OFFOREST-TREES. n

8. The Fir grows tallest, being planted reasonable close together ;Chabut suffers nothing to thrive under them. The ‘Pine not so itt/jospita-ble ; for (by Pliny’s good Leave) it may be sown with any Tree, allThings growing well under its Shade, and excellent in Woods: HenceClaudian,

a The friendly Pine the mighty Oak invites.

9. They both affect the Cold, high and rocky Grounds, Abies inmontibus altis : Those yet which grow on the more southern , andless exposed Quarters , a little visited with the Beams of the Sun, arefound to thrive beyond the other, and to afford better Timber j andthis was observed long since by Vitruvius of the Infernates (as he callsthem) in Comparison with the Superstates , which growing on thenorthern and shady Side of the Appennines , were nothing so good,which he imputes to the want of due Digestion. They thrive (as wesaid) in the most sterile Places, yet will grow in better, but not in over-rich and pinguid. The worst Land in Wales bears (as I am told)large Pine-, and the Fir , according to his aspiring Nature, loves also theMountain more than the Valley ; but av rots iraXurAon SX&>s h pJgTat,it cannot endure the Shade , as Theophrajlus observes, de Plin. Lib. iv.Cap. i. But this is not rigidly true; for they will grow in Consort, tillthey even shade and darken one another, and will also descend from theHills , and succeed very well, being desirous of plentiful Waterings ,till they arrive to some competent Stature ; and therefore they do notprosper so well in an over sandy and hungry Soil or Gravel, as in thevery Entrails of the Rocks, which afford more P)rink to the Roots,that penetrate into their Meanders and winding Recesses. But thoughthey require this refreshing at first, yet do they perfectly abhor allStercoration ; nor will they much endure to have the Earth openedabout their Roots for Ablaqueation, or be disturbed : This is also tobe understood of Cypress. A Fir , for the first half dozen Years,seems to stand, or at least make no considerable Advance, but it is whenthroughly rooted, that it comes away miraculously. That honourableand learned Knight, Sir Norton Knatchbull (whosedelicious Planta-tion of Pines and Firs I beheld with great Satisfaction) having as-sured me, that a Fit-tree of his raising, did shoot no less than sixtyFoot in Height, in little more than twenty Years; and what are extantat Sir Peter Wentworth’s of Lillingfion-Lovel, Cornbury in Ox-fordshire, and other Places, but especially those Trees growing nowin Hareseld-Park, in the County of Middlesex (belonging toMr. Serjeant Nudigate ) where there are two Spanish, or Silver Firs ,that at two Years Growth from the Seed , being planted there Ann. 1603.are now become goodly Masts : The biggest of them from the Groundto the upper Bough, is eighty one Feet, though forked on the Top,which has not a little impeded its Growth : The Girt, or Circumfe-rence, below, is thirteen Foot, and the Length (so far as is Timber ,that is, to fix Inches square) seventy-three Foot, in the middle seven-teen Inches square, amounting by Calculation to one hundred and forty-six Foot of good Timber : The other Tree is indeed not altogether solarge, by reason of its standing near the House when it was burnt (about

» Et coroitem quercum Pinus arnica trahit,

forty

p;