they call Hercules his town Two Arsinoites there be they and Memphites reach as farre as two the head of Delta Vpon it there do bound out of Affrica the two Ouafitae There be that change some names of these and set down for them other iurisdictions to wit Heroopolites and Crocodilopolites Between Arsinoites and Memphites there was a lake 250 miles about or as Mutianus saith 450 fifty paces deep i. 150 foot the same made by mans hand called the Lake Maeridis of a king who made it 72 miles from thence is Memphis the castle in old time of the Aegyptian kings From which to the Oracle of Hammon is twelue daies iournie so to the diuision of Nilus which is called Delta fifteen miles The riuer Nilus rising from vnknowne springs passeth thorow desarts and hot burning countries and going thus a mighty way in length is known by fame onely without armes without wars which haue discouered and found out all other lands It hath his beginning so far forth as Iabâ—… was able to search and find out in a hil of the lower Mauritania not far from the Ocean where a lake presently is seen to stand with water which they call Nilides In it are found these fishes called Alabetae Coracini Siluri and the Crocodile Vpon this argument presumption Nilus is thought to spring from hence for that the pourtract of this source is consecrated by the said prince at Caesaria in Iseum and is there at this day seene Moreouer obserued it is that as the Snow or rain do satisfie the countrie in Mauritania so Nilus doth encrease When it is run out of this lake it scorneth to run through the sandy and ouergrown places and hides himself for certaine daies iourny And then soone after out of a greater lake it breaketh forth in the country of the Massaesyli with Mauritania Caesarienses and lookes about viewing mens company carrying the same arguments still of liuing creatures bred within it Then once again being receiued within the sands it is hidden a second time for twenty daies iourny in the desarts as farre as to the next Aethiopes and so soone as hee hath once againe espied a man forth hee startes as it should seem out of that spring which they called Nigris And then diuiding Affrick from Aethiopia being acquainted if not presently with people yet with the frequent company of wild and sauage beasts and making shade of woods as he goes he cuts through the middest of the Aethiopians there surnamed Astapus which in the language of those nations signifieth a water flowing out of darkenesse Thus dasheth he vpon such an infinite number of Islands and some of them so mighty great that albeit he bare a swift streame yet is he not able to passe beyond them in lesse space than 5 daies About the goodliest and fairest of them Meroe the chanell going on the left hand is called Astabores that is the branch of a water comming forth of darkenesse but that on the right hand Astusapes which is as much as lying hid to the former signification And neuer taketh the name of Nilus before his waters meet again accord all whole together And euen so was he aforetime named Siris for many miles space and of Homer altogether Aegyptis and of others Triton here and there and euer and anon hitting vpon Islands and stirred as it were with so many prouocations and at the last enclosed and shut within mountaines and in no place he caries a rougher and swifter stream whiles the water that he beareth hastens to a place of the Aethiopians called Catadupi where in the last fall among the rockes that stand in his way he is supposed not to runne but to rush downe with a mighty noise But afterwards he becomes more milde and gentle as the course of his streame is broken and his violence tamed and abated yea and partly wearied with his long way and so though with many mouths of his he dischargeth himselfe into the Aegyptian sea Howbeit at certaine set daies he swelleth to a great height and when he hath trauelled all ouer Aegypt hee ouerfloweth the land to the great fertility and plenty thereof Many and diuers causes of this rising and increase of his men haue giuen but those which carry the most probabilitie are either the rebounding of the water driuen back by the winds Etesiae at that time blowing against it and driuing the sea withall vpon the mouths of Nilus or else the Summer rain in Aethiopia by reason that the same Etesiae bring clouds thither from other parts of the world Timaeus the Mathematician alledged an hidden reason therof to wit that the head and source of Nilus is named Phyala and the riuer it selfe is hidden as it were drowned within certain secret trenches within the ground breathing forth vapors out of reeking rockes where it thus lieth in secret But so soone as the sunne during those daies commeth neere drawne vp it is by force of heate and so all the while he hangeth aloft ouerfloweth and then againe for feare he should be wholly deuoured and consumed putteth in his head againe and lieth hid And this happeneth from the rising of the dog starre Sicinus in the Sunnes entrance into Leo while the planet standeth plumbe ouer the fountaine aforesaid for as much as in that climate there are no shadows to be seene Many againe were of a different opinion that a riuer Howeth more abundantly when the Sunne is departed toward the North pole which happeneth in Cancer and Leo and therefore at that time is not so easily dried but when he is returned once againe back toward Capricorn and the South pole it is drunke vp and therefore floweth more sparely But if according to Timaus a man would thinke it possible that the water should be drawne vp the want of shadowes during those daies and in those quarters continueth still without end For the riuer begins to rise and swell at the next change of the Moone after the Sun-steed by little and little gently so long as he passes through the signe Cancer but most abundantly when he is in Leo. And when he is entred Virgo he falleth and settleth low again in the same measure as he rose before And is cleane brought within his bankes in Libia which is as Herodotus thinketh by the hundreth day All the whiles it riseth it hath been thought vnlawfull for kings or gouernours to saile or passe in any vessell vpon it and they make conscrence so to do How high it riseth is known by markes and measures taken of certaine pits The ordinary height of it is sixteen cubits Vnder that gage the waters ouerflow not all Aboue that stint there are a let and hinderance by reason that the later it is ere they be fallen and downe again By these the seed time is much of it spent for that the earth is too wet By the other there is none at all by reason that the ground is dry and thirsty
Pine-apples or nuts which cleaue and open vpon the tree bee called Zamiae and well may they be so named for vnlesse they be plucked they hurt and corrupt the rest The only trees that bear no fruit at all that is to say not so much as seed are these the Tamariske good for nothing but to make Beesoms of the Poplar Alder Atinian Elme and the Alaternus which hath leaues resembling the Holme and partly the Oliue As for such trees which neither at any tâ—…me are set or planted nor yet beare fruit they bee holden for vnfortunate accursed and condemned in such sort as there is no vse of them in any sacrifice or religious seruice Cremutius writeth That the Almond tree whereon ladie Phyllis hanged her selfe had neuer after greene leaues on it Such trees as yeeld gum after they haue put forth their bud do cleaue and open howbeit the gum that issueth out neuer commeth to any thicknesse vntill the fruit thereof be gathered Yong trees commonly beare not so long as they shoot and grow The Date tree the fig tree the Almond tree the Apple tree and the Pyrrie do soonest of all other let their fruit fall before it be fully ripe Semblably the Pomegranat tree which is so tender besides that with euery thicke and heauie dew white frost and foggie time she wil be bitten shed the blossom which is the cause that folk vse to bend the boughs thereof downeward to the ground that both dew and time may sooner fall off which lights vpon them and otherwise would ouer-load and hurt them The Pyrrie and the Almond tree cannot abide close and cloudie weather especially if the wind be Southerly although no raine do fall for in such daies if they chance to blossom they not only shed their flowre but lose their fruit new knit But the Sallow or Withie tree is of all others most ticklish and soonest forgoes the seed or chats that it beareth before it commeth to any ripenes for which cause called it is of Homer Loose-fruit or Spill-fruit Howbeit the age ensuing naught as it was hath interpreted that Epithet of his in another sense according to the wicked experience they had of it whereby it was found that the seed therof causeth barrainesse in women and hindreth conception But in this regard Nature hath well done also to preuent this mischiefe and inconuenience in that she hath not been very carefull to preserue the seed and yet for the maintenance of the whole kind she hath endued it with this gift To grow very quickly if a man do pricke into the ground but a cutting or twig thereof And yet by report there is one Willow in Candie and namely about the very descent of Iupiters caue which is wont ordinarily to carie the graine or seed thereof vntill it be full ripe and then is it of a rough and writhen shape of a wooden and hard substance and withall of the bignesse of a cich pease Moreouer some trees there be that proue barraine and fruitlesse by the occasion of the imperfection of the soile and territorie where they grow and namely in the Isle Paros there is a whole wood or coppise that vsually is lopt and cut but it neuer beareth any fruit The Peach trees in the Island Rhodos blossome only and otherwise are fruitlesse Ouer and besides this difference of trees that some be fruitfull and others barraine ariseth of the sexe also for commonly the males beare not howsoeuer some affirme cleane contrary and say They are the male only that be fruitfull and the female barren Furthermore it falleth out many times that trees be fruitlesse either because they grow too thick one by another or else are ouercharged and too ranke with boughes and branches but of such as do beare some bring forth their fruit both at the sides and also at the very tips and ends of their branches as the Peare tree Pomegranate tree Figge tree and Myrtle As for others they are of the nature of corne and pulse for the one grows in the eare or spike alone the other by the sides not otherwise The Date tree onely as hath been said before containeth fruit within certain pellicles and the same hangeth down in clusters after the manner of grapes Other trees beare their fruit vnder the leafe for their safeguard and defence except the Fig tree which hath her Figs aboue the leaf because it is so large and ouershadowie Moreouer the leafe of the fig tree commeth forth after the Figge One notable thing is reported of a kind of figge-trees in Cilicia Cyprus and Hellas to wit that they haue this propertie singular by themselues To bring forth their perfect Figs vnder leafe and their greene abortiue Figs that come to no proofe after the leafe The Fig tree beareth moreouer certain hastie Figs which the Athenians call Prodromos i. vant-courriers or forerunners because they be long ripe before others The Laconian Figge trees bring the fairest and greatest Figs. CHAP. XXVII ¶ Of trees that be are twice and thrice in one yeare Also what trees soonest wax old and of their ages IN the same countries aboue-named there be Figge trees also that beare Figges twice in one yeare And in the Island Cea the wild Figge trees beare thrice in the same yeare for the second increase is put forth on the first and the third vpon the second and by this third fruit the Figges of the tame Figge tree receiue their maturitie by way of caprification and those wild greene Figges of theirs come forth aboue the leafe Moreouer there be some Pyrries and Apple trees that bring forth fruit twice a yeare as also there be others of the hastie kind which do beare both Peares and Apples betimes in the yeare There is a kinde of Crab tree â—…lso or Wilding that in like manner beareth twice a yeare and the later fruit is ripe presently after the midst of September especially in places lying well vpon the Sun As touching Vines there be of them also that after a sort beare three times in the yeare which thereupon men call Insanas i. The mad or foolish vines for whiles some of the grapes be ripe others begin to swel and wax big and a third sort againe are but then in the flower M. Varro writeth That in Smyrna by the sea side there was a vine that bare fruit twice a yeare as also an Apple tree in the territorie of Consentia But this is an ordinary thing throughout all the countrey about Tacapa in Africa and neuer is it seen otherwise there so fertile is the soile but thereof will wee write more at large hereafter in another place As for the Cypresse trees they faile not but come with fruit thrice in one yeare and their berries be gathered in Ianuarie May and September and all of a diuers bignesse one from the other Ouer and besides the very trees themselues are not laden with fruit after one and the same manner for the Arbut
thirsty Now doth this ground shine againe after the plough-share resembling that veine of earth which Homer the very fountaine and spring of all good wits reported to haue bin engrauen by a god in the armour of Achilles adding moreouer that the said earth looked black withall wherein hee obserued a wonderfull piece of workemanship notwithstanding it was wrought in gold This is that ground I say which beeing new broken and turned vp with the plough the shrewd and busie birds seeke after and goe vnder the plough-share for it this is it that the very Rauens follow the plough man hard at heeles for yea and are readie for greedinesse to pecke and job vnder his very feet And here in this place I cannot chuse but relate the opinion that is currant among our roiotous and delicate gallants which some other thing also making for our purpose in the discourse of this argument which wee haue in hand Certes Cicero a man reputed as he was no lesse indeed for a second light of all good learning and literature Better are esteemed quoth hee the sweet compositions and ointments which tast of earth than of saffron where note by the way that this great Clearke chose to vse the word of tast rather than of smell in such odoriferous perfumes and mixtures Well to speake at a word surely that ground is best of all other which hath an aromaticall smell and tast with it Now if we list moreouer to be better instructed what kind of sauour and odour that should be which we would so gladly find in the earth we may oftentimes meet with that sent euen when she is not stirred with the plough but lieth stil and quiet namely a little before the sun-setting especially where a rainbow seemeth to settle pitch her tips in the Horizon also when after some long and continuall drought it beginneth to rain for then being wet and drenched therwith the earth will send vp a vapor and exhalation conceiued from the Sun so heauenly and diuine as no perfume how pleasant soeuer it be is comparable vnto it This smell there must be in it when you ere it vp with the plough which if a man find once he may be assured it is a right good ground for this rule neuer faileth so as to say a truth it is the very smel and nothing els that will iudge best of the earth and such commonly are new broken grounds where old woods were lately stocked vp for all men by a generall consent do commend such for excellent Moreouer the same ground for bearing is held to be far better whensoeuer it hath rested between and either lien ley or fallow whereas for vineyards it is clean contrary and therefore the more care and diligence is to be emploied in chusing such ground least wee approoue and verifie their opinion who say That the soile of all Italie is alreadie out of heart and weary with bearing fruit This is certaine that both there and elsewhere the constitution of the aire and weather both giueth and taketh away the opportunitie of good husbandrie that a man cannot otherwhiles do what he would for some kind of grounds there is so fat and ready to resolue into mire and dirt that it is impossible to plough them and make good worke after a shower of raine Contrariwise in Byzacium a territory of Africke it is far otherwise for there is not a better and more fruitfull piece of ground lieth without dore than it is yeelding ordinarily 150 fold let the season be dry the strongest teeme of oxen that is cannot plough it fall there once a good ground shower one poore asse with the help of a silly old woman drawing the plough-share at another side will be able to go round away with it as I my selfe haue seen many a time and often And whereas some great husbands there be that teach vs to inrich and mend one ground with another to wit by spreading fat earth vpon a lean and hungry soile likewise by casting drie light and thirstie mould vpon that which is moist and ouer-fat it is a meere follie and wastfull expence both of time and trauaile for what fruit can he euer looke to reape from such a mingle mangle of ground CHAP. VI. ¶ Of the earth which Britaine and France loue so well THe Britaines and Frenchmen haue deuised another meanes to manure their ground by a kind of lime-stone or clay which they call Marga i. Marle And verily they haue a great opinion of the same that it mightily inricheth it maketh it more plentiful This marle is a certaine fat of the ground much like vnto the glandulous kernels growing in the bodies of beasts and it is thickned in manner of marrow or the kernell of fat about it CHAP. VII ¶ The discourse of these matters continued according to the Greekes THe Greekes also haue not ouerpassed this in silence for what is it that they haue not medled withall The white clay or earth wherewith they vse to marle their grounds in the territorie of Megara those onely I meane which are moist and cold they call Leucargillae These marles all the kind of them do greatly inrich France and Britaine both and therefore it would not be amisse to speak of them more exactly In old time there were two sorts therof and no more but of late daies as mens wits are inuentiue euery day of one thing or other they haue begun to find out more kindes and to vse the same for there are now diuers marles the white the red the Columbine the clay soile the stony and the sandy and all these are but two in nature to wit either hard and churlish or else gentle and fat The triall of both is knowne by the handling and a twofold vse they yeeld either to beare corne onely or els for grasse and pasture also The stonie or grauelly soile is good only for to nourish corne which if it be white withall and the pit thereof found among springs or fountains it wil cause the ground to be infinite fruitfull but it is rough in handling and if it be laid too thick vpon the lands or leyes it wil burn the very ground The next to it is the red marle called also Capnumargos which hath intermingled in it a certaine small stony grit full of sand This stony marle the manner is to break and bruise vpon the very lands and for the first yeares hardly can the straw be mowne or cut downe for the said stones Lighter is this marle than the rest by the one halfe and therefore the cariage thereof into the field is least chargeable It ought to be spred and laid thin some thinke that it standeth somewhat vpon salt But both the one and the other will serue well for fifty yeares and the ground inriched thereby will during that time yeeld plenty as well of corne as grasse CHAP. VIII ¶ Sundry sorts of Earth and Marle OF those marles which are
nurse-garden for the nones vntil they are grown to a good stature and then they are to be remoued a second time to their due place And a wonder it is to see how this transplanting doth mitigate euen the sauage nature of the wildest trees that are whether it be that trees as well as men are desirous of nouelties and loue to be trauelling for change or that as they go from a place they leaue behind them their malicious qualitie and being vsed to the land become tame and gentle like the wild beasts especially when such yong plants are plucked and taken vp with the quicke root Wee haue learned of Nature also another kinde of planting like to this for we see that not only water shoots springing out of the root but other sprigs slipped from the stocke liue and doe full well but in the practise of this feat they ought to be pulled away with a colts foot of their owne so as they take a quicke parcell also of their mothers bodie with them in manner of a fringe or border hanging thereto After this manner they vse to set Pomegranate Filberd Hazell Apple and Servise trees Medlars also Ashes and Figge trees but Vines especially marie a quince ordered and planted in that sort will degenerate and grow to a bastard kinde From hence came the inuention to set into the ground yong sprigs or twigs cut off from the tree This was at first practised with foot-sets for a prick-hedge namely by pitching down into the earth Elder Quince-cuttings brambles but afterwards men began to do the like by those trees that are more set by and nourished for other purposes as namely Poplars Alders and the Willow which of all others may be pricked into the ground with any end of the cutting or sprig downward it makes no matter whether for the smaller end will take as wel as the bigger Now al the sort of these are bestowed and ranged in order at the first hand euen as a man would haue them and where he list to see them grow neither need they any remouing or transplantation at all But before we proceed any further to other sorts of planting trees it were good to declare the manner how to order seminaries seed-plots or nource-gardens For to make a good pepinnier or nource-garden there would be chosen a principal and special peece of ground for oftentimes it falleth out yea and meet it is that the nource which giueth sucke should be more tender ouer the infant than the owne naturall mother that bare it In the first place therefore let it be sound and drie ground how be it furnished with a good and succulent elemental moisture and the same broken vp and afterwel digged ouer and ouer with mattock and spade and brought to temper and order so as it be nothing coy but readie to receiue al manner of plants that shall come and to entertain them as welcome guests withall as like as may be to that ground vnto which they must be remoued at last But before al things this would be looked to that it be rid clean of all stones surely fenced also and paled about for to keep out cockes and hens and all pullen it must not be full of chinkes and cranies for feare that the heat of the sunne enter in and burne vp the small filaments or strings and beard of the new roots and last of all these pepins or kernels ought to stand a foot and a halfe asunder for in case they meet together and touch one another besides other faults inconueniences they will be subiect to wormes and therefore I say there would be some distance between that the ground about them may be often harrowed and raked to kill the vermin and the weeds pluckt vp by the heeles that do breed them Moreouer it would not be forgotten to proin these yong plants when they are but new come vp to cut away I say the superfluous springs vnderneath and vse them betimes to the hooke Cato giueth counsel to sticke forks about their beds a mans height and lay hurdles ouer them so as the Sun may be let in vnderneath and those hurdles to couer and thatch ouer with straw or holme for to keepe out the cold in winter Thus are yong plants of Peare trees and Apple trees nourished thus Pine nut trees thus Cypresses which do likewise come vp of â—…eed are cherished As for the grains or seeds of the Cypres tree they be exceeding small and so small indeed that some of them can scarce be discerned well by the eye Wherein the admirable worke of Nature would be considered to wit that of so little seeds should grow so great and mightie trees considering how far bigger are the cornes of Wheat and Barley to make no reckoning nor speech of Beans in comparison of them What should we say to Peare trees and Apple trees what proportion or likenesse is there between them and the pretty little pepins whereof they take their beginning Maruell we not that of so slender and small things at the first they should grow so hard as to checke and turne again the very edge of ax and hatchet that frames and stocks of presses should be made thereof so strong and tough as will not shrinke vnder the heauiest poise and weights that be that Mast-poles comming thereof should be able to beare saile in wind and weather and finally that they should afford those huge and mightie Rams and such like engins of batterie sufficient to command towers and bastils yea and beat downe strong walls of stone before them Lo what the force of Nature is see how powerfull shee is in her works But it passeth and exceedeth all the rest that the very gum and liquour distilling out of a tree should bring forth new plants of the same kind as we will more at large declare in time and place conuenient To returne then againe to the female Cypres for the male as hath bin said already bringeth forth no fruit after that the little balls or pills which be the fruit thereof be gathered they are laid in the Sun to dry during those moneths which we haue before shewed and being thus dried they will breake and cleaue in sunder Now when they are thus opened they yeeld forth a seed which Pismires are very greedy of Where another wonder of Nature offereth it selfe vnto vs That so small a creature as it should eat and consume the seed which giueth life and being to so great and tall trees as the Cypres Well when the said seed is gotten and the plot of ground â—…aid euen and smooth with cilinders or rollers it must be sowne of a good thicknesse in the moneth of Aprill and fresh mould sifted and strewed ouer with riddles an inch thicke and no more for if this grain be buried ouer-deep and surcharged it is not able to break through against the weight of the earth but in stead of rising vp the new chit turneth and bendeth
