the Paradise of ^Plants. ii

and tiill of chaps, which being cut in (under is red within, but the bark amongstthe boughs is smooth, slippery, and somewhat white without:the branchesgrow one above another in a comely Order,having divers fmal yellow knobs orbunches set at several! distances,from whence arise many small leaves growingin clusterssthick together like talsells, which fall away at the approach of Win-ter, and gain fresh every fpring;which is peculiar only to this Tree of all theRolen bearing Trees. The blossoms are very beautiful and delectable,beingof an excellent fine Crimson Colour, and very sweet,which afterwards turn in-to small (oft Cones, like unto Cypresse Nuts while they are close, but longerthen they;being made up of a multitude bf thin Scales like leaves,und er whichly (mallfeeds having a thin filme growing On them very like to the wings ofBees or Wasps: the substance of the wood is very hard, of colour somewhatred, especially that which is in the middle, and very profitable for works oflong continuance. Yet that report that the wood of th z Larch Tree cannedbe set on fire is false, it b&ing preferred before all other wood, for all SmithesWork, and for Miners to melt the Ore of Mettal, because it holdeth fire longestand strongest, by reason of the Rolen that is in it. The Agarick which grow-eth on this Tree, is a kind of Muihrome or Excrescence, not filth as is uponother Trees, but covered with a hard blackish bark, which being cut and paredaway that Which is underneath is whiter,softer, more loose and ipongy then anyother of the Mushromes ; that is the best which may easily be broken, and islight, and in the first taste sweet,hard and well compact; that which is heavy,blackish, containing in it little threds like sinews is counted pernicious anddeadly. The liquid Rolen that procebdeth from this Tfee, is very like in co-lour and substance to the whiter honey, as that of Athens or Spain , which not-withstanding issuerh not forth of it (elf; but runneth due of the Stock of theTree when it hath been bored to the very heairc with a great and long Augur orWimble. Ids commonly called Venice Turpentine, though the true Tur-pentine issue from the uztLerebinthus. The figure of this Larch Tree, with theAgarick growing upon it, you may fee lively represented either in <jertard orParkinson,

The Place and Titne,

The Larch Tree groweth in many woods about Trent and Brixla in Italyiand neer the river Benacus-, and Padtfs, and in Galatia a Province of Asa-, asDiofcondes and Galen do record, and in Agaria a countrey of Sarmatia , fromwhence the Agarics ook the name ; in Silesia also, Moravia , Las at la ; As theAgarickjis gathered in most of these places, so is the Turpentine, but especial-ly from the woods about Trent . Of all theCone treesthis only is found without leaves in the Winter ; in the Spring,grow fresh Leaves out of the fameknobs from which the former did fall. The Cones are to be gathered beforewinter so soon as the leaves are gone ; for,after the scales are loosed and open-ed, and the seeds drop away. The Rosen or Turpentine is to be gathered inthe hottest part of the Summer, and the Agarics towards the latter end ofthe year, but in November and December especially.

The Temperature.

The leaves, bark, fruit, and kernel are of a dry and binding temperature.The Agarickjs hot in the first degree, and dry in the second : It cucteth, ma-keth thin, clean(eth,taketh away obstructions and stoppings of the Entrails,and purgeth by stool; The Rofenof this Tree is moider then any other Rosen,and without either thatsharpnesseor biting which some of the Others have,