The natural history of Stafford-shire by Robert Plot ...

CHAP. VI. Of Plants.

1. Having done with the Mineral, the order of Nature directs me next to consider the Ʋegetable Kingdome, the Plants of this County, whether Herbs, Shrubbs, or Trees; amongst which (as in Oxfordshire) I shall only treat of such as are Either

• 1. wholy underscribed by any Author we yet know of, or described but imprefectly.
• 2. that have not been found by the learned Mr. Ray to be Indigenae of England.
• 3. that have never till now been found to be Mediter∣ranean plants.
• 4. that have any unusuall accidents attending them.
• 5. that are not commonly cultivated in the fields, where by the way, some of the Agriculture of the Country.

in which order, I shall consider all the aforesaid three Species of Plants, as far as each of them will bear it, and then proceed to the Animal Kingdom. And first of the Herbs; such as have a carnous substance, and will never become lignous; of which those that are indigenous, & wholy undescribed, or described but imperfectly, are these that follow.

2. Muscus multiformiter pyxidatus, capitibus sive apicibus coc∣cineis. Which beautifull Scarlet-headed Cup or Chalice-Moss, in its flourishing condition, is of an ash-colour, sometimes darker accor∣ding to the season of the year, and grows thick upon mole hills in in Cank-wood, about Wildmoore Hollies, Fair Oak, and Wolsely∣park, of the sise, and sometimes of the figure of a Clove; the Calix now and then being square at the top, and sometimes round, and oval; never very deep but always set round or purled with scarlet eminen∣cies about the bigness of small pins heads as in Tab. 14. fig. 1. which was first discover'd to me by the learned. and judicious Edward Brych of Leacroft Esq and is so certainly an undescribed plant that I find nothing like it in any of the books: yet I cannot number this, nor any other Cup-moss amongst the plants properly so call'd as other Authors doe, neither of them produceing either flowers or seeds, that have been yet discover'd; wherefore I rather chuse

to reckon it among the fungus's, which ushers in another unde∣scribed fungus, that perhaps may not unfitly be stiled,

3. Fungus ramosus candidissimus ceranoides, sive digitatus mini∣mus, nonnunquam corniculatus. This white branched finger formed Mushrom, whereof some of the blades are curled round, divided and jagged like the Spellers of a Bucks-head, as in Tab. 14. fig. 2. found plentifully both in Chartley and Ingestre Parks, ascends from a conjunction of many small branches at the bottom, about 3 or 4 inches high, commonly straight and somwhat flat, each blade (especially the greatest) channell'd near the top. The most like of any plant yet described to the Digitatus of Parkinsona 1.1, only none of the blades of his are divided or horned, which perhaps may be accidental; yet it cannot be either his major, or minor, or the Di∣gitelli of the Italians: which though a diminutive terme, are so large notwithstanding, that one of the white fingers (says he) will suffice a man for a meal. It remains therefore, that it must be an un∣described Fungus; and so must the

4. Fungus pulverulentus, cute membranaceà, substantia intus spongiosa, pediculo brevi crassiori, in oras fere ducto. Which sort of fungus found near Packington, and first observed by Mr. Walter Ash∣more of Tamworth, and after on Alrewas-hays near the deep spring mention'd Chap. 2. § 51. by Francis Wolferstan Esq is very large, somtimes 4 or 5 inches diameter, and near two inches thick, and rises from a short thick pedicle, narrow at bottom, and extending it self broader almost to the brims of the fungus, like an inverted Cone as in Fig. 3. somewhat like the fungus tuberosus esculentus albus, fusco permixtus of J. Bauhinb 1.2: and the fungus durus Ar∣borum sive igniarius of Parkinsonc 1.3. But can be nether of them, this being soft, and cover'd with a tough membranaceous skin, and the substance within much resembling a Spunge both in texture and colour; the Cavities whereof when it is ripe, are fill'd with just the same dust or fine powder, which flyes from the Lupi crepitus or Fuss-ball upon which account I chuse to referr it to that kind of fungus, though it differ much from any yet described in the pedicle, and carnous substance; which as Mr. Ashmore orders some of it, is much like Spunk, or the downy part of Artimesia Aegyptiaca, and I beleive if boiled in Niter, like the fungus igniarius, might be render'd as usefull ad ellychnia, as any fungus whatever.

5. At Bentley in the park and lanes there about, at Oldfallings, & almost any where within 3 or 4 miles of Wolverhampton, the Fun∣gus phalloides, or phallus Holandicus of Hadr. Iunius, is frequently found in old dry ditch banks (about the middle of Iuly and some∣times

if a warm Autumn, as late as Michaelmass. They are ordi∣narily betwixt 8 or 9 Inches long, and seem to be made up of 3 di∣tinct parts: the Volva or round bagg at the bottom representing the Scrotum; the Coles or body; and the Capitulum Glandiforme, or nut of the yard; of which in their order. The Volva which is some∣times bigger than a Tennis-Ball (and seems to draw its nourish∣ment by one or two small fibres, which are so tough that a man must pluck pretty hard to break them) is cover'd with a whitish tough membrane, which contains a thin pellucid gelley of an amber colour; under which there is another very white tunicle, that includes a dirty green farinaceous matter, which Bauhinus compares to the tunica elytroeides of the testicles;d 1.4 and then a third, smooth on the inside next the cavity in the center of the Volva, and faviginous like a hony-comb or tripe, without; out of which last membrane, both the body and nut of the yard, seem to grow; the whole length of the scapus or coles being faviginous without, and hollow within (the Cavity tapering at both ends, and growing wider in the mid∣dle in proportion as the scapus does) and the capitulum glandi∣forme also smooth underneath and faviginous without, the Cavities whereof are fill'd with that dirty green substance, that lay next it in the Volva; which corrupting becomes liquid, and sends forth that fil thy stink, by the help whereof they are commonly found; though often too pass't by, upon that very account, many thinking it to be Carrion, lying hid somewhere near, and so heeding it no fur∣ther.

6 All which may be clearly and fully understood by the exem∣plification of it Tab. 14. fig. 4, which I have caused to be engraven, because none of the Cuts either in Bauhinus or elsewhere, seem a∣greeable to ours: wherein

• a. Shews the exterior membrane of the Ʋolva.
• b. The pellucid gelley within it.
• c. The second tunicle, including the farinaceous matter.
• d. The third membrane, faviginous without, and smooth within.
• e. The hollow under it.
• f. The Ʋeretrum, faviginous without.
• g. The hollow within, tapering at both ends.
• b. The capitulum glandiforme, smooth underneath.
• i. Faviginous without,

in the Cavities wherof lyes the stinking gelley, which is of the con∣sistence of Tarr, first of a dark greenish colour, growing sadder by degrees as the plant decays, till it approaches a black. Stand∣ing in the Sun or rain it seems to admit of no alteration from ei∣ther; all it has, proceeding from its self, which is very quick; its

whole duration (after they begin to stink, till which time they are seldom found) seeming not to be above 3 or 4 days. Near the phallus here described, were found two other baggs, full of the same sort of matter as the Ʋolva, joyned together with a tough fibre, having other roots or fibres issuing from it, as in fig. 5. which I take to be two distinct Ʋolvae, that had not yet sent forth their phalli, and not at all belonging to the intire phallus, but upon what account thus knit together, I must freely confess I doe not under∣stand.

7. Which are all the indigenous plants either wholy undescribed, or described but imperfectly, that I met with in this County; and these too, only fungus's, plants improperly so call'd, having neither flowers or seeds, that we yet know of. Nor doe I much wonder at it; the most ingenious & most industrious Mr John Ray having lived so many years in the confines of this County, and no doubt searched it diligently. However I heard of one growing on the pa∣per-Mill dam poole in Heywood park, though described by other Au∣thors, yet not noted by that worthy person to be of English growth, viz. Tithymalus Characias Monspeliensis, or sweet wood-Spurge, the Eighth of Gerarde 1.5; or great French wood-Spurge, the Second of Parkinsonf 1.6, which seem by the Cuts to be much the same, and are so well described by both those Authors, that I shall supersede any here.