scurfe in the face and to scoure away other spots and pimples arising vpon the skin Gentian and Nymphaea called Heraclea the root also of Cyclamin riddeth all such cutanean specks and blemishes The graines of wild Carawaies called Cacalia incorporate in wax melted and made liquid lay the skin of the face plain and euen and smooth all wrinkles The root of Acorum serueth likewise to purifie the skin from all outward deformities Herb Willow giueth the hair of the head a yellow colour Hypericon which also is named Corion dieth it black likewise doth Ophrys an herbe growing with two leaues and no more like vnto jagged Beets or Colewoorts Also Polemonia setteth a black colour vpon haire if it be boiled in oile As for depilatorie medicines which are to take away the haire from any part the proper place to treat of them is indeed among those that pertain especially to women but now adaies men also are come to it and vse such deuises as well as women The most effectuall of all others be they accepted that are made of the herbe Archezostis The juice of Tithymall is likewise very good to fetch off haires and yet there be some who pluck them out first with pinsers and then with the said iuice incorporat with oile rub the place often in the hot sun Finally Hyssop tempered with oile into a liniment is excellent to heale the mange or scab in four-footed beasts and Sideritis hath a peculiar vertue for to cure swine of their squinsies or strangles Now is it time to pursue all other kindes of hearbes which remaine behind THE TVVENTY SEVENTH BOOK OF THE HISTORIE OF NATVRE WRITTEN BY C. PLINIVS SECVNDVS The Proeme CHAP. I. CErtes the farther that I proceed in this discourse history of mine the more am I forced to admire our forefathers and men of old time for considering as I do what a number of simples there yet remain behind to be written of I cannot sufficiently adore either their carefull industry in searching and finding them out or their liberal bounty in imparting them so friendly to posterity And verily if this knowledge of Herbes had proceeded from mans inuention doubtlesse I must needs haue thought that the munificence of those our ancestors had surpassed the goodnesse of Nature her selfe But now apparent and well knowne it is That the gods were authors of that skil and cunning or at leastwise there was some diuinitie and heauenly instinct therein euen when it seemed to come from the braine and head of man and to say a truth confesse we must That Nature the mother and nource of all things both in bringing forth those simples and also in reuealing them with their vertues to mankind hath shewed her admirable power as much as in any other work of hers whatsoeuer The herbe Scythica is brought hither at this day out of the great fens meers of Moeotis where it groweth Euphorbia commeth from the mountain Atlas far beyond Hercules pillars the straits of Gibralter and those are the very vtmost bounds of the earth from another coast also the herbe Britannica we haue transported vnto vs out of Britaine and the Islands lying without the continent and diuided from the rest of the world like as Aethiopis out as far as Aethyopia a climat directly vnder the Sun and burnt with continuall heat thereof besides other plants and drugs necessary for the life and health of man for which merchants passe from all parts too and fro and by reciprocall commerce impart them to the whole world and all by the meanes of that happy peace which through the infinite maiesty of the Roman Empire the earth inioieth in such sort as not only people of sundry lands and nations haue recourse onevnto another in their traffick mutual trade but high mountains also the cliffes surpassing the very clouds meet as it were together haue means to communicat the commodities euen the very herbs which they yeeld one to the benefit of another long may this blessing hold I pray the gods yea and continue world without end for surely it is their heauenly gifts that the Romans as a second Sun should giue light and shine to the whole world CHAP. II. ¶ Of the poison Aconite and the Panther which is killed thereby AConite alone if there were nothing els is sufficient to induce any man to an endlesse admiration and reuerence of that infinit care and diligence which our antients imployed in searching out the secrets of Nature considering how by their means we know there is no poison in the world so quicke in operation as it insomuch as if the shap or nature of any liuing creature of female sex be but touched therewith it will not liue after it one day to an end This was that poison wherewith Calphurnius Bestia killed two of his wiues lying asleep by his side as appeareth by that challenge and declaration which M. Caecilius his accuser framed against him And hereupon it was that in the end of his accusatory inuectiue he concluded with this bitter speech That his wiues died vpon his finger The Poets haue feined a tale That this herb should be ingendered first of the fome that the dog Cerberus let fall vpon the ground frothing so as he did at the mouth for anger when Hercules pluckt him out of hell and therefore it is forsooth that about Heraclea in Pontus wher is to be seen that hole which leadeth into hel there groweth Aconit in great plenty howbeit as deadly a bane as it is our forefathers haue deuised means to vse it for good and euen to saue the life of man found they haue by experience that being giuen in hot wine it is a counterpoison against the sting of scorpions for of this nature it is that if it meet not with some poison or other in mens bodies for to kill it presently sets vpon them and soon brings them to their end but if it incounter any such it wrestleth with it alone as hauing found within a fit match to deale with neither entreth it into this fight vnlesse it find this enemy possessed already of some noble and principall part of the body and then beginneth the combat a wonderfull thing to obserue that two poisons both of them deadly of themselues and their own nature should die one vpon another within the body and the man by that mean only escape with life Our ancestors in times past staied not thus but found out and deliuered vnto vs proper remedies also for wilde beasts and not so contented haue shewed meanes how those creatures should be healed which are venomous to other for who knoweth not that scorpions if they be but touched with Aconite presently become pale benummed astonied and bound confessing as it were themselues to be vanquished and prisoners contrariwise let them but touch the white Ellebore they are vnbound and at liberty again they recouer I say their former vigor and vertue whereby we may see that
natural Finally to wash the mouth with wine before one goeth to bed for a sweet breath likewise so soon as he is vp betimes with cold water against the tooth-ach so as he do it three or fiue times together or at least-wise obseruing such an odde number as also to bath the eies in a morning with Oxycrat i with vineger and water mingled together to preserue them for being bleared are singular and approoued experiments CHAP. V. ¶ Obseruations as touching Diet and the manner of our feeding for the regiment of Health LIke to the former rules is this also as touching our Diet That it be not too precise but so as we may feed indifferently of all viands and acquaint our bodies with variety of meats which is obserued to be the best way to maintain our health and in very truth Hippocrates saith That to eat but one meale a day i to forbeare dinners is a diet that will drie vp a mans body within and bring them soon to age and decay But this aphorism of his he pronounced as a Physitian to reclaim vs from that hungry and sparing diet and not as a patron and maintainer of full feeding and gourmandise for I assure you a temperat and moderate vse of our meats is the wholsomest thing that is for our bodily health But L. Lucullus was so strict herein that hee suffered himselfe to be ordered and ouer-ruled by his owne seruant who would not let him eat but as he thought good in such sort that it was no small disgrace vnto him in his later daies thus to make his man his master and to be gouerned by him rather than by his own selfe for was it not think you an approbrious and shamefull sight to see a slaue and no better to put his lords hands from a dish of meat beeing an aged gentleman as he was and who in times past had rode in triumph to gage him thus I say and keep him short though hee were set amongst great states at a roiall feast within the capitoll of Rome CHAP. VI. ¶ Of Sneezing the vse of Venerie and other means which concerne mans health SNeezing dischargeth the heauinesse of the head and easeth the pose or rheum that stuffeth the nose and it is commonly said That if one lay his mouth to the nosthrils of a mouse or rat and touch the same it wil do as much To sneeze also is a ready way to be rid of the yex or hicquet And Varro giueth counsell to scrape a branch of a Date tree with one hand after another by turnes for to stay the said hicquet But most Physitians giue direction in this case to shift a ring from the left hand to the longest finger of the right or to plunge both hands into very hot water Theophrastus saith that old men doe sneeze with more paine and difficulty than others As touching carnall knowledge of man and woman Democritus vtterly condemned it and why so Because quoth he in that act one man goeth out of another And to say a truth the lesse one vseth it the better it is for body and mind both and yet onr professed wrestlers runners and such gamsters at feats of actiuity when they feele themselues heauy or dul reuiue and recouer their liuely spirits again by keeping company with women Also this exercise clenseth the brest and helpeth the voice which being sometime before cleare and neat was now become hoarse and rusty Moreouer the temperat sports of Venus easeth the pain of the reins and loins mundifie and quicken the eiesight and be singular good for such as be troubled in mind and giuen ouermuch to melancholy Moreouer it is held for witchcraft to sit by women in trauell or neare vnto a Patient who hath a medicine either giuen inwardly or applied vnto him with hand in hand crosse-fingered one between another the experience whereof was well seene by report when lady Alcmena was in labour to be deliuered of Hercules And the worse is this peece of sorcery in case the party hold the hands thus joined a-crosse one finger within another about one or both knees Also to sit crosse-legged with the ham of one leg riding aloft vpon the knee of the other and that by turns shifting from knee to knee And in very truth our ancestors time out of mind haue expresly forbidden in all councels of State held by princes potentats and Generals of the field to sit hand in hand or crosse-legged for an opinion they haue That this manner of gesture hindereth the proceeding and issue of any act in hand or consulted vpon They gaue out likewise a strait prohibition That no person present at any solemnity of sacrifices or vows making should sit or stand crosse-legged or hand in hand in manner aforesaid As for veiling bonnet before great rulers and magistrats or within their sight Varro saith it was a fashion at first not commanded for any reuerence or honour thereby to be done vnto gouernors but for healths sake and namely that mens heads might be more firm hardy by that ordinary vse and custome of being bare When a mote or any thing els is falne into one eie it is good to shut the other hard If there be water gotten into the right eare the maner is to jump and hop with the left leg bending and inclining the head toward the right shoulder semblably if the like happen to the left eare to do the contrary If one be falne into a fit of coughing the way to stay it is to let the next fellow spit vpon his forehead If the uvula be falne it will vp again if the Patient suffer another to bite the haire in the crown of his head and so to pull him vp plumb from the ground Hath the neck a crick or a pain lying behind what better remedy than to rub the hams Be the hams pained do the like by the nape of the neck say the cramp take either feet or legs plucking stretching the sinewes when one is in bed the next way to be vsed is to set the feet vpon the floore or the ground where the bed standeth or put case the crampe take the left side then be sure with the right hand to catch hold of the great toe of the left foot and contrariwise if the cramp come to the right leg do the like by the right foot If the body fall a shaking and quiuering for cold or if one bleed excessiuely at the nosthrils it is passing good to bind strait and hard the extreame parts to wit hands and legs yea and to plucke the eares also It falleth out oftentimes that one cannot lie dry nor hold his water but it commeth from him euer and anone what is then to be done mary tie the foreskin of his yard with a linnen thred or a papyr rush withall binde his thighs about in the middle If the mouth of the stomacke be ready to turne and will neither
burning and calcining lead is to put into a pan certaine little plates thereof together with brimstone turning the same euer and anone either with some yron rod or stiffe stalke and stem of Ferula plants vntil such time as both the one and the other being liquefied be conuerted turned into ashes the same after that they be once cooled ought to be punned and beaten againe and reduced into a most pure and exquisite fine pouder Some there be who take file-dust of lead put the same in an earthen pot or greene potters clay set the same into an ouen and so let it calcine therein vntill such time as the pot be well and throughly baked others againe there are who mix with lead the like quantity of cerusse or els of barly and pun the same like crude lead vncalcined in manner aforesaid for a loture and when it is reduced thus into pouder they make more reckoning of it than of the Cyprian Spodium Ouer and besides the drosse or refuse of lead is medicinable and the best is that accounted which commeth nearest to a yellow colour without any reliques at all of the lead among or else inclining to the hew of brimstone and cleansed from all earthly substance this also beeing braied and broken into small parcels may be washed in manner aforesaid and stamped with water in a mortar vntill such time as the water looke yellow then must it bee powred forth into a pure cleane vessell and this tranvasation ought so long to be continued out of one vessell into another vntill such time as it haue done casting any residence downeward for the sediment that resteth in the bottome is the best working the self-same effect as lead doth but with more acrimony When I consider all this mee thinkes I cannot sufficiently admire the diligence of men who haue made such experiments of al things in the world sparing not so much as the very ordure offall and filthy excrements but haue tried conclusions therein so many waies and left nothing vnattempted There is a kind of Spodium also made of lead in the furnace after the same manner as I shewed before of copper or Cyprian brasse the order of washing whereof is this to put it in a course linnen cloth and to lay the same in rain water that the terrene substance may be separated from the rest that is transfused or passeth through the cloth with the water and yet the same must bee cribled or serced afterwards and beaten to pouder Some thinke it better to wipe and scoure off the dust from the Calamine with wings and then to beat it in a mortar with the most odoriferous wine they can get There is besides a minerall named Molybdena which elsewhere I haue called Galaena by which I meane in this place the ore or veine that containeth within it both siluer and lead the better this is thought to be the more that it inclineth to the colour of gold and the lesse that it standeth vpon lead the same also is brittle apt to crumble and in proportion of the quantity not very weighty in hand the same if it be boiled with oile will in colour resemble liuer There is a kind of Galaena likewise that sticketh to the furnaces of gold and siluer but this whereof I now speake they call Metallica that is to say the Minerall and verily the best of this kinde is that which is found in Zephyrium the marks whereof are these if it haue little or no earth in it nor be any waies stony the same is burnt calcined and washed neither more nor lesse than the drosse Scoria Much vsed this minerall is in those vncteous liniments or salues called Liparae deuised as lenitiue refrigerant for vlcers also it entreth into plasters which are not mordicant but being applied to any sore in tender and delicat bodies and in the softest parts it doth heale faire and skin throughly The composition of which plasters is after this manner Take three pound weight of this minerall lead Molybdaena put thereto of wax one pound and of oile three hemines which done incorporat all together according to art into the forme of an emplastre Now if it so fal out that the patient be an elderly body there would be an addition put thereto of the lees or mother of oile oliue This minerall may be tempered also to right good purpose with litharge of siluer and the drosse of lead and then it is a most excellent medicine to be injected by a clystre for the dysenterie or bloudy flix for the tinesm also which is an inordinat desire to the stoole without doing any thing prouided alwaies that the belly be fomented besides with hot water There is another mineral besides called Psimmithyum which is al one with Ceruse and this the furnace and mine of lead ore doth yeeld but the best of this kind is brought from the Island Rhodes The manner of making it is this Take the finest pieces that are scraped from lead let the same be hung ouer a vessell of the strongest and sharpest vineger that possibly can be had that they may distill thereinto and looke what of it is fallen into the said vineger must be dried afterwards ground into pouder and searced then a second time it ought to be tempered with vineger and so reduced into seuerall trochiske to be dried in the Sun during Summer There is another way of making Ceruse besides this namely to put lead into certaine pots or pitchers of vineger well and throughy stopped that no aire go out and therein to let it rest for ten daies space together after which time to take it forth and scrape from it the mouldinesse or vinewing that doth furre or gather about it which done to cast it in againe into the said vessels continuing so vntill such time as the lead be consumed to nothing Now that which hath been thus scraped from it they take and beat into pouder they serce it also very fine calcin it ouer the fire in a pan stirring and mixing it together with little slices or pot-stickes vntill such time as it wax red and be like vnto Sandaracha After all this they wash it in fresh water so long vntil that all the grossenesse be scoured off which when it is dry in like manner as before they digest into trochiskes This Ceruse serueth to the same purposes that the rest abouenamed onely of al the other it is lightest in operation and besides serueth to make an excellent blanch for women that desire a white complexion but deadly it is being taken inwardly in drink like as letharge also This ceruse thus made as white as it is in case it be afterwards burnt againe turneth to be reddish As touching Sandarache I haue already shewed in manner all that concerneth the nature of it howbeit this would be noted ouer and aboue that it is found in the mines as well of siluer as of gold the redder it is and of a
