Sylva, or a discourse of forest-trees, and the propagation of timber in His Majesties dominions / By J. E[velyn] esq.; as it was deliver'd in the Royal Society the XVth of October, [1662], upon occasion of certain quæries propounded to that illustrious assembly, by the honorable the principal officers, and commissioners of the Navy. To which is annexed Pomona; or, an appendix concerning fruit-trees in relation to cider; the making and several ways of ordering it. Published by express order of the Royal Society. Also Kalendarium hortense; or, gard'ners almanac. Directing what he is to do monethly throughout the year.

  • Evelyn, John, 1620-1706.
Date:
1664
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sylva, or a discourse of forest-trees, and the propagation of timber in His Majesties dominions / By J. E[velyn] esq.; as it was deliver'd in the Royal Society the XVth of October, [1662], upon occasion of certain quæries propounded to that illustrious assembly, by the honorable the principal officers, and commissioners of the Navy. To which is annexed Pomona; or, an appendix concerning fruit-trees in relation to cider; the making and several ways of ordering it. Published by express order of the Royal Society. Also Kalendarium hortense; or, gard'ners almanac. Directing what he is to do monethly throughout the year. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and maturity,which are all of them different as to time, and kind$ yet do not I intend by this any period or inftant in which they do not continually either Improve or Decay (the end of one being dill the beginning of the other) but farther then which their Na¬ tures do not extend 5 but immediately (though to our ienfes imper¬ ceptibly) through fbme infirmity (to which all things fublunary be obnoxious) dwindle and impair, either through Age, defeat of Nourifhment, by fickgiefs, and decay of principal parts ^ but efpeci- ally, and more inevitably, when violently invaded by mortal and incurable Infirmities, or by what other extindion of their native heat, fubjira&ion, or obUruUion of Air and Moillure, which making all motions whatfoever to ceafe and determine, is the caufe of their final dedrudion. 2. Our honed Countrey-man, to whofe Experience we have been obliged for iomething I have lately Animadverted concerning the Yruningoi Trees,does in another Chapter of the fame Treatife (peak of the Age of Trees. The Difcourfe is both learned, rational, and full of encouragement.* For he does not fcruple to affirm. That even fome Fruit-Trees m^y poflibly arrive to a thoufand years of Age 3 and if fb Fruit-Treds whole continual bearing does fo much impair and fhorten their lives, as we fee it does their form and beauty 5 Fiow much longer might we reafbnably imagine fbme hardy and flow-growing Foreft-trees may probably lad ? I remem¬ ber Tliny tells us of fome Oaky growing in his time in the Hercynian Forcd, which were thought co-evous with the World it felf 5 their roots had even raifed Mountains, and where they encounter’d fwell’d into goodly Arches like the Gates of a City : But to our more modern Author s calculation for Fruit-trees (I fuppofe he means Tears. Apples, &c.) his allowance is three hundred years for growth, as much for their fiand (as he terms it), and three hundred for their Decay,which does in the total amount to no lefs then nine hundred years. This conjedure is deduc’d from Apple-Trees grow¬ ing in his Orchard,which having known for fourty years, and upon diligent enquiry of fundry aged Perfons of eighty years and more, who remembred them Trees all their time, he finds by comparing their growth with others of that kind, to be far fhort in bignefs and perfedion, (viz. by more then two parts of three)) yea al¬ beit thofe other Trees have been much hindred in their dature through ill government and ordering. 3. Toedablifh this he aflembles many Arguments from the age of Animals, whole fate and decay double the time of their in- creafe by the fame proportion : If then (faith he) thofe frail Crea¬ tures, whofe bodies are nothing (fin a manner) but a tender rotten- nefs, may live to that age, Ifee not but a Tree of a folid fubflance, not damnified by heat or cold, capable of and fubjeU to any kind of order¬ ing or drejjing, feeding naturally,and from the beginning disburthen d of all fupcrfiuities, eafedofand of his own accord avoiding the cau- fes that may annoy him, fiould double the life of other Creatures by very many years. He proceeds. What elfe are Trees in comparifon with the Earth, but as hairs to the body of Man ? Aud it is certain, 1