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prus which flows from the turpentine tree; the Venice turpentine which is got by piercing the Larch tree; the Strafburgh Turpentine which Mr. Ray informs us is procured from the knots of the filver fir; it is fragrant and grows yellow with age: The fourth kind is common turpentine, neither tranfparent, nor fo liquid as the former; and this Mr. Ray taketh to flow from the mountain pine. All these turpentines are useful in the fame intentions. Theophraftus faith the best resin or turpentine is got from the Terebinthus growing in Syria and fome of the Greek islands. The next beft from the filver fir and pitch pine.

21. Turpentine is on all hands allowed to have great medicinal virtues. Tar and it's infufion contain those virtues. Tar-water is extremely pectoral and restorative, and, if I may judge from what experience I have had, it poffeffeth the most valuable qualities afcribed to the feveral balfams of Peru, of Tolu, of Capivi, and even to the balm of Gilead; fuch is it's virtue in afthmas and pleurifies, in obftructions and ulcerous erofions of the inward parts. Tar in substance, mix'd with honey, I have found an excellent medicine for coughs. Balfams, as hath been already observed, are apt to offend the ftomach. But tar-water may be taken without offending the ftomach: For the ftrengthening whereof it is the best medicine I have ever tried.

22. The folly of man rateth things by their fcarcenefs, but Providence hath made the most useful things most common. Among thofe liquid oily extracts from trees and fhrubs which are termed balfams, and valued for medicinal virtues, tar may hold it's place as a moft valuable balfam. It's fragrancy fheweth, that it is poffeffed of active qualities, and it's oiliness, that it is fitted to retain them. This excellent balfam may be pur

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chafed for a penny a pound, whereas the balfam of Judæa, when moft plenty, was fold on the very fpot that produced it, for double it's weight in filver, if we may credit Pliny; who alfo informs us that the best balfam of Judæa flowed only from the bark, and that it was adulterated with refin and oil of turpentine. Now comparing the virtues I have experienced in tar, with those I find ascribed to the precious balm of Judæa, of Gilead, or of Mecha (as it is diverfly called) I am of opinion, that the latter is not a medicine of more value or efficacy than the former.

23. Pliny fuppofed amber to be a refin, and te diftil from fome fpecies of pine, which he gathered from it's fmell. Nevertheless it's being dug out of the earth fhews it to be a foffil, though of a very different kind from other foffils. But thus much is certain, that the medicinal virtues of amber are to be found in the balfamic juices of pines and firs. Particularly the virtues of the most valuable preparation, I mean falt of amber, are in a great degree anfwered by tar-water, as a detergent, diaphoretic, and diuretic.

24. There is, as hath been already obferved, more or less oil and balfam in all evergreen trees, which retains the acid fpirit, that principle of life and verdure; the not retaining whereof in fufficient quantity, causeth other plants to droop and wither. Of thefe evergreen trees productive of refin, pitch, and tar, Pliny enumerates fix kinds in Europe; Jonftonus reckons up thrice that number of the pine and fir family. And indeed, their number, their variety, and their likeness makes it difficult to be exact.

25. It is remarked both by Theophraftus and Jonftonus, that trees growing in low and fhady places do not yield fo good tar, as those which

grow

grow in higher and more exposed fituations. And Theophraftus further obferves, that the inhabitants of mount Ida in Afia, who diftinguish the Idæan pine from the maritime, affirm, that the tar flowing from the former is in greater plenty, as well as more fragrant than the other. Hence it fhould feem, the pines or firs in the mountains of Scotland, might be employed that way, and rendred valuable; even where the timber, by it's remoteness from water-carriage, is of fmall value. What we call the Scotch fir is falfly fo called, being in truth a wild foreft pine, and (as Mr. Ray informs us) agreeing much with the description of a pine growing on mount Olympus in Phrygia, probably the only place where it is found out of these islands; in which of late years it is fo much planted and cultivated with fo little advantage, while the cedar of Lebanon might perhaps be raised, with little more trouble, and much more profit and ornament.

