OF FOREST-TREES.

operations of nature, causes, and effects, with the greateft and exactest book~uxpi€ux imaginable. But a raise and a thinking man can need none ofthese topics j in every'hedge, aiid every field, they are before him ; andyet we do not admire them; because they are common and obvious: Thus cic. dewe fall into the just reproach given by one" of the Philosophers (intro- Deor - 1

That it may appear how the whole Palm-tree is serviceable to human life, nothing is super-fluous, but all substantially profitable, from the deepest root to the highest leaves: Theroot (as hath been said before, where we spoke of the virtues of the other parts) chark’d,gives an excellent temper to iron; the boughs and leaves, made up with a wick, servefor a torch, (called by them Chuli;) with this, travellers are secure from all danger of ser-pents, which abound in India ; these are of exquisite poison, and their multitude makesthem frequent the roads, and afsault pafsengers. They fly from the light of this Chuli;of another service when they fish irt the rivers, instead of a candle as is usual in Portugal ;

Of the leaves besides, are made great Parasols, capable to shelter two persons from thesun or rain ; these require a man to carry them (there are persons deputed for that office) •and are called Boy de Sombrero; small portable ones there are for the same use, nonewalking in the street, winter or summer, without great or little Parasols. The leaves haveanother use ; of them are made coverings for their palanquins or litters, in which one per-son is commodiously carried and defended from the rain and sun. Some Palm trees affordleaves called Olhas, which serve for books and paper; with a small iron pencil instead ofa pen, they opefl and grave the letters upon the leaf or Olha, without the use of ink, asfast and as easily , 1 as the swiftest writer. The leaves of the tree Cajura dried, remain ofa lively white colour, which are made into hats, of great account though cheap, being sobecoming, so accurately wrought and light, that every body, the Viceroy not excepted, defiresto wear them: the Indians call them Palliate. The bark of the Poyo, or twig on whichgrow the fair clusters of Cocoes, being of a thicker and stronger substance,' furnishes thecommon people, particularly the Bandarins who drefs the Palm-trees, with caps made likeEnglish ^ordinary riding-caps.

« To end the discourse, I shall observe (what challenges a reflection) the natural fabrickof the Palm-trees; that the trunk being very slender and disproportionable to the tallnefs,the whole weight of the boughs, (called Palms) and of the fruit, being at the top, i n amanner at the vertical point of the slim body, the boughs, as they grow displaying them-selves, and amongst them hanging the fair clusters of Cocoes, the shock of winds, should -without doubt, easily break and ruin this disproportioned machine. Provident Nature,against this, hath for every new birth of those boughs provided swathes, of the same mat-ter and texture of the Palm-tree, not unlike coarse cloth, or canvas: with these thebranches and what grows there, are swathed so strongly and securely, as to defy an yviolence of winds to disjoint them : they are liable to be shaken, yet not where they havethis Girdle, which to break is a work of iron. By these the Palm-tree, as a tender "mother, gathers her children about her, as secure from being lost and scattered, as theyare well defended against any violence of wind, which would tear and force them fromher bosom.”

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