8. And as for such as were never found till now to be Mediterra∣nean plants, my worthy friend Mr. Charles King, Student of Ch. Ch. Oxon: and Chaplin to Mr. Chetwynd, shewed me the Turbith of Se∣rapio, the Tripolium vulgare minus, or at least the Tripolium minus Germanicum, the Sea Starr-wort of Germany, well described, and whereof there seems to be a good Cut in Johnsons enlargement of Gerards History of Plants. Which though generally said to grow upon the Sea-coasts, especially in Salt marshes where the tide eb∣beth and floweth, as Lobel saith the Tripolium vulgare minus doth at the mouth of the River Pog 1.7, and Johnson at the foot of the fort at Gravesend, in the Isle of Sheppey, and near Sandwich in Kent, all near to Salt marshesk 1.8; yet here it is found in an inland Country, at least 50 miles from the Sea, in the grounds of the worthy Mr. Chetwynd of Ingestre, within two miles of Stafford; and yet not much to be wonder'd at neither: for though found thus in a Medi∣terranean Country, so far from the Sea, it seems not at all to have been out of its natural aboad: for it grows here in a ground call'd the Marsh, mentiond before in this Hist. Chap. 2. §. 112. near the

place where the brine of it self breaks out above ground, frets away the grass, and makes a plash of Salt-water. Just as Cordus saith the Tripolium minus Germanicum, or Anthyllis, groweth in the Salt Marshes, that are nigh unto a Lake of brackish water, near Staffurt in Germany, which in all probability too is an inland Townei 1.9; as if this plant were confin'd to grow in places of the like situation and name, though in inland Countries, and far remote from the places of its usual growth.

9. As for extraordinary Accidents, that have happen'd amongst the indigenous herbaceous plants I have met with but few; and those I suppose arising cheifly, either from the soile; or from the season wherein the seed of them was sowne; or from some other external accidents. From the first whereof, it most certainly comes to pass, that plants sometimes produce flowers of different colours from what they usually doe; as I have reason to suspect a Digitalis or Fox-glove that I found by the way side near Norton in the Moors might possibly doe, from the poverty of the Soile there about, which ordinarily produces a preternatural whiteness, as was fully shewn in the Nat. Hist. of Oxfordshirek 1.10. Or else that the seed of this plant by some casualty or other, was not committed to the Earth in due time, which experience ha's taught us will make the same alteration in the colour of flowers as was found by that most skill∣full Botanist Mr. Jacob Bobart of Oxford, who seriously told me He once sowed stock-Gillo-flower seeds in the Spring which produc∣ed red flowers, and others again three months after, out of the same paper of seeds, which brought all white ones: so very nicely doth the colour of flowers depend, upon the agreeableness of the season, as well as soile.

10. Nay so very unaccountable are the colours of the flowers of plants, that as the same worthy person told me more than once, from the seeds of the same Anemone, which was all of the same colour, and sowne in the same place, were produced Anemone's of as great variety of colours, as if He had sown a mixt seed from divers: to which I can further add, that flowers of two different colours shall sometimes grow upon the same stalk, which may well be presumed to come from the same individual seed; as I was shewn it by an excellent Florist at Bescot in this County in the Caryophyllus hortensis, where there grew a red one and a white, on the same stalk: which whether to be attributed to the seed, or soil, seems to be an insuperable difficulty. Much more certain is it, that the thickness of the husks of the Corn of this County, which is another accident, proceeds solely from the soile it being held here for a

certain Rule, that the colder any Country is, the thicker will the husk of any sort of grain be; as if Nature defigned to fence it against the severity of the Clime.

11. And these are all the accidents relating to Herbaceous Plants, I met with in this Country; except we may reckon un∣timely flowring, and bearing of fruit, for one; such as hap∣pended in the garden of one Mr. Jobber of Acton-Trussell, who had once Strawberrys fresh and fragrant three dayes before Christmass: the same I once saw in Merton College garden in the University of Oxford. The reason whereof because not so commonly known, has the rather induced me to mention it here, and to let the Reader know that this may come to pass no less then two ways. 1. By Nipping the Budds before they come to Flower, and so put∣ting them so far back, that they cannot recover this injury so as to produce their Fruit before the season above mention'd. Or else 2. By Transplantation, which is much the better and surer way, if one designe to have Fruits out of season (for the Budds nip't, sometimes will never make a second attempt,) thus Straw∣berrys transplanted before they Flower, and transplanted again in Autumn, if the Winter prove mild and temperate (which is ab∣solutely necessary in both cases,) they may and doe perhaps, more frequently then noted, produce their Fruit about that time of year.

12. Of unusual Herbaceous Plants now cultivated in the fields, the Vicia Sylvestris, sive Cracca, the wild Vetch, here call'd Tar∣grass has been observed in some parts to doe so well in Meddows, that it advances all starven weak Cattle above any thing yet known. And the Pisum album majus or garden-Rouncival has been sown in the common fields in the Parish of Millwich, which notwithstanding their great length, were found to run upon the ground without inconvenience, and to kern well. This as I was in∣formed was first attempted by Matthew Philips of Coton in that Parish, with such success, that at first he sold these Peas for ten Shillings the Bushell in many other places in the Vicinage, to such Neighbours as were satisfyed with the advantage of his good husbandry.

13. At Mr. Traffords of Swythamley in the most Northerly Moore∣lands, I was first told (but found them almost every where else,) of a sort of red-Oate sowne thereabout, which upon exami∣nation I found indeed quite different from any sort of Oate any where cultivated in the South of England, the grain being redder, larger, and fuller of Flower, and requiring a stronger Soile then other Oats doe, of which they make their best oaten bread in that Country. And at Burton upon Trent I was shewed by one Mr.

Tomlinson the Avena nuda or naked Oat, sown there by Him that very year, which grows in all points like other Oates, saving that they are much smaller, without husk, and are indeed perfect gritts naturally, requiring no Mill to make them into Oatemeal, as all other Oates doe.

14. To which I may add Zeopyrum, Tritico-speltum, or Hor∣deum nudum, naked barley, which I found sown at Brocton and Ellarton grange, where they otherwise call it Bare-barley, I sup∣pose because without husk; and Wheat-barley, because though its Eare be shaped like barley, its grain is like Wheat, without any husk. For which very reason the Latins have termed it Tritico∣speltum, it having the stalk, joynts, and bearded Eare of the true Zea or Spelt of Lugdunensisl 1.11, though the Corn be like Wheat, and not husked, as all Spelt is. At Rowley in the Parish of Ham∣stall Ridware where it is also sown, they call it French-barley, be∣cause so like that which we buy in the shops under that name. In short it is a plant between wheat and barley, in goodness as well as form; it giving a flower, as worse then wheat, so better then barley; and is therefore sown that it may be used instead of wheat (for bread,) in a scarcity, and by the poorer sort at any time. It runs to malt as well as other barley, and makes a good sort of drink: but the great advantage lyes in the increase, it pro∣ducing sometimes in an agreeable soile near twenty fold.

15. Yet a more improper sort of wheat then that above men∣tion'd, is sown in the barren hungry lands of this County, viz. Ocymum Cereale sive Tragopyrum, commonly call'd Buck-wheat, not that it has any likeness either in the herbage or grain to any sort of wheat, but I suppose because the Seed of it serveth a∣mong the meaner sort for the same use, for making of bread. It is sown either alone, or mixt with other corn, as I saw it mixt with barley on Heyley-Castle hill, and so it is made into bread and eaten; which though less nourishing then Wheat, Rye, or barley, yet more then Millet, or Panick; and that nourish∣ment good: for the Country People of divers places in Germa∣ny and Italy feed only upon this, and yet are strong and fit for the hardest labour. It digests easily and fattens quickly, espe∣cially Cattle and Poultry, which if not speedily kill'd after they are thus fatted, 'tis said, will dye of themselves, suffocated with their own fat.

16. Triticum multiplex or double-eard wheat, described in Ox∣fordshirem 1.12, has been also sown at Rowley Regis in this County by Hen. Warrant tenant to Mr. Amphlet of N. Clent. And

in Worcestershire and the S. W. parts of this County, Triticum Polonicum, sive Triticum spica albicante aliqualiter aristata, glumis foleaceis sive folliculis avenaceis, granis rufescentibus, has been some∣times sown: and I was told by one at Hilderstone An. 1681. That he intended to sow it there the year following. This sort of wheat generally received by the name of Poland, is presumed original∣ly to have come from thence; which rising from a fibrous root, grows 4 or 5 foot high more or less according to the quality of the land, with a larger stalk, and leaves, then other wheats usually have; bearing at the top a long Eare, with long spreading folea∣ceous husks, each about an Inch long; amongst which about the bottom grows the grain, which is longer and thicker then any other wheat; and is ordinarily some of it found to divide its Ear into smaller ones toward the lower part, somewhat like Triticum multiplex. Which being no where described that I yet know of, I have here caused to be graven Tab. 14. Fig. 6. And should have been numbred amongst the undescribed plants in the beginning of this Chapter, but that it is no native of England, and only cultivated here.

