fice; and if they present
us their blushing double flowers for the pains of recision and well
pruning, (for they must diligently be purg'd of superfluous wood) it is
recompence enough; tho' placed in a very benign aspect, they have
sometimes produc'd a pretty small pome: It is a _perdifolia_ in Winter,
and growing abroad, requires no extraordinary rich earth, but that the
mould be loosen'd and eas'd about the root, and hearty compost applied
in Spring and Autumn: Thus cultivated, it will rise to a pretty tree,
tho' of which there is in nature none so adulterate a shrub: 'Tis best
increas'd by layers, approch and inarching (as they term it) and is said
to marry with laurels, the damson, ash, almond, mulberry, citron, too
many I fear to hold. But after all, they do best being cas'd, the mould
well mixt with rotten hogs-dung, its peculiar delight, and kept to a
single stem, and treated like other plants in the Winter-shelter; they
open the bud and flower, and sometimes with a pretty small fruit; the
juice whereof is cooling; the rest of an astringent quality: The rind
may also supply the gall for making ink, and will tan leather.

15. The syring [lilac] or pipe-tree, so easily propagated by suckers or
layers; the flower of the white (emulating both colour and flavor of the
orange) I am told is made use of by the perfumers; I should not else
have named it among the evergreens; for it loses the leaf, tho' not its
life, however expos'd in the Winter: There are besides this the purple,
by our botanists call'd the Persian julsamine, which next leads me to
the other jasmines.

16. The jasmine, especially the Spanish larger flower, far exceeding all
the rest, for the agreeable odor and use of the perfumer: The common
white and yellow would flower plentifully in our groves, and climb about
the trees, being as hardy as any of our _periclimena_ and honey-suckles.

How 'tis increas'd by submersion and layers, every gardner skills; and
were it as much employ'd for nose-gays, &c. with us, as it is in Italy
and France, they might make money enough of the flowers; one sorry tree
in Paris, where they abound, has been worth a poor woman near a _pistol_
a year.

There is no small curiosity and address in obtaining the oyl, or essence
(as we call it) of this delicate and evanid flower, which I leave to the
chymist and the ladies who are worthy the secrets.

FOOTNOTES:

{290:1} Cato, Columella, Paladius.

CHAPTER VI.

_Of th