The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume VIII. The Age of Dryden.
§ 7. His Love of Planting: Sylva
After the restoration, special attention was paid to the wants of the navy, and the officers of the navy found great difficulty in obtaining the timber required in shipbuilding. There had been a serious destruction of woods caused by the glassworks, the iron furnaces and, partly, by the increase of shipping; and this destruction had culminated during the period of the civil wars. Not only was destruction rampant, but cultivation was neglected. In its difficulty, the navy office propounded certain queries to the Royal Society, who gave them to Evelyn to answer. Thus originated that noble book Sylva (1664), which revived the spirit of planting in England, and exerted an enormous influence upon the future of the country. Evelyn was able to say, in his dedication to the king: “Many millions of timber trees have been propagated and planted at the instigation and by the sole direction of this work.”