[276:1] Hadrian. Junius Animadv. l. 1. c. 20.
[277:1] Fumifugium.
[281:1] Elizab.
CHAPTER V.
Of the Cork, Ilex, Alaternus, Celastrus, Ligustrum, Philyrea, Myrtil, Lentiscus, Olive, Granade, Syring, Jasmine and other Exoticks.
We do not exclude this useful tree from those of the glandiferous and forest; but being inclin’d to gratify the curious, I have been induc’d to say something farther of such semper virentia, as may be made to sort with those of our own, (especially of the next Chapter.) I begin with the
1. Cork, [suber] of which there are two sorts (and divers more in the Indies) one of a narrow, or less jagged leaf, and perennial; the other of a broader, falling in Winter; grows in the coldest parts of Biscay, in the north of New-England, in the south-West of France, especially the second species, fittest for our climate; and in all sorts of ground, dry heaths, stony and rocky mountains, so as the roots will run even above the earth, where they have little to cover them; all which considered, methinks we should not despair. We have said where they grow plentifully in France; but by Pliny, Nat. Hist. l. 16. c. 8. it should seem they were since transplanted thither; for he affirms there were none either there, or in Italy, in his time: But I exceedingly wonder that Carolus Stephanus, and Cursius, should write so peremptorily, that there were none in Italy; where I my self have travell’d through vast woods of them about Pisa, Aquin, and in divers tracts between Rome, and the kingdom of Naples, and in France. The Spanish cork is a species of the enzina, differing chiefly in the leaf, which is not so prickly; and in the bark, which is frequently four or five inches thick: The manner of decortication thereof is once in two or three years, to strip it in a dry season; otherwise, the intercutaneous moisture endangers the tree, and therefore a rainy season is very pernicious; when the bark is off, they unwarp it before the fire, and press it even, and that with weights upon the convex part, and so it continues, being cold.
2. The uses of cork is well known amongst us, both at sea and land, for its resisting both water and air: The fisher-men who deal in nets, and all who deal with liquors, cannot be without it: Ancient persons prefer it before leather for the soles of their shooes, being light, dry, and resisting moisture, whence the Germans name it Pantoffel-holts (slipper-wood) perhaps from the Greek Παντὸς & φέλλος; for I find it first applied to that purpose by the Grecian ladies, whence they were call’d light-footed; I know not whether the epithet do still belong to that sex; but from them it’s likely the Venetian dames took it up for their monstrous choppines; affecting, or usurping an artificial eminency above men, which nature has denied them. Of one of the sorts of cork are made pretty cups, and other vessels, esteem’d good to drink out of for hectical persons: The Egyptians made their coffins of it, which being lin’d with a resinous composition, preserved their dead incorrupt: The poor people in Spain, lay broad planks of it by their beds-side, to tread on (as great persons use Turky and Persian carpets) to defend them from the floor, and sometimes they line or wainscot the walls, and inside of their houses built of stone, with this bark, which renders them very warm, and corrects the moisture of the air: Also they employ it for bee-hives, and to double the insides of their contemplores, and leather-cases, wherein they put flasquéra’s with snow to refrigerate their wine. This tree has beneath the cortex or cork, two other coats, or libri, of which one is reddish, which they strip from the hole when ’tis fell’d only; and this bears good price with the tanner; The rest of the wood is very good firing, and applicable to many other uses of building, palisade-work, &c. The ashes drunk, stop the bloody-flux.
3. Ilex, major glandifera, or great scarlet-oak of several species, and various in the shape of their leaf, pointed rounder, longer, &c. (a devoted tree of old, and therefore incaedua) thrives manifestly with us; witness His Majesty’s privy-garden at White-hall, where once flourish’d a goodly tree, of more than fourscore years growth, and there was lately a sickly imp of it remaining: And now very many rais’d by me, have thriv’d wonderfully, braving the most severe Winters, planted either in standards or hedges, which they most beautifully become. The only difficulty is in their being dextrously removed out of the nursery, with the mould adhering to the roots; otherwise apt to miscarry; and therefore best trusting to the acorn for a goodly standard, and that may be removed without prejudice, tryals should be made by graffing the ilex in the oak-stock, taken out of our woods, or better, grown from the acorn to the bigness of one’s little finger.
4. By what I have touch’d in the chapter of the elms, concerning the peregrination of that tree into Spain, (where even in Pliny’s time there were none, and where now they are in great abundance) why should we not more generally endeavour to propagate the ilex amongst us; I mean, that which the Spaniards call the enzina, and of which they have such woods, and profitable plantations? They are an hardy sort of tree, and familiarly rais’d from the acorn, if we could have them sound, and well put up in earth or sand, as I have found by experience.
5. The wood of these ilex’s is serviceable for many uses, as stocks of tools, mallet-heads, mall-balls, chairs, axletrees, wedges, beetles, pins, and above all, for palisadoes us’d in fortifications. Besides, it affords so good fuel, that it supplies all Spain almost with the best, and most lasting of charcoals, in vast abundance. Of the first kind is made the painter’s lac, extracted from the berries; to speak nothing of that noble confection alkermes, and that noble scarlet-die the learned Mr. Ray gives us the process of at large, in his chapter of the ilexes; where also of their medicinal uses: To this add that most accurate description of this tree, and the vermicula; see Quinqueranus, L. 2. de laud. provid. fol. 48. naturally abounding about Alos. The acorns of the coccigera, or dwarf-oak, yield excellent nourishment for rustics, sweet, and little if at all inferior to the chesnut; and this, and not the fagus, was doubtless the true esculus of the Ancients, the food of the Golden Age. The wood of the enzina when old, is curiously chambletted, and embroider’d with natural vermiculations, as if it were painted. Note, that the kermes tree does not always produce the coccum, but near the sea, and where it is very hot; nor indeed when once it comes to bear acorns; and therefore the people do often burn down the old trees, that they may put forth fresh branches, upon which they find them: This, (as well as the oak, cork, beech, and corylus) is numbred amongst the felices, and lucky-trees: But for what reason, the alaternus (which I am next speaking of) together with the agrifolium [holly] pines, salix, &c. should be excommunicated, as infelices, I know not, unless for their being dedicated to the Infernal Deities; of which Macrob. Sat. lib. 12. cap. 16. In the mean time, take this for a general rule; that those were call’d infelices only, which bare no fruit; for so Livy, lib. 5. nulla felix arbor, nihil frugiferum in agro relictum. Whence that of Phædrus, l. 3. Fab. upon Jupiter’s esculus: