OF FOREST-TREES. X09

of Autumn to the Spring, when Favonius begins to spire ; and his Chap JIT.Reason is, for that from thence,, during all the ^mmer, Treesit were gome with Child , and diverting all their Rounfhmentto theEmbryo, Leaves and Fruit, which renders them weak and infirmi .

This he illustrates from teeming Women, who during their E g yare never so healthful as after they are delivered of their Burden andabroad again: And for this Reason (fays he) those Merchants hoexpose Slaves to Sale, will never warrant one that is with Child .

The Buyer was (it seems) to stand to the Hazard. Thus he - but Iremember Monsieur Perrault in his pompous Edition o our ■ ,

and learned Notes upon this Chapter, reproves therests the Text , a difparationeprocreations, &c. to adbe. affirming that Women are never more found and healthy than whenthey are premant ; the Nutrition derived to the dnfant, being ( -cording to him) no Diminution or Prejudice to the Mother ; as beingbut the Consumption of that Humidity which enfeebles the bearingWoman, and thence infers, that the Comparison cannot hold m Trees,which become so much stronger by it : But to insist no longer on this;there is no doubt, that whilst Trees abound in over-much, crude, andsuperfluous Moisture (though it may, and do contribute to their Pro-duction and Fertility, for which Reason Lucina was invoked by par-turient Women) they are not so fit for the Ax as when being discharg-ed of it, and that it rises not in that Quantity as to keep on the Leavesand Fruit , those laxed Parts and Vessels by which the Humour didascend, grow dry and close, and are not so obnoxious to Putrefaction,and the Worm : Hence it is that he cautions us to take Notice of t eAgon's Decline, because of her Dominion over Liquids, and dire sour Woodman (some Days before he fells downright) to make t e ajor Overture, usque ad mediam medullam , to the End the who e oi-sture may exstil; for that not only by the Bark (which thole who re-semble Trees to Animals will have to be analogous to Artet tes ) doesthe Juice drain out; but by that more fatty and whiter Substance ofthe Wood itself, immediately under the Bark (and which our Carpen-ters call the Sap, and therefore hew away, as subject to rot) whichthey will have to be the Veins It is (fay they) the Office of these Ar-teries of Bark, receiving Nourishment from the Roots , to derive it toevery Part of the Tree, and to remand what is crude and super uousby the Veins to the Roots again ; whence, after it has been better 1-gested, it is made to ascend a second Time by the other Vest els ^Per-petual Circulation ; and therefore necessary so deep an Incision mouldbe made as may serve to exhaust both the venal and arterial Moisture .

But for this nice Speculation, I refer the Curious to the already men-tioned Dr. Grew, and to the learned Malphighius, who have madeother , and far more accurate Observations upon this Subject - In themean Time, as to that of the Worm in Timber-trees, and their rot-ting, sometimes within, and sometimes without ; observe that such as<Lap 'e and rift outwardly (as does that of the Oak, when fell d) the Sapthereby let out, the Timber and Heart within is found to be muchmore solid than that of the Chefnut and other Trees who keep theMoisture within (however seeming sound outwardly) the Timber isfrequently extremely rotted and perilh’d. Lastly, concerning the Bark ,though some are for stripping it, and so to let the Tree stand till about Mid-June , to preserve it from the Worm (all which Time it will put forth

G g g Leaves ,