directly plumbe ouer mens heads and causeth no shadow In like manner the shadowes of them that dwell Northerly vnder the Solstitiall circle in Summer falling all at noone tide Northward but at Sunne-rising Westward doing the same demonstration Which possibly could not be vnlesse the Sunne were far greater than the earth Moreouer in that when he rises he surpasses in breadth the hil Ida compassing the same at large both on the right hand and the left and namely being so farre distant as he is The eclipse of the Moone doth shew also the bignesse of the Sunne by an infallible demonstration like as himfelfe eclipsed declareth the littlenesse of the earth For whereas there be of shadowes three formes and figures and euident it is that if the darke materiall body which casteth a shadow be equall in bignesse to the light then the shadow is fashioned like a colume or piller and hath no point at the end if it be greater it yeeldeth a shadow like a top directly standing vpon the point so as the nether part therof is narrowest and then the shadow likewise is of infinite length but if the said body be lesse than the light then is represented a pyramidall figure like an hey-cocke falling out sharpe pointed in the top which manner of shadow appeareth in the Moones eclipse it is plaine manifest and without all doubt that the Sunne is much bigger than the earth The same verily is seen by the secret and couert proofes of Nature it selfe For why in diuiding the times of the yeere departeth the Sunne from vs in the winter marry euen because by meanes of the nights length and coolenesse he would refresh the earth which otherwise no doubt he should haue burnt vp for it notwithstanding he burneth it in some measure so excessiue is the greatnesse thereof CHAP. XII ¶ The inuentions of man as touching the obseruation of the heauens THe reason verily of both eclipses the first Romane that published abroad and divulged was Sulpitius Gâ—…llus who afterward was Consull together with M. Marcellus but at that time being a Colonell the day before that King Perseus was vanqnished by Paulus he was brought forth by the Generall into open audience before the whole host to fore-tell the eclipse which should happen the next morning whereby he deliuered the armie from all pensiuenesse and feare which might haue troubled them in the time of battell and within a while after he compiled also a booke thereof But among the Greeks Thales Melesius was the first that found it out who in the eight and fortieth Olympias and the fourth yeere thereof did prognosticate and foreshew the Sunnes eclipse that happened in the reigne of Halyattes and in the 170. yeere after the foundation of the citie of Rome After them Hipparchus compiled his Ephemerides containing the coutse and aspects of both these planets for six hundred yeeres ensuing comprehending withall the moneths according to the calculation reckonings of sundry nations the daies the houres the scituation of places the aspects and latitudes of diuers townes and countries as the world will beare him witnesse and that no lesse assuredlv than if â—…e had been priuie to Natures counsels Great persons and excellent these were doubtlesse who aboue the reach of all capacitie of mortall men found out the reason of the course of so mighty starres and diuine powers and whereas the sillie minde of men was before set and to seeke fearing in these eclipses of the starres some great wrong and violence or death of the planets secured them in that behalfe in which dreadful feare stood Stesichorus and Pindarus the Poets notwithstanding their lofty stile and namely at the eclipse of the Sun as may appeare by their poems As for the Moone mortall men imagine that by magicke sorceries and charmes she is inchanted and therefore helpe her in such a case when she is eclipsed by dissonant ringing of basons In this fearefull fit also of an eclipse Nicias the Generall of the Athenians as a man ignorant of the course thereof feared to set saile with his fleet out of the hauen and so greatly endangered and distressed the state of his countrey Faire chieue yee then for your excellent wit O noble Spirits interpretors of the heauens capable of Natures works and the deuisers of that reason whereby ye haue surmounted both God and man For who is he that seeing these things and the painfull ordinarie trauels since that this terme is now taken vp of the stars would not beare with his owne infirmitie and excuse this necessitie of being born to die Now for this present I will bâ—…iefly and summarily touch those principall points which are confessed and agreed vpon as touching the said eclipses hauing lightly rendred a reason thereof in most needfull places for neither such prouing and arguing of these matters belongs properly to our purposed worke neither is it lesse wonder to be able to yeeld the reason and causes of all things than to be resolute and constant in some CHAP. XIII ¶ Of Eclipscs CErtaine it is that all Eclipses in 222 moneths haue their reuolutions and return to their former points as also that the Sun's eclipse neuer happeneth but vpon the change of the Moone namely either in the last of the old or first of the new which they call conjunction and that the Moone is neuer eclipsed but in the full and alwaies somewhat preuents the former Eclipse Moreouer that euery yeare both planets are eclipsed at certaine dayes and houres vnder the earth Neither be these eclipses in all places seene when they are aboue the earth by reason sometimes of cloudy weather but morâ—… often for that the globe of the earth hindereth the sight of the bending conuexitie of the heauen Within these two hundred yeres was it found out by the witty calculation of Hipparchus that the Moone sometimes was eclipsed twice in fiue moneths space and the Sun likewise in seuen also that the Sun and Moone twice in thirty dayes were darkned aboue the earth how beit seene this was not equally in all quarters but of diuers men in diuers places and that which maketh me to maruell most of all in this wonder is this that when agreed it is by all that the Moone light is dimmed by the shadow of the earth one while this eclipse hapneth in the West and another while in the East as also by what reason it hapned that seeing after the Sunne is vp that shadow which dusketh the light of the Moone must needs be vnder the earth it fell out once that the Moone was eclipsed in the West and both planets to be seene aboue the ground in our horison for that in twelue daies both these lights were missing and neither Sun nor Moon were seen it hapned in our time when both the Vespasians Emperors were Consuls the father the third time and the son the second CHAP. XIV ¶ Of the Moones motion CLeare it is that the Moone alwaies in her encreasing hath
were procreated to foretell the accidents that ensued afterward Now for that they fall out so seldome the reason thereof is hidden and secret and so not knowne as the rising of planets aboue said the eclipses and many other things CHAP. XXViij ¶ Of the Heauen flame LIkewise there are seen stars together with the Sun all day long yea and very often about the compasse of the Sun other flames like vnto garlands of corne eares also circles of sundry colours such as those were when Augustus Caesar in the prime of his youth entered the city of Rome after the decease of his father to take vpon him his great name and imperial title CHAP. XXjX ¶ Of Coelestiall Crownes ALso the same garlands appeare about the Moone and other goodly bright stars which are fixed in the firmament Round about the Sun there was seene an arch when Lu. Opimius and Q. Fabius were Consuls as also a round circle when L. Porcius and M. Acilius were Consuls CHAP. XXX ¶ Of sudden Circles THere appeared a circle of red colour when L. Iulius and P. Rutilius were Consuls Moreouer there are strange eclipses of the Sunne continuing longer than ordinarie as namely when Caesar Dictator was murthered Moreouer in the wars of Antony the Sun continued almost a whole yeare of a pale wan colour CHAP. XXXj ¶ Many Suns OVer and besides many Suns are seene at once neither aboue nor beneath the bodie of the true Sunne indeed but crosse-wise and ouerthwart neuer neere nor directly against the earth neither in the night season but when the Sun either riseth or setteth Once they are reported to haue beene seene at noone day in Bosphorus and continued from morne to euen Three Suns together our Ancestors in old time haue often beheld as namely when Sp. Posthumus with Q Mutius Q. Martius with M. Porcius M. Antonius with P. Dolabella and Mar. Lepidus with L. Plancus were Consuls Yea and we in our daies haue seene the like when Cl. Caesar of famous memorie was Consul together with Cornelius Orfitus his Colleague More than three we neuer to this day finde to haue been seene together CHAP. XXXII ¶ Many Moones THree Moones also appeared at once and namely when Cn. Domitius and C. Fannius were Consuls which most men called Night Sunnes CHAP. XXXIII ¶ Day light in the Night OVt of the Firmament by night there was seen a light when C. Coelius and Cn. Papyrius were Consuls yea and oftentimes besides so as the night seemed as light as the day CHAP. XXXIV ¶ Burning Shields or Targuets A Burning shield ran sparkling from the West to the East at the Suns setting when L. Valerius and C. Marius were Consuls CHAP. XXXV ¶ A strange sight in the Sky BY report there was once seene and neuer but once when Cn. Octauius and C. Scribonius were Consuls a sparkle to fall from a star and as it approched the earth it waxed greater and after it came to the bignesse of the Moone it shined out and gaue light as in a cloudy and darke day then being retyred againe into the sky it became to mens thinking a burning Lampe This Licinius Syllanus the Proconfull saw together with his whole traine CHAP. XXXVI ¶ The running of Stars to and fro in the Sky SEene there be also Stars to shoot hither and thither but neuer for nought and to no purpose for from the same quarter where they appeare there rise terrible windes and after them stormes and tempests both by sea and land CHAP. XXXVij ¶ Of the Stars called Castor and Pollux I Haue seene my selfe in the campe from the soldiers sentinels in the night watch the resemblance of lightning to sticke fast vpon the speares and pikes set before the rampier They settle also vpon the crosse Saile yards and other parts of the ship as men do saile in the sea making a kinde of vocall sound leaping to and fro and shifting their places as birds do which fly from bought to bough Dangerous they be and vnlucky when they come one by one without a companion and they drowne those ships on which they light and threaten shipwrack yea and they set them on fire if haply they fall vpon the bottome of the keele But if they appeare two and two together they bring comfort with them and foretell a prosperous course in the voiage as by whose comming they say that dreadfull cursed and threatning meteor called Helena is chased and driuen away And hereupon it is that men assigne this mighty power to Castor and Pollux and inuocate them at sea no lesse than gods Mens heads also in the euen tyde are seene many times to shine round about and to be of a light fire which presageth some great matter Of all these things there is no certain reason to be giuen but secret these be hidden with the maiestie of Nature and reserued within her cabinet CHAP. XXXViij ¶ Of the Aire IT remaineth now thus much and thus far being spoken of the world it selfe to wit the starry heauen and the planets to speake of other memorable things obserued in the Skie For euen that part also hath our forefathers called Coelum i. the Skie which otherwise they name aire euen all that portion of the whole which seeming like a void and empty place yeeldeth this vitall spirit whereby all things do liue This region is seated beneath the Moone and farre vnder that Planet as I obserue it is in a manner by euery man agreed vpon And mingling together an infinite portion of the superiour coelestiall nature or elementarie fire with an huge deale likewise of earthly vapours it doth participate confusedly of both From hence proceed clouds thunders and those terrible lightenings From hence come haile frosts shoures of raine stormes and whirlewindes from hence arise the most calamities of mortall men and the continuall warre that nature maketh with her owne selfe For these grosse exhalations as they mount vpward to the heauen are beaten backe and driuen downeward by the violence of the starres and the same againe when they list draw vp to them those matters which of their owne accord ascend not For thus we see that shoures of raine do fall foggie mists and light clouds arise riuers are dried vp haile stormes come downe amaine the Sunne beames doe scorch and burne the ground yea and driue it euery where to the middle centre but the same againe vnbroken and not losing their force rebound backe and take vp with them whatsoeuer they haue drunke vp and drawne Vapours fall from aloft and the same returne againe on high winds blow forcibly and come emptie but backe they goe with a bootie and carry away euery thing before them So many liuing creatures take their wind and draw breath from aboue but the same laboureth contrariwise and the earth infuseth into the aire a spirit and breath as if it were cleane void and empty Thus whiles the Nature goes too and fro as forced by some engin by the swiftnesse of
in Verbanus Ticinus in Benacus Mincius in Seuinus Ollius in Lemanus lake the riuer Rhodanus As for this riuer beyond the Alpes and the former in Italy for many a mile as they passe carry forth their owne waters from thence where they abode as strangers and none other and the same no larger than they brought in with them This is reported likewise of Orontes a riuer in Syria and of many others Some riuers again there be which vpon an hatred to the sea run euen vnder the bottom thereof as Arethusa a fountaine in Syracusa wherein this is obserued that whatsoeuer is cast into it commeth vp againe at the riuer Alpheus which running through Olimpia falleth into the sea shore of Peloponnesus There go vnder the ground and shew aboue the ground againe Lycus in Asia Erasinus in Argolica Tygris in Mesopotamia And at Athens what things soeuer are drowned in the fountain of Aesculapius be cast vp againe in Phalericus Also in the Atinate plaines the riuer that is buried vnder the earth twentie miles off appeareth againe So doth Timavus in the territory of Aquileia In Asphaltites a lake in Iury which ingenders Bittumen nothing will sinke nor can be drowned no more than in Arethusa in the greater Armenia and the same verily notwithstanding it be full of Nitre breedeth and feedeth fish In the Salentines countrey neere the towne Manduria there is a lake brim full lade out of it as much water as you will it decreaseth not ne yet augmenteth poure in neuer so much to it In a riuer of the Ciconians and in the lake Velinus in the Picene territory if wood be throwne in it is couered ouer with a stony barke Also in Surius a riuer of Colchis the like is to be seen insomuch as ye shall haue very often the bark that ouergrowes it as hard as any stone Likewise in the riuer Silarus beyond Surrentum not twigs onely that are dipped therein but leaues also grow to be stones and yet the vater thereof otherwise is good and wholesome to be drunk In the very passage and issue of Reatine meere there growes a rocke of stone bigger and bigger by the dashing of the water Moreouer in the red sea there be oliue trees and other shrubs that grow vp green There be also very many springs which haue a wonderfull nature for their boiling heat yea and that vpon the very mountains of the Alpes and in the sea between Italy and Aenaria as in the Firth Baianus and the riuer Liris and many others For in diuers and sundry places ye may draw fresh water out of the sea namely about the islands Chelidoniae and Aradus yea and in the Ocean about Gades In the hot waters of the Padouans there grow greene herbes in those of the Pisanes there breed frogs and at Vetulonij in Hetruria not far from the sea fishes also are bread In the territory Casinas there is a riuer called Scatebra which is cold and in Summer time more abounding and fuller of water than in winter in it as also in Stymphalis of Arcadia there breed come forth of it little water-mice or small Limpins In Dodone the fountain of Iupiter being exceeding chill and cold so as it quencheth and putteth out light torches dipped therein yet if you hold the same neere vnto it when they are extinct and put out it setteth them on fire againe The same spring at noon-tide euermore giueth ouer to boile and wants water for which cause they call it Anapauomenos anon it begins to rise vntill it be midnight and then it hath great abundance and from that time againe it faints by little and little In Illyricum there is a cold spring ouer which if ye spread any clothes they catch a fire and burne The fountaine of Iupiter Hammon in the day time is cold all night it is seething hot In the Troglodites countrey there is a fountaine of the Sunne called the sweet Spring about noon it is exceeding cold anon by little and little it growes to be warm but at midnight it passeth and is offensiue for heate and bitternes The head of the Po at noon in Summer giueth ouer as it were and intermits to boile and is then euer drie In the Island Tenedus there is a spring which after the Sommer Sunsteed euermore from the third houre of the night vnto the sixt doth ouerflow And in the isle Delos the fountain snopus falleth and rises after the same sort that Nilus doth and together with it Ouer against the riuer Timavus there is a little Island within the sea hauing hot wels which ebbe and flow as the tide of the sea doth and iust therwith In the territory of the Pitinates beyond Apenninus the riuer Nouanus at euery midsummertime swelles and runnes ouer the bankes but in mid-winter is cleane dry In the Faliscane countrie the water of the riuer Clitumnus makes the oxen and kine white that drinke of it And in Baeotia the riuer Melas maketh sheepe blacke Cephyssus running out of the same lake causeth them to be white and Penius again giues them a black colour but Xanthus neere vnto Ilium coloureth them reddish and hereupon the riuer tooke that name In the land of Pontus there is a riuer that watereth the plaines of Astace vpon which those mares that feed giue blacke milke for the food and sustenance of that nation In the Reatine territorie there is a fountaine called Neminia which according to the springing and issuing forth out of this or that place signifyeth the change in the price of corne and victuals In the hauen of Brind is there is a Well that yeeldeth vnto sailers and sea-fering-men water which will neuer corrupt The water of Lincestis called Acidula i. Soure maketh men drunken no lesse than wine Semblably in Paphlagonia and in the territory of Cales Also in the Isle Andros there is a fountaine neere the temple of Father Bacchus which vpon the Nones of Ianuarie alwaies runneth with water that tasteth like wine as Mulianus verily beleeueth who was a man that had beene thrice Consull The name of the spring is Dios Tecnosia Neere vnto Nonacris in Arcadia there is the riuer Styx differing from the other Styx neither in smell nor colour drinke of it once and it is present death Also in Berosus an hill of the Tauri there be three fountaines the water whereof whosoeuer drinketh is sure to die of it remedilesse and yet without paine In the Countrey of Spaine called Carrinensis two Springs there bee that runne neere together the one rejecteth the other swalloweth vp all things In the same countrey there is another water which sheweth all fishes within it of a golden colour but if they be once out of that water they be like to other fishes In the Cannensian territory neere to the lake Larius there is a large and broad Well which euery houre continually swelleth and falleth downe againe In the Island Sydonia before Lesbos an hot fountaine there is that
Pamphylian sea He addeth moreouer that it containeth 575 miles in length and 325 in bredth The next coast bordering thereupon is Caria and when you are past it Ionia and beyond that Aeolis As for Caria it incloseth Doris in the mids enuironing it round on euery side as far as to the sea In it is the Cape Pedalium also the riuer Glaucus charged with the riuer of Telmessus The townes of any respect be Daedala and Crya peopled only with banished persons Therein you finde the riuer Axoum and the towne Calydua CHAP. XXVIII ¶ The riuer Indus THe riuer Indus arising from the mountaines of the Cybirates receiueth into it 60 other running riuers maintained with springs of other small riuers and brookes fed with land flouds aboue 100. Vpon it standeth the free towne Caunos and a little off Pyrnos Soon after ye meet with the port Cressa ouer against which is discouered the Island Rhodus within the kenning of twenty miles Being past that hauen you shall enter vpon the plaine Loryma vpon which are seated the townes Tysanusa Tarydion Larymna Then meet you with the gulfe Thymnias and the cape Aphrodisias and on the other side of it the towne Hyda and another gulf Schoenus Then followes the country Bubassus wherein stood in antient time the towne Acanthus otherwise called Dulopolis Also vpon the cape there the free city Gnidos Triopia then Pegusa called likewise Stadia Beyond which you enter into the Countrey of Doris But before we passe farther meet it were to speake of those cities and States which are in the midland countrie and which lie behind and namely of one named Cibiratica The towne it selfe is in Phrygia and to it resort for law and iustice 25 cities CHAP. XXIX ¶ Laodicia Apamia Ionia Ephesus THe principall citie in those quarters of the Cibirites is Laodicia Seated it is vpon the riuer Lycus and yet there run hard to the sides thereof two other riuers Asopus and Caper This citie in times past was called Diospolis afterwards Rhoas The other nations belonging to that iurisdiction of the Cibirates worth the naming by the Hydrelites Themisones and Hierapolites Another countie court or towne of resort there is which taketh the name of Synnada and to it repaire for iustice the Licaonians Appians Encarpenes Dorylaei Midaei Iulienses and other states of no great reckoning fifteene A third Seignorie or Shire there is that goes to Apamia which in old time was called Celaenae and afterwards Ciboron scituate it is at the foot of the hill Signia enuironed with three riuers Marsias Obrima and Orga falling all into the great riuer Maeander As for the riuer Marsias which a little from his spring was hid vnder the ground whereas Marsyas the musitian stroue with Apollo in playing vpon the flute sheweth himselfe again in Aulocrenae for so is the vallie called ten miles from Apamia as men trauell the high way to Phrygia Vnder this iurisdiction we should do well to name the Metropolites Dionysopolites Euphorbenes Acmoneses Peltenes and Silbians There are besides to the number of 60 small towns of no account But within the gulfe of Doris there stand Leucopolis Amaxites Eleus and Euthenae Moreouer other townes of Caria Pitaium Eutaniae and Halicarnassus And to this citie were annexed as subiect and homages by Alexander the great six other townes namely Theangela Sibde Medmossa Euranium Pedasium and Telnessum which townes are inhabited betweene the two gulfes Ceramicus and Iasius From thence yee come to Myndus and where sometime stood Palaemindus Neapolis Nariandus Carianda the free citie Termera Bergyla and the town Iasus which gaue the name to the gulfe Iasius But Caria is most renowned glorious for the places of name within it in the firme land for therein are these cities to wit Mylasa free and Antiochia now standing where sometime were the townes Seminethos and Cranaos and enuironed now it is about with the riuers Maeander and Mossinus In the same tract stood sometime Maeandropolis also There is besides the citie Eumenia vpon the riuer Cludrus the riuer Glaucus the sowne Lysias and Orthasia The tract or marches of Berecinthus Nysa Trallais which also is named Euanthia Seleucia and Antiochia which is scituate vpon the riuer Eudone that runneth hard by it and Thebanis which passes quite through it Some there be who report that the dwarfes called Pigmaei sometime there dwelt In which region besides were these townes Thydonos Pyrrha Eurome Heraclea Amyzon and the free citie Alabanda whereof that shierewicke or jurisdiction tooke name Also the free towne Stratonicea Hynidos Ceramus Troezene and Phorontis Yea there be nations farther remote that resort thither to pleade and haue iustice in that court namely the Othroniens Halydiens or Hyppines Xystianes Hydissenses Apolloniates Ttapezopolites and of free condition the Aphrodsians Ouer and besides these there are Cossinus Harpasa scituate vpon the riuer Harpasus which also ran vnder Trallicon when such a towne there was As for the country of Lydia watered it is in many places with the recourse of Maeanders streame winding and turning in and out as his manner is and it reacheth aboue Ionia confining vpon Phrygia in the East vpon Misia in the North and in the South side enclosing all the countrie of Caria This Lydia was sometimes named Moenia The capitall citie of this region is Sardis seated vpon the side of the mountaine Tmolus called before-time Timolus a hill well planted with vineyards Moreouer renowmed is this country for the riuer Pactolus issuing forth of this mountaine which riuer is called likewise Chrysorrhoa as also for the fountain Tarnes The city aboue said was commonly by the Moeonias called Hyde famous for the meer or lake of Gyges Al that iurisdiction is at this day called Sardinia Thither resort besides the abouenamed the Caduenes descended from the Macedonians the Lorenes Philadelphenes yea and the very Moenians such as inhabite vpon the riuer Cogamus at the foot of Tmolus and the Tripolitanes who together with the Antoniopolites dwel vpon the riuer Maeander Furthermore the Apollonos-Hieritae Mysotmolites and others of small reputation Ionia beginneth at the gulfe Iasius and all the coast thereof is very full of creekes and reaches The first gulfe or creeke therein is Basilicus and ouer it the cape Posideum and the town called somtime the Oracle of Branchidae but at this day of Apollo Didymaeus 20 stadia from the sea side Beyond which 180 stadia standeth Milletus the head citie of Ionia named in time past Lelegeis Pityusa and Anactoria From which as from a mother citie are descended more than eighty others all built along the sea coast by the Millesians Neither is this city to be defrauded of her due honour for bringing forth that noble citizen Cadmus who deuised and taught first to write in Prose Concerning the riuer Maeander it issueth out of a lake at the foot of the mountain Aulocrene and passing vnder many townes and filled still with as many riuers running into it
