1 9+ A DISCOURSE

BooKlII.Man is able to carry; and which are so vast, as they depend not, likeother Fruit , by a Stalk from the Boughs, but are produced out of thevery Body and Stem of the Tree, and are sufficient to feed twenty kel-sons at a MeaH There were Trees found in Brazil , that sixteen Mencould hardly fathom about; and the Jesuits caused one of these to befelled, for being fuperstitioufly worstupped by the Savages, which wasone hundred and twenty Foot in Circumference. The Mexican Empe-ror is said to have had a Tree in his Garden , under whose Shade & thou-sand Men might sit at a competent Distance,

We read of a certain Fig in the Charihee Jsands , which emits suchlarge Buttresses, that great Flanks for Tables and Flooring are cleft outof them, without the least Prejudice to the Tree ; and that one of thesedoes easily stielter two hundred Men under them : And in NieuhoffsVoyage to the East-Indies , of the Kynti , a Kind of Oak , whichyield Flanks of four Foot Breadth, and forty in Length: Strabo, I re 'member, Georg. Lib.xv. talks of fifty Horsemen under a Tree in F'dia ; his Words are dF Cp tvi Sevfrpep {AÆWjuSss&v wsc*

7moi"Ta, and of another that shaded five Stadia at once ; and in anotherPlace of a Fine about Ida , which measured twenty-four Foot Diame-ter, and of a monstrous Height : To these may be added the Arbor dtRays , a certain Tree growing in the East-lndies, which propagates hself into a vast Forejt (if not hindered) by shooting up, and then let-ting a Kind of gummy String to fall and drivle from its Branches, whichtakes Root in the Ground again, and in this Process spread a vast Cir-cuit, the single Stem of some of which are reported to be no less tsiaufifty Foot Diameter, a Thing almost incredible. To this may be addedthe Balete, described by Mr. Ray , (Append, zd Vol.) and what he cite*of Melchion Barros, who found Trees Proof against Weapons, resist"ing the Force of any edged Tool, being of a Consisture so hard: E> llteven this, and all we have hitherto produced, is nothing to what I findmentioned in the late Chinese History (as sis set forth upon Occasionthe TSutch Embassy) where they tell us of a certain Tree- calledCiennich (or the Tree of a thousand Tears) in the Province of Suchhqear the City Kien, which is so prodigiously large, as to fhrowd twohundred Sheep under one only Branch of it, without being so much 35perceived by those who approach it. And to conclude with yet a great-er Wonder, of another in the Province of Chekiang, whose Amplitudeis so stupendioufly vast, as fourscore Persons can hardly embrace : Tb e * egigantick Trees , the Chinese Timber- Merchants transport on Flouts*upon which they build Huts and little Cottages, where they live wid*their Families, floating many thousand Miles till all be fold, as LeCoWfl 6tells us : In the mean Time we must not omit the strange and incredib^Bulk of some Oaks standing lately in Westphalia , whereof one servedboth for a Castle and Fort ; and another there, which contained rnHeight one hundred and thirty Foot, and (as some report) thirty st 00 *Diameter ; and another which yielded one hundred Wane-Load. ,have read of a Table of Walnut-tree to be seen at St. Nicholas $ ir hLorrain , which held twenty-five Foot broad, all of a Fiece, and 0 .competent Length and Thickness, rarely fleck'd and water d ; ScamoZ &^z ArchiteSt reports he saw it: Such a Monster that might be, underwhich the Emperor Frederick the Third held his magnificent Feast*1472. For in this Recctiston we will endeavour to give a Taste of mor efrelh Observations, and to compare our modern Timber with the duties ^

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