much more esteem’d by the joyners, cabinet-makers, and _ouvrages de marqueterie_, in-layers, &c. than the young, which is paler of colour, and without any notable grain, as they call it. For the rain distilling along the branches, when many of them break out into clusters from the stem, sinks in, and is the cause of these marks; since we find it exceedingly full of pores: Do but plane off a thin chip, or sliver from one of these old trees, and interposing it ’twixt your eye and the light, you shall observe it to be full of innumerable holes (much more perspicuous and ample, by the application of a good{119:1} microscope.) But above all, notable for these extravagant damaskings and characters, is the maple; and ’tis notorious, that this tree is very full of branches from the root to its very summit, by reason that it produces no considerable fruit: These arms being frequently cut, the head is more surcharged with them, which spreading like so many rays from a centre, form that hollowness at the top of the stem whence they shoot, capable of containing a good quantity of water every time it rains: This sinking into the pores, as was before hinted, is compell’d to divert its course as it passes through the body of the tree, where-ever it encounters the knot of any of those branches which were cut off from the stem; because their roots not only deeply penetrate towards the heart, but are likewise of themselves very hard and impervious; and the frequent obliquity of this course of the subsiding moisture, by reason of these obstructions, is, as may be conceived, the cause of those curious works, which we find remarkable in this, and other woods, whose branches grow thick from the stem: But for these curious contextures, consult rather the learned Dr. Grew. We have shewed how by culture, and stripping up, it arrives to a goodly tree; and surely there were some of them of large bulk, and noble shades, that Virgil should chuse it for the Court of his Evander (one of his worthiest princes, in his best of poems) sitting in his maple-throne; and when he brings Æneas into the royal cottage, he makes him this memorable complement; greater, says great Cowley, than ever was yet spoken at the Escurial, the Louvre, or White-hall. This humble roof, this rustique court, said he, Receiv’d Alcides crown’d with victory: Scorn not (great guest) the steps where he has trod, But contemn wealth, and imitate a God.{120:1}