this that they could mount vp and clime against a rope but more wonderfull that they should slide downe again with their heads downward Mutianus a man who had in his time bin thrice Consull reporteth thus much of one of them that he had learned to make the Greeke characters and was wont to write in that language thus much Thus haue I written and made an offering of the Celticke spoiles Likewise hee saith that himselfe saw at Puteoli a certain ship discharged of Elephants embarked therein and when they should be set ashore and forced to go forth of the vessel to which purpose there was a bridge made for them to passe ouer they were affrighted at the length thereof bearing out so far from the land into the water and therefore to deceiue themselues that the way might not seeme so long went backward with their tails to the banke and their heads toward the sea They are ware know full well that their only riches for loue of which men lay wait for them lieth in their armes and weapons that Nature hath giuen them king Iuba calleth them their hornes but Herodotus who wrote long before him and the custome of speech hath tearmed them much better teeth And therefore when they are shed and fallen off either for age or by some casualtie the Elephants themselues hide them with in the ground And this in truth is the only yuory for all the rest yea and these teeth also so far as lay couered within the flesh is of no price and taken for no better than bone And yet of late daies for great scarcitie want of the right teeth men haue bin glad to cut and saw their bones into plates and make yvorie therof For hardly can we now come by teeth of any bignes vnlesse we haue them out of India For all the rest that might be gotten in this part of the world between vs and them hath bin imploied in superfluities only and serued for wanton toies You may know yong Elephants by the whitenes of these teeth and a speciall care and regard haue these beasts of them aboue all They looke to one of them alwaies that the point be sharp and therefore they forbeare to occupie it least it should bee blunt against they come to fight the other they vse ordinarily either to get vp roots out of the earth or to cast down any banks or mures that stand in their way When they chance to be enuironed and compassed round about with hunters they set formost in the rank to be seen those â—…f the heard that haue the least teeth to the end that their price might not be thought worth the hazard and venture in chase for them But afterwards when they see the hunters eager and themselues ouermatched and weary they breake them with running against the hard trees and leauing them behind escape by this ransome as it were out of their hands CHAP. IIII. ¶ The elemencie of Elephants their foresight and knowledge of their owne dangers also the fell fiercenesse of the Tygre A Wonder it is in many of these creatures that they should thus know wherefore they are hunted and withall take heed beware of all their dangers It is said that if an elephant chance to meet with a man wandering simply out of his way in the wildernesse hee will mildly and gently set him in the right way again But if he perceiue a mans fresh footing before he espie the man he will quake and tremble for feare of being forelaid surprised he wil stay from farther following the sent look about him euery way snuffe and puffe for very anger Neither will he tread vpon the tract of a mans foot but dig it out of the earth and giue it the next Elephant vnto him and he againe to him that followeth and so from one to another passeth this intelligence and message as it were to the vtmost rank behind Then the whole heard makes a stand and cast round about to returne backward and withall put themselues in battel array so long continueth that strong virulent smel of mens feet and runneth through them all notwithstanding for the most part they be not bare but shod Semblably the Tigresse also how fierce and cruell she be to other wilde beasts careth not a whit for a very Elephant if shee happen to haue a sight of a mans footing presently by report carieth away her young whelpes and is gon But how commeth she to this knowledge of a man where saw she him euer before whom thus she feareth for surely such wild woods forests are not much trauelled frequented by men Set case that they may wel wonder at the strange sight and nouelty of their tracts which are so seldome seen how know they that they are to be feared Nay what should be the reason that they dread to see a man indeed being as they are far bigger much stronger and swifter by many degrees than a man Certes herein is to be seen the wonderfull worke of Nature and her mightie power that the greatest the most fell anâ—… sauage beasts that be hauing neuer seen that which they ought to feare should incontinently haue the sence and conceit why the same is to be feared CHAP. V. ¶ The vnderstanding and memorie of Elephants THe Elephants march alwaies in troups The eldest of them leadeth the vaward like a captaine and the next to him in age commeth behind with the conduct of the arrereguard When they are to passe ouer any riuer they put for most the least of al their company for feare that if the bigger should enter first they would as they trod in the channell make the water to swell and rise and so cause the fourd to be more deepe Antipater writeth that K. Antiochus had two Elephants which he vsed in his wars aboue all the rest and famous they were for their surnames which they knew well enough and wist when any man called them thereby and verily Cato reciting in his Annals the names of the principall captaine Elephants hath left in writing That the Elephant which fought most lustily in the point of the Punick war had to name Surus by the same token that the one of his teeth was gone When Antiochus on a time would haue sounded the fourd of a certaine riuer by putting the Elephants before Ajax refused to take the water who otherwise at all times was wont to lead the way Wherupon the king pronounced with a loud voice That look which Elephant passed to the other side he should be the captain and chiefe Then Patroclus gaue the venture for his labor had a rich harnish and caparison giuen him was all trapped in siluer a thing wherin they take most delight and made besides the soueraigne of all the rest But the other that was disgraced thus and had lost his place would neuer eat any meat after but died for very shame of such a reprochfull ignominy For among other
al to worrie and teare him in peeces Also it is said that he will vomit like a man thereby to train dogs to come vnto him and then will deuoure them Also this beast alone of all others will search for mens bodies within their graues and sepulchres and rake them forth The female is seldome taken He changeth his eies into 1000 diuers colours Moreouer if a dog come within his shadow he presently loseth his barking and is quite dumbe Againe by a kind of magicall charme or enchantmeut if he goe round about any other liuing creature but three times it shall not haue the power to stir a foot and remooue out of the place The Lionesses of Aethiopia if they be couered with any of this kinde bring forth another beast called Leocrocuta which likewise knowes how to counterfeit the voice both of man and of other beasts He sees continually with both eies he hath one entire bone in stead of teeth in either iaw and no gombs at all wherwith he cuts as with a knife Now these bones because they should not wax dul and blunt with continuall grating one against the other they are enclosed each of them withâ—…n a case or sheath Iuba reports that the Mantichora also in Aethiopia resembles mens language Great store of Hyenes be found in Affricke which also yeelds a multitude of wild Asses And one of the males is able to rule and leade a whole flocke of the female asses This beast is so iealous that they looke narrowly to the females great with young for so soone as they haue foled they bite off the cods of the little ones that be males and so gueld them But contrariwise the shee asses when they be big seeke corners and keepe out of their way that they might bring forth their young secretly without the knowledge of the Stallons for desirous they are to haue many males so lecherous they be and glad euermore to be couered The Bieuers in Pontus gueld themselues when they see how neer they are driuen and be in danger of the hunters as knowing full well that chased they be for their genetoires and these their stones Physitians call Castoreum And otherwise this is a dangerous and terrible beast with his teeth For verily he will bite down the trees growing by the riuer sides as if they were cut with an axe Looke where he catcheth hold of a man once he neuer leaues nor lets loose vntill he haue knapped the bone in sunder and heard it cracke againe Tailed hee is like a fish otherwise he resembleth the Otter Both these beasts liue in the water altogether and cary an haire softer than any plume or downe of feathers CHAP. XXXI ¶ Of Frogs Sea-calues and star-Lisards called Stelliones THe venomous frogs and todes called Rubetae which liue both on land and also in the water yeeld many good things medicinable It is said that their manner is to let goe cast from them all that is good within them reseruing only to themselues all the poison and when they haue bin at their food take the same vp againe The sea calfe likewise liueth both in the sea and vpon the land and hath the same nature and qualitie that the beiuer is for hee casteth vp his gall which is good for many medicines so he doth the runnet in his maw which is a singular remedy for the falling sicknes for wel he is ware that men seek after him for these two things Theophrastus writeth That the Lisards called Stelliones cast their old coat like as Snakes do but when they haue so done they eat it vp againe and so preuent men of the helpe thereby for the said falling euill He reporteth besides that their stings and bitings in Greece be venomous and deadly but in Sicily harmlesse CHAP. XXXII ¶ Of red and fallow Deere THe Bucke or Stag albeit that he be the most gentle and mild beast in the world yet is he as enuious as the rest loth to part with that which is good for others Howbeit if he chance to be ouerlaied with hounds then gently of himselfe hee hath recourse to a man Likewise the Hinds when they are to calue chuse rather some place neere to the pathes and waies that are beaten with many steps than secret corners for feare of other wilde beasts They begin to goe to rut after the rising of the star Arcturus which is much about the 5 of September they goe 8 months and otherwhiles bring 2 calues at once Finding themselues that they are sped they part companie with the Stags But they againe seeing themselues forsaken fall into a kinde of rage for heate of lust and dig pits in the ground where they lie hidden Then begin their muzzles to looke blacke and so continue vntill such time as some raine wash away that colour The Hinds before they calue purge themselues with the herbe Seselis or Silermonntaine whereby they haue lesse paine in their bearing and more speedy and easie deliuerance After they are lightened of their burden they know where two herbes be which they haue presently recourse vnto Wake-Robin and the foresaid Siler-mountain When they haue eaten well thereof they return presently to their yong And for what secret reason in Nature God knowes their first milke must haue a taste talang of those two herbs Their little ones they practise and exercise to vse their legs from the very beginning so soon as they be come into the world teaching them euen then how they should run away and flie To high and steepe cragged rockes they bring them and there shew them how to leape and withall acquaint them with their dens and places of harborough And now by this time the stags being past the heat of the rut feed apace But so soone as they be growne very fat they seeke lurking places and there abide confessing as it were how heauie and vnweldie they be for fatnesse and how vncommodious it is vnto them At other times they vse in their flight to make staies and take their breath and as they stand still to looke behinde them But when they espie once the hounds and hunters to be neer vnto them then they fall to running afresh And this they doe for a pain that they haue in their guts which are so weak tender that with a small blow or stripe giuen vnto them they will burst within their bellies When they perceiue the hunt is vp heare the hounds crie they presently run but euer downe the winde to the end that the sent of their feet should passe away with them They take much pleasure delight in the sound of sheepheards pipes and their song withall When they set vp their eares they are most quicke of hearing when they let them hang downe they be as deafe Moreouer they are very simple and foolish â—…eatures amused yea and amased they will be at euery thing and keepe a wondring at it insoâ—…uch as if an horse a cow or an
take a great delight to inueagle others and to steale away some pigeons from 〈◊〉 owne flocks and euermore to come home better accompanied than they went forth Moreouer Doues haue serued for posts and courriers between and bin imploied in great affairs and namely at the siege of Modenna Decimus Brutus sent out of the town letters tyed â—…o their feet as far as to the camp where the Consuls lay and thereby acquainted them with newes and in what estate they were within What good then did the rampier and trench which Antonius cast before the towne To what purpose serued the streight siege the narrow watch and ward that he kept wherefore serued the riuer Po betweene where all passages are stopped vp as it were with net and toile so long as Brutus had his posts to flie in the aire ouer all their heads To be short many men are growne now to cast a speciall affection and loue to these birds they build Turrets aboue the tops of their houses for doue-coats Nay they are come to this passe that they can reckon vp their pedigree and race yea they can tel the very places from whence this or that pigeon first came And indeed one old example they follow of L. Axius a Gentleman somtiâ—…e of Rome who before the ciuill war with Pompey sold euery paire of pigeons for 400 deniâ—…s as M. Varro doth report True it is that there goeth a great name of certaine countries where some of these pigeons are bred for Campanie is voiced to yeeld the greatest and fairest bodied of all other places To conclude their manner of flying induceth and traineth me to thinke and write of the flight of other soules CHAP. XXXVIII ¶ Of the gate and flight of birds ALl other liuing creatures haue one certaine manner of marching and going according to their seuerall kind vnto which they keep and alter not Birds only vary their course whether they go vpon the ground or flie in the aire Some walke their stations as Crowes and Choughs others hop and skip as Sparrows and Ousels some run as Partridges Woodcocks and Snites others again cast out their feet before them staulk and jet as they go as Storks and cranes now for flying some spread their wings abroad stirring or shaking them but now then hanging and houering with them all the while as Kites others again ply them as fast but the ends only of their wings or the vtmost feathers are seen to moue as the Chaffinch Yee shall haue some birds to stretch out their whole wings sides mouing them as they flie as Rauens and others a man shal see in their flight to keep them in for the most part close as the Woodpeckers Some of them are known to giue one or two claps with their wings at first and then glide smoothly away as if they were carried and born vp with the aire as Linnets and others are seen as if they kept stil the aire within their wings to shoot vp aloft mount on high to flie streight forward to fal down again flat as Swallows Ye would think and say that some were hurled out of a mans hand with violence as the Partridge and others again to fal down plumbe from on high as Larks or els to leap jump as the Quailes Ducks Mallards and such like spring presently from the ground vp aloft and suddenly mount vp into the skie euen out of the very water which is the cause that if any chance to fall into those pits wherein wee take wild beasts they alone wil make good shift to get forth and escape The Geirs or Vulturs and for the most part all weightie and heauy foules cannot take their flight flie vnlesse they fetch their run and biere before or els rise from some steepe place with the vantage And such are directed in the aire by their tails Some looke about them euery way others bend and turne their necks in flying and some fly with their prey within their talons eat it as they fly Most birds cry and sing as they flie yet some there be contrariwise that in their flight are euer silent In one word some flying carry their brests and bellies halfe vpright others again beare them as much downward Some flie side-long and bias others directly forward and follow their bills and last of all there be that bend backward as they flie or els bolt vpright In such sort that if a man saw them all together he would take them not to be one kind of creature so diuers different are they in their motions CHAP. XXXIX ¶ Of Martinets MArtinets which the Greeks call Apodes because they haue little or no vse of their feet and others Cypseli are very good of wing and flie most of all others without rest And in very truth a kind of Swallows they be They build in rocks stony cliffes And these be they and no other that are seen euermore in the sea for be the ships neuer so remote from the land saile they neuer so fast and far off ye shall haue these Martinets alwaies flying about them All kinds els of Swallowes and other birds do somtime light settle and perch these neuer rest but when they be in their nest For either they seem to hang or els lie along and a number of shifts and deuises by themselues they haue besides and namely when they feed CHAP. XL. ¶ Of the bird Caprimulgus and the Shouelar THe Caprimulgi so called of milking goats are like the bigger kind of Owsels They bee night-theeues for all the day long they see not Their manner is to come into the sheepheards coats and goat-pens and to the goats vdders presently they go and suck the milke at their teats And looke what vdder is so milked it giueth no more milke but misliketh and falleth away afterwards and the goats become blind withall There be other birds named Plateae i. Shouelars Their manner is to flie at those foule that vse to diue vnder the water for fish and so long will they peck and bite them by the heads vntil they let go their hold of the fish they haue gotten and so they wring it perforce from them This bird when his belly is â—…ull of shell fishes that he hath greedily deuou red and hath by the naturall heat of his craw and gorge in some sort concocted them casteth vp all vp again and at leasure picketh out the meat and eateth it again leauing the shels behind CHAP. XLI ¶ The uaturall wit of some birds THe Hens of country houses haue a certaine ceremonious religion When they haue laied an egge they fall a trembling quaking and all to shake themselues They turne about also as in procession to be purified with some festue or such like thing they keep a ceremonie of hallowing as well themselues as their egs CHAP. XLII ¶ Of the Linnet Poppinjay or Parrat and other birds that can speake THe Linnets be in manner the
