hen it
was burnt (about 40 years since) when one side of the tree was scorched
also; yet it has not only recover'd that scar, but thrives exceedingly,
and is within eight or nine foot, as tall as the other, and would
probably have been the better of the two, had not that impediment
happen'd, it growing so taper, and erect, as nothing can be more
beautiful: This I think (if we had no other) is a pregnant instance, as
of the speedy growing of that material; so of all the encouragement I
have already given for the more frequent cultivating this ornamental,
useful, and profitable tree, abounding doubtless formerly in this
countrey of ours, if what a grave and authentick author writes be true,
Athenaeus relating, that the stupendious vessel, built so many ages since
by Hiero, had its mast out of Britain. Take notice that none of these
mountainous trees should be planted deep; but as shallow as may be for
their competent support.

The _picea_ (already describ'd) grows on the Alps among the pine, but
neither so tall, nor so upright, but bends its branches a little, which
have the leaf quite about them, short and thick, not so flat as the fir:
The cones grow at the point of the branches, and are much longer than
most other cones, containing a small darkish seed. This tree produces a
gum almost as white and firm as frankincense: But it is the _larix_
(another sort of pine) that yields the true Venetian turpentine; of
which hereafter.

10. There is also the _piceaster_, already mention'd, (a wilder sort)
(the leaves stiff and narrow pointed, and not so close) out of which the
greatest store of pitch is boil'd. The _taeda_ likewise, which is (as
some think) another sort abounding in Dalmatia, more unctuous, and more
patient of the warmer situations, and so inflammable, that it will slit
into candles; and therefore some will by no means admit it to be of a
different species, but a metamorphosis of over-grown fattiness, to which
the most judicious incline. But of these, the Grand Canaries (and all
about the mountains near Tenariff) are full, where the inhabitants do
usually build their houses with the timber of the pitch-tree: They cut
it also into wainscot, in which it succeeds marvellously well; abating
that it is so obnoxious to firing, that whenever a house is attacqu'd,
they make all imaginable hast out of the conflagration, and almost
despair of extinguishing it: They there also use it for candle-wood, and
to travel in the n