OF FOREST-TREES.

S 65

I am sure plants and trees afford more matter for medicine, and the book iv.

use of man, than either animals or minerals ; are more familiar at hand

and safe; and within this late age being wonderfully improved, increased, y,a e p etl -i

and searched into, they seem by the Divine Wisdom, an inexhaustible Magnol. Bot.. . r . 7 . Monspel.

subject for our disquisition and admiration.

There are ten thousand considerations more, besides that of their

medicinal and sanative properties, and the mechanical uses mentioned inthis Treatise , which a contemplative person may derive from the grovesand woods ; all of them the subject of wonder. And though he hadonly the Palm p (which Strabo affirms is fit for three hundred and sixtyuses) or the Coco, (which yields wine, bread, milk, oil, sugar, vinegar,

Vide Mons.Dodart’sllist.de 1’ Academ,des Sciences,

pFor the enumeration of the virtues of the Palm-tree, Mr. Evelyn was indebted toa Portuguese mifsionary of the name of Jeronymo, whose manuscript was translated intoEnglish by Sir Peter Wyche, at the request of the Royal Society in 1668. The accountbeing extremely curious, I here transcribe it.

“ Of all the trees created by Almighty God for the ornament of the earth and serviceof man, the Palm-tree is the most useful and profitable to human society; though for thisend the Author of Nature created all plants, all which, with all their virtues, are at man’sdevotion, yet none serves so munificently, and for so many uses as the Palm-tree. For,from her deepest roots, which take first pofsefsion of the earth in vegetation, to the highestlgaf of her adorned head, with the variety, propriety, and excellency of her fruit; in tine,with all her virtue, is man substantially served, and paid his due tribute. What I shallsay in this tract will fully unfold the truth.

“ The Palm-tree is advanced by one peculiar excellency, by which, without any second,she hath the advantage of all. Other trees, well satisfied in paying man once a year theirtribute, rest from ,their labour; the Palm-tree t^kes no repose, but every month in the yearpresents new fruit. A beautifjil cluster of thirty, forty, sometimes more, Cocoes, or Nuts ,monthly appearing.; and though not above seven, twelve at the most, come to be ripe,and attain the last perfection, (there not being strength and nourishment for so many) yetis it questionlefs, that the Palm-tree by her fruitfulnefs was by God peculiarly created,forthe advantage of mankind : If vigour to perform her natural propensity be wanting, yetis.her generous inclination apparent. The most favourable climate or soil, .and whichwith greatest propriety and in most abundance producelh this famous tree, (whichstrangers, divine, and human writings, and the natives, call the Palm-tree) is Asia , particu-larly that part of it called India , containing the .kingdoms and provinces, which lie betwixtand are bounded by the two famous rivers Indus and Ganges , both so well known inhistory. The land nearest the sea-side produceth the fairest; the air from the sea beinvery favourable and benign to them. Though strangers give the same name of Palm-treeio divers sorts of this tree, all cjmnot challenge it, neither enjoy the excellencies proper toVolume II. 3 A