make a voiage into Arabia for the great fame that went thereof saith That the tree which beares Frankincense hath a trunke or body writhen about and putteth forth boughes and branches like for all the world to the Maple of Pontus Item that it yeeldeth a iuice or liquour as doth the Almond tree and such are seene commonly in Carmania as also those in Egypt which were planted by the carefull industrie of the Ptolomees Kings there Howeuer it be this is receiued for certaine that it hath the very barke of a Bay tree Some also haue said that the leaues be as like And verily such kind of trees were they which were seen at Sardis for the Kings of Asia likewise were at the cost and labor to transplant them and desirous to haue them grow in Lydia The Embassadours who in my time came out of Arabia to Rome haue made all that was deliuered as touching these trees more doubtfull and vncertaine than before A strange matter and wonderfull indeed considering that twigges and branches of the Incense tree haue passed betweene by the veiw of which impes we may judge what the Mother is namely euen and round in the bodie without knot or knar and from thence she putteth out shoots They vsed in old time to gather the Incense but once a yere as hauing little vent and small returne and lesse occasion to sell than now adaies but now since euery man calleth for it they feeling the sweetnesse of the gaine make a double vintage as it were of it in one yere The first and indeed the kindly season falls about the hottest daies of the Summer at what time as the Dog daies begin for then they cut the Tree where they see the bark to be fullest of liquor and wheras they perceiue it to be thinnest and strut out most They make a gash or slit only to giue more libertie but nothing do they pare or cut cleane away The wound or incision is no sooner made but out there gusheth a fat some or froth this soone congeales and growes to be hard and where the place will giue them leaue they receiue it in a quilt or mat made of Date tree twigs plaited and wound one within another wicker-wise For elsewhere the floore all about is paued smooth and rammed downe hard The former way is the better to gather the purer and clearer Frankincense but that which falleth vpon the bare ground prooues the weightier That which remaines behind and stickes to the Tree is parted and scraped off with kniues or such like yron tooles and therefore no maruell if it be ful of shauings of the bark The whole wood or forrest is diuided into certaine portions and euery man knowes his owne part nay there is not one of them will offer wrong vnto another and encroch vpon his neighbors They need not to set any keepers to look vnto those Trees that be cut for no man will rob from his fellow if he might so just and true they be in Arabia But beleeue me at Alexandria where Frankincense is tried refined and made for sale men canot look surely ynough to their shops and work-houses but they will be robbed The workeman that is emploied about it is all naked saue that he hath a paire of trouses or breeches to couer his shame and those are sowed vp and sealed too for feare of thrusting any into them Hood-winked he is sure ynough for seeing the way to and fro and hath a thicke coife or maske about his head for doubt that he should bestow any in mouth or eares And when these workmen be let forth againe they be stripped starke naked as euer they were borne and sent away Whereby we may see that the rigor of justice canot strike so great feare into our theeues here and make vs so secure to keepe our owne as among the Sabaeans the bare reuerence and religion of those woods But to returne againe to our former cuts That Incense which was let out in Summer they leaue there vnder the Tree vntil the Autumne and then they come and gather it And this is most pure cleane and white A second Vintage and gathering there is in the Spring against which time they cut the bark before in the Winter and suffer it to run out vntil the Spring This comes forth red and is nothing comparable to the former The better is called Carpheotum the worse Dathiathum Moreouer some say that the gum which issueth out of the young trees is the whiter but that which comes from the old is more odoriferous There be others also of opinion that the better Incense is in the Islands But King Iuba doth auouch constantly that there is none at all in the Islands That which is round like vnto a drop and so hangeth we call the male Incense wheras in other things lightly we name the male but where there is a female But folk haue a religious ceremonie in it not to vse so much as the tearme of the other sexe in giuing denomination to Frankincense Howbeit some say that it was called the Male for a resemblance that it hath to cullions or stones In very truth that is held for the cheife and best simply which is fashioned like to the nipples or tears that giue milk standing thick one by another to wit when the former drop that distilled hath another presently followeth after and so consequently more vnto them and they all seeme to hang together like bigs I read that euery one of these were wont to make a good handfull namely when men were not so hasty eager to carry it away but would giue it time and leisure to drop softly When it is gathered in this sort the Greeks vse to call it Stagonias and Atomus but the lesser goblets they name Orobias As for the small crums or fragments which fall off by shaking wee called Manna i. Thuris And yet there be found at this day drops of Incense that weigh the third part of a pound that is to say about * 39 Roman deniers It happened on a time that king Alexander the Great being then but a very little child made no spare of Incense but cast still vpon the altar without all measure when he offered sacrifice Whereupon Leonides his tutor and schoole-maister by way of a light reproofe said vnto him thus Sir you should in that maner burne Incense when you haue once conquered those nations where there growes Incense Which rebuke and checke of his tooke so deep a print in Alexanders heart and so well he carried it in memorie that after he had indeed made conquest of Arabia he sent vnto the said Leonides his Tutor a ship ful fraught and charged with Incense willing him not to spare but liberally to bestow vpon the gods when hee sacrificed To returne againe to our historie When the Incense is gathered as is beforesaid conueighed it is to Sabota vpon Cammels backs and at one gate set open for that purpose
such colourable excuses for their handling of poisons and so impudent and shamelesse are some besides that they bash not to auow the vse of them bearing vs in hand that Physick canot stand without poison The Thapsia in Affricke is the strongest of all others Some vse to slit or cut the stem about haruest and in the very root make an hollow trough to receiue the juice that runs downe and when it is dried they take it away Others againe do bruise and stamp in a mortar both leafe stalke and root and when the juice that is pressed there-from is thoroughly dried in the Sun they reduce the same into certain Trochisques Nero Caesar the Emperor in the beginning of his Empire gaue great credit to Thapsia for vsing as he did to be a night-walker and to make many ryots and much misrule in the darke he met otherwhiles with those that would so beat him as that he carried away the marks black and blew in his face but as he was subtil desirous to auoid the speech of the people an ointment he had made of Thapsia Frankincense and Waxe wherewith hee would anoint his face and by the next morning come abroad with a cleare skin and no such marks to be seene to the great astonishment of all that saw him To conclude the Ferula maketh the best matches to keep fire by all mens confession and those in Aegypt excell the rest for that purpose CHAP. XXIII ¶ Of Capparis or Cynosbatos or Opheostaphyle and of Sari LIkewise in Aegypt growes Capparis a shrub of a harder and more wooddy substance well knowne for the seed and fruit that it carries commonly eaten with meats and for the most part the Capres and the stalke are plucked and gathered together The outlandish Capres not growing in Aegypt we must take good heed of and beware for those of Arabia be pestilentiall and venomous they of Affricke be hurtfull to the gumbs and principally the Marmarike are enemies to the matrice and breed ventosities The Apulian Capres cause vomit and make lubricitie both of stomack and belly Some call the shrub Cynosbatos others Opheostaphyle Moreouer there is a plant of shrubs kind called Sari it growes along Nilus almost two cubits high it beareth an inch in thicknesse and hath leaues like to Papyr-reed and men do chew and eat it after the same manner As touching the root it is singular good for Smiths cole to burne in their forges so hard it is and durable CHAP. XXIIII ¶ Of the Royall thorn of Babylon and of Cytisus I May not ouer-passe that plant which about Babylon is sowed vpon Thornes only for otherwise it knowes not how to liue no more than Misselto but on trees howbeit this plant that I speake of is sowed vpon that Thorne alone called the Royall Thorne And a strange thing it is of this plant That it springs and grows the very same day that it is set or sowed Now the seasonable time of sowing it is at the very rising of the Dog-star and notwithstanding the Suns heat right quickly ouerspreads it the tree or shrub on which it is cast The Babylonians vse to aromatize their wine therwith and for that purpose are they so carefull to sow it But the foresaid Thorne tree groweth also about the long walls of Athens reaching from the tower to the hauen Pyraeeum Noreouer a shrub there is called Cytisus highly commended and wondrous much praised by Aristomachus the Athenian for feeding of sheep as also for fatting of swine when it is drie and he promiseth and assureth That an acre of land sowed therwith although it be none of the best soile but of a meane and ordinarie rent will yeeld yearely communibus annis 2000 Sesterces to the master As great profit commeth therby as of the pulse like Vetches called Ervum but sooner will a beast be satisfied therewith and a very little therof will serue to fat the same insomuch as if horses or any such labouring cattell may meet with that prouender they will not care for barley neither is there any other grasse or fodders that yeeldeth more or better milk than it but that which passeth all the pasturage of Cytisus preserueth sheep goats and such like cattell sound and safe from all diseases whatsoeuer Ouer and besides if a nourse want milke Aristomachus prescribes her to take Cytisus dry and seeth it in water and so to drink it in wine whereby not onely her milke will come againe in great plenty but the babe that sucketh thereof will be the stronger and taller He giueth it also to hens and pullein whiles it is green or steeped and wet if it chance to be dry Democritus and Aristomachus both do promise and assure vs that Bees will neuer miscarry nor faile if they may meet with Cytisus to seed vpon And yet there is not a thing of lesse charge to maintaine than it Sowne it is commonly in the spring with barley I mean the seed thereof as they mean to sow Leekes or Porret seed or els they set plants and slips thereof from the stalke in Autumne before mid-winter If the seed be sowne it ought to be steeped and moistned before yea and if there fall no store of raine after it is in the ground it had need to be watered As for the plants when they be a cubit long are replanted in a trench a foot deepe Otherwhiles the tender quicke-sets are planted about the Equinoxes to wit in mid-March and mid-September In three yeares they come to their full growth They vse to cut it downe in the Spring-Equinox when it hath done flouring a worke that a very lad or old woman may do euen such as can skill of nothing besides This Cytisus is in outward hew white and in one word if a man would pourtray the likenes thereof it resembleth for all the world a shrub of Trifolie or Clauer-grasse with narrower leaues Being thus gathered it is euer giuen to beasts once in three daies And in Winter that which is dried ought to be wet before they haue it Ten pound of it is a sufficient foddering for an horse and for other small cattell according to the proportion But by the way this is not to be omitted that it is good to set garlicke and sow onions seed betweene the rewes and rankes of Cytisus where it groweth and they will thriue more plenteously This shrub was first discouered and known in the Island Cythnus and from thence translated into all the other Cyclades and soon after brought to all the cities of Greece whereupon followed great increase of milke plentie of cheese I maruel therefore very much that it is so geason and rare in Italy and a plant it is that feareth neither heate nor cold no iniury of haile nor offence by snow and as Hyginus saith it is not afraid so much as of the enemie the reason is because the wood thereof is nothing beautifull to the eye CHAP. XXV ¶ Of shrubs and trees
is not like as wine is neither is there such difference in so many kinds of oliues as there is in wine for surely we cannot at the most obserue aboue three degrees in the goodnesse of oiles namely according to the first second and third running out of the presse Finally the thinner that oile is and the more subtill the finer and daintier is the smell thereof and yet the same same sent in the very best of them all continueth but a small time CHAP. IIII. ¶ The nature of Oile Oliue THe property of oile is to warm the body and to defend it against the iniuries of cold and yet a soueraigne thing it is to coole and mitigate the hot distemperature of the head The Greekes whom wee may count the very fathers and fosters of all vices haue peruerted the true and right vse thereof to serue for all excesse and superfluitie euen as far as to the common annointing of their wrastlers with it in their publick place of exercise Known it is for certain that the gouernors and wardens of those places haue sold the oile that hath beene scraped from the bodies of the said wrastlers for 80 Sesterces at a time But the stately maiesty of Rome contrariwise hath done so great honour to the Oliue tree that euery yere in Iuly when the Ides come they were wont to crowne their men of armes and gentlemen marching by their troups and squadrons in solemne wise with chaplets of oliue yea and the manner was of captains likewise to enter ouant in pety triumphes into Rome adorned with Oliue coronets The Athenians also honoured their conquerors with Oliue garlands But generally the Greekes did set out their victors at the games of Olympia with branches of the wild-oliue CHAP. V. ¶ The manner how to order Oliues NOw will I report the precepts and rules set down by Cato as touching oliues His opinion is that the greater long Oliue Radius of Salentum the big Orchites the Pausia the Sergiana Cominiana and the Albicera should be planted in hot and fat grounds He addes moreouer as hee was a man of singular dexterity and prudent spirit which of them in the neighbour territories and places adioining were taken for the best As for the Licinian Oliues he saith They would be planted in a weely and cold hungry ground for if it be a fat soile and a hot the oile wil be corrupt and naught and the very tree it self wil in short time be killed with ouermuch fertility and bearing too great a burden Moreouer they will put forth a red kind of mosse which eateth and consumeth the tree To conclude his mind is that Oliue hort-yards should be exposed to the sun yet so as they regard the West wind also in any case for otherwise he commendeth them not CHAP. VI. ¶ How to keep Oliues and the way to make oile of them CAto alloweth of no other means to keep and preserue oliues and specially the great ones made like cullions named thereupon Orchita and the Pausiae but either in brine and pickle when they are greene or else among Lentisk branches when they are bruised and broken The best oile is made saith he of the greenest and sourest oliues Moreouer so soon as euer they be faln they must be gathered from off the ground and if they be fouled and beraied with the earth they ought to be washed clean and then laid to dry three daies at the most Now if it fall out to be weather disposed vnto frost they should be pressed at 4 daies end He giueth order also to bestrew and sprinkle them with salt saying moreouer that if they be kept in borded sollors or garners the oile will be both lesse in quantitie worse withal So it wil be also if it be let lie long in the lees or together with the cake and grounds when they be bruised and beaten for this is the very fleshie and grosse substance of the Oliues which cannot chuse but breed filthy dregs And therfore he ordaineth that oftentimes in a day it should be poured out of one vessell into another so by setling clarified from the grounds then to put it vp afterwards into pans and panchions of earth or els into vessels or kimnels of lead for brasse mettall wil mar oile All this should be done within close presses and rooms and those kept shut where no aire or wind may come in that they might be as warm and hot as stouves He forbids also to cut any wood or fuel there to maintain fire for that the fire made of their stones and kernels is most kindly of any other To the end also that the grounds lees should be liquified and turn into oile euen to the very last drop the oile should be let run out of those vessels or kimnels aforesaid into a vat or cistern for which purpose the vessels are often to be clensed the ozier paniers to be scoured with a spunge that the oile might stand most pure clear But afterward came vp the deuise to wash oliues first in hot water then immediatly to put them whole as they are into the presse for by that means they squize forth lees all and then anon to bruise and crush them in a mil so presse them in the end Moreouer it is not thought good to presse the second time aboue 100 Modij which is the full proportion of one pressure it is called Factus That which after the mil comes first is named the floure of the oile or the Mere-gout Lastly to presse 300 Modij is thought to be foure mens work ordinarily in one night and a day CHAP. VII ¶ Of Oile Artificiall IN Cato his time there was no artificiall Oiles I meane no other but that of the Oliue and tâ—…refore I suppose it was that he made no mention thereof but now adaies there be many kinds First will we treat of those that are made of trees and principally before all the rest of the oile of the wild oliue thin it is and much more bitter than that of the other gentle true Oliue but good for medicines onely Very like to it is that which is made of Chamelaea an herb or shrub growing in stony places to the heigth of a span no more with leaues and berries resembling those of the wild oliue The next is that which commeth of Cici or Ricinus i Palma Christi a plant which groweth plentifully in Aegypt which some call Croto others Trixis or wild Sesam but long it hath not been there In Spaine likewise this Ricinus is found of late to rise suddenly to the heigth of an Oliue tree bearing the stalke of Ferula or Fennel-Geant clad with leaues of the vine and replenished with seed resembling the graines or kernels of small and slender grapes and of a pale colour withall we in Latine call it Ricinus of the resemblance that the seed hath to a ticke which is a vermin that annoies sheepe For
greedily nibble thereupon vntill they haue made way and pierced into them and by that means let in at first the breath of the warme Sun and that comfortable and vegetatiue aire besides that helpeth to ripen them Soon after they suck vp and spend the milky humor which they find there and which keeps the figs still as it were in their infancie and hindreth their speedy and timely maturitie True it is that the figs in time would ripen of themselues by the power and benefit of Nature only how beit skilfull and industrious husbandmen take order alwaies to set these wild fig trees neere to the place where other fig trees grow but with due regard of the winde side that when the foresaid gnats breake forth and are ready to fly out a blast of wind might carry them to the other And hereupon came the deuise and inuention to bring whole swarms casts of them as they hang one to another from other places that they might settle vpon the figs to consume the raw moisture within Now if the soile be lean and hungry and the fig trees growing therupon exposed to the North wind there is no such need of this help for the figs will dry sufficiently of themselues by reason as well of the scituation of the place as the clifts and rifts in them which will effect that which the gnats or flies aboue named might performe The like effect is to be seen also where much dust is namely if a fig tree grow neere vnto a high-way much frequented and trauelled by passengers For the nature of dust is to dry and soke vp the superfluous moisture of the milke within figs. And therefore when they are thus dried whether it be by the meanes of dust or of the said flies feeding which is called Caprification they fall not from the tree so easily by reason they are discharged of that liquid substance which maketh them both tender and also ponderous weighty and brittle withall All figs ordinarily are tender and soft in handling Those which be ripe haue small graines within them their succulent substance besides when they begin to ripen is white like milke but when they are perfectly ripe it is of the colour of hony They will hang vpon the tree vntil they be old and when they are aged they yeeld a certain liquor which distilleth from them in maner of a gum and then in the end become dry The better sort of figs haue this honor and priuiledge to be kept in boxes and cases for the purpose and chiefly those which come from the Isle Ebusus which of all others are the very best and largest yea and next to them those that grow in the Marrucines country But where they are in more plenty they put them vp in great vessels called Orcae as namely in Asia also in barrels pipes as at Ruspina a city in Barbary And in very truth the people of those countries make that vse of them when they be very dry that they serue both for bread and meat For Cato setting downe an order for dyet and victuals fit and sufficient for labourers ordained that they should be cut short of their other pittance when figs are ripe and make vp their ful meals with it And it is not long since the manner came vp to eat fresh new figs with salt and poudered meats in stead of cheese And for to be eaten in this sort the figs called Coctana whereof we haue written before and the dried figges Caricae are commended as also the Cauneae which when M. Crassus should imbarque in that expedition against the Parthians wherein he was slain presaged ill fortune and warned him not to go forward namely when at the very instant that he was ready to set foot a ship-bord there was a fellow heard to cry those figs for to be sold pronouncing aloud Cauneas Cauneas which word in short speaking was all one with Cave ne eas i. Beware of this voiage and go it not All these sorts of figges L. Vitellius brought out of Syria into his ferm or manor that he had neere Alba hauing L. Gouernor or Lieutenant generall in those parts namely in the later end of Tiberius Caesar the Emperor and the same Vitellius was afterward Censor at Rome CHAP. XX. ¶ Of Medlars three kinds of them MEdlars and Seruices may well and truely be ranged in the ranke of Apples and Peares Medlars be of three sorts namely Anthedon Setania and the third which they call Gallicum i. the French Medlar which is of a bastard nature yet it resembles the Anthedon rather than the other As for the Setanian Medlar the fruit is greater and whiter than the rest also the kernels or stones within are of a more soft substance and not altogether so wooddy and hard The rest are smaller than these Setania or common Medlars but they haue a better smell and more odoriferous and withall will last longer The tree it selfe that beareth Medlars is reckoned among the greatest sort the leaues before they fall wax red the roots be many in number and run downe right deep into the ground by which meanes vnneth or verie hardly they be quite rooted vp This tree was not known in Italy by Cato's dayes CHAP. XXI ¶ Of Services foure kinds OF Seruices there be foure sundry sorts differing one from another for some of them are round like apples others pointed at the end as Peares a third kinde are fashioned like egs as some long or tankard apples and these are apt to be soon soure For sweet sent and pleasant tast the round excell all others the rest haue a rellish of wine The best kinde of them are they that haue soft tender leaues about their steles whereby they hang. The fourth sort they call Torminale allowed onely for the remedie that they affoord to mitigate the torments and wringing of the colique This tree is neuer without fruit howbeit the smallest of all the rest and differeth from the other for it beareth leaues very like to the Plane There are none of them that beare fruit before they be three yeares old Lastly Cato would haue Seruises to be preserued and condite in Cuit CHAP. XXII ¶ Of the Wall-nut THe next place to these for bignes the Walnuts doe challenge which they cannot claime for their credit and authoritie and yet they are in some request among other licentious and wanton Fescennine ceremonies at weddings for lesse they be than Pine nuts if a man consider the grosnesse of the body outwardly but in proportion therto they haue a much bigger kernel within Moreouer Nature hath much graced and honoured these nuts with a peculiar gift she hath endued them with namely a double robe wherewith they are clad the first is a tender and soft husk the next a hard and wooddy shel which is the cause that at mariages they serue for religious ceremonies resembling the manifold tunicles and membranes wherin the infant is lapped and enfolded within the
