ently cut, the head is more
surcharged with them, which spreading like so many rays from a centre,
form that hollowness at the top of the stem whence they shoot, capable
of containing a good quantity of water every time it rains: This sinking
into the pores, as was before hinted, is compell'd to divert its course
as it passes through the body of the tree, where-ever it encounters the
knot of any of those branches which were cut off from the stem; because
their roots not only deeply penetrate towards the heart, but are
likewise of themselves very hard and impervious; and the frequent
obliquity of this course of the subsiding moisture, by reason of these
obstructions, is, as may be conceived, the cause of those curious
works, which we find remarkable in this, and other woods, whose branches
grow thick from the stem: But for these curious contextures, consult
rather the learned Dr. Grew. We have shewed how by culture, and
stripping up, it arrives to a goodly tree; and surely there were some of
them of large bulk, and noble shades, that Virgil should chuse it for
the Court of his Evander (one of his worthiest princes, in his best of
poems) sitting in his maple-throne; and when he brings AEneas into the
royal cottage, he makes him this memorable complement; greater, says
great Cowley, than ever was yet spoken at the Escurial, the Louvre, or
White-hall.

This humble roof, this rustique court, said he,
Receiv'd Alcides crown'd with victory:
Scorn not (great guest) the steps where he has trod,
But contemn wealth, and imitate a God.{120:1}

The savages in Canada, when the sap rises in the maple, by an incision
in the tree, extract the liquor; and having evaporated a reasonable
quantity thereof (as suppose 7 or 8 pound), there will remain one pound,
as sweet and perfect sugar, as that which is gotten out of the cane;
part of which sugar has been for many years constantly sent to Rouen in
Normandy, to be refin'd: There is also made of this sugar an excellent
syrup of maiden-hair and other capillary plants, prevalent against the
_scorbut_; though Mr. Ray thinks otherwise, by reason of the saccharine
substance remaining in the decoction: See _Synops. Stirp._ & Tom. III.
_Dendrolog._ de Acere. p. 93, 94.

FOOTNOTES:

{119:1} Not invented in Palissy's days.

{120:1}

........... Haec (inquit) limina victor
Alcides............

CHAPTER XII.

_Of the Sycomor._

1. The sycomor, or wild fig-