17. After the herbaceous plants I should have proceeded next to the undescribed Shrubbs, had I met with any in the County, but having failed therein, I immediatly apply my self, to those not noted by Mr. Ray, to be of English growth: whereof I met only the Sambucus fructu albo, growing plentifully in the hedges near the Village of Combridg, which differs not at all from the common Elder, in the growth, pith, scent, leaves, or flowers; only in the colour of the fruit and rind; which last in this, is also somewhat whiter. This says Parkinson, was first found by Tragus, in the Woods of Germany, not so much as imagining it grew any where in England: but I hear it grows also somewhere near Maidstone in Kent, as well as here at Combridg. The accidents attending shrubbs, also are not many, nor very considerable ones neither. At the Honorable Harry Grays of Enfield Esq there grows a Woodbine in the garden 6 or 7 foot high, having several substantial branches, altogether indepen∣dent of any support. And at Millwich at the South end of the Vicaridg house, grows an Ivy Bush which ascending to the top of the roof and twisting it self about a wooden pinnacle there, and having no higher support, after spreads into branches like an Oak or Elm, and carrys a fine round top standing of its self like the Cissos of Plinyn 1.13: which I could not but note as extraordinary in these two plants, they usually elswhere requiring depen∣dance.

18. Much more remarkable is it that happen'd to a Vine in the garden at Aqualat, which formerly bore a red Muscadel, now a very pleasant sweet white Grape. That flowers will change their colour from red to white upon the penury of the Soil, has been fully shewn in this, and the History of Oxford∣shireo 1.14: but that fruits should also doe it, is new to us; and yet that this must be the reason seems to be more then probable, be∣cause this very Soile that has so changed the colour of the Grapes, has changed flowers too; both whereof have been noted by the prudent and carefull observer Edwyn Skrymsher Esq the Pro∣prietor of the place, who could not well be deceived, having frequently eaten Grapes from it of both colours, and the Vine standing by it self, free from all others.

19. Thus having dispatch't both herbs and Shrubbs, I come at length to the Trees; amongst which some will needs have St. Bertram's Ash, that growes over a spring which bears the name of the same Saint, in the Parish of Ilam, to be of a different un∣described species from all others; and indeed it has a narrower sharper leaf, then ever I saw any: but whether this may not be ascribed to the age and decay of the tree, I much suspect. However it be, 'tis certain the common people superstitiously beleive, that tis very dangerous to break a bough from it; so great a care has St. Bertram of his Ash to this very day. And yet they have not so much as a Legend amongst them, either of this Saints miracles, or what he was; onely that he was Founder of their Church, where they shew you his Monument; of which I shall endeavour some account in the Chapter of Antiquities.

20. Much rather should I think the yellow Yew near Smethwick Hall to be an undescribed Tree, which has some branches with all the leaves of a bright yellow- colour: this I though at first might proceed from some disease, or that those branches might have been wounded; but upon examination I found them all found: Nay so far was this part of the tree from weakness, that it had berrys on it, when the green part had none; and yet it differing from other Yew-trees only in colour, and not in any of the Essentials; I can neither afford to pronounce it a distinct species, not allow it for an undescribed plant; the difference seeming but accidental, though perhaps hard enough to be accounted for.

21. As I suppose the spots may be upon the leaves of a birch in the Copice South of Ranton Abbey, which in the spring time are as red and shining as if fresh blood had fallen on them; upon which account it is reasonably enough call'd the bloody Birch: in

August indeed when I was there, the spots were of a somewhat darker hue; and the tree standing under an Oak, I suspected they might be caused from the dropping thence: but the hasells, and other underwood standing close by it, having no such matter on them; unless there be some secret quality betwixt an Oak and a birch that produces this dye, I cannot conceive how it should come to pass. However this is certain, that here is no sufficient ground to multiply the species.

22. No more then there is for a sort of thorn that grows in a hedgrow Westerly from Whichnor Chappel twixt that and the Park, which produces leaves in the Spring some years, of a brisk yellow or straw colour, which seemed to me, the leaves being less then of other thorns, and recovering their greeness (as was confest,) by St. James-tide, rather to be the effects of a disease; or the frequent cutting it for presents, then any thing else. Nor can I multiply the species for the sake of a Black-Cherry, growing in the Court before the house of the Honora∣ble Harry Gray of Enfield Esq- of so peculiar a vinous tast, that there are no others like them any where in the County; nor will they if transplanted to a competent distance, preserve the same goodness: which argues they have this quality from the agreeableness of the Soil, as the Kentish Cherrys have, which transplanted from that part of the Country which is eminent for them, all degenerate more or less according to the qualitie of the Soil.

23. As for trees not noted to be of English growth by the learned Mr. Ray, the Sorbus pyriformis is not the only one I met with here, which grows wild in the Moorelands at many places, and is sometimes transplanted into their gardens: it is described by L'Obelius, Mathiolus and Bauhin, who unanimously place it in France, Italy and Germany: but the first that ever found (at least noted,) it to be a Native of England that ever I heard of, was the skillfull Botanist Mr. Edmund Pitt Alderman of Worcester, who met with it in a Forrest of that County and sent this description of it to the Royal Society. It resembles (says he,) the Ornus or Quicken-tree, only the Ornus bears the flowers and fruit at the end, this on the sides of the branch: next the Sun the fruit hath a dark red blush, and is about the bigness of a small Jeneting pear; in September of so harsh an astringent tast, that it almost strangles one, but being then gather'd and kept till October it eats as well as a Medlarp 1.15. Which description being agreeable, and very sufficient, I forbear any other.

24. This I say is not the only tree not observed by Mr. Ray to

be of English growth, that I met with in this Country, for though he mention the Firrs that grow near Worton in the Estate of the right Worshipfull Sr. Charles Skrymsher of Norbury, yet he makes them to be the Abies conis deorsum spectantibus, which is our com∣mon firr or Picea Dodonaei alba s. faemina C. Bauhini, whose leaves are round, all over green, and thick set on all sides of the branches: whereas indeed these are the Abies conis sursum spe∣ctantibus of J. Bauhin, the Abies legitima vel mas Bellonii, or the Abies of Parkinson, whose cones or apples always stand upright, the leaves flat, of a fresh green on the upper side, and white un∣derneath, thick set on the branches only on two sides, so that they appear flat, and shew (as Parkinson will have it,) like the teeth of a comb. Adding withall that they grow every where in Muscovy, Poland, Denmark, and Germany, in some parts of Italy and Greece, and as some say in Scotland; but not in Ireland or England, saving where planted q: giving up the Question, whether there were ever any growing naturally in England at any time heretofore?

25. In all which I fear (through the inadvertency of the Age, and his owne ill luck in not lighting upon these,) he will appear mistaken: for beside that there is no doubt that these firrs (which are 36 in number, for I told them often,) stood in the hedges and fields where they now grow, when he wrot; in all probabili∣ty they are natives of the place too; which I gather, not only from their disorderly natural situation, and excessive natural height, to which planted trees seldom arrive; but cheifly from the stooles or stumps of many trees, which I suspect to have been firrs found near them, in their natural position, in the bottoms of mosses and pooles (particularly of Shebben poole,) some of the bo∣dies whereof are daily dug up at Laynton, and in the old pewet poole in the same Parish where these now grow: so that I am apt to be∣leive, that these are only some remaines of the old naturall stock that grew here anciently, of which more hereafter.

26. As for the accidents attending trees we find none more re∣markable than the excesses of them, and particularly in their growth, where they happen to be planted in an agreeable soil; a Specimen whereof we have in the walks befor Fisherwick house, whose front is here engraven Tab. 15. it being the seat of the right Honorable John Lord Viscount Massereen, Baron of Lough-Neagh, &c. one of the noblest Patrons of this work: where the trees planted but few years since (I think not much above 20,) are grown to a magnitude (for so many together,) almostb 1.16

beyond beleif. Yet if we descend to single instances, I was told of two (I think,) that exceed these: one growing of an acorn set in a hedg-row between Colton and Blithefield by one Ralph Bate, which he lived to see a stout Oak bearing 2 foot square at the butt∣end, whereof the first ten foot which was sawed into boards (it being lately cut down for building,) contained near a Tun. The other was an Ash that grew in Elford Church-yard about ten years since, which though planted within the memory of man, about 80 years before, had a body 7 or 8 foot in dia∣meter, i. e. 7 or 8 yards in the girth, the timber of it being valued at thirty pound.

27. But if we step higher to trees sans date, scarce any County e're produced such Monsters as this; to which the great Oak at Norbury that grows 'twixt the Mannor and the Windmill, that is six yards in the girth; and the fair-Oake now standing in Cank∣wood, which is nine and ½; are but dwarfs in comparison: where∣of there lyes one (the trunk of an Oak cut off at the bole,) near the Lodg-House in Ellenhall park, of so vast a bulk, that my Man up∣on a horse of 15 hands high, standing on one side of it, and I also on horsback on the other, could see no part of each other: nay so far were we from it, that we judged the two tallest men in the County upon horses of 15 hands could scarce have don it. What this tree might be in girth we could not measure, the under part of it being buryed in the ground, but I judg it may be just such another Oak (only the trunk of that grew as it were triangular,) as was fell'd about 20 years since in Wrottesley park, which as the worthy Sr. Walter Wrottesley (a man far either from vanity or imposition,) seriously told me, was 15 yards in the girth, and lay so high when fell'd that two men on Horsback on each side the tree could not see one another.

