ny ominous concern at all, but the contrary) _fausti ominis_, as Pliny
says; and gives many illustrious instances: And as to other strange and
unusual events following the accidental subversion of trees; concerning
omens; and that some are portentous, others fortunate, of which
see{329:1} Pierius, speaking of a garden of the Duke of Tuscany,
belonging to a palace of his at Rome, a little before the death of Pope
Leo; and before this, about the time of our country-man, Pope Adrian the
IVth. First then, let me perswade you to pole him close, and so let him
lie some time; for by this means, many vast trees have rais'd themselves
by the vigour only of the remaining roots, without any other assistance;
so as people have pronounc'd it miraculous, as I could tell you by
several instances, besides what Theophrastus relates, l. 5. c. 19. of
that huge _platanus_, which rose in one night in his observation; which
puts me in mind of what I remember the very learned critic Palmerius
affirms of an oak, subverted by a late tempest near Breda, (where this
old soldier militated under Prince Maurice, at the town when besieg'd by
the famous Marq. Spinola) which tree, after it had lain prostrate about
2 months, (the side-branches par'd off) rose up of it self, and
flourish'd as well as ever. Which event was thought so extraordinary,
that the people reserved sprigs and boughs of it, as sacred reliques;
and this he affirms to have seen himself. I take the more notice of
these accidents, that none who have trees blown down, where it may cause
a deform'd gap in some avenue near their seats, may not altogether
despair of their resurrection, with patience and timely freeing them.
And the like to this I find happen'd in more than one tree near Bononia
in Italy, _anno_ 1657. when of late a turbulent gust had almost quite
eradicated a very large tract of huge poplars, belonging to the
Marchioness Elephantucca Spada, that universally erected themselves
again, after they were beheaded, as they lay even prostrate.{330:1} What
says the naturalist? _Prostratas restitui plerumque, & quadam terrae
cicatrice reviviscere, vulgare est_: 'Tis familiar (says Pliny) in the
_platanus_, which are very obnoxious to the winds, by reason of the
thickness of their branches, which being cut off and discharged, restore
themselves. This also frequently happens in wall-nuts, olive-trees, and
several others, as he affirms, l. 16. c. 31. But we have farther
instances than th