about their rivulets and fountains. The West-Indian plane is not
altogether so rare, but it rises to a goodly tree, and bears a very
ample and less jagged leaf: That the Turks use their _platanus_ for the
building of ships, I learn out of Ricciolus _Hydrog._ l. 10. c. 37. and
out of Pliny, canoos and vessels for the sea have been excavated out of
their prodigious trunks.

4. The same opinion have I of the noble _lotus arbor_ (another lover of
the water) which in Italy yields both an admirable shade, and timber
immortal, growing to a vast tree, where they come spontaneously; but
its fruit seems not so tempting as it is storied it was to the
companions of Ulysses: The first who brought the lotus out of Virginia,
was the late industrious Tradescant. Of this wood are made pipes, and
wind-instruments, and of its root, hafts for knives and other tools, &c.
The offer of Crassus to Domitius for half a dozen of these trees,
growing about an house of his in Rome, testifies in what esteem they
were had for their incomparable beauty and use.

The cornell tree, though not mention'd by Pliny for its timber, is
exceedingly commended for its durableness, and use in wheelwork, pinns
and wedges, in which it lasts like the hardest iron; and it will grow
with us to good bulk and stature; and the preserv'd and pickl'd berries,
(or cherries rather) are most refreshing, an excellent condiment, and do
also well in tarts. But that is very old, which Mathiolus affirms upon
his own experience, that one who has been bitten of a mad-dog, if in a
year after he handle the wood of this tree till it grow warm, relapses
again into his former distemper.

The same reported of the _cornus femina_, or wild cornel; which is like
the former for compactedness, and made use of for cart-timber, and other
rustick instruments; besides, for the best of butchers skewers,
tooth-pickers, and in some countries abroad they decoct the berries,
which press'd, yield an oyl for the lamp.

Lastly, the acacia, and that of Virginian, deserves a place among our
avenue trees, (could they be made to grow upright) adorning our walks
with their exotic leaf, and sweet flowers; very hardy against the
pinching Winter, but not so proof against its blustring winds; though it
be arm'd with thorns: nor do the roots take such hold of the ground,
insinuating, and running more like liquorish, and apt to emaciate the
soil; I will not therefore commend it for gardens, unless for the
variet