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The woods were not such as you find in Bohemia, Moscovia, or Hercynia, barren and fruitless, but the highest and reddest cedars of the world, far bettering the cedars of the Azores, of the Indies, or Libanus; pines, cypress, sassafras, the lentisk, or the tree that beareth the mastic; the tree that beareth the rind of black cinnamon, of which Master Winter brought from the Straits of Magellan; and many other of excellent smell and quality.

And your Majesty may not thinke that these are like the woods of Hercynia or the wilde deserts of Tartary, and the Northerne coasts full of fruitlesse trees: But they are full of Palme trees, Bay trees, and high Cypresse trees, and many other sorts of trees unknowen in Europe, which yeeld most sweet savours farre from the shoare, the propertie whereof we could not learne for the cause aforesayd, and not for any difficulty to passe through the woods, seeing they are not so thicke but that a man may passe through them.

The woodes are not such as you finde in Bohemia, Moscouia, or Hercynia, barren and fruitles, but the highest and reddest Cedars of the world, farre bettering the Ceders of the Açores of the Indies, or Lybanus, Pynes, Cypres, Sassaphras, the Lentisk, or the tree that beareth the Masticke, the tree that beareth the vine of blacke Sinamon, of which Master Winter brought from the streighte of Magellan, and many other of excellent smell and qualitie.

Because in Italy the German conquerors had invaded the land of ancient culture, of settled and organized form. The world could not be created de novo, as in the shaggy deserts of Hercynia and Belgica. The seeds of human speech, planted in those vast wildernesses, sprouted readily into new and luxuriant languages. English, Flemish, German, French spring from German roots hidden in Celtic soil.

Hercynia Silva, the Hercinian Forest, the largest forest of ancient Germany, being reckoned by Caesar to have been sixty days' journey in length, and nine in breadth. Many parts of it have been since cut down, and many are yet remaining; of which, among others, is that called the Black Forest; its prodigious extent, G. vi. 4

Those who wished to consult the oracle had first to purify themselves by spending some days in the sanctuary of the Guardian Spirit and of Fortune, to abstain from warm baths, but to bathe in the river Hercynia; they might eat as much as they liked of the meat offered in sacrifice.