Note 189 — {41} Fifthly, Of Plants.
Reading edition
Polyporus, Mich., sp.—In his Voyages, p. 70, the author speaks of “a stately tree growing here and there in valleys, not like to any trees in Europe; having a smooth bark, of a dark-brown colour, the leaves like great maple in England called sycamor; but larger,”—which may be Platanus occidentalis, L. (button-wood). And Wood enables us to add one more to this early account of the genera of plants, which we possess, common to the Old World. He tells us (New-England’s Prospect, chap. v.) “the hornbound tree is a tough kind of wood, that requires so much pains in riving as is almost incredible; being the best to make bowls and dishes, not being subject to crack or leak. This tree growing with broad-spread arms, the vines twist their curling branches about them; which vines afford great store of grapes,” &c. This was our American hornbeam (Carpinus Americana, L.). And the same author again alludes to it, in verse, as—
“The horn-bound tree, that to be cloven scorns; Which from the tender vine oft takes his spouse, Who twines embracing arms about his boughs.”
A pleasant enough illustration of what taught classical husbandry,—“ulmis adjungere vites.”—Georg., i. 2.