vnto him than if hee had preserued but a simple common souldier so hee were a Romane Citizen for the makers of these ordinances aimed chiefely at the life of a Citizen whosoeuer hee was without regard of any other circumstance Item Hee that was once crowned with this garland was endued also with these priuiledges That hee might weare it alwaies after whensoeuer it pleased him That so often as hee came in place of publicke playes or games men should accustomably rise vp vnto him yea and the verie Senatours themselues doe him honour in that sort That hee should haue his place allowed him to sit next vnto those of Senatours degree That both himselfe and also his father and grandsire by the fathers side should euer after bee exempt from all ciuile charges and inioy full immunitie Thus much concerning the lawes and priuiledges attending vpon the Ciuicke garland Siccius Dentatus as wee haue specified before receiued foureteene of these chaplets for his good seruice Manlius Capitolinus six and hee verily had one of them for rescuing Seruilius beeing Generall of the Armie As for Scipio Africanus hee refused this honour when it was offered and presented vnto him for sauing the life of his owne father at the iourney and battaile of Trebia O the excellent orders and customes of those times worthie of immortalitie and euerlasting memorie O the wisdome of men in those daies who assigned no other reward for so braue exploits and singular workes but honour onely And whereas all other militarie coronets they enriched and adorned with gold they would not set the life of a citizen at any price A plaine and euident profession of our ancestors and predecessors That it is an vnlawfull and shameful thing to seem for to saue a mans life in hope of any gaine and profit thereby CHAP. V. ¶ Of Mast thirteene kinds MAny nations there be euen at this day and such as inioy peace and know not what warre meaneth whose wealth and riches lyeth principally in Mast yea and elswhere in time of dearth and for want of other graine folke vse to dry their mast grind it into meale temper it with water and thereof make dough for bread Moreouer euen at this day throughout Spaine the manner is to serue vp acornes and mast to the table for a second seruice and sweeter it is being rosted vnder the cinders and ashes than otherwise Ouer and besides prouided it is by an expresse act and law of the twelue tables in Rome that a man may gather the mast that falleth from his owne trees into another mans ground Diuers and sundry sorts there be of Mast and their difference consisteth in the forme and fashion of the fruit in the site and scituation of the place in the sex and in the taste for the mast of the Beech tree is of one figure and making the Acorne which is the mast of the Oke another and the mast of the Holme or Ilex differeth from them both yea in euery one of these kinds they do vary one from another Also some are of trees growing wild others more milde and gentle louing places well tilled and ordered by husbandry Some like the hilly countries others the champaine and the plains Semblably there is mast comming from the male trees there is againe that groweth on the female In like maner the rellish tast maketh a difference and diuersity in mast The sweetest of all is the Beech mast for Cornelius Alexander reporteth That the inhabitants of Chios when they were streightly beleaguered indured the siege a long time by the benefit substance only of that mast We are not able distinctly to specifie name by name the sundry sorts of mast and the trees which beare the same considering that in euery countrey they alter their names for we see the Robur and the Oke to grow commonly euerie where but the Esculus is not so rife in all countries A fourth sort there is of the same kind that is not known ordinarily in most places of Italy We will therefore distinguish them according to their nature and properties yea and when need shall require by their Greeke names also CHAP. VI. ¶ Of the Beech mast and other Masts of Charcole and the feeding of Hogs THe Beech mast is like to the kernell of a Chestnut inclosed within a three cornered skin The leafe of the tree is thin and very light resembling that of the Poplar it turneth yellow passing soone In the middle whereof for the most part and in the vpper side it bringeth forth a little green berrie pointed sharpe at the toppe The mast of Beech Rats and Mice are much delighted in mark therfore when there is store of that mast ye shal haue as great increase of that vermin It will feed also Reremice or Dormice fat and the Ousels or Blackbirds take a great liking thereto and wil flie vnto it Lightly all trees are most fruitful one yere than another and beare most euery second yeare but aboue all Beeches keepe this course As touching Mast which properly is so called it groweth vpon the Robur the common Oke the Esculus Cerrus Ilex and Cork tree All kinds of mast are contained more or lesse within a rough cup which lieth close to the vtmost skin thereof claspeth it about The leaues of all these mast trees except the mast-Holme Ilex be heauy fleshie large waued or indented along the sides neither be they yellow when they fall as the Beech leaues are longer also or shorter according to the diuers trees whereupon they grow Of the Ilex or mast-Holme tree there be two sorts Those in Italy differ not much in leaâ—…e from the Oliue Some Greeks call them Smilaces but in other prouinces Aquifoliae The mast of Ilex both the one and the other is shorter and slenderer than of the rest Homer calleth it Acylon by which name he distinguisheth it from other mast The male Holmes men say beare no fruit The best mast and the biggest is the Acorn growing vpon the common Oke next to it is that of the Esculus as for that of the Robur it is but small The Cerrus carieth a mast vnpleasant to the eie and rough to be handled for clad it is with a cup beset with sharpe prickes like to the Chestnut shell Among the ver Acornes some haue a sweeter tast than others the female Oke beareth those that be more soft and tender the male tough thick and massie and the best simply are those that come of the broad leafed Oke for so it is called by reason of the large leaues Moreouer there is another difference in mast and acornes for some be bigger than others againe there are that haue thin and fine skins inclosing the kernel and ye shal find others for them as thick skinned likewise many of them are couered with a rough and rustie tunicle and as many againe do shew immediatly their bare white skin and naked fleshy substance Furthermore that mast is accounted good
among all good workmen That the best time to cut downe any timber is in the coniunction of the Moon with the Sun euen in the very day of the change before she sheweth new Certes Tiberius Caesar the Emperor gaue order to fel the Larch trees that came out of Rhoetia to repaire and re-edifie the bridge that serued to represent the shew of a naual battell vpon the water which fortuned to be consumed with fire iust at the change of the Moon Some say that we must precisely obserue the point of the conjunction and that the Moon withall be vnder the earth when such trees should be felled which cannot be but in the night But if it fall out besides that this conjunction or change of the Moone and the last day of the Winter Sun-stead meet together at one instant the timber then cut downe will last a world of yeares Next vnto it is that timber which is fallen in the daies and signes aboue rehearsed Others affirme moreouer that the rising of the Dog-star would be considered and chosen for this purpose for at such a time was that timber felled which serued for the stately hall or pallace of Augustus Moreouer for to haue good and profitable timber the trees would be cut down that are of a middle age for neither yong poles nor old runts are fit for durable building Furthermore there be that hold opinion that for to haue the better timber the trees should haue a kerfe to the very heart and pith round about and so let it stand an end still that all the humor by that means might run out before they be ouerthrowne and laid along And verily a wonderfull and miraculous thing is reported in old time during the first Punicke war against the Carthaginians namely that all the ships of that fleet which was conducted by Generall Duellius the high Admiral were shot into the sea and vnder saile within sixty daies after the timber whereof they were built was cut downe in the wood And L. Piso hath left in writing That against king Hiero there were 220 ships made furnished in 45 daies after the timber grew Also in the second Punick war the Armado which Scipio imploied was set aflote and bare saile forty daies after the fall of the timber See how forcible and effectuall in all things is the season and opportunitie of time duly taken especially when need driueth to make speed and hasten apace Cato the chiefe and only man of all others for experience and knowledge in euery thing in his treatise of all kind of timber to be imploied in building giues these rules following Make thy pressing plank especially of the black Sapine or Horn-beam tree Item Whensoeuer thou meanest to storke vp either Elme Pine Walnut tree or any other whatsoeuer for timber see thou dig it out of the ground in the wane of the Moon and that in the afternoon and take heed in any wise that the wind be not South Item The right season to fell a tree for timber is when the fruit is ful ripe Item Beware in any case that thou neither draw forth of the ground nor yet square a tree when the dew falleth And a little after Beware thou meddle not with timber trees but either at the change or full of the Moon And in no hand neither stork it vp then nor hew it hard to the ground But within foure daies after the full Moone plucke vp trees hardly for that is the best time Item Be well aduised that thou neither fell square nor touch with the ax any timber that is black vnlesse it be dry And meddle not with it if either it be frozen or full of dew Tiberius the Emperor aboue named obserued likewise the change of the Moon for cutting the haire both of head and beard And yet M. Varro gaue a rule That to preuent baldnesse and the shedding of haire the Barber should be sent for alwaies after the full Moon But to come again vnto our timber trees The Larch and Fir both but the Fir especially if they be cut down bleed a long time after and yeeld abundance of moisture Indeed these twain of all others be the tallest and grow most streight and vpright For Mast-poles and crosse saile-yards in ships the Fir or Deale is commended and preferred before all other for the smoothnes and lightnesse withall The Larch the Fir and the Pine haue this propertie common to them all To shew the graine of their wood running either parted in foure forked in twaine or single one by one For fine carpentry and Ioiners seeling within house the heart of the tree would be clouen or rent The quarter timber or that which runneth with foure grains is simply the best and more pleasant to be wrought than the rest They that be skilfull woodmen and haue experience in timber wil soon find at the first sight the goodnes of the wood by the very bark That part of the Fir tree which groweth next to the earth is without knots euen and plain the same is laid to soke and season in the water and afterwards the barke is taken off and so it commeth to be called Sapinus The vpper part is knotty and harder than the nether and the Latins name it Fusterna In sum what tree soeuer it be that side which regardeth the North is more strong and hard than the other And generally the wood of those trees that grow in moist and shadie places is worse contrariwise that which commeth from ground exposed to the Sun-shine is more fast and massie and withall endureth a long time And herupon it is that at Rome the Fir trees that come from the nether sea side out of Tuscane be in better request than those from Venice side vpon the coast of the vpper sea Moreouer there is great ods between Firre trees in regard of diuers Countries and Nations where they grow The best are those of the Alps and the Apennine hills Likewise in France there are excellent good Firs vpon the mountains Iura and Vogesus as also in Corsica Bithinia Pontus and Macedonia A worse kind of them grow in Arcadia and about the mountaines neare Aenea The worst be those of Pernassus Euboea for in those parts they be ful of boughs and grow twined besides they soone doe putrifie and rot As for Cedars the best simply be those that grow in Candy Affricke and Syria This vertue hath the oile of Cedar That if any wood or timber be thoroughly anointed therewith it is subject neither to worme nor moth ne yet to rottennesse The Iuniper hath the same propertie that the Cedar They proue in Spaine to be exceeding big and huge the Berries also greatest of all others And wheresoeuer it grows the heart thereof is more sound than the Cedar A generall fault and imperfection there is common to all wood When the graine and the knots run into round balls and such they call in Latin Spirae Also in some
he is that hee beareth downe before him the roofe of many a house and carrieth it cleane away CHAP. III. ¶ The societie of the skie and aire with the earth respectiue to trees SOme men do force the skie for to be obedient conformable to the earth as namely when planting in dry grounds they haue regard to the East and North and contariwise when in moist places they respect the South Moreouer it falleth out that they be driuen otherwhiles to follow the nature of the very Vines and thereby to be ruled wherupon in cold ground they plant such as be of the hastie kind and soone ripen their grapes to the end that they may come to their maturity and perfection before cold weather comes As for such Vines and trees bearing fruit as canot abide dews those they set in to the East that the Sun may soon dispatch and consume the said dew but looke what trees do loue dewes and like well therewith those they will be sure to plant against the West or at leastwise toward the North to the end they may inioy the full benefit thereof All others againe grounding in manner vpon natural reason only haue giuen counsell to set as well Vines as Trees into the Northeast And Democritus verily is of this mind that such fruits will bee more pleasant and odoriferous CHAP. IIII. ¶ The quality of sundrie regions AS touching the proper seat of the Northeast wind and of all other winds we haue spoken already in the second booke and our purpose is in the next following to treat of the rising and falling of signes and notable stars of other Astronomical points also concerning heauen Now in the mean time for this present it is sufficient that in the former rule of the North wind we seem to rest and resolue vpon the apparent and euident argument of the wholesome and healthfull climate of the heauen forasmuch as we see that euermore all such trees as stand into the South soonest shed their leaues the same reason also is to be giuen of those that grow vpon the sea coasts and albeit in some places the winds blowing from thence and the very aire of the sea be hurtfull yet in most parts the same are good and profitable Certaine plants and trees there are which take pleasure to be remot from the sea and ioy to haue the sight of it only a farre off set them neerer to the vapors and exhalations ascending from thence they will take harm and mislike therewith The like is to be said of great riuers lakes and standing pooles As for those which we haue spoken of they either burn their fruit with such mists or refresh and coole such as be hot with their shade yea take joy and prosper in the frost and cold And therfore to conclude this point the surest way is to beleeue trust vpon experience thus much for this present concerning the heauen our next discourse will be of the Earth and Soile the consideration whereof is no lesse difficult to be handled than the other First and formost all grounds are not alike good for trees and most kinds of corne For neither the black mould such as Campain standeth vpon much as in all places best for Vines or that which â—…umeth and sendeth vp small and thin mists neither is the red veine of earth any better how soeuer there be many that commend it The white earth or chalkie marle the clay also within the territory of Alba and Pompeij for a vineyard are generally preferred before all other countries although they be exceeding fat which in that case is otherwise vsually reiected On the other side the white sand about * Ticinum likewise the blacke mould or grit in many places as also the red sandy ground although it be wel mingled tempred with fat earth are all of them nothing to the purpose for increase fruitfulnesse And herein must men take heed because oftentimes their judgement may faile when it goeth but by the eie for wee must not streight waies conclude that the ground is rich battle wheron we see goodly faire tall trees to grow vnlesse it be for those trees only for where shal we meet with any higher than the Fir is there a tree again that possibly can liue where it doth No more is rank grasse plentifull forrage a true token alwaies of a good ground for there is no better pasture nor grasing to be found than in Almaine and yet dig but vp the greene sourd and the thinnest coat of turfe that may be ye shal presently come to barren sand vnder it ne yet is it by by a moist ground that hath vpon it deepe grasse and hearbes shooting vp in height no more verily than a fat and rich soile is knowne by sticking to one fingers as appeareth plainly in all sorts of clay And verily no earth doth fill vp the trenches euen againe out of which it was cast that therby a man might find out whether the ground be sad or hollow and generally all sorts thereof will cause yron to rust that shal be put into it Moreouer there is no weighing of earth in ballance to know by that means which is lighter or heauier for who could possibly euer set down the iust weight that earth should haue Againe the ground that is cast vp into banks by the ouerflow of great riuers is not alwaies commendable seeing that some plants there be that decay if they be set in water And say that some such bank were ground good enough yet it continueth not so long vnlesse it be for Willowes and oisiers onely But if you would know a rich ground indeed one of the best arguments and signes therof is this when you see it to bring forth a thick strong haulme or straw such as vsually groweth in that noble territorie Laborine within Campaine which is of that bignesse that the people of the country vse it for fewell in stead of wood Now this ground so good as it is where whensoeuer we haue found it is hard enough to be tilled and requireth great labour and husbandry putting the poore husbandman to more paines in manner with that goodnesse of it than possibly he could haue with any defects and imperfections thereof For euen the hot earth called by the name of Carbunculus which vseth to burn the corne sown therupon may be helped remedied as it is thought by setting it with plants of poore hungry vines The rough grauell stone which naturally will crumble as grit many writers there bee that allow and commend for vines As for Virgil he findeth no fault with the ground that beareth fern and brake for a Vineyard The earth that is brackish and standeth much vpon salt pâ—…tre is thought to be more found for many plants than others and in regard of vermine that vse to breed therein much safer also Neither do high banks and hils remaine vntilled and naked for want of