28. Bohuslaus Balbinus tells us he measured the body of an Oak in the parish of Chodow in Bohemia just of the same bigness, viz. 45 foot in compassr 1.17: how many Tunns these trees might contain is not related, but I scarce think either of them held so many, as the prodigious Witch-Elm that grew at Field in this County, and was fell'd within memory by Sr. Harvey Bagot, which accord∣ing to an original paper put into my hands by the right Worship∣full Sr. Walter Bagot Baronet the present Proprietor, and as I had it from the mouth of Walter Dixon yet living, who was surveyor of the work, was so very great and tall,

That two able workmen were 5 days in stocking or felling it down.

That it fell 120 foot or 40 yeards in length.

That the Stoole was 5 yards 2 foot diameter, i. e.

That the tree at the butt-end was 17 yards in circumference.

That it was 8 yards and 18 inches, i. e. 25 foot ½ about by girth measure in the middle.

That 14 loads of Fire-wood, each as much as 6 Oxen could draw to the house at Field, being not above 300 yards distant, broke off in the fall.

That there was 47 loads more of Fire-wood (as large as the for∣mer,) cut from the top.

That they were forced to piece 2 Saws together, and put 3 men to each end, to cut the body of it in sunder.

That there was cut out of it 80 pair of Nathes for Wheels, and 8000 foot of sawn timber in boards, and planks, after six score per Cent. Which at 3^s per Cent. came to 12 pounds.

All which is attested (as a thing, I suppose, they foresaw in a little time would otherwise become incredible,) under the hands of

• Sr. Harvey Bagot.
• William Cowper Steward
• Roger Shaw Baylif
• Walter Dixon Surveyor
• Lawrence Grews Cutters.
• Humphry Chettom Cutters.
• Francis Marshall Stockers.
• Thomas March Stockers.

29. And as to the number of Tunns according to the scant∣lings first above mentioned, they computed it to contain (after their gross Country way of measure,) 96 Tuns of timber; a vast quantity indeed for one tree, and well requiring ample testimony to render it credible: but whoever will take the pains to cast it nicely and more artificially, according to the above mentioned scantlings, will find that it must contain a 100 Tuns at least of neat Timber, a fift part (which is sufficient in such large batts,) be∣ing allow'd for the wast of rind, chipps, &c. For supposing that this tree did taper regularly from such a base, to such a length; multiplying the area of the base, by a third part of the length, a 100 Tuns will be found a very modest account, all allowances for wast being granted that can reasonably be desired.

30. How much less in bigness and number of Tuns the Oak might be that grew in the new-park at Dudley, and made the table now lying in the old Hall in Dudley Castle is not remembred, much less can it now be computed, but certainly it must be a tree of pro∣digious height and magnitude, out of which a table, all of one plank, could be cut 25 yards 3 inches long, and wanting but two inches of a yard in bredth for the whole length; from which they were forced (it being so much too long for the Hall at Dudley,)

to cut off 7 yards 9 inches, which is the table in the hall at Cor∣bins-hall hard by, the ancient seat of the Corbins, of which family my worthy Friend Tho. Corbin Esq is the present Survivor. What this might want in bigness (I say,) of the former tree, is hard now to determine, but sure it could not want much in height; for the tree that could bear near a yard diameter at 75 foot high, may well be presumed to run up at least forty foot higher.

31. But whether this equall'd it or no, the Firr-trees above men∣tion'd now standing in that part of Warton which is in the parish of Norbury, 'tis likely may; severall of them being presumed to be a∣bout 40 yards high; but one there is amongst them, which though but 6 yards about, above the spurrs; yet runs up to 47 yards ½, at least 7 yards higher then the aforesaid Witch-Elm, as was agreed upon by the admeasurement of it by three several persons at di∣stinct times: out of which perhaps as wonderfull a piece of timber might be cut, as was out of the Larch-tree mentioned by Pliny, brought to Rome with other timber for rebuilding the bridg Nau∣machiaria in Tiberius Caesars time, that contained in length 40 yards or 120 foot, and carryed in thickness every way two foot from one end to the other; which the Emperor would not use, but commanded it to be laid in a publick place in open view as a singular and miraculous Monument to all posterity, where it re∣mained intire, till the Emperor Nero built his stately Amphithea∣ter s. And yet neither of these seem to equal the Firrs that Cha∣braeus mentions were growing in his time in the wood call'd Than∣nen-wald in the Territory of Bern, whereof some were 230 foot, i. e. above 76 yards high, exceeding the tallest of these in Stafford-shire by near 100 foot, or full 33 yardst 1.18.

32. Beside the excesses of the Witch-Elm and other trees in the growth of their Trunks, the excess of their force also in that growth, is not altogether unworthy our consideration; it not be∣ing the privilege of the Palm alone, crescere sub pondere: whereof we have a very eminent instance, in an old Witch-Elm growing on Powk-Hill near Bentley-Hall, that has embraced and lifted up from the ground with the growth of its root a great Stone of at least 200 weight. But we need not so much wonder at this, since we have all seen the roots of trees undermine buildings, (par∣ticularly those of the tender Ivy,) which could otherwise have withstood not only the batteries of time, but also of the greatest attillery, with small or no damage: so great is the force of insen∣sible motion, in vegetation, as well as Art. Pliny tells us of Stones thus embraced and inclosed within Trees; and that carryed about* 1.19

women with Child, they prevent abortions, and help them to goe out their full time u; which I thought fit to note, that if any body in this Country have faith enough to believe it, they might know whither, upon occasion, to apply themselves for a remedy.

33. Many other accidents there are beside the aforementioned that have befallen the Trunks of trees in their growth; such as that trees of different species should grow so united, as to seem to be the same, at least to grow from the same root: whereof we have a very remarkable Specimen in the broad-Lesow near Chartley, of an Oak and an Ash that thus grow together; and in Sr. Walter Bagots park there are many hollies that grow thus conjoyn∣ed at the root with Oaks. Other trees there are again that though they grow from different roots, are more strangely conjoyn∣ed some height above ground; and these both of the same, and different Species's: such are the two Ashes in the way betwixt Gnosal and Walton-grange, which though they issue out of the ground about 8 foot asunder, yet are joyned by a cross piece pas∣sing between them about 4 foot from the ground; much after the same manner, and caused I suppose by the same means, as the Gallow-tree mentioned in the History of Oxford-shirew 1.20. Thus there is also an Ash and an Elm near great-Sugnall, though of different species's, and issuing from different roots, yet joyned to∣gether about a foot above ground; and at Drayton Basset, in the walk before the Manor, the seat of the right Honorable Thomas Viscount Weymouth, there grows an Oak that so intimately clasps a Thorn, that the Thorn seems to pass through it at several places. The Oak is certainly a very old tree, yet the thorn must be older, for that having the lesser body by much, it could never pass through the greater, but must rather be inclosed by it, whence we may con∣clude (though we know little of the Age of trees,) that a thorn will stand as long, if not longer then an Oak. But these are not so re∣markable as the former, because their roots not so far distant.

34. Other trees there are that grow so conjoyned, that they seem (after the manner of some sort of Animals,) to prey upon one another: whereof I was shewn a very remarkable instance by the ingenious William Chetwynd of Rugeley Esq in a pasture ground in the parish of Longdon, but by the way side leading from Hansacre to Brereton, where there grows a very fair holly on the bole of an Oak; and so there does much such another in the way betwixt Womborn and Himly near beggers bush; and in Womborn town near the brook side, there growes a Yew thus on the top of an Ash. But the most signal example of this kind, is the large* 1.21

fair birch, about the bigness of ones thigh, that grows on the bole of Oak, in the Lane leading South from Adbaston Church, which has sent down its roots in six branches perpendicularly through the whole length of its trunk, and fastened them in the ground, which might be seen at a hole cut in the bottom of the Oak; hav∣ing eaten out the bowells of the old tree (as all the rest will doe,) that first gave it life, and then support. All which are occasion'd no doubt by the seeds of those trees dropt by birds in the mould on the boles of the others, that lyes commonly there, and is made of the annual r••ttings of their own leaves.

