tice of): we
shall here therefore give an account of four only; two of which are most
frequent with us; for we shall say little of the _cerris_ or _aegilops_,
goodly to look on, but for little else: Some have mistaken it for beech,
whereas indeed it is a kind of oak bearing a small round acorn almost
covered with the cup, which is very rugged, the branches loaded with a
long moss hanging down like dishevell'd hair which much annoys it.
+Phagos+ is indeed doubtless a species of oak; however by the Latins
usually apply'd to the beech, whose leaf exceedingly differs from that
of the oak, as also the mast and bark rugged, and growing among the
hills and mountains; the other in the valleys, and perhaps, but few of
them in Italy. Physicians, naturalists and botanists should therefore be
curious how they describe and place such trees mention'd by
_Theophrastus_ and others, under the same denomination as frequently
they do; being found so very different when accurately examin'd. There
is likewise the _esculus_, which though _Vitruvius_, _Pliny_,
_Dalcampius_ and others take for a smaller kind, _Virgil_ celebrates for
its spreading, and profound root; and this _Dalcampius_ will therefore
have to be the _platyphyllos_ of _Theophrastus_, and as our botanists
think, his _phegos_, as producing the most edible fruit. But to confine
our selves; the _quercus urbana_, which grows more upright, and being
clean and lighter is fittest for timber: And the _robur_, or _quercus
silvestris_, (taking _robur_ for the general name, if at least
contradistinct from the rest); which (as the name imports) is of a vast
robust and inflexible nature, of an hard black grain; bearing a smaller
acorn, and affecting to spread in branches, and to put forth his roots
more above ground; and therefore in the planting, to be allow'd a
greater distance, viz. from twenty five, to forty foot; (nay sometimes
as many yards;) whereas the other shooting up more erect, will be
contented with fifteen. This kind is farther to be distinguished by its
fulness of leaves, which tarnish, and becoming yellow at the fall, do
commonly clothe it all the winter; the roots growing very deep and
stragling. The author of _Britannia Baconica_, speaks of an oak in
Lanhadron-Park in Cornwall, which bears constantly leaves speckled with
white; and of another call'd the painted oak; others have since been
found at Fridwood, near Sittingbourn in Kent; as also sycamore and elms,
in other plac