquera's with snow to refrigerate their wine. This tree has beneath the _cortex_ or cork, two other coats, or _libri_, of which one is reddish, which they strip from the hole when 'tis fell'd only; and this bears good price with the tanner; The rest of the wood is very good firing, and applicable to many other uses of building, palisade-work, &c. The ashes drunk, stop the b.l.o.o.d.y-flux.

3. _Ilex_, _major glandifera_, or great scarlet-oak of several species, and various in the shape of their leaf, pointed rounder, longer, &c. (a devoted tree of old, and therefore _incaedua_) thrives manifestly with us; witness His Majesty's privy-garden at White-hall, where once flourish'd a goodly tree, of more than fourscore years growth, and there was lately a sickly imp of it remaining: And now very many rais'd by me, have thriv'd wonderfully, braving the most severe Winters, planted either in standards or hedges, which they most beautifully become. The only difficulty is in their being dextrously removed out of the nursery, with the mould adhering to the roots; otherwise apt to miscarry; and therefore best trusting to the acorn for a goodly standard, and that may be removed without prejudice, tryals should be made by graffing the _ilex_ in the oak-stock, taken out of our woods, or better, grown from the acorn to the bigness of one's little finger.

4. By what I have touch'd in the chapter of the elms, concerning the peregrination of that tree into Spain, (where even in Pliny's time there were none, and where now they are in great abundance) why should we not more generally endeavour to propagate the _ilex_ amongst us; I mean, that which the Spaniards call the _enzina_, and of which they have such woods, and profitable plantations? They are an hardy sort of tree, and familiarly rais'd from the acorn, if we could have them sound, and well put up in earth or sand, as I have found by experience.

5. The wood of these _ilex's_ is serviceable for many uses, as stocks of tools, mallet-heads, mall-b.a.l.l.s, chairs, axletrees, wedges, beetles, pins, and above all, for palisadoes us'd in fortifications. Besides, it affords so good fuel, that it supplies all Spain almost with the best, and most lasting of charcoals, in vast abundance. Of the first kind is made the painter's lac, extracted from the berries; to speak nothing of that n.o.ble confection _alkermes_, and that n.o.ble scarlet-die the learned Mr. Ray gives us the process of at large, in his chapter of the ilexes; where also of their medicinal uses: To this add that most accurate description of this tree, and the _vermicula_; see Quinquera.n.u.s, L. 2.

_de laud. provid._ fol. 48. naturally abounding about Alos. The acorns of the _coccigera_, or dwarf-oak, yield excellent nourishment for rustics, sweet, and little if at all inferior to the chesnut; and this, and not the _f.a.gus_, was doubtless the true _esculus_ of the Ancients, the food of the Golden Age. The wood of the _enzina_ when old, is curiously chambletted, and embroider'd with natural vermiculations, as if it were painted. Note, that the _kermes_ tree does not always produce the _cocc.u.m_, but near the sea, and where it is very hot; nor indeed when once it comes to bear acorns; and therefore the people do often burn down the old trees, that they may put forth fresh branches, upon which they find them: This, (as well as the oak, cork, beech, and _corylus_) is numbred amongst the _felices_, and lucky-trees: But for what reason, the _alaternus_ (which I am next speaking of) together with the _agrifolium_ [holly] pines, _salix_, &c. should be excommunicated, as _infelices_, I know not, unless for their being dedicated to the Infernal Deities; of which Macrob. _Sat. lib._ 12. cap. 16. In the mean time, take this for a general rule; that those were call'd _infelices_ only, which bare no fruit; for so Livy, lib. 5. _nulla felix arbor, nihil frugiferum in agro relictum_. Whence that of Phaedrus, l. 3. _Fab._ upon Jupiter's _esculus_:

_O nata, merito sapiens dicere omnibus Nisi utile est quod facimus, stulta est gloria,_

reciting the ancient trees sacred to the deity, the most desirable being those that were fruitful, and for use.

6. The _alaternus_, which we have lately receiv'd from the hottest parts of Languedoc, (and that is equal with the heat of almost any country in Europe) thrives with us in England, as if it were an indigine and natural; yet sometimes yielding to a severe Winter, follow'd with a tedious eastern wind in the Spring, of all the most hostile and cruel enemies of our climate; and therefore to be artificially and timely provided against with shelter.

7. I have had the honour to be the first who brought it into use and reputation in the kingdom, for the most beautiful and useful of hedges and verdure in the world (the swiftness of the growth consider'd) and propagated it from Cornwall, even to c.u.mberland: The seed grows ripe with us in August; and the honey-breathing blossoms afford an early and marvellous relief to the bees.