35. But of all the accidents that ever befell the trunks of trees, there is none more unaccountable than their being found in di∣vers Countries buryed under ground; as in many of the maritim parts of Holland, Zealand, Friesland, and Groninglandx 1.22: so on the coasts of England, in Suffolk near Dunwichy 1.23; in the fenns of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, particularly in the Isle of Axholmz 1.24; and on the coast of Pembroke-shire in Walesa 1.25. And not only on the Sea shores, but also in divers inland, and sometimes up-land Coun∣tries too, as near Bruges in Flanders; where, as Boetius de Boot relates it, they find at ten or twenty ells deep, whole woods of trees, with their trunks, boughs and leaves so distinctly appearing, that one may plainly discern the several kinds of them, and the series of leaves which have fallen yearly* 1.26. Much after the same man∣ner as Scoockius informes us they find them in the territory of Pe∣land near Bois le Duc in the province of Brabantb 1.27. And as Wormius acquaints us, in the highest and most craggy mountains of Ice∣land, where no body dares venture to them, but such as have been trained up to climb precipices from their youth, where too they must digg some ells deep, before they come to themc 1.28.

35. In England we have them too in many places far enough from the Sea, as in Chatmoss in Lancashire, several parts of York∣shire and Cheshire, and here in many parts of Staffordshire: viz. at Laynton above mentioned, and the old Pewit pool in the parish of Norbury; in Shebben-pool in the parish of High Offley; in the mosses near Eardley: in the parish of Audley; and near the town of Betley: and all these in the high Country of the Moorelands. They are found too in the lower more Southerly parts (but these still further from the Sea) in Cranmoor near Wrottesley; in rotten-Meddow under Wednes∣bury-hall; on Doreley Common in the parish of Gnosall; in a place call'd Peatmoore in the lands of my worthy Friend Mr. Rowland

Frith of Thorns; and in the Moores of Handsworth: and all these in an in land County, the nearest part whereof is at least thirty, and some of the places above mentioned, above fifty miles from the Sea.

37. Now what sort of trees these are, whether mineral or ve∣getable? and if vegetable, of what Species of trees? and if of this or that species, by what means thus buryed? are great difficulties that have disturb'd many mens thoughts, and are the points I shall endeavour to make as clear as I can. That there is a mineral substance call'd lignum fossile found in the earth repre∣senting the stumps, and parts of the trunks of Trees which never grew above ground like other vegetables is very certain; whereof Agricola mentions some found in the Bishoprick of Hildesheimd 1.29; and Pet. Gassendus in the life of Peireskius tells us of more found at Aqua Spartana in Italy An. 1637e 1.30. which are those I suppose Franci∣scus Stellatus Lynceus has written a whole treatise of; Aqua Spar∣tana being in Ʋmbria in Italy, where his was found, of some parts whereof he has given us figures in sculpture; and Scoockius is of opinion that many of the stumps and trunks of trees found in Holland, Zealand, and Friesland, are of this mineral sort of wood; for which He brings divers reasons, the cheif whereof are, that most of them are found without roots or knots; without the marks of any boughs cut off; and that if ever these subterraneous trees had grown in woods (as is presumed by their numbers) their would have been some others found beside Firrs and the Picea, especially in the Low-Countries, where neither of these trees were ever known to growf 1.31.

38. For which very reasons, but cheifly for the last, He would have us to believe that the trees we find here (which indeed are most like Firrs) in the mosses of England, are also nothing else but mineral trees: and the rather here in England than Holland it self, because Caesar (says He) in his Commentaries expresly tells us, that there was no firr in Britan. But by Scoockius's favour these arguments of his, much less any of the rest alleged in the same place, are not sufficient to bring us over to his opinion: for beside that we find several of these trees with their roots joyned to them, and the stumps of their branches issuing from them; the timber of them swims in water, which lignum fossile will not doe, and is still as lyable to the Axe, Chisel, Saw, or Plane, as any wood whatever: so far are these trees found in our mosses here from being mineral substances, and so well satisfyed are we that they were once vegetables. Much less still doth the second argument drawn from Caesars Commentaries prevail upon us; for were that

conclusive, by a parity of reason we should have no beech in En∣gland: for in the very same place Caesar also tells us, speaking of Britan, that there was there, Materia cujusq generis, ut in Gallia, praeter abietem et fagumg 1.32, than which last, there is no other wood more plentifull; so little heed is there to be given to that testimony of Caesar.

39. Yet so far has this, with the present unlikelyhood that firrs were ever natives of England, prevail'd upon some; that be∣ing fully satisfyed that these subterranean trees were once vegeta∣bles, and the most likely of any sort to be the trunks of firrs; they have rather fancyed (than that ever they grew here) that they were brought hither from forraign parts by some vast deluge, and particularly that of Noah, and laine here ever since in these low mosses, whence the water went off last, when God stopped the win∣dows of heaven, and the fountains of the deep, and caused a wind to pass over the earth, that the waters were asswagedh 1.33. Nor seems it very impossible they should lye so long, since the plenty of bitumen wherewith these mosses abound, may well be presumed to have preserved them as well, as it has the dead carcases of the Aegyptians for thousands of years. But that which renders it un∣likely, that I say not impossible, they should be brought from forraign parts by Noah's flood is, that we should then have found them indifferently in all vales alike, in the South as well as North of England, than which nothing less: for who ever heard of them in the vales of Evesham or Aylesbury? in the vales of white or red horse? though as fit for their reception as any of the mosses afore∣mention'd.

40. Beside such of these trees as are met with without their roots, appear either to have been burnt asunder near the ground, or are found with the marks of the Axe still remaining upon them whereby they were sever'd from their stooles, which are also found now standing in the same posture of growth as when the trees stood upon them, as may plainly be seen in Shebben pool in a dry Sum∣mer when the waters be low, where are the stumps of several, which upon examination I found to be the same wood with that of the trees found at Laynton and the old Pewit pool above men∣tion'd. And Mr Skrymsher of Aqualat also told me he had of these stooles in the black Lake near Aqualat meer in the same pos∣ture; and so they are found in the Isle of Axholmi 1.34; which are no slight arguments that these trees were not farr fetch't, of whatso∣ever kind they may be, nor required such a flood as that of Noah to bring them hither.

41. Which has driven others, who are better satisfy'd that this moss-wood (as some call it) grew not farr from where found, than they are that 'tis Firr, to think it must rather be the timber of Birches or Alders, trees that delight to grow in such moist places, which being soak't so many years in a bituminous turf, may become at length so well impregnated, as to imitate Firr both in the smell and burning; which too are more agreeable to the sizes of these subterranean trees than Firrs are, there being few of them found above a foot diameter at the butt-end, whereas Firrs sometimes grow here in England (as may be seen at Norbury) to be two yards in diameter. To which it may be answer'd, that one reason why these subterranean trees are found so small, may be, that all what we now find, is only the heart of the tree, which was much bigger before the sapp was consumed; which too may be the reason that though they are commonly found small, yet they are very long, several having been taken up in the Isle of Axholm in Lincolnshire 30 yards long; and one not many years since by Robert Brown of Haxey 36 yards in length beside the top, lying very near its root which stood as it grew, from which it was burnt asunder and not cut from itk 1.35, as many in this County seem also to have been.

42. The very length of which trees seems conclusive enough (whatever may be thought of ours in Staffordshire) that they ne∣ver were the trunks of Birches or Alders: though I have an argu∣ment too perhaps altogether as cogent, that some of ours in Staffordshire must also have been Firrs as well as they, there having been one of them taken up in Peatmoore by Mr Brown of Footerley and sent to Captain Lane (who also well remembers the thing) that had its branches issuing from it in a circular form at annual distances, as all Firrs have, but birches and alders never. Not to mention again that in Staffordshire firrs yet seem to grow natu∣rally (as was shewn §. the 25 of this Chapter) not far from Laynton and the old Pewit poole, where they are found underground; which perhaps might be young trees not worth notice, when the o∣thers were cut down, and have remained since untouch't to this very day.

43. It being plain then that these trees thus found under∣ground, are neither lignum fossile, Birches, or Alders; and that 'tis unlikely they should be left in the places they now are, by Noah's, or any other flood whatever: it remains only that we shew the most probable cause of their being thus buryed in divers parts of the Nation. Which that I may doe with all brevity and clear∣ness,

I must distinguish between those found near the Sea coasts, and those in the inland Countries; the former no doubt being over∣thrown and covered, either by the violent encroachments of the Sea if near the shoar, as those on the coast of Pembrok-shirel 1.36; and the wood that ancient writings mention was a mile and ½ to the East of Dunwich, which is now so farr in the Sea, and may possi∣bly some time or other be discover'd again in succeeding ages by some raking stormm 1.37 as those in Pembrok-shire were, in the time of Hen. 2. Or else if further within land in a flat Country such as the fenns of Lincoln-shire, such effects may follow from the stop∣page of the mouths of Rivers (as the learned Sr. William Dug∣dale conjectures) by vast quantityes of Mudd and Sand brought into them by Tides, so that the waters recoyling and overwhelm∣ing such flat Countries, may easily so loosen the roots of the trees by overmuch moisture, that the next wind must needs overthrow them, and bury them at length in the filth which the Rivers and Sea have joyntly contributed ever since and mix'd with the stag∣nant water, to make such Fennsn 1.38. And thus I suppose the woods of Holland and Brabant might be cover'd anciently by the choaking of the Rhine near the Arx Britannica, and so in some of the Mosses and Fenns of England.

