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out of Pontus, (as the above-mentioned Filberts were,) did, after onehundred and twenty years, travel ad ultimos Britannos.
3. We had our first Myrtles out of Greece, and Cyprefs from Crete ,which was yet a mere stranger in Italy, as Pliny reports, and most difficultto be raised ; which made Cato to write more concerning the culture ofit than of any other tree : Notwithstanding this, we have in our countryno lefs than three sorts, which are all of them easily propagated, andprosper very well if they are rightly ordered; and therefore I shall notomit to disclose one secret, as well to confute a popular error, as for theinstruction of our gardeners.
4. The tradition is, that the Cyprefs, being a symbol of mortality,(they should say of the contrary,) is never to be cut for fear of killing it.
This makes them to impale and wind them about like so many Egyptianmummies ; by which means the inward parts of the tree being heated, forwant of air and refreshment, it never arrives to any perfection, but is ex-ceedingly troublesome and chargeable to maintain; whereas, indeed,there is not a more tonsile and governable plant in nature; for theCyprefs may be cut to the very roots, and yet spring afresh, as it doesconstantly in Candy: If not yielding suckers, as Bellonius affirms, I ratherthink it is produced by the seeds, which the mother-trees shed at themotion of the stem in the felling; and this we find was the husbandryin the isle of yEnaria, where they used to fell it for copse. The Cyprefsbeing raised in the nursery from seeds sown in September, or ratherMarch, and within two years after transplanted, should at two yearsstanding more, have the master-stem of the middle shaft cut off somehand-breadths below the summit; the sides and smaller sprigs shorn intoa conic or pyramidal form, and so kept clipped from April to September,as oft as there is occasion; and by this regimen they will grow furnishedto the foot, and become the most beautiful trees in the world, withoutbinding or stake ; still remembering to abate the middle stem, and tobring up the collateral branches in its stead, to what altitude you please.But when I speak of shortening the middle shoot, I do not intend thedwarfing of it; and therefore it must be done discreetly, so as it may notover hastily advance, till the foot thereof be perfectly furnished. Butthere is likewise another expedient, no lefs commendable, to drefs thisVolume II. e