14 * A DISCGUR SE ;

Book. hi. Many more useful Observations are to be collected and added tothese, from the diligent Experience of ‘Planters .

CHAP. VI.

Of the Laws and Statutes for the Preservation and Im-provement of Woods and Forests.

>npis not to be passed by, that the very first Law we find which warX ever promulged, was concerning Trees ; and that Laws them-NumaTÆ^^ ves were * written upon them, or Tables composed of them;£«f?»Qucr- and after that Establishment in Paradise , the next we meet withal arenis Tabulis, as antient as Moses: You may find the Statute at large in Deut. XX.wsrsengTa- l 9> 2 >v. which though they chiefly tended to Fruit-trees, even in allven iff Brass -.Enemy's Country, yet you will find a Cafe of Necessity only alledged»ai?c°rna^^or the Permission to destroy any other. ,

lib. iii. ’ z. To sum up briefly the Laws and Civil Constitutions of greatAntiquity , by which Cervius informs us ’twas no less than Capital,alienas arbores incidere ; the Lex Aquilia, and those of the xii. fab-mentioned by Paulus, Cujas, Julianns , and others of that Robe*, re-peated divers more.

It was by those sacred Constitutions provided, that none might somuch as plant Trees on the Confines of his Neighbour's Ground , but hewas to leave a Space of at the least five Foot , for the smallest T y ee, tthat they might not injure him with their Shadow. Si Arbor in Vicimagrum impenderit, earn sublucato, &c. and if for all this, any hungover farther, ’twas to be stripped up fifteen Foot: And this Law Bab-duinus, Olderdorpius and Hotoman recite out of Dlpian, Lib. i. F. deArb. Cædend. where we have the Prætor's Interdict expressed, andthe impendent Wood adjudged to appertain to him whose Field or Fendwas thereby damnified : Nay, the wife Solon prescribed Ordinancesfor the very Distances of Trees • as the divine Plato did against steal-ing of Fruit, and violating of Plantations : And the Interdiction deG Ian de legenda runs thus in Dlpian, AIT PRÆ TOR, GLANDfidd,<fiUÆ EX ILIADS AGRO IN TVVM CADIT, OVO Ml*NVS 1LL1 TERTIO gVOgVE DIE LEGERE AVFEB -RE LICE AT, VIM FIERI VETO. And yet, though by thes Bermistion he might come every third Day to gather it ll Pwithout Trespass, his Neighbour was to share of the Mast which &fell into his Ground ; and this Chapter is well supplied by PH n PLib. xvi. Cap. v. and Cujas upon the Place, interprets Glander# £0fignify not the Acorns of the Oak alone, but all forts of Fruit what-soever, Lib. cxxxvi. F. de Verb. Signis. L. Vnis ff. de Glande lesas by Usage of the Greeks, amongst whom axfS'pva. imports all hindof Trees.

There were also Laws concerning Boundaries, to be found at largein other learned Authors, De Re Agraria, of which we give thisshort Extract „• Some admitting any fort of Trees, others of pecuhaT'Kinds, for the fencing of their Grounds ; others with foreign Trees,that the Difference of the Wood might forye as a Mark : Some byAgreement planted them in common upon the very Borders : fom e atz their