44. But where they are found in inland Countryes fenced from the Sea with hills; or in Mountainous parts, such as those of Iceland; the case must needs be different: whether Firrs are found alone, as 'tis commonly in Stafford-shire; or mixt with o∣ther timber, as in some parts of York-shire; whether burnt, or cut off at the Kerf, as in both places, the stumps still remaining in the same posture they grew in the firm Earth below the moores. That Firrs should be found any where alone, seems indeed some∣what odd, there being other timber enough near all the places I have yet seen, where they are so found: but if a relation be true that I met with in my travells, which as I was told had foundation too in some ancient writings in the hands of the right Honorable the Lord Visc. Gormanston first Viscount of Ireland, the case is not difficult; only admitting that these Firrs were never Natives of England, but planted here (as the story informes us) by the Danes and Norwegians. Who when they had gotten good footing in the Land, as they had for many years; like other Conquerors endeavoured to make this as like their own Country as they could, and planted these Firrs. Which after they had grown for about 200. years, either upon the total destruction of

them throughout England in a day, in the time of King Ethel∣redo 1.39; or their final loss of all dominion here, after the death of Hardi-Canute; that no memorial whatever might remain of them, the trees they had planted were also cut down, and as many of them as grew in low moist lands (lying inconvenient for portage,) neglected, and so thus cover'd in process of time by atter∣ration; those cut down upon the hills and higher grounds (lying readyer at hand,) having been spent in divers uses, many ages agoe.

45. For the better understanding of which new doctrine, let the Reader take notice, that the low grounds where these trees are now found, when they stood and flourish't, in all probability were tolerably dry land; for the trees whilst growing (notwith∣standing the moisture shot into the valleys then, as now,) con∣tinually spent it in their nourishment, and their as constant ex∣halations; which when cut down, there being no expence for it, the valleys at length grew into pooles; the waters whereof being thickend with perpetuall deterrations, or Earth brought from the hills and higher grounds by showers in wet, and winds in dry weather, they came at last to be Mosses or Fenns thus covering the trees as we now find them: which I take to be the first ori∣ginal of many of our Mosses, though afterwards they increase by new grass and sedg annually growing upon the rottings of the old of the former year, and so onward.

46. Other Mosses there are too made upon the stoppage of springs by the like deterrations, or falls of Earth, and the annual rottings of the grass, sedg, &c. growing upon it. Now that there are such deterrations or perpetual diminutions of all hills (except the rocky,) by every shower and wind, so that they all grow lower, and the valleys higher; we have a remarkable in∣stance (beside those above mention'd Chap. 3. § §. 11, 12,) near the City of Glocester, where there was a hill that within me∣mory interposed it self to that height 'twixt it and Churcham, that People were wont to goe up into the upper roomes of Churcham Manor house to see the pinnacles of the Cathedral of Glocester; whereas after some few years they could see them on the ground: and as I was inform'd by the Reverend Dr. Gregory, Rector there, and Prebend of Glocester, whereas about 12 years since they could see out of the Church-yard at Churcham but down to the top of the upper windows of the Steeple, they can now An. 1684. plainly see the leads of the Isles of the Church, with most other Churches, and some houses in the Town. So great have been the deterrations from this hill in a few years, and no question are so

from all others, in proportion to the qualities of their respective soiles.

47. Whether the History above mention'd (it supposing firrs no natives of England,) or the method dame Nature seems to use in making Mosses and burying timber, gain belief of the Reader, shall not concern me much, for if they serve only for his diversion I am abundantly satisfyed: there being many other causes assign∣able of such wast of timber, and the sepulture of it; such as mak∣ing room for Agriculture, which was done in the inland parts of Kent no longer agoe then our Grandfathers days, where they cut it downe and made trenches by the side of each tree, and so tumbled it in, its sale not being worth the portage even there, so few years agoep 1.40. So they cut and burn it down (for the greater expedition,) at this day in Muscovy for the very same reason, as I guess some of this might be, several of the trees still appearing to have been burnt, though they have lain so long in these Mos∣ses; or else if cut down for uses, warrs might come on (which were anciently very frequent,) and prevent what 'twas design'd for, either by the death of a single person, or ruin of a Family; so the timber still lying where 'twas first fell'd, might quickly be overgrown, and at length forgotten.

48. Which how soon it will be done, and how fast these Mos∣ses grow, we have a clear evidence in a parcell of timber cut down near Bishops-Castle in the County of Salop by Sr. Robert Howard in the late civil Warr, which as the Reverend and learn∣ed Mr. Obadiah Walker Master of Ʋniversity College told me, be∣ing neglected by reason of the warr, in six years time was half overgrown by such a moss where it lay: though by the way it must be noted, that such weighty bodys as timber, sink much more in proportion the first years, than ever they doe after: for it is probable from another instance, communicated by the same worthy person, that these mosses doe not rise much above an inch in a year, from a lump of Coynes of Edward the fourth of England (supposed to be lost in a purse or cloth now rotted away,) taken up in such a moss in Yorkshire 18 foot deep, which being about 200 years since, whoever pleases to compute it, will find that this moss grew but about one foot in eleven years, i. e. But one inch per annum and 1/12 proxime.

49. Hitherto having consider'd trunks of trees in the whole and externally only; let us next look into them, and there we shall find perhaps as odd Phaenomena as any attending the for∣mer: witness a rotten Crab-Tree (which I shall not reckon amongst fruit trees, it growing wild,) cleft asunder by a servant of Francis

[illustration] depictions of plans

[illustration]

1.

[illustration]

2.

[illustration]

3.

[illustration]

4.

[illustration]

5.

[illustration]

6.

[illustration]

To the right Worsp^•. S^r. JOHN WYRLEY of HAMSTEAD R. This 14 Table of Undescribed Plants in memory of his Beneficence is gratefully dedicated by RP. LLD.

Mburg. delin. et sculp.

Wolferstan Esq somewhere in the grounds near Statfold, a part whereof he sent me hither to Oxford, wherein there are several cylindraceous cavities generally running parallel with the grain of the wood, except where they communicate with one another, and where the entrance is into them; and these for the most part fill'd with pellets or Cartrages of the same forme, of an inch, and sometimes of an inch and ½ long; made not of the leaves of the same tree wound up close together, as Mr. Wolferstan thought, but plainly of the Rose; (though they are so little scrupulous in the choise of their leaves, that they will sometimes make use of exo∣tic plantsq 1.41;) the side leaves always being of an oblong figure, and those of the ends round, but bent to a convexity at one end, and a concavity at the other, the number of both uncertain: all which if the Reader please to look back to Tab. 14 Fig. 7. He may see represented in Sculpture: where a shews the piece of rotten Crabb-tree. b, a single Cartrage. c, one of the side leaves. and d. one of the end leaves, both as eaten out of the Rose-leaf at e, which how performed; by what Animal; and for what pur∣pose; remains next to be considered.

50. Wherein I shall be short, the main having been discoverd already by Dr. Edmund King (who had such Cartrages sent him in a piece of old Willow by Sr. John Bernhard of Northampton∣shire,) and Francis Willoughby Esq who had them shewn him by one Mr. Snell near Astrop in the same County, also in old willow; who unfolding the leaves and examining the inside of the Cartra∣ges, found in the concave end of some of them, white maggots, in others great numbers of mites, &c. By which maggots, being kept till Summer, they found the whole operation to have been performed by bees, to secure their eggs, and such provision as is necessary for the Nymphae (i. e. when they become maggots,) in winter; which in Summer all turned to bees, eat their way forth, and so took their flightr 1.42. Of the corruption of which bee-maggots or Nymphae, when they happen to miscarry, are bred (says Mr. Willoughby) 1. Little hexapodes, 2. Maggots which produce flyes; 3. mites, which produce perhaps millipedes, Xylopthori or vermes arborei, or Scolopendrae, such as were indeed found in this rotten Crabb-tree by Mr Wolferstan, and thought to be the operators of these Cartragess 1.43; but had he kept any to their due time, he would have found some of the Nymphae turned to bees, and some of them corrupt∣ed into mites, &c. As I after did, as in the Cartrage at f. These having all stings like other bees Dr. King thought no other then the com∣mon bee; but Mr. Willoughby more nicely considering their shape

and forcipes, would not allow them to be the common hony-bee, yet does not assigne of what species it is, which I wonder at, since upon an ordinary search he might have quickly found it to be the Musca apiformis, which indeed is of a larger sise than the common bee, has a sort of sting, but a very imperfect one, less virulent by much than those of hony-bees: which being all I have to add (above the necessary description,) more than what has been dis∣coverd by Dr. King, Dr. Lister, and Mr. Willoughby in the Philosophi∣cal Transactionst 1.44, and the Journal des Scavansu 1.45, I referr the Reader thither for further intelligence.