8. The _celastrus_ (of the same cla.s.s) _ligustrum_ and privits, so flexible and accommodate for topiary-works, and so well known, I shall need say no more of.

9. The _philyrea_, (of which there are five or six sorts, and some variegated) are sufficiently hardy, (especially the _serratifole_) which makes me wonder to find the _angustifolia_ planted in cases, and so charily set into the stoves, amongst the oranges and lemmons; when by long experience, I have found it equalling our holley, in suffering the extreamest rigours of our cruel frosts and winds, which is doubtless (of all our English trees) the most insensible and stout.

10. They are (both _alaternus_, and this) raised of the seeds, (though those of the _philyrea_ will be long under ground) and being transplanted for _espalier_ hedges, or standards, are to be governed by the shears, as oft as there is occasion: The _alaternus_ will be up in a month or two after it is sown: I was wont to wash them out of the berry, and drying them a little in a cloath, commit them to the nursery-bed.

Plant it out at two years growth, and clip it after rain in the Spring, before it grows sticky, and whilst the shoots are tender; thus will it form an hedge (though planted but in single rows, and at two foot distance) of a yard in thickness, twenty foot high (if you desire it) and furnish'd to the bottom: but for an hedge of this alt.i.tude, it would require the friendship of some wall, or a frame of l.u.s.ty poles, to secure against the winds one of the most delicious objects in nature: But if we could have store of the _philyrea folio leviter serrato_ (of which I have rais'd some very fine plants from the seeds) we might fear no weather, and the verdure is incomparable, and all of them tonsile, fit for cradle-work and _umbracula frondium_: a decoction of the _angustifolia_ soveraign for sore mouths.

11. The myrtil. The vulgar Italian wild myrtil (though not indeed the most fragrant) grows high, and supports all weathers and climates; they thrive abroad in Bretany, in places cold and very sharp in Winter; and are observ'd no where to prosper so well, as by the sea-coasts, the air of which is more propitious to them (as well as to oranges and lemmons, &c.) than the inland air. I know of one near eighty years old, which has been continually expos'd; unless it be, that in some exceeding sharp seasons, a little dry straw has been thrown upon it; and where they are smitten, being cut down near the ground, they put forth and recover again; which many times they do not in pots and cases, where the roots are very obnoxious to perish with mouldiness. The shelter of a few mats, and straw, secur'd very great trees (both leaf and colour in perfection) this last Winter also, which were planted abroad; whilst those that were carried into the conserve, were most of them lost. Myrtils (which are of six or eight sorts) may be rais'd of seeds; as also may several varieties of oranges and lemmons, and made (after some years attendance) to produce fruit in the cold Rhetia and Helvetick valleys; but with great caution, and after all, seldom prove worth the pains, being so abundantly multiplied of suckers, slips and layers: The double-flower (which is the most beautiful) was first discovered by the incomparable Fabr. Piereshy, which a mule had cropt from a wild shrub. Note, that you cannot give those plants too much compost or refreshing, nor clip them too often, even to the stem; which will grow tall, and prosper into any shape; so as arbours have been made of single trees of the hardy kind, protected in the Winter with sheads of straw and reeds. Both leaves and berries refrigerate, and are very astringent and drying, and therefore seldom us'd within, except in fluxes: With wine and honey it heals the noisome _polypus_, and the powder corrects the rankness of the arm-pits, and _gousset_ (as the French term it) to which divers of the female s.e.x are subject: The berries mitigate the inflammations of the eyes, consolidate broken-bones; and a decoction of the juice, leaves, and berries, dyes the hair black, & _enecant vitiligenes_, as Dioscorides says, l. 1. c. 128. And there is an excellent sweet water extracted from the distill'd leaves and flowers: To which the naturalist adds, that they us'd the berries instead of pepper, to stuff and farce with them.

Hence the _mortadella a mortatula_, still so call'd by the Italians, perhaps the ??t?de? of Athenaeus, _deip._ l. 2. c. 12. The _vinum myrt.i.tes_ so celebrated by the{290:1} ancients, and so the oyl; And in some places the leaves for tanning of leather: and trees have grown to such substance, as of the very wood curious cups and boxes have been turn'd.

The variety of this rare shrub, now furnishing the gardens and portico's (as long as the season and weather suits) and even in the severest Winters in the conclave, are cut and contriv'd into various figures, and of divers variegations, most likely to be produc'd by the seeds, as our learned Mr. Ray believes, rather than by layers, suckers, or slips, or from any difference of species: In the mean time, let gardeners make such trials, whilst those most worth the culture, are the small and broad-leav'd, the Tarentine, the Belgick, _latifolia_, and double-flower'd, and several more among the curious; and of old, sacred to Venus, so call'd from a virgin belov'd of Minerva, the garlands of the leaves and blossoms, impaling the brows of incruentous, and unb.l.o.o.d.y victors and ovations.

