32. _For if thou wert cut out of the Olive Tree, which is wild by nature, and wert grafted, contrary to nature, into a good Olive Tree, how much more shall these, which be the natural Branches, be grafted into their own Olive Tree?_ In which place, how answerable to the Doctrine of Husbandry this expression of S. _Paul_ is, you will readily apprehend who understand the rules of insition or grafting, and that way of vegetable propagation; wherein that is contrary to nature, or natural rules which Art observeth: _viz._ to make use of a Cyons more ignoble than the Stock, or to graft wild upon domestick and good Plants, according as _Theophrastus_[216] hath anciently observed, and, making instance in the Olive, hath left this Doctrine unto us; _Urbanum Sylvestribus ut satis Oleastris inserere. Nam si è contrario Sylvestrem in Urbanos severis, etsi differentia quædam erit, tamen[217] bonæ frugis Arbor nunquam profecto reddetur_: which is also agreeable unto our present practice, who graft Pears on Thorns, and Apples upon Crabb Stocks, not using the contrary insition. And when it is said, _How much more shall these, which are the natural Branches, be grafted into their own natural Olive Tree?_ this is also agreeable unto the rule of the same Author; Ἔστι δὲ βελτίων ἐγκεντρισμὸς, ὁμοίων εἰς ὅμοια, _Insitio melior est similium in similibus_: For the nearer consanguinity there is between the Cyons and the Stock, the readier comprehension is made, and the nobler fructification. According also unto the later caution of _Laurenbergius_;[218] _Arbores domesticæ insitioni destinatæ, semper anteponendæ Sylvestribus_. And though the success be good, and may suffice upon Stocks of the same denomination; yet, to be grafted upon their own and Mother Stock, is the nearest insition: which way, though less practised of old, is now much imbraced, and found a notable way for melioration of the Fruit; and much the rather, if the Tree to be grafted on be a good and generous Plant, a good and fair Olive, as the Apostle seems to imply by a peculiar word[219] scarce to be found elsewhere. [216] De causis Plant. _Lib. 1. Cap. 7_. [217] Καλλικαρπεῖν οὑκ ἔξει. [218] De horticultura. [219] Καλλιέλαιον Rom. 11. 42. It must be also considered, that the _Oleaster_, or wild Olive, by cutting, transplanting and the best managery of Art, can be made but to produce such Olives as (_Theophrastus_ saith) were particularly named _Phaulia_, that is, but _bad Olives_; and that it was reckon'd among Prodigies, for the _Oleaster_ to become an Olive Tree. And when insition and grafting, in the Text, is applied unto the Olive Tree, it hath an Emphatical sense, very agreeable unto that Tree which is best propagated this way; not at all by surculation, as _Theophrastus_ observeth, nor well by Seed, as hath been observed. _Omne semen simile genus perficit, præter oleam, Oleastrum enim generat, hoc est sylvestrem oleam, et non oleam veram._