51. Yet more strangely than these have other Animals been found in the body of a tree somewhere near Biddulph, where two workmen sawing the body of a solid Oak, one of them at length perceived blood to follow the Saw, which though it startled them not a little, yet resolving to goe on and see the issue, when they had cut on to the end of the batt, they split it asunder, and found the Saw had past through the body of a Hardishrew or Nursrow (as they here call them,) i. e. a field-mouse, two others that lay by it, escaping away alive as soon as the tree was split, which being examin'd and found in all parts sound, the case re∣mains an inexplicable riddle to all thereabout to this very day. But me-thinks to any one that considers the superstitious Custom they have in this Country of making Nursrow-trees for the cure of unaccountable swellings in their Cattle, the thing should not seem strange. For to make any tree, whether Oak, Ash, or Elm (it being in∣different which) a Nursrow-tree, they catch one or more of these mice (which they fancy bite their Cattle, and make them swell,) and having bored a hole to the center in the body of the tree, they put the mice in, and then drive a pegg in after them of the same wood, where they starving at last, communicat forsooth such a virtue to the tree, that Cattle thus swoln being whipt with the boughs of it, presently recover: of which trees they have not so many neither (though so easily made, but that at some places they goe 8 or 10 miles to procure this remedy.

52. Now though it may be improbable enough that the swel∣lings of their Cattle arises from the bites of these mice, but rather from the Sting of the Buprestis or Burst-cow; the Pityocampe of Dioscoridesw 1.46; the staphylinus of Aristotlex 1.47; or those red Phalan∣gious spiders like Cantharides mention'd by Moufety 1.48; all which have been observed to be pernicious to Cattle: yet what hinders (since 'tis apprehended that these mice do it,) but one may well

imagin, that some person not farr distant might according to the superstitious custom of the Country make this Oak (unknown either to the owner or workmen) a Nursrow-tree but a little before it came to be cut down and sawn asunder, by pegging in these mice: Just as the Irish serve the Connough worm (a sort of Catterpiller) which they think poysons their Cattle, though it have no poyson in't, which they shut up in a hole thus bored in a tree, where when the worm is dead, the bark & leaves of that tree bruised and steeped in water, and given to the Cattle they apprehend thus poysoned, ever af∣ter gives them an infallible curez 1.49. To which let me add the su∣perstitious veneration that some People give in this Country, espe∣cially in the Moorelands amongst the ancienter sort, and some∣times those of pretty good fashion too, to the Fraxinus sylvestris or Quicken-tree, which they firmly believe will certainly preserve them from all fascinations, and evill spirits; upon which account many are very carefull to have a walking staff of it, and will stick the boughs of it about their bedds. But of these trifles, I fear, more than enough.

53. Which is all concerning whole trees and their trunks, but that in generall the timber of this Country (though much of it has been destroyed of late years) is as large and good perhaps as in any part of England; witness the very great quantity of very good timber in the park of the right Worshipfull Sr. Walter Bagot, amongst which the Queche-Oaks are very remarkable: But the timber that surpasses all in the County, both for quantity, great∣ness, and goodness, is that in the park at Madeley-Manor, the seat of that courteous and generous Gentleman John Offley Esq which in memory of his many and signal favours, is here engraven Tab. 16. where in the first place, there is so much, that as it has been computed by indifferent judges, the whole has been thought worth 20000 pounds sterling; out of which might be cul∣led 1000 trees, worth 8000 pounds; and out of these again 100, that scarce would be sold for 1500 pounds; Not to mention the great quantities of excellent timber, to be seen in many other parks all over the County.

54. Beside the unusual accidents of whole trees and their trunks, there are some also which have happen'd to their bran∣ches, fruits, and leaves; amongst which I cannot but reckon a great parcell of Matrices or Insect-husks of the purple-Kermes kind, adhering not only to the underside as usually, but set quite round a branch of Thorn, found (and given me by the Worship∣full Capt. Tho. Lane of Bentley Esq) at great Sarden: which are not the excrescencies, much less the fruit or berries of any

tree, as the Scarlet-Kermes has been too long beleived to be of the Ilex, but artificial things contiguous to the plants, made there by Insects to preserve their Eggs and nourish their young, as has been clearly demonstrated by the learned Dr. Listera 1.50, a man wonder∣fully happy both in natural discoveries, and imposing suitable names, as he has done to these of Patellae Kermi-formes, from their form, and manner of sticking to the branches of many sorts of Vegetables, just as patellae do to rocks; and their giving a purple or murrey tincture; which they performe best when the Insect is in vermiculo: for when the Insect comes to maturity, the Husk grows dry, and the dye seems to be spent, as it was in these of Sarden before I had them, so that I could neither tell what colour they yeilded, nor what Insect they might be made by; if by the bee-kind, it must be a wonderfull small one. the patellae of ours being much smaller, than any of those described by Dr. Lister.

55. Yet the same Dr. Lister as fortunate as he has been in the above mention'd discovery; as himself confesses, could never di∣scern (whatever diligence he used) any Eggs in the center of that by-fruit that grows on the leaves of the Oak, which we call Galls, or Oak-balls; but a worm constantly, even at their very first appearanceb 1.51; not doubting however but that diligence would some time or other discover the Eggs themselves: which was in∣deed happily done An. 1680 by that curious Observer Walter Chetwynd Esq now high-Sherriff of the County and his ingeni∣ous Chaplain Mr. Charles King Student of Ch. Ch. who by the help of a Microscope observed several minute Eggs in a small Oak∣ball, taken from the ribbe on the back side of an Oak-leaf gather'd in the field below Ingestre house; whence it plainly appears that though it be true that these by-fruits doe grow up together with their respective worms in them, from small beginings till they arrive at their perfection; and that these worms are furnished with food in, and from them: yet that neither the plants on which they grow, nor their excrescensces, doe any way contribute to the generation of these insects, as Redi imagin'dc 1.52; but that they have their origin from a parent-Insect which first fix'd its Egg, where the Gall rose and included it.

56. As the accidents attending the leaves of herbs and shrubbs, were cheifly in their variation from the ordinary colour, so it is in trees; and I suppose may be met with, one where or other, in almost all kinds of them. Near Hammerwich in the high-way growing over a pond, I found a Holly-shrub bearing leaves prettily edg'd with yellow; and was told of others near little-Aston stri∣ped

with the same colour, whereof we have plenty here at the Physick-garden at Oxon; and in the fine gardens at Ingestre, the lesser Maple grows thus curiously striped. Nor doe these stripings only affect the inferior sorts of trees, but timber trees also, as may be seen in a large Ash that grows in the hedg row (by the high-way side) of the same close where the great witch-Elm abovemention'd formerly grew, near Field-hall, whose leaves are some of them all white, (whence it enjoyes the name of the white-Ash) others striped both white and green. And in the Park of the right Worshipfull Sr. Walter Bagot Baronet, one of the noblest promoters of this designe, whose ancient and well situat house at Blithefield is here annext Tab. 17. there growes an Oak near the Hill-stile with just such leaves as his Ash at Field, part of them all white, and part white and green: which how it comes to pass that plants thus vary in the colours of their leaves, has been so often taught already that it would be nauseous to repeat it, therefore no more of it hered 1.53.

57. After the Timber, I proceed next to the Fruit-trees of this County that have any thing extraordinary either in their growth, flowers, or fruit; for the first whereof, there is an appletree with∣in the moat of the Parsonage house at Leigh, that spreads from boughs end to boughs end 1•• or 18 yards, in circumference supposing them to spread uniformly, 54 yards; shading in dry weather, and dropping in wet, upon 244 square yards of ground; under which, allowing 3 square yards for a horse to stand on (3 yards long, and one broad, seeming a competent proportion) and 4 square feet for a Man; above eighty Horsemen, or 549 Foot∣men may be sheltered from the injuries either of Sun or rain: a vast number for an Appletree; yet the quantity of fruit it some∣times bears, seems equally to demonstrate the excess of its great∣ness, it having born some years no less then 50 strike of apples. To which let me add the odd growth of an old pear-tree in that part of Warton which is in the Parish of Forton in the Hortyard of Edward Low of that village, which though fallen flat on the ground, has 6 or 7 young trees sprung perpendicularly out of the body of it, in right angles, as it lyes in plano Horizontis; each, one with another a foot in diameter, and most of them 40 foot high.