And now if here for the name only, I mention the _myrtus Brasantica_, or candle-berry shrub (which our plantations in Virginia, and other places have in plenty) let it be admitted: It bears a berry, which being boil'd in water, yields a suet or pinguid substance, of a green colour, which being sc.u.mm'd and taken off, they make candles with, in the shape of such as we use of tallow, or wax rather; giving not only a very clear and sufficient light, but a very agreeable scent, and are now not seldom brought hither to us, but the tree it self, of which I have seen a thriving one.

12. _Lentiscus_ (a very beautiful evergreen) refuses not our climate, protected with a little shelter, amongst other exposed shrubs, by suckers and layers: It is certainly an extraordinary astringent and dryer, applicable in the hernia, strangury, and to stop fluxes; closes and cures wounds, being infus'd in red-wine, is also us'd to tinge hairs of that colour, to black and brown. Not forgetting the best tooth-pickers in the world, made of the wood; but above all, the gum for fastning loose-teeth in the gums; the mastick, gather'd from this profitable bush in the Island of Scio; beside other uses: And as the lentisc, so may the

13. Olive be admitted, tho' it produce no other fruit than the verdure of the leaf; nor will it kindly breath our air, nor the less tender _oleaster_, without the indulgent winter-house take them in. But the

14. _Granata_ [_malus punica_] is nothing so nice. There are of this glorious shrub three sorts, easily enough educated under any warm shelter, even to the raising hedges of them, nor indeed affects it so much heat, as plentiful watering: They supported a very severe winter in my garden, 1663, without any trouble or artifice; and if they present us their blushing double flowers for the pains of recision and well pruning, (for they must diligently be purg'd of superfluous wood) it is recompence enough; tho' placed in a very benign aspect, they have sometimes produc'd a pretty small pome: It is a _perdifolia_ in Winter, and growing abroad, requires no extraordinary rich earth, but that the mould be loosen'd and eas'd about the root, and hearty compost applied in Spring and Autumn: Thus cultivated, it will rise to a pretty tree, tho' of which there is in nature none so adulterate a shrub: 'Tis best increas'd by layers, approch and inarching (as they term it) and is said to marry with laurels, the damson, ash, almond, mulberry, citron, too many I fear to hold. But after all, they do best being cas'd, the mould well mixt with rotten hogs-dung, its peculiar delight, and kept to a single stem, and treated like other plants in the Winter-shelter; they open the bud and flower, and sometimes with a pretty small fruit; the juice whereof is cooling; the rest of an astringent quality: The rind may also supply the gall for making ink, and will tan leather.

15. The syring [lilac] or pipe-tree, so easily propagated by suckers or layers; the flower of the white (emulating both colour and flavor of the orange) I am told is made use of by the perfumers; I should not else have named it among the evergreens; for it loses the leaf, tho' not its life, however expos'd in the Winter: There are besides this the purple, by our botanists call'd the Persian julsamine, which next leads me to the other jasmines.

16. The jasmine, especially the Spanish larger flower, far exceeding all the rest, for the agreeable odor and use of the perfumer: The common white and yellow would flower plentifully in our groves, and climb about the trees, being as hardy as any of our _periclimena_ and honey-suckles.

How 'tis increas'd by submersion and layers, every gardner skills; and were it as much employ'd for nose-gays, &c. with us, as it is in Italy and France, they might make money enough of the flowers; one sorry tree in Paris, where they abound, has been worth a poor woman near a _pistol_ a year.

There is no small curiosity and address in obtaining the oyl, or essence (as we call it) of this delicate and evanid flower, which I leave to the chymist and the ladies who are worthy the secrets.

FOOTNOTES:

{290:1} Cato, Columella, Paladius.

CHAPTER VI.

_Of the Arbutus, Box, Yew, Holly, Pyracanth, Laurel, Bay, &c._

1. The _arbutus_, (by us call'd the strawberry-tree) too much I think neglected by us; making that a rarity, which grows so common and naturally in Ireland: It is indeed with some difficulty raised by seeds, but propagated by layers, if skilfully prun'd, grows to a goodly tree, patient of our clime, unless the weather be very severe: It may be contriv'd into most beautiful palisades, is ever verdant: I am told the tree grows to a huge bulk and height in Mount Athos and other countries: Virgil reports its inoculation with the nut; and I find Bauhinus commends the coal for the goldsmiths works; and the poet

Arbutean harrows, and the mystick van.{294:1}