swine is most commended only Columella condemneth it Some praise the mucke of any foure-footed beasts whatsoeuer so they were fed with Tree-trifolie called Cytisus Others prefer the doung of Pigeons before any other in the second place that of Goats thirdly of sheepe then of kine and oxen and lastly of cart-jades mules asses and such like Thus you see as well what difference there was in times past between this dung and that as also what were the rules so farre as I can guesse and learne whereby they went in the vse and ordering thereof for to say a truth the old way is best euen herein as well as in other matters Ouer and besides the practise hath bin already seen in some of our prouinces where there is so great store of cattell bred to riddle and sift their dung ouer their ground through sieues in manner of meale and so in processe of time it loseth not only the stinking sent and ill-fauored sight that it had but also turneth into a pleasant smel and looketh louely withall Of late found it hath been by experience that Oliue trees doe like and prosper very well if the ashes of lime-kills especially be laid to their roots Varro among many other precepts addeth and saith That corne grounds would be manured with hors-dung because it is the lightest but medowes require compost that is heauier and namely made by beasts that haue barley for their prouender for that such soile bringeth plentie of grasse Some there bee aâ—…so that preferre the dung made by horses before the mucke of kine and Oxen likewise sheeps treddles before Goats dung but Asses mucke before all other because they eat and chew their meat most leisurely But daily experience teacheth the contrary and testifieth against the one and the other And thus much as touching compost of mucke Furthermore all men are of opinion that nothing is better for the ground than to sow Lupines therupon prouided alwaies that before it cod it be turned into the ground by the plough spade or two-piked yron forke also when it is cut down to make it into wads or bottles and so to bury them at the roots of trees and vines especially In countries where there are no cattell to better the lands it is thought good to manure the same in stead of beasts dung with very hawme straw and ferne Cato hath a deuise to make an artificiall mucke or compost of litter lupine straw chaffe beane stalks leaues and branches both of Mast-holm and oke He saith moreouer to the same purpose Weed out of the standing corn Walwort otherwise called Danewort and Hemlock also from about oâ—…er-plots plucke vp ranke weeds or ground Elder also Reeke or Sea-grasse and dead leaues or branches lying rotten vnder trees when thou haste so done strew and lay a course of them vnder sheep where they be folded Item If the Vine begin to decay and wax leane burne the shreads and cuttings of the owne and turne the ashes vnder ground hard to the roots thereof Item where thou meanest to sow any wheat or such like bread-corn draw thy sheep thither and there fold them He saith moreouer that the sowing of some graine is as good as a dunging to the ground for these be his very words The fruit it selfe of the earth is a batling to the earth and namely Lupines Beans and Vetches for they muck the lands like as on the contrary side Chiches do burn the ground both because they are plucked and also for that they stand vpon salt Semblably doth Barley Foenigreeke Eruile and generally all kind of pulse which are pulled and not mowne downe Item Take heed quoth Cato that you set no pepins or kernels where you meane to sow corne As for Virgil he is of opinion that the sowing of Line-seed for flax likewise of Otes and Poppies do burne corne-ground and pill it out of heart He also giueth rules as touching mucke-hills That they should be made in the open aire within some hollow place where it may gather water that they be couered ouer with straw and litter for feare they should dry in the Sun and last of all that they haue a good strong stake of Oke pitched and driuen in about the mids thereof for so there will no snakes nor such like serpents breed and ingender therein Moreouer as touching the spreading of mucke and mingling it with the mould of a land it is exceeding good to do it when the winde setteth full West so that the Moon then be past the full and in the Waine But this rule many haue mistaken and not construed aright supposing that they should so do when the Western wind Fauonius beginneth to rise and namely in the moneth of Februarie only whereas indeed most cornlands require this point of husbandry in other moneths as wel But looke what time soeuer you list to do it be sure in any hand that the wind do then blow from the Equinoctiall point of the West and that the moone then be in the waine and drie withall Haue regard to these rules and obseruations you will wonder to see the effects thereof and what increase the earth thereby will yeeld CHAP. X. ¶ The planting and setting of trees the manner how trees do grow by a Sion sliued and plucked from the root NOw that we haue already sufficiently treated of the considerations as well of the aire and skie as of the earth belonging vnto plants and trees me thinks it were to good purpose to discourse of the industry and artificiall meanes that men haue vsed to make trees grow and verily we shall find no fewer kinds of them that come by mans hand than of such as nature it selfe hath brought forth so kind and thankfull we haue bin to her as to make recompence in this behalfe First and formost therefore this is to be noted That all trees do grow either of seed sowne or of branches growing to the tree and couched in the ground or of an old stocke from whence new imps may sprout also either of a slip or sprig plucked from another tree and so laid in the ground or of a young shoot twig impe or Sion engraffed in the very trunk of a tree slit and clouen for that purpose For I cannot chuse but maruell much at Trogus who was verily persuaded That about Babylon the leaues onely of Date trees beeing set or sowne would prooue trees Now whereas there be so many deuises abouesaid for to nourish trees this you must vnderstand that some trees there be which will grow by many of these waies before specified and others by them all And verily the most part of this knowledge hath beene taught by Nature her selfe for first of all we haue learned by her for to sow seed by occasion that we haue seen some to fall from trees which being receiued by the ground haue chitted taken root and liued And in very truth some trees there be that grow no otherwise as Chestnut and Walnut-trees excepting
backward vnder the ground And hereupon it is that folke forbeare either to go at all vpon it or else they tread very lightly Being thus sowed it must be gently watered for three daies following after the Suns setting that the earth may drinke equally in all places vntill the sprouts appeare aboue ground Now after they haue had a yeares growth they be translated and re-planted againe in rewes for by that time they are come to a span or nine inches in height but great care must be had that the time be temperat that is to say that the weather be fresh and faire without any wind Certes a wonderfull thing it is to be spoken that all the danger or security of this tree standeth vpon the choice of that only day wherein it is replanted for let there fall neuer so smal a rain or dew nay let the wind blow neuer so little it is a great hasard whether it will die For euer after it is warished and safe enough howbeit it cannot abide a glut of rain at any time following Moreouer as touching Iujubes they are likewise set of their graines in the moneth of Aprill But that kinde of Peaches or Abricots which be called Tuberes loue better to be graffed either vpon a skeg or wilde Plum-stocke or Quince or else vpon the wild Hart-Rhamme called Calabricum or Spina Cervina To knit vp this discourse the fruit Sebesten and the Servises may be graffed and planted both vpon the same kind of stocke and looke what will beare the one is apt to receiue the other CHAP. XI ¶ The manner of translating or replanting out of one seminarie or nource-garden vnto another How Elmes are to be planted Also as touching trenches SOme would haue vs to remoue plants out of one seminarie into another before they be set indeed where they should be for to continue which me-thinkes is a matter of more toile and curiositie than necessitie howsoeuer they make promise that by such transplanting the leaues will proue larger and broader Now for Elms their seed or grain is to be gathered about the Calends of March when it beginneth to turn yellow and before the leaues break forth After it hath bin dried in the shadow for two daies it is to be sown thick in a plot of ground well broken vp and laid hollow beforehand and then must there be mould searced ouer through a fine riddle to the same thickenesse as we haue appointed for the Cypres In case no raine do fall in due time it ought to be watered by hand After one yere the plants that come herof must be taken vp out of the trenches and ranges wherein they came vp and translated directly into the Elme plots where they are to grow with this care good regard that they stand a foot at least euery way distant one from another As for the male Elmes vnto which Vines are wedded because they are without seed it is better they were planted in the Autumne and for that they want seed they would be set of plants Here with vs about Rome â—…de they vse to replant them again in their groue-plots when they be fiue yeares old or as some would haue it so soon as they be come to 20 foot in height The maner whereof is this in a trench or ditch called Novenarius 3 foot deep in the ground and as many broad or rather more they are set which done for three foot in height euery way about the foot of each tree from the ground as it stands there must be banks raised of some earth after the maner of those seats which they cal Arulae in Campanie As for the spaces between tree and tree they ought to be set out and disposed according to the nature and scituation of the place and as the ground wil giue leaue In the champion and plain country those would be planted that are of a drier nature and likewise in a thinner course As for Ashes and Poplars because they make hast to spring leafe and bud out betimes it is meet that their plants likewise were set and ranged with the first that is to say about the Ideas of Februarie for they also grow of plants and may well be replanted Now for the order of setting trees either in groues hort-yards or vine-yards wee ought to follow the vsuall maner of checquer row called Quincuntial which is not so common but it is also as necessarie not only good to admit all kindes of winde to passe betweene but also faire and pleasant to the eye considering that which way soeuer a man looks there offer to his sight both the allies and rewes directly ranged in order The Opiets or Wich-Hazels are sown of seed after the same maner as Elme in like sort also are they to be remoued transplanted out of their nource-plots as if they were wild drawn from the very forrests Moreouer aboue all things this would be considered that a tree to be remoued ought to be translated either into the like ground from whence it came or else into a better For we must take heed how we remoue plants out of warme grounds where the fruit is early ripe into others that be colder or late in ripening Semblably out of cold hard places they would not be translated into warm mellow and forward Item if it be possible let the trenches be cast and digged so long before that a good thicke green sourd be ouergrowne against the time that you mean to plant Mago is of opinion That the said trenches should stand made a yeare before at the least that they might be fully seasoned with the Sun and receiue all rain winde weather throughly But in case it fall out otherwise that the opportunitie thereof be ouerslipt oâ—… our leisure wil not serue he would haue fires to be made in the midst of them two moneths before and in no case any trees to be set but after showres of rain And if the ground be tough or hard and standing vpon the cley the ditches ought according to Mago for to be three cubits deepe euery way and if they be toplant plum trees he would haue them be a hand-bredth more or spanne in deapth and digged on euery side hollow and vaulted in manner of a fournace with a narrower mouth in the top In a blacke veine of ground by his direction it is sufficient that they be two cubites and a hand-breadth or spanne deepe and made foure-square in manner of a quadrangle In the measure and proportion of these ditches the Greeke writers doe accord in one saying that they ought not to be more than two foot and a halfe deepe nor wider than two foot bare also that in no place it must be vnder a foot and a halfe deepe for that in a moist soile we shal come ordinarily neer to water about that skantlin and not before But Cato is of another judgment If quoth he the place be waterish let the trenches be
said graffe remain bound vntill such time as it haue put forth shoots two foot long and then the foresaid bands to be cut in sunder that they may burnish in thicknes and at ease accordingly The season which they haue allowed for to graffe vines is from the Equinoctial in Autumne vnto the time that they begin to bud forth Generally all trees that are tame and gentle may wel be graffed into stocks and roots of the wild which by nature are dryer contrariwise grasse the wild and sauage kind vpon the other you shal haue all degenerate and become wild Touching other points belonging to the seat of graffing all dependeth vpon the goodnesse or malignitie of the sky and weather In sum a dry season is good for all trees graffed in this maner and say that the drought were excessiue there is a good remedie for it namely to take certain earthen pots of ashes and to let water distill through them softly by little and little to the root of the stock As for inoculation it loueth small dewes otherwhiles to refresh both stock scutcheon and Oilet CHAP. XVI ¶ Of Emplastration or graffing with the Scutcheon THe manner of graffing by way of emplaistre or scutcheon may seeme also to haue come from inoculation and this deuise agreeth best with those trees that haue thick barks as namely Fig trees To goe therefore artificially to worke the mother stocke or tree to be graffed must be well rid and clensed from the branches all about the place where you mean to practise this feat because they should not suck the sap from thence and chuse the nearest and frimmest part which seems most fresh and liuely then cut forth a scutcheon of the barke but be careful that your instrument pierce no farther than the bark nor enter into the quick wood which done take from another tree the like scutcheon of the bark sauing the eye or bud thereon and set it in the place of the other but so equall this must be to the place and so close ioyned and vnited to it that a man may see no token at all or apparance in the ioynt of any wound or skar made to the end that presently they may concorporat that no humor of the sap may issue forth nor so much as any wind get between and yet to make sure work the better way is to lute it well and close with clay and then to bind it fast This deuice of graffing thus with the scutcheon was but lately found out by their saying that fauor all new and modern inuentions howbeit I find that the antient Greeks haue written thereof yea and Cato also our own Countryman who ordained to graffe both Oliue and Fig tree in that order and as he was a man verie diligent and curious in all things that he tooke in hand he hath set downe the iust measure and proportion of the scutcheon for he would haue the barks both the one and the other to be cut out with a chisell foure fingers long and three in bredth and so to close vp all in manner aforesaid that they might grow together and then to be dawbed ouer with that mortar of his making aforesaid after which maner Apple trees also may be graffed Some there be who haue intermingled and comprehended vnder this kinde of graffing with the scutcheon that deuise of making in the side a cleft and namely in vines for they take forth a little square piece with the bark and then set in an impe very hard close on that side where it is plain and euen to the very marow or pith Certes neere to Thuliae in the Tyburtines country I haue seen a tree graffed all these waies abouesaid and the same laden with all manner of fruits one bough bearing Nuts another berries here hung Grapes there Figs in one part you should see Peares in another Pomegranats and to conclude no kind of Apple or other fruit but there it was to be found mary this tree liued not long Howbeit let vs vse what diligence we can yet neuer shal we able with all our experiments to attain vnto the depth of Natures secrets For some Trees there be that come vp of themselues and by no art and industry of man wil be made to grow such also loue ordinarily to be in wild forests and in rough desarts where they prosper well wheras the Plane tree wil beare all manner of graffing best of any other and next vnto it the wild and hard Oke but both the one and the other corrupt and mar the tast of what fruit soeuer is graffed thereupon Some trees there be that refuse not to be ingraffed vpon any stock and what way soeuer they be graffed it skils not as fig trees and Pomgranat trees As for the Vine it will not beare the scutcheon neither any Tree besides that hath a thin barke or which doth pill and rift no nor such as be dry or haue small store of sap within them can away with inoculation Howbeit this maner of graffing is most fruitfull of all other and next vnto it that which is done by way of scutcheon or emplastre yet trees so graffed be of all others most tender and feeble as also such as rest and stay vpon the bark only are with the least wind that is soonest displanted and laid along on the ground The surest and strongest way therefore is to graffe imps vpon the head of a stocke yea and more plentifull by far than to sow them of seed or plant them otherwise CHAP. XVII ¶ An historie shewing the example and proofe hereof IN this discourse and question concerning grafts I cannot passe ouer the rare obseruation of one example practised by Corellius a Knight of Rome borne at Ateste This Gentleman of Rome in a ferme that he had within the territorie of Naples chanced to graffe a Chestnut with an imp cut from the same tree This graft tooke and bare faire Chestnuts and pleasant to the tast which of him took their name After the decease of this gentleman his heire who had bin somtime his bondslaue and by him infranchised graffed the foresaid Corellian Chestnut tree a second time and certainly between them both was this difference The former Corellian bare the more plenty but the nuts of the other twice graffed were the better As for other sorts of graffing or planting mans wit hath deuised by obseruing that which hath fallen out by chance thus are we taught to set broken boughs into the ground when we saw how stakes pitched into the earth tooke root Many trees are planted after that maner and especially the Fig tree which will grow any way saue only of a little cutting but best of all if a man take a good big branch thereof sharpen it at the end in manner of a stake and so thrust it deepe into the ground leauing a small head aboue the ground and the same couered ouer with sand The Pomegranate likewise and the Myrtles are set
manner of waies for either the roots be laid ouertwhart or acrosse and but shallow within the ground and look how many eies there be in the root so many plants wil spring aboue the earth or els they be pitched down right within a graue or trench of a foot depth so as there be two eies or buds vnder the ground the third aboue but close and meet with it but this caueat is to be giuen that the head thereof may bend forward toward the earth for feare that it drinke in any dew which might stand and settle vpon it This also is obserued that they be cut euer in the wane of the Moone as also before that they are imploied about Vineyards for to beare vp vines they would haue a whole yeares drying for such are more profitable than the greene The best staies to beare vp Vines are made of the Chestnut tree for why the wood is gentle and tractable tough withall and induring long besides it hath this property that cut it when you list it will spring againe more plentifully than any willowes It loueth to grow in a gentle and sandy ground but principally if the same stand vpon a moist grauell or a hot earth full of little pebbles and namely where there is good store of such soft stones as will soone crumble into grit neither makes it any matter how much the place be shadowed nor how cold and exposed to the Northern winds for such it liketh well enough yea although it be the side or hanging of an hill as bleake and cold as may be But contrariwise it may not abide the red French earth the chalkie or marle ground nor in one word any that is battle or fruitfull Set it is of a Nut as we haue before said but it commeth not vp vnlesse there be fiue in a heape piled together and those of the fairest biggest sort Moreouer the plot wherin you mean to haue Chestnuts grow must be ouvertly broken vp aloft from between Nouember and Februarie in which time the Nuts vse to be loose and to fall of themselues from the tree and spring vnderneath finding the ground light and hollow vnder them Betwixt each heape set in manner aforesaid there ought to be a foot space euery way and the trench wherein they be set of a span depth out of this plot as out of a seminary and nource-garden these yong plants are to be translated into another and then they must be set two foot asunder Howbeit they ought to be aboue two yeres old first before they be remoued and replanted Moreouer a man may increase Chestnut-trees by propagation to wit by couching and trenching the branches therof as they grow to the mother and there is not another tree againe that sooner taketh that way than it doth for the root thereof being laid bare the whole branch must bee interred along in the trench made for the purpose leauing out the end only aboue ground Thus shall you haue one tree spring from it and another from the root Howbeit planted in this wise it loueth not to be transplanted it cannot lodge elsewhere but dreadeth and hateth all change of soile and therefore such plots of ground as do affoord coppises of Chest-nut trees are stored with plants comming of marrons or nut-kernels rather than quicke-sets or plants set with the root For the ordering and dressing of them there is no other labour required than the others before rehearsed namely for the two first yeares inseing to dig the ground loose about their roots and to proine or cut away the superfluous twigs for euer after they will shift well enough manure themselues by reason that their owne shade will kill those superfluous water-shoots that spring out either from the root or the sides of the tree A coppise of these trees is cut ordinarily within euery seuenth yere and one acre of them will yeeld props enough for to serue a vineyard of twenty acres for besides that one pole of them will abide to be clouen and make two props apeece they will last very well vntill the next fall of the wood or coppis be past Moreouer the Mast-tree called Esculus is planted and commeth vp in like sort howbeit passing vntoward and vnwilling they are to grow and therefore they stand ten yeres at least before they be cut and lopped Set Acorns of this tree Esculus whersoeuer you please they wil surely take and come vp but the trench must be a span deep and the Acornes two foot asunder And foure times a yeare are they to be lightly * raked and clensed from weeds A forke or prop made of this wood lasteth very well and rotteth not and in very truth the more that the tree it selfe is cut and mangled the better it springeth and putteth forth new shoots Ouer and besides these trees abouenamed there be others that vse to be cut and lopped for Vine props and staies to wit the Ash the Bay tree the Peach and Hazell tree yea and the Apple tree but these are all of them lateward and slow of growth neither will they indure so well without rotting if they stand any time in the ground and much lesse will they abide any weâ—… But on the othe side the Elder tree of all others is most firme for to make poles and stakes of It wil grow of sions and imps euen as the Poplar As for the Cypresse tree we haue of it spoken sufficiently already CHAP. XXI ¶ The manner and skill of husbanding and dressing Vineyards NOw that we haue treated sufficiently of the instruments furniture and tackling as it were belonging to Vineyards it remaineth to speake of the nature of vines and to deliuer with especiall regard the manuring and dressing them According therefore as wee may see in Vines and some other trees which haue within them a spungeous matter and light substance their twigs and branches do containe a kind of marrow or pith inclosed between certain knots or ioints wherewith their stalkes are diuided and parted As for the fistulous concauities they are but short all of them and toward the top shorter and shorter but euermore betweene two knots they inclose the ioints aforesaid Now this marow this vegetatiue and vitall substance I say call it whether you wil runneth forward stil on end al the length of the hollow kex or pipe so long as it findeth no resistance by the way but meeting once with a ioint or hard knot which maketh head vpon it not suffering the same to passe forward it beeing driuen backe returneth downward howbeit in that reuerberation breaketh out vnder those knots and putteth foorth certaine wings or pinnions like arme-pits whereas the buds or leaues doe come but alwaies in alternatiue course one of this side another of that after the maner of reeds canes and fennellgeant as hath bin shewed before in such wise that if one wing â—…ise forth at the bottome of the lower knot on the right hand another