58. As for trees that have any thing remarkable in their flowering, the Peartree at Colmoore at the house of the heirs of Mr. Thomas Hawe, seems to be very extraordinary, which (like Gla∣stonbury thorn) though in frost and snow, puts forth blossoms at Christmass: and soe does a peartree in the gardens belonging to

the Castle here at Oxford: now what should occasion the early flowering of this tree, so long before other trees of its kind, is hard to determine, this overforwardness seeming rather to argue an excess of vigor, than an effect of weakness; though it be worthy notice that all striped trees, which are sick and diseased, doe put forth their leaves and blossoms sooner, than others of their kind: but should we rather grant it to be an excess of strength, it may nevertheless (as all extremes are) be a vice in the tree, it being commonly found in many other trees, that are over early and luxuriant in their production of flowers, that they bear little fruit, as I have ground to suspect neither of these doe.

59. Quite contrary to a peartree I saw at one Jane Arnolds at Hamstall Ridware, that blossoms and also bears twice in a year; When I saw it in June An. 1680. it had large pears on it, and the blossoms at the same time for the second Crop, which they told me would not be ripe till about Michaelmass, and thus it does every year, like those mentioned in Oxfordshiree 1.54: which how it should come to pass, I can no way divine, unless it should a∣rise from a strange unaccountable mixture which may sometimes happen betwixt the woods of the graft and the stock; when either an early fruit is grafted upon a late stock; or a late fruit upon an early stock; the woods whereof growing up joyntly to∣gether, yet so as not to mix Sapvessells, may both produce fruit in their respective seasons: as I have seen the same tree doe Oran∣ges, and Limmons together, and not only upon the same branch, but in the same individual fruit, part of it being an Orange and part a Limmon: wherein I am the more confirm'd, the first and second crop of such trees as these, seeming most commonly of dif∣ferent species's, at least are of quite different sizes, the last Crop being always less than the first.

60. And this had been all concerning fruit-trees, but that I think it worthy notice that all sorts of fruits both in Hortyards and Gardens are cultivated here of late years, much more than anciently they were, and at some places to that height, that they seem to endeavour to equal the best planted Counties. For Ap∣ples I shall instance in the parish of Arley, where all the grounds and hedges are planted, much after the manner of Worcester-shire (into which indeed it runs with a long nook) there being scarce a Cottage that has not some proportionable plantation belonging to it, having all sorts of Pippins of the best, and so of other fruit; the Red-streak indeed thrives not over well with them, but the Jennet Moyle exceedingly, insomuch that 'tis thought that were not their fruit sold abroad, they could make in this parish at lest 200

Hogsheads of Cider per Annum, whereof I drank some that was excellent in its kind, at the right Worshipfull Sr. Henry Lyttle∣ton's Baronet, a worthy Patron of this work.

61. And for Cherries, the plantations at Packington upon the estate of the Worshipfull — Gage Esq are so very extraordi∣nary, that they seem even to vye with Kent it self; the Trees be∣ing all planted in the Quincunx order, thriveing well, and pro∣ducing fair and well tasted fruit; and this not for a little spot or two, but in as large gardens as I have seen any where, there being one wholy of Cherries, of 23 Acres. And for fruits of the Par∣terre or House-Gardens, there are as choise at Ingestre, as in most gardens of the South; though I think the greatest variety of all kinds is to be found in the Gardens of the Worshipfull Rowland Okeover of Okeover Esq one of the noblest Encouragers of this work, whose ancient Seat is here represented Tab. 18. where there are now growing 60 different sorts of Apples; 20 sorts of Pears; 16 sorts of Cherries; 35 sorts of Apricots, and other plumms; and 7 sorts of Nectrons and Peaches; of all which I have Catalogues by me: but haveing already (I fear) tired the Reader with too tediouse a travell through the vegetable Kingdom, I for∣bear their recitall, and proceed with all speed to the Animal-one.

Notes

• a 1.1

  Parkinson's Theatrum Bo••••tanicum. Tribe 14. chap. 63.
• b 1.2

  I Bauhini Hist. Plantarum Lib. 40. cap. 16.
• c 1.3

  Parkinson's Theatrum Botanicum Tribe 14. chap. 94.
• d 1.4

  J. Bauhini Hist. Plantarum Lib. 40. cap. 60.61.
• e 1.5

  Gerard's Hist of Plants enlarged by Johnson Lib. 2. chap 139.
• f 1.6

  Parkinson's Theatrum Botamcum Trib. 2. chap. 16.
• g 1.7

  Matthiae de Lobel Plantarum & Stirpium Hist. pag. 158.
• k 1.8

  Johnson upon Gerard Lib. 2. chap. 93.
• i 1.9

  Val. Cordi Variar. Observat. Sylvâ p. 222.
• k 1.10

  Nat. Hist. of Oxfordsh. Chap. 6. §. §. 17, 18, 19, 20. and 38.
• l 1.11

  Gul. Rovilii Lugdimens. Hist. Plantarum Lib. 4. cap. 4.
• m 1.12

  Nat. Hist. of Oxfordsh. Chap. 6. §. 27.
• n 1.13

  C. Plinis 2^di. Nat. Hist. Lib. 16. cap. 34.
• o 1.14

  Vid. Supra §. 9. of this Chap. and Nat. Hist. of Oxfordsh. Chap. 6. §. 38. Chap. 7. §. §. 13.14.15.
• p 1.15

  Philosoph. Transact. Numb. 139.
• b 1.16

  Parkinson's Theatrum Botanicum, Trib. 16. Chap. 96.
• r 1.17

  Bohust. Balbini Miscell. Hist. Regni Bohemia.
• t 1.18

  Dominici Chabraei Stirp. Schiagraph. in Appendice ad Classem 8 ^vem. p. 608.
• * 1.19

  C. Plinii 2^di Nat. Hist. Lib. 16. cap. 40.
• w 1.20

  Nat. Hist. of Oxfordsh. Chap. 〈…〉〈…〉 78.
• * 1.21

  C. Plinii 2^di Nat. Hist. Lib. 16. cap. 39.
• x 1.22

  Mart. Scoockii Tract. de Turffis cap. 12.
• y 1.23

  Mr Ray's Observat. Topograph &c. p. 7.
• z 1.24

  Sr W••. Dugdales Hist. of Inbanking and drayning the Fenns chap. 27.
• a 1.25

  Camdens Bri∣tannia in Pemb.
• * 1.26

  Boetii de Boot de Lapid. & Gemm. Lib. 2. cap. 158.
• b 1.27

  Mart. Scoockii Tract. de Turffis, cap. 12.
• c 1.28

  Musaei Wormiani Lib. 2. cap. 16.
• d 1.29

  Geo. Agricolae de natura Fossilium Lib. 7.
• e 1.30

  Petr. Gassendi vitae Peireskii Lib. 5. ad An. 1637.
• f 1.31

  Martini Scoockii Tract. de Turffis cap. 12.
• g 1.32

  Jul. Caesar. Commentar. de bello Gal. Lib. 5. sub initium.
• h 1.33

  Gen. chap. 8. v. 1.
• i 1.34

  Philosoph. Transact. Numb. 67.
• k 1.35

  Philosoph Transact. Numb. 67. and Sr William Dugdale's Hist. of Inbanking and draining the Fenns Chap. 27.
• l 1.36

  Camden in Pembr.
• m 1.37

  Mr. Ray's Observat. Topograph. &c. p. 7.
• n 1.38

  Sr. William Dugdale's Hist. of Inbanking and drayning the Fenns. Chap. 37.
• o 1.39

  Joh. Speed's Hist. of great Britan. Book 7. Chap. 44.
• p 1.40

  Nat. Hist. of Oxfordsh. Chap. 6. §. 56.
• q 1.41

  Philosoph. Transact. Numb. 160.
• r 1.42

  Philosoph. Transact. Numb. 65.
• s 1.43

  Ibid
• t 1.44

  Philosoph. Transact. Num. 65.74.160.
• u 1.45

  Journal des Scavans June 22. 1682.
• w 1.46

  Dioscorid. de Material. Medicina. Lib. 6. cap. 8.
• x 1.47

  Aristot. de Hist. Animal. Lib. 8. cap. 24.
• y 1.48

  Tho. Moufeti Insect. Theatri Lib. 2. cap. 12.
• z 1.49

  Philosoph. Transact. Numb. 168.
• a 1.50

  Philosoph. Transact. Num. 71, 72, 73.
• b 1.51

  Philosoph. Transact. Num. 75.
• c 1.52

  Franc. Redi de generat. Insectorum pag. 234.
• d 1.53

  Nat. Hist. of Oxfordsh. Chap. 6. §. 38. and Chap. 7. §§. 13, 14, 15.
• e 1.54

  Nat. Hist. of Oxfordshire Chap. 6. §. 86.