8o A DISCOURSE

Book I. the Bark will close again, a little Earth being clapp’d to the Slit. Thusthe Knight, for any Tree. But we have already shewed how the Birchis to be treated: Fasten therefore a Bottle., or some such convenientVejsel appendant; this does the Effect: as well as Perforation or Tap-ping : Out of this Aperture will extil a limpid and clear Wat er, retain-ing an obscure Smack both of the Taste and Odor of the Tree ; andwhich (as I am credibly informed) will in the Space of twelve or four-teen Days, preponderate , and out-weigh the whole- Tree it self, Bodyand Roots ; which if it be constant, and so happen likewise in otherTrees, is not only stupendous, but an Experiment worthy the Conside-ration of our profoundest Philosophers : An ex sola aqua fiunt Ar-bores ? Whether Water only be the Principle of Vegetables, andconsequently os Trees : I fay, I am credibly informed ; and therefore•* Dr. Stubb. the late unhappy * angry Man might have spared his Animadversion:^'intkied" For he that said but twenty Gallons run, does he know how many moreAditus mvus might have been gotten out of larger Apertures, at the Insertion of‘tmpathil& every Branch and foot in the principal Roots during the whole Sea-Antipathu son? But I conceive I have good Authority for my Assertion, out of thenuldas ,n p!r -Author cited in the Margin , whose Words are these : Si men fe MartioprmcipM vbi- per for aver is Betulam, Gc. exjtillabit aqua limpida , clara, G pur a ,raii hU crFer °^s curum Arboris sapor em V odorem referens, quœ fpacio xij aut xivZentoZmar-dierum. Prœponderabit Arbori cum Ramis G Radicibus , tz-f. HistificiosAAna -Exceptions about the Beginning of March are very insignificant;ZatefJnZ.h since I undertake not Pmthuality of Time ; and his own pretendedsiivestro Experience shew’d him, that in hard Weather it did not run till thectlfquenst,' Expiration of the Month, or Beginning of April ; and another Time,,6;8. x.on the Tenth of February ; and usually, he says, about theTwenty-fourth Day, &c. at such Uncertainty What immane difference thenis there between the Twenty-fourth of February and Commencement

of March ? Besides, these anomalous Bleedings (even of the sameTree) happen early or later, according to the Temper of the Air and -Weather. In the mean Time, evident it is, that we know of no Treewhich does more copiously attract, be it that so much celebrated Spiritof the World (as they call it) in Form of Water (as some) ora cer-tain fpecifick Liquor richly impregnated with this balfamical Proper-ty : That there is such a Magnes in this simple Tree, as does manifestlydraw to it self some occult and wonderful Virtue , is notorious; nor is itconceivable indeed, the Difference between the Efficacy of that Liquorwhich distils from the Bole, or Parts of the Tree nearer to the Root(where Sir Hugh would celebrate the Incision ) and that which weepsout from the more sublime Branches , more impregnated with this ajtralVirtue, as not so near the Root , which seems to attract rather a cruderand more common Water , through fewer Strainers , and neither sopure and aerial as in those refined Percolations , the Nature of thePlaces where these Trees delight to grow (for the most part lofty, dryand barren) considered. But I refer these Disquisitions to the Learnedespecially, as mentioned by that imcomparable Philosopher, and my mostnoble Friend, the Honourable Mr. Boyle , in his Second Part of theUsefulness of A Xatural Philosophy, Sell. i. Essay iii. where he speaks** ^^M anna del Cor po, or Trunk-Manna, as well as of that Liquorffom the Bough • also of the Sura, which the Cocoa-trees afford ; and thatBowman Secret of the Liquor of the Walnut-tree Root; with an En-couragement of more frequent Experiments, to educe saccharine Sub-

N stances

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