, let it not seem altogether
impertinent, if I add one premonition to those less experienc'd
gardners, who frequently expose their orange, and like tender-furniture
trees of the green-house too early: That the first leaves putting forth
of this wise tree, (_sapientissima_, as{213:1} Pliny calls it) is a more
infallible note when those delicate plants may be safely brought out to
the air, than by any other prognostick or indication. For other species,
_vid._ _Raii Dendro._ p. 12.

FOOTNOTES:

{209:1} Andr. Medicus apud Athenaeum, _Deipnos._ lib. 3 cap. 29.

{213:1} _A mora, ob tarditatem._

CHAPTER II.

_Of the Platanus, Lotus, Cornus, Acacia_, &c.

1. _Platanus_, that so beautiful and precious tree, anciently sacred
to{214:1} Helena, (and with which she crown'd the _Lar_, and _Genius_ of
the place) was so doated on by Xerxes, that AElian and other authors tell
us, he made halt, and stopp'd his prodigious army of seventeen hundred
thousand soldiers, which even cover'd the sea, exhausted rivers, and
thrust mount Athos from the Continent, to admire the pulcritude and
procerity of one of these goodly trees; and became so fond of it, that
spoiling both himself, his concubines, and great persons of all their
jewels, he cover'd it with gold, gems, neck-laces, scarfs and bracelets,
and infinite riches: In sum, was so enamour'd of it, that for some days,
neither the concernment of his Grand Expedition, nor interest of honour,
nor the necessary motion of his portentous army, could perswade him from
it: He styl'd it his mistress, his minion, his Goddess; and when he was
forc'd to part from it, he caus'd the figure of it to be stamp'd in a
medal of gold, which he continually wore about him. Where-ever they
built their sumptuous and magnificent colleges for the exercise of youth
in gymnastics, as riding, shooting, wrestling, running, &c. (like to our
French Academies) and where the graver philosophers also met to converse
together, and improve their studies, betwixt the Xista, and _subdiales
ambulationes_ (which were portico's open to the air) they planted
groves and walks of platans, to refresh and shade the _Palaestritae_; as
you have them describ'd by Vitruvius, lib. 5. cap. 11. and as Claudius
Perrault has assisted the text, with a figure, or ichnographical plot.
These trees{215:1} the Romans first brought out of the Levant, and
cultivated with so much industry and cost, for their stately and proud
heads only, t