26. The pines which differ from the firs in the length and difpofition of their leaves and hardness of the wood, do not, in Pliny's account, yield fo much refin as the fir trees. Several fpecies of both are accurately defcribed and delineated by the naturalifts. But they all agree so far as to feem related. Theophraftus gives the preference to that refin which is got from the filver fir and pitch tree (ἐλάτη and πίτυς) before that yielded by the pine, which yet, he faith, is in greater plenty. Pliny, on the contrary, affirms that the pine produceth the smallest quantity. It fhou'd feem therefore that the interpreter of Theophraftus might have been mistaken, in rendering aan by pinus, as well as Jonftonus, who likewife takes the pine for the winn of Theophraftus. Hardouin will have the pinus of Pliny to have been by others called dan, but by Theophraftus wiTvs. Ray thinks the common

fir, or picea of the Latins, to be the male fir of Theophraftus. This was probably the fpruce fir; for the picea, according to Pliny, yields much refin, loves a cold and mountainous fituation, and is diftinguished, tonfili facilitate, by it's fitnefs to be fhorn, which agrees with the fpruce fir, whereof I have feen close fhorn hedges.

27. There feems to have been fome confufion in the naming of these trees, as well among the ancients as the moderns. The ancient Greek and Latin names are by later authors applied very differently. Pliny himself acknowledgeth, it is not eafy even for the skilful to diftinguish the trees by their leaves, and know their fexes and kinds: and that difficulty is fince much encreased, by the difcovery of many new fpecies of that evergreen tribe, growing in various parts of the globe. But defcriptions are not fo eafily mifapplied as names. Theophraftus tells us, that wírus differeth from

dan, among other things, in that it is neither fo tall nor fo ftreight, nor hath fo large a leaf. The fir he diftinguifheth into male and female: the latter is fofter timber than the male, it is also a taller and fairer tree, and this is probably the filver fir.

28. To fay no more on this obfcure bufiness which I leave to the critics, I fhall obferve that according to Theophraftus not only the turpentine trees, the pines, and the firs yield refin or tar, but also the cedars and palm trees; and the words pix and refina are taken by Pliny in fo large a sense as to include the weepings of the lentifcus and cypress, and the balms of Arabia and Judæa; all which perhaps are near of kin, and in their most useful qualities concur with common tar, efpecially the Norvegian, which is the moft liquid and beft for medicinal uses of any that I have experienced. Those trees that grow on mountains, expofed to

the

the fun or the north wind, are reckoned by Theophrastus to produce the best and pureft tar: And the Idæan pines were distinguished from those growing on the plain, as yielding a thinner, fweeter, and better fcented tar, all which differences I think I have obferved, between the tar that comes from Norway, and that which comes from low and fwampy countries.

29. Agreeably to the old obfervation of the Peripatetics, that heat gathereth homogeneous things and difperfeth fuch as are heterogeneous, we find chemistry is fitted for the analysis of bodies. But the chemistry of nature is much more perfect than that of human art, inasmuch as it joineth to the power of heat that of the moft exquifite mechanism. Those who have examined the ftructure of trees and plants by microscopes, have discovered an admirable variety of fine capillary tubes and veffels, fitted for several purposes, as the imbibing or attracting of proper nourishment, the diftributing thereof through all parts of the vegetable, the discharge of fuperfluities, the fecretion of particular juices. They are found to have ducts anfwering to the tracheæ in animals, for the conveying of air; they have others answering to lacteals, arteries, and veins. They feed, digeft, refpire, perspire and generate their kind, and are provided with organs nicely fitted for all those uses.

30. The fap veffels are obferved to be fine tubes running up through the trunk from the root. Secretory veffels are found in the bark, buds, leaves, and flowers. Exhaling veffels for carrying off excrementitious parts, are difcovered throughout the whole furface of the vegetable. And (though this point be not fo well agreed) doctor Grew in his Anatomy of plants, thinks there appears

a cir

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