‘The maple, (says Pliny) for the elegancy and fineness of the wood, is next to the very cedar it self. There are several kinds of it, especially the white, which is wonderfully beautiful; this is call’d the French-maple, and grows in that part of Italy, that is on the other side of Po beyond the Alpes: The other has a curl’d grain, so curiously maculated, that from a near resemblance, it was usually call’d the Peacock’s-tail, &c.’ He goes on to commend that of Istria, and that growing on the mountains for the best: But in the next chapter; _Pulcherrimum vero est bruscum, multoque excellentius etiamnum mollusculum, tuber utrumque arboris ejus. Bruscum intortiùs crispum, molluscum simplicius sparsum; et si magnitudinem mensarum caperet, haud dubiè præferretur cedro, nunc intra pugillares, lectorumque silicios aut laminas, &c. è brusco fiunt mensæ nigrescentes, &c._ Plin. _l._ 16. c. 15, 16. ‘The _bruscum_, or Knur is wonderfully fair, but the _molluscum_ is counted most precious; both of them knobs and swellings out of the tree. The _bruscum_ is more intricately crisp’d; the _molluscum_ not so much; and had we trees large enough to saw into planks for tables, ’twould be preferr’d before cedar, (or citron, for so some copies read it) but now they use it only for small table-books, and with its thin boards to wainscot bed-testers with, _&c._ The _bruscum_ is of a blackish kind, with which they make tables.’