YJ

TO THE READER.

are extant : In Those it is you meet with the Description ofthe several Plants, by Discourses, Figures, Names, Places of Growth,Time of Flourishing, and their Medicinal Virtues; which may sup flyany Deficiency of mine as to those Particulars; if forbearing theRepetition, it should by any be imputed for a Defect, though it wereindeed none of my Design : 1 fay, these things are long since per-formed to our hands : But there ' is none of these ( that I at leastknow of and are come to my ‘Perusal ) who have taken any consi-derable Tains how to Direct and Encourage us in the Culture ofForest-Trees ( the grand Defect of this Nation) besides some smallSprinklings to be met withal in Gervas Markham, old Tusser; andof Foreigners, the Country-Farm long since tranflated out of French,and by no means suitable to our Clime and Country : Neither haveany of these proceeded after my Method, and so p articular ly^ inRaising, Planting, Dressing, and Governing, Gc. or so fedulousty madeit their Business, to specify the Mechanical Uses of the severalKinds, as I have done , which was hitherto a great Desideratum,and in which the Reader will likewise find some things altogetherNew and Instructive ; and both Directions and Encouragements forthe Tropagation of some Foreign Curiosities of Ornament and Use,which were hitherto negleCled. If I have upon occasion presumedto say any thing concerning their Medicinal Troperties y it has beenmodestly and frugally, and with chief, if not only , refpett to thepoor Wood-man, whom none I presume will envy, that living farfrom the Physician, he should, in cafe of Necessity, consult the* Nc Silva: R eve rend Druid, his * Oaks, and his Elm, Birch, or Elder, for andiorque'na -Jhort Breath, a green Wound, or a fore Leg ; Casualties incidentMedicines ca- t0 this hard Labour. These are the chief Particulars of this ensuingrent, Sacra Work, and what it pretends hitherto of Singular, in which let mererum'om- be permitted to fay , there is sufficient for Instruction, and morenium, nuC- „ extant ‘ m an y Collection whatsoever ( absit verbo invidia 1

remediadis- j n this Way and upon this Subject; abstracting things practicable,Me', of solid Use, and material, from the Ostentation and Impertinencesdicina, fieret r j tvcrs Writers, who receiving all that came to hand on trustdo ipfa, ct-c. to swell their monstrous Volumes, have hitherto imposed upon theMedicina.m. credulous World, without Conscience or Honesty. I will not exaf-™c"t*ltperate the Adorers of our antient and late Naturalists, by repeatingefl’e remedia of what our Verulam has justly pronounced concerning their Rhap-fnventusefr.’ iodies ( because I likewise honour their painful Endeavours, and1!a ’ aC sio\x am obliged to them for much of that I know) nor will I ( withqulbus vivi- some) reproach Pliny, Porta, Cardan, Mizaldus, Cursius, and manyTb‘Z\f.) a i.others of great Names ( whose Writings I have diligently consulted)for the Knowledge they have imparted to me on this Occasion ;but I must deplore the Time which is (for the most part) si 0miserably lost in pursuit of their Speculations, where they treat uponthis Argument : But the World is now advised , and {blessed be God!)

infinitely

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