Page:An Account of Corsica (1769).djvu/87

Rh On fatning mast, the swine well pleas'd, are fed; And every wood with arbutus is red. Benignant autumn smiling on the fields. All various fruits in rich abundance yields; While ev'ry rocky mountain vines displays, Whose grapes are mellow'd by the fun's warm rays.

The mulberry grows well here, and is not so much in danger from blights and thunderstorms as in Italy, and the south of France; so that whenever Corsica enjoys tranquillity, it may have abundance of silk. We must not omit the laurel, to which Corsica has surely a very good claim. The box tree is a very common plant here. In most countries it is dwarfish, and generally used only for hedges; but it grows to a good size in Corsica, and may be reckoned a timber tree. Bochart has very ingeniously shewn, that the benches of the Tyrian ships, which according to the common translation of Ezechiel, chap, xxvii. ver. 6. are said to have been made of ivory brought out of the isles of Chittim, were most probably made of Corsican boxwood.

Theophrastus in his history of plants expatiates on the wonderful size of the Corsican trees;