OF FOREST-TREES. iz;

only, without other Composition. There is a Way which some Ship- Chap. IIb,Carpenters in those Countries have used, to bring their Tar into Fitchfor any sudden Use, by making the Tar so very hot in an Iron-Kettle,that it will easily tak csire, which when blazing , and set in an airyPlace, they let burn so long, till by taking out some small Quantity fortrial, being cold, it appears of a sufficient Consistence Then by cover-ing the Kettle close, the Fire is extinguished, and the Fitch is madewithout more Ceremony. There is a F roc ess of making Rofin also,out ot the time Knots, by splitting them out into thin Pieces, and thenboiling them in Water , which will educe all the refinous Matter, andgather it into a Body, which (when cold) will harden into pure Rosin.

It is more over to be understood, that the Fir and most coniferousTrees, yield the same Concretes, Lachryma , Turpentines, and there isa Fir which exstils a Gum not unlike the Balm of Gilead, and a Sortot Thus ; Rosins, Hard, naval Stone , liquid Fitch , and Tar for Re-medies against the Cough, Arthritic and Fulmonic Affections, are wellknown, and the Chirurgion uses them in Flaisters also; and, in aword, for mechanic and other innumerable Fifes ; and from the burn-ing and fuliginous Vapour of these, especially the Rosin, we have ourLamp and Frinters Black, &c. I am perswaded the Fine, Fitch andFir-trees in Scotland , might yield his Majesty Plenty of excellentTar , were some industrious Person employed about the Work ; so as Iwonder it has been so long neglected. But there is another Frocefs , notmuch unlike the former, which is given us by the present Archbishop ofSamos, Joseph Georgirenes, in his Description of that, and otherJsiands of the Ægaan.

Their Way of making Fitch (says he) is thus: They take Supines ,that is, that Part of the Fir, so far at it hath no Knots ; and thaving a-way the extream Parts, leave only that which is nearest to the Middle,and the Fith: That which remains, they call Hadi (from the oldGreek Word A^k, whence the Latin, Tada): These they split intos mall Pieces, and laying them on a Furnace, put Fire to the upper Part,till they are all burnt, the Liquor in the mean Time running from theWood, and let out from the bottom of the Furnace into a Hole made inthe Ground, where it continues like Oil: Then they put Fire to it, andstir it about till it thicken, and has a Consistence : After this, putting outthe Fire, they cast Chalk upon it, and draw it out with a Vessel, andlay it in little Places cut out of the Ground, where it receives both itsForm, and a firmer Body for easie Transportation: Thus far the Arch-bishop ; but it is not so instructive and methodical as what we have de-scribed above.

Other Frocejscs for the extracting of these Substances, may be seenin Mr. Ray’s History of Flants, already mentioned, Lib. xxix. Cap. i.

And as to Fitch and Tar, how they make it near Marseilles in France,from the Fines growing about that City, see Fhtlosophical Transacti-ons, Number 2.45. p. 2.91. Ann. 1696. very well worthy the trans-cribing, if what is mentioned in this Chapter were at all defective.

I had in the former Editions of Silva, placed the L'arix among theTrees which shed their Leaves in Winter (as indeed does this) but notbefore there is an almost immediate Supply of freffi; and may thereforeboth for its Similitude, Stature, and Productions, challenge Rank amongthe Coniferous: We raise it of Seeds, and grows spontaneously inStiria, Carinthia, and other Alpine Countries: The Change of the

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