thick, nor more excellent fuel; and for some purposes also, yielding them a kind of timber to their more humble buildings, and a great refuge for fowl and other game: I am assur’d, in Bretaigne ’tis sometimes sown no less than twelve yards thick, for a speedy, profitable, and impenetrable mound: If we imitated this husbandry in the dry and hot barren places of Surrey, and other parts of this nation, we might exceedingly spare our woods; and I have bought the best sort of French-seed at the shops in London. It seems that in the more eastern parts of Germany, and especially in Poland, this vulgar trifle, and even our common Broom is so rare, that they have desired the seeds of them out of England, and preserve them with extraordinary care in their best gardens; this I learn out of our Johnson’s _Herbal_; by which we may consider, that what is reputed a curse, and a cumber in some places, is esteem’d the ornament and blessing of another: But we shall not need go so far for this, since both beech and birch are almost as great strangers in many parts of this nation, particularly Northampton and Oxfordshire. Mr. Cook is much in praise of juniper for hedges, especially for the more elegant inclosures, and we daily see how it’s improved of late. 16. This puts me in mind of the _genista scoparia_, broom; another improvement for barren grounds, and saver of more substantial fuel: It may be sown English, or (what is more sweet and beautiful) the Spanish, with equal success. In the western parts of France, and Cornwal, it grows with us to an incredible height (however our poet gives it the epithet of _humilis_) and so it seems they had it of old, as appears by Gratius his _genistæ altinates_, with which (as he affirms) they us’d to make staves for their spears, and hunting darts. The seeds of broom, vomit, and purge, whilst the buds, and flowers being pickled, are very grateful.