Now to demonstrate that not only the amoval of these unsufferable nuisances would infinitely clarifie the air, and render it more wholsome, and to return to my subject of trees and plants; the reputation they have had for contributing to the health of whole countries and cities, frequently occur in history: For instance, in the island of Cyprus, abounding with the trees of that name, and other resinous plants, curing ulcerated lungs, &c. Sardinia, melancholy and madness, replanted with true Anticyran hellebore, was famous; whilst Thusus (especially in Summer) brought almost all the inhabitants to lunacy and distraction for want of it. And what the effects and benefit of such plantations have produc’d, is conspicuous in one of the most celebrated cities of the East, the famous Ispahan, clear’d of the pestilence, since the surrounding it with that beautiful platan, as I have already noted. To these add, the bay-tree, for abating all such infections; of which see many famous instances in [cap. vi.] to which I refer. Not that there are no nociferous trees, as well as saniferous, which by removing the one, and planting other in their places, make sensible changes for the better. I give instance, when we speak of the yew; and even that otherwise incomparably useful shrub, the elder.
Upon what therefore has been produc’d of expedients for the melioration of the air by plantations of proper trees; I cannot but wish, that since these precious materials may now be had at such tolerable rates (as certainly they might from Cape-Florida, the Vermuda, or other parts of the West-Indies); I say, I cannot but suggest that our more wealthy citizens of London, every day building and embellishing their dwellings, might be encourag’d to make use of it in their shops, at least for shelves, counters, chests, tables, and wainscot, &c. the fancerings (as they term it) and mouldings; since beside the everlastingness of the wood, enemy to worms, and those other corruption we have named, it would likewise greatly cure and reform the malignancy and corrosiveness of the air.
Sabin, or, as we call it, savine, not for dignity to be nam’d with the former; but for its being absolutely the best Succedaneum to cypress, (which the rigour of our climat is not so benign to): If our gardners did only increase and cultivate it for the other’s defects, and bring up nurseries of them for pyramids, and other tonsile and topiary works, they would oftner use it instead of cypress: As to its other quality, it has, indeed, an ill report, (as most other things have when not rightly apply’d,) whilst there is nothing more efficacious for the destruction of worms in little children, the juice being given in a spoonful of milk, dulcified with a little sugar, which brings them away in heaps; as it does in horses and other cattel above all other remedies.
There is another berry-bearing savine in warmer climats, which also resembles the cypress, commonly taken for the Tarrentine cypress, so much celebrated by Cato, which grew to noble standards: But that, and the Melesian, worthy the culture, are rare with us, and indeed is as well supply’d by the more hardy, as well as the Swedish juniper, and other shrubs. The sabine is easily propagated by slips and cuttings sooner than by the seeds, though sometimes found in the small squamous seed-cases.
Tamaric, (growing to a considerable tree) for its aptness to be shorn and govern’d like the sabine and cypress, may be entertain’d, but not for its lasting verdure, which forsakes it in Winter, but soon again restores it. It was of old counted infelix, and under malediction, and therefore used to wreath, and be put on the heads of malefactors: But it has other excellent properties, in particular sovereign against the spleen, which as[281:1] Camden tells us was therefore brought first into England by Grindal Archbishop of Canterbury: They also made cans to drink, out of this wood.
Thuya; by some call’d arbor vitae, (brought us from Canada,) is an hardy green all the Winter, (though a little tarnish’d in very sharp weather) rais’d to a tree of moderate stature, bearing a ragged leaf, not unlike the cypress, only somewhat flatter, and not so thick set and close: It bears small longish clogs and seeds, but takes much better by layers and slips, as those we have before mentioned, and may be kept into the same shapes, but most delights in the shade, where the roots running shallow, the stem needs support: The leaf being bruised between the fingers, emits a powerful scent not easily conquer’d, seeming to breathe something of a sanative unguent, and (as I am told) makes one of the best for the closure of green and fresh wounds: But that those curious utensils and works of the turners, bowls, boxes, cups, mortars, pestles, &c. are of this material (as is pretended) and pass under the name of lignum vitae, (or rather of some of the exotic, more close and ponderous wood) as Brasile, log-wood, &c. is a mistake: Upon recension therefore of these exotics, I cannot but encourage the more frequent raising the rest of those semper-vivents, especially such as are fittest for the shrubby parts, and furniture of our groves, mere gardens of pleasure, which none but the ever-green become. To these we might add (not for their verdure only) other more rare exotics, styrax arbor, and terebynth, noting by the way, that we have no true turpentine to be bought in our shops, but what is from the larch; whilst apothecaries substitute that which extills from the fir-tree, instead of it: All of them minding me again of the great opportunities and encouragement we have of every day improving our stores with so many useful trees from the American plantations; for which I have the suffrage of the often-cited Mr. Ray, who is certainly a very able judge: Might we not therefore attempt the more frequent locust, sassafras, &c. and that sort of elm, or sugar-tree, whose juice yields that sweet halymus latifolius, and several others for encouragement? But
14. I produce not these particulars, and other amæna vireta already mentioned, as signifying any thing to timber, the main design of this treatise, (tho’ I read of some myrtils so tall, as to make spear-shafts) but to exemplifie in what may be farther added to ornament and pleasure, by a cheap and most agreeable industry.
[255:1] Le Bruyn.
[258:1] In Itin.
[268:1] A cerasunte. Indeed Servius, l. 2. Geor. 1. says, it was earlier in Italy; but hard and wild and usually call’d corna, and sometimes corno-cerosa, perhaps the black-cherry.