OF FOREST-TREES.

S5

12. But to resume the disquisition, whether it be truly so proper forshipping, is controverted; though we find in Cafsiodorus Var. Op. 1. v.epist. xvi. Theodoris writing to the Pradorio-prsefectus that he hadcaused store of it to be provided for that purpose ; and Plato , who, wetold you, made laws and titles to be engraven on, nominates it, interarbores vttv7rnyci( utiles , lib. iv. Leg. and so does Diodorus , lib. xix.And, as travellers observe, there is no other sort of timber more fit forshipping, though others think it too heavy. Aristobulus affirms that theAfsyrians made all their vefsels of it; and indeed the Romans praised it,when pitched with Arabian pitch. And so frequent was this tree aboutthose parts of Afsyria, where the ark is conjectured to have been built,that those vast Armadas which Alexander the Great caused to beequipped and set out from Babylon, consisted only of Cyprefs, as we

learn out of Arrian in Alex. lib. vii. Strabo, lib. xvi. Plutarch . Sympos;lib. i. prob. c. ii. Paulus Colomesius, in his Kujuma Literaria, cap. xxiv.perstringes the most learned Isa. Vofsius, that, in his Vindiciae pro LXX.Interp. he affirms Cyprefs not fit for ships, as being none of the TtifdyannBut, besides what we have produced, Fuller, Bochartus, Lilius Gyralduslib. de Navig. cap. iv. and divers others, sufficiently evince-it, and thatthe vefsel built by Trajan was of that material, lasting uncorrupt near1400 years, when it was afterwards found in a certain lake; if it were-not rather, as I suspect, that rvhich riEneas Silvius reports to have beendiscovered in his time, lying under water in the Numidian Lake, crustedover with a certain ferruginous mixture of earth and scales, as if it hadbeen of iron ; but, as we have elsewhere noted, it was pronounced to beLarix, and not Cyprefs, employed by Tiberius . Finally, not to forgeteven the very chips of this precious wood, which give that flavour tomuscadines and other rich wines, I commend it for the improvementof the air, and a specific for the lungs, as sending forth most sweet, andaromatic emifsions, whenever it is either clipped or handled; and thechips or cones being burnt, extinguish moths, and expel gnats and flies,Szc. not omitting the gum which it yields, not much inferior to the Tere-binthine or Lentisc.

We have often mentioned the virtue of these odoriferous woods for theimprovement of the air, upon which I take occasion here to add what I;