ves produce a noxious insect; and for displaying
themselves so very late, and falling very early, not to be planted for
umbrage or ornament; especially near the garden, since (besides their
predatious roots) the leaves dropping with so long a stalk, are drawn by
clusters into the worm-holes, which foul the allies with their keys, and
suddenly infect the ground. Note, that the season for felling of this
tree must be when the sap is fully at rest; for if you cut it down too
early, or over-late in the year, it will be so obnoxious to the worm, as
greatly to prejudice the timber; therefore to be sure, fell not till the
three mid-winter months, beginning about November: But in lopping of
pollards, (as of soft woods) Mr. Cook advises it should be towards the
Spring, and that you do not suffer the lops to grow too great: Also,
that so soon as a pollard comes to be considerably hollow at the head,
you suddenly cut it down, the body decaying more than the head is worth:
The same he pronounces of taller ashes, and where the wood-peckers make
holes (who constantly indicate their being faulty) to fell it in the
Winter. I am astonish'd at the universal confidence of some, that a
serpent will rather creep into the fire, than over a twig of ash; this
is an old imposture of{94:1} Pliny's, who either took it up upon trust,
or we mistake the tree. Other species, see _Ray Dendrolog._ t. III. lib.
XXX. p. 95. _De fraxino_, t. II. p. 1704.

FOOTNOTES:

{89:1}

Per damna, per caedes, ab ipso
Ducit opes animumque ferro.

_Hor._

{94:1} V. _Churasium_, &c. _de viperis_.

CHAPTER VIII.

_Of the Chesnut._

1. The next is the chesnut, [_castanea_] of which Pliny reckons many
kinds, especially about Tarentum and Naples; Janus Cornarius, upon that
of Aetius, (_verbo_ +Drys+) speaks of the Lopimi, as a nobler kind, such
as the _Euboicae_, which the Italians call _maroni_, _quasi castaneae
maris_; but we commend those of Portugal or Bayonne, chusing the
largest, brown, and most ponderous for fruit, such as Pliny calls
_coctivae_, but the lesser ones to raise for timber. They are produc'd
best by sowing and setting; previous to which, let the nuts be first
spread to sweat, then cover them in sand; a month being past, plunge
them in water, reject the swimmers; being dry'd, for thirty days more,
sand them again, and to the water-ordeal as before. Being thus treated
till the beginning of Spring, or in November, set them a