edge vpward fetch vp the eies budding out beneath thus by pruning although they seem to do hurt and wrong vnto them yet they draw them to shoot out the longer by the meanes for in good faith the more profitable way it is thus to vse acquaint it with bearing branches lustily and far better and easier is it besides to cut away these yong imps as the vine lieth fast joined to the frame vntill such time as a man think it be strong enough of the wood Oâ—…hers there are who in no case would haue a vine touched or medled witâ—…all the next yeare after that it is remooued into the vine-yard noâ—… yet to feele the edge oâ—… the cutting â—…ooke vntill it haue fiue yeres ouer the head mary then they agree it should be pruned guelded of all the wood it hath saue only three burgeons You shal haue some againe that will indeed cut them the very next yere after they be replanted but so as they may win euery yere three or foure ioints and when they be foure yeres old and not before they giue them liâ—…erty to climbe vpon the frame But this I assure you is the next way to make the vine fructifie slowly and late besides it causeth it to seem scortched and full of knots yea and to grow like a dwarfe or wreckling The best simply is to suffer the stocke or mother to bee strong first and afterwards let the branches and yong imps hardly be as forward and audacious as they will Neither is it safe trusting 〈◊〉 which is full of cicatrices or skarres a thing that proceeds of great errour and an vnskilfull hand for surely all such branches grow of hurts or wounds and spring not one jot from the mother stock indeed for all the while that shee gathereth strength her whole vertue remaineth within her but when she is suffered to grow and fructifie she goeth throughly to worke and emploieth her forces full and whole to bring forth that which yeerely shee conceiued for Nature produceth nothing by halfes nor by peece-meale but is deliuered of all at once Well then after that a vine is once full grown and strong enough let it presently run vpon perches or be led in a traile vpon a frame but in case it bee yet with the weakest let it be cut againe and take vp her lodging hardly beneath vnder the very frame for in this point the question is not what Age but what Strength it hath for that is it which must rule all And verily great folly and rashnesse it were to put a vine to it and let her haue the will to grow ranke before she be as big full as a mans thumbe The next yere after that it is gotten to the frame there would be saued and let to grow one or two branches according to the strength and ability of the mother let the same the yere following also be preserued nourished and permitted to grow on end vnlesse her feeblenesse be against it but when the third yeare is come and not afore be bold to giue her the head with two branches more and neuer let her goe but with foure at the most In one word hold a vine downe as much as you can neuer cocker and cherish her but rather represse her fruitfulnesse for of this nature is the vine Rather than her life she would be alwaies bearing neither taketh she such pleasure to liue long as to beare much and therefore the more you take away of her ranke and superfluous wood the better will she imploy her radicall sap and moisture to fructifie and yeeld good store of grapes yet by her good will she would be euer putting forth branches for new plants rather than busie in bearing fruit for well woteth she that fruit will fall and is but transitory Thus to her owne vndoing and ouerthrow while shee thinketh to spread and gaine more ground shee spends her strength her selfe and all Howbeit in this case the nature of the soile will guide a man and advise him well in a lean and hungry ground although the vine be strong enough you ought to keep it downe with cutting that it may make abode vnder the head of the traile and frame aboue and howsoeuer she may haue some hope that her young branches may get vp to the top as being at the very point to mount aboue it and so neare as that they reach therevnto yet let her stay there and proceed no farther suffer her not I say to lay her head thereupon and couch vpon the traile nor wantonly to spread and run on at her â—…ase In this manner I say hold her head in with the bridle that she may in the end chuse rather to grow big in body strong withall than to shoot forth branches about her euery way far and neare The same branch now that is kept short of the frame ought to haue two or three buds to burgen at and to bring forth more wood in time and then let it be drawne and trained close vnto the traile and tied fast thereto that it might seeme to beare vpon it and be supported thereby and not to hang loosely thereupon Being thus bound to the frame it must likewise be tied anon three buds or joints off for by this means also the wood is reclaimed and repressed from running out in length beyond all measure and the burgeons in the way between will come thicker shoot vpon heigth to furnish the husbandman with store of new sets and sions for the next yeare The very top end in no wise must be tied Certes this property and qualitie hath the vine That what part soeuer of it is dejected and driuen downward or els bound and tied fast the same ordinarily beareth fruit and principally in that very place where it is bowed and bent in manner of an arch As for the other parts which be backeward and neerer to the old maine stocke they send out store of new branches indeed full of wood but otherwise fruitlesse that yeare by reason I suppose verily of the spirit or vegetatiue life and that marrow or pith where of wee speake before which findeth many stops and lets in the way How be it these new shoots thus putting forth will yeeld fruit the next yere Thus there offer vnto vs two kinds of vine branches for that which springeth out of the hard and old wood and promiseth for that yeare following nothing but sprigs and twigs onely is called Pampinarium whereas that which commeth more forward beyond the cup or cicatrice and beareth shew of grapes is named Fructuarium As for another springing from a yeare-old branch it is left alwaies for a breeder and kept short vnder the frame as also that which they terme Custos i. the Keeper or Watch a young branch this is and no longer than it may well carry three buds which the next yeare is like to beare wood and repaire all in case the old vine stocke should miscarry and
bare the roots only of the vines and lay dung thereto The second deluing they would haue to be from the Ides of Aprill and six daies before the Ides of May that is before they begin to conceiue and bud and thirdly before they fall to blossome also when they haue done flouring and also at the time when the grapes alter their hew But the more skilfull and expert husbands affirme constantly That if the ground be ouermuch laboured and digged too often the grapes will be so tender skinned that they will burst againe Moreouer these rules following are to bee obserued That when any vines do require such deluing and digging the laborers ought to goe to worke betimes before the heat of the day mary if the vineyard stand vpon a mirie clay it is not good then either to eare or dig it but rather to wait for the hot season for the dust that riseth by digging is very good by their saying both to preserue the vine and grapes from the partching Sun and also to defend them against the dropping mists As for disburgening of vines and clensing them of their superfluous leaues all men accord that it should be done once in the Spring to wit after the Ides of May for the space of eleuen daies following and in any hand before they begin to put forth floure And how much thereof must be thus diffoiled for the first time euen all that is vnder the traile or frame no more As for the second men be not all of one minde some would haue the leaues to be disbranched when the vine hath done flouring others expect vntill the grapes begin to be ripe But as touching these points the rules that Cato giueth wil resolue vs for we are now also to shew the maner of cutting and pruning vines Many men begin this worke immediatly after vintage when the weather is warm and temperat but indeed by course of Nature this should neuer be done before the rising of the Aegle star as we will more at large declare in the next booke where we are to treat of the rising and fall of the fixed stars and of their influences or rather in truth when the Westerne wind Fauonius beginneth to blow forasmuch as there might be danger in going ouer soon to work considering that hast commonly maketh wast For this is certain that if there come an after-winter and chance to bite the vines newly medicined as it were or rather fore with this pruning if it happen I say that when euery man makes reckoning that winter is gon it come vpon them againe and whiske with his taile their buds pinched with cold will lose their vigor their wounds will cleaue and make rifts in such sort that when the humidity is distilled and dropped forth the oilets wil be nipt and burnt away with the bitternesse of the vnseasonable weather for who knoweth not that in frost it is ticklish medling with vines and that they be in danger soon to breake and knap asunder To say therefore a truth by order of Nature there would not be such hast made But here is the matter they that haue a large domaine and much lands to look vnto they that must go through a great deale of work cannot wil nor chuse but begin betimes and make this computation and reckoning aforesaid And in one word the sooner that vines be pruned if the time wil serue commodiously the more they run into wood and leaues and contrariwise the later you go to work the more plenty of grapes they wil yeeld and therefore it is meet and expedient to prune vines that be poore and feeble very timely but such as be strong and hardy last of all As for the manner and fashion of the cut it ought alwaies to be aslant like a goats foot that no drops of raine may settle and rest thereupon but that euery shower may soon shoot off also that it turn downeward to the ground that it be euen and smooth made with a keen and sharpe edged bill or cutting hook Furthermore this heed would be taken that the cut be iust between two buds for feare of wounding any of the oylets neere vnto that part which is cut off and commonly this is supposed to be blacke and duskish and so long as it is so seen it ought to be cut and cut again vntill you come to that which is sound and cleare indeed for neuer shall yee haue out of a faulty and corrupt wood any thing come forth that will bee worth ought If the vine be so poore and lean that it affordeth no branches meet and sufficient to beare cut it down to the verie ground for best it is then to fetch new from the root and to see whether they will be more liuely Ouer and beside in disburgening and desoiling a vine you must beware how you pluck off those burgeons that are like to beare the grape or to go with it for that were the next way to supplant as it were the grapes â—…ea and kill the vine vnlesse it were a new and yong plant Will you then know which are vnprofitable and may be spared euen all those are deemed superfluous which are come not directly from the knot or neere oilet but grow out of the side and no maruell since that the verie branches of grapes which hang in this manner out of the hard wood are so stiffe and tough also that vnneth a man may plucke them off with his fingers but had need of a knife or hook to cut them away As for the pitching of props into the ground some are of opinion that the best way is to set them between two vines and indeed that were the easier way to come about the vines for to lay their roots bare when time serueth Also better it is far so to doe in a vineyard where the vines run vpon one single traile in case the said traile be strong enough and the vineyard not subiect to the danger of winds but where a vine runneth foure waies it must be relieued with prop and stayes as neer as may be to support the burden yet so as they be no hinderance when as men should come about the foot to lay the root bare and therefore they would be a cubit off and no more Moreouer this is a general rule that a vine be clensed about the root beneath before that it be pruned aboue Cato treating generally of all maters concerning vines writeth thus by way of rule and precept Let your vine quoth he be as high as possibly you can fasten it to the frame decently but take heed you bind it not too hard Dresse and order it after this manner After you haue cut away the tips and tops therof dig round about the roots and be in then to eare vp plow the vineyard draw furrowes and ridges too and fro throughout Whiles vines be yong tender couch the branches within the ground for propagation with al speed as for old
fewer reared about it than three But by the way it is no good husbandrie to suffer a tree thus to be coupled as it were in marriage to so many Vines before that it be of sufficient strength to entertain them for there is nothing so hurtfull by reason that the Vines will choke and kill them so quick they be of their growth and so readie to ouercharge them As for planting of Vine-sets to the root of trees needful it is to make therfore a ditch three foot deep and they ought to be distant one from another a ful foot and so much likewise from the tree This don there is no question thereof the smal twigs or shoots what to do with them neither is there any charge or expence required for digging and deluing for this is the manner of it and this peculiar gift haue these tree-rows That in the same ground where they grow the sowing of corne is nothing hurtfull nay it is profitable and good for the Vines Moreouer this commoditie and easement commeth of their height that they be able to saue themselues neither is there any such need as in other Vineyards to be at the coast of walls of mounds pales or hedges ne yet of deep ditches or other fences to keep off the violence or injuries of beasts Of all other toiles before rehearsed there is no more required but to looke vnto onely the getting of quick-sets or couching sions all the matter I say lieth herein and there is no more to do But of couching sions and that kind of propagation there be two deuises First within paniers or baskets vpon the boughs of the tree and that is the be best way because it is safest from the danger of cattel The second is to bend the Vine or a branch therof close to the foot of her owne tree or else about the next vnto it if it stand single and haue no Vine joined vnto it As much of this branch or Vine thus couched as is aboue the ground must be kept with scraping that is to say the buds ought euer and anone to be knapt off that it spring not forth Within the earth there should be no fewer than foure joints or budding knots buried and enterred for to take root in the head without two onely are left for to grow Where note by the way that the Vine which groweth to the foot of a tree must be trenched in a ditch foure foot long in al three in breadth two and an halfe in deapth Now when the sion thus couched hath lien one yere the order is to cut it toward the stock to the very pith or marrow that so by little and little it may be inured to fortifie it selfe vpon the own roots and not to hang and cling alwaies to the mother as for the other end or head thereof it would be cut off also so neere the ground as that there be but two only buds left By the third yeare it must be quite cut in two where before it was but guelded to the pith and that which remaines of it laid deeper into the ground for feare it should sprout foorth and beare leaues toward that side where it was cut in twaine This done no sooner is Vintage past but this new quicke-set root and al must be taken vp and replanted Of late daies deuised was the manner of couching or planting by a trees side a Vine Dragon for so we vse to call the old branch of a Vine past all seruice which hath done bearing many a yeare and is now grown to be hard And verily they vse to make choise of the biggest they can find which when they haue cut from the stocke they scrape and pil the bark three foure parts in length so farre forth as it is to lie within the ground wherupon they name it in Latine Rasilis when it is thus couched low within a furrow the rest that is aboue the earth they rear vp against the tree And it is thought that there is not so good nor so ready a mean to make a Vine grow and beare than this If it fall out so that either the Vine be smal and weak or the ground it selfe but lean and hungrie it is an vsuall and ordinarie practise to cut and prune it as neer the ground as possibly may bee vntill such time as it bee well strengthened in the root as also great regard is had that it be not planted when the deaw standeth vpon it ne yet when the wind sits ful in the North. The old Vine stock it self ought to look into the Northeast prouided alwaies that the yong branches turne Southward Moreouer new and tender Vines would not be proined and cut in hast but better it is to expect and tary vntil such time as they be strong ynough and able to beare the cutting bill meane while to gather the yong branches together round in maner of on houp or circle Where note by the way That Vines which are erected vpon trees for the most part beare later by one yeare than those in Vineyards that be pearched or run on frames Some would not haue them to be cut at all before they haue raught vp to the top of the tree At the first time when you come with the pruning hooke the head must be cut off at six foot from the ground leauing vnderneath one little top twig which must be forced to beare by bending it downward in the head and in the same when it is thus pruned there must be left behind three buds and no more The branches which burgen out from thence ought the next yeare to bee brought vp to the lowest armes of the tree and there seated and so from yeare to yeare let them climb vp higher to the vpper boughs leauing alwaies vpon euery loft or scaffold as it were where they rested one branch of the old hard wood and another young imp or twig for to grow vp and climbe as high as it will Furthermore as often as a Vine is pruned afterwards those branches or boughs thereof in any wise must bee cut away which were bearers the yeare before and in stead of them the new after they be first cleansed from all the hairy curled tendrils on euery side shred off The ordinarie manner of pruning and dressing of vines here about Rome is to let the tender branches and sprigs enterlace the boughes insomuch as the whole tree is ouerspread clad therwith like as the very same tendrils be also couered all ouer with grapes But the French fashion is to draw them in a traile along from bough to bough whereas in Lumbardie and along the causey Aemilia from Plaisance to Rimino they vse to train them vpon forkes and poles for albeit â—…he Atinian Elmes be planted round about yet the Vine commeth not neere their greene boughes Some there be who for want of sill and good knowledge about vines hang them by a strong bond vnder the boughs but this is to
Date tree grew out of the base or foot of a Columne that Caesar Dictator caused there to be erected Semblably at Rome also twice during the war between the Romans and K. Perseus there was a Date tree known to grow vpon the lanterne or top of the Capitoll temple foreshewing those victories and triumphs which afterward ensued to the great honor of the people of Rome And when this was by stormes and tempests ouerthrowne and laid along there sprung vp of it selfe in the very same place a Fig tree at what time as M. Mâ—…ssala and Caius Cassius the two Censors held their Quinquennall solemne sacrifices for the assoiling and purging of the city of Rome From which time Piso a renowmed Historiographer and Writer of good credit hath noted that the Romans were giuen ouer to voluptuousnesse and sensuality and that euer since all chastitie and honest life hath bin exiled But aboue all the prodigies that were euer seen or heard there is one that passeth and the same hapned in our age about the very time that Nero the emperor came to his vnhappy end and fall for in the Marrucine territorie there was an oliue garden belonging to Vectius Marcellus a right worshipfull knight of Rome which of it selfe remoued all and whole as it stood ouer the broad highway to a place where lay tillage and earable ground and the corn lands by way of exchange crossed ouer the said causey againe and were found in lieu of the Oliue plot or hortyard aforesaid CHAP. XXVI ¶ The remedies for the maladies and diseases of Trees NOw that I haue declared the diseases of Trees meet it is that I should set down the cure and remedies thereto Where this one thing would be first noted That of Remedies some be common to all trees others appropriate to certain Common be these following To bare and clense the roots to hil and bank them again that is to say to giue aire vnto the roots let the wind into them and contrariwise to couer them keep both wind weather from them to water them or to deriue diuert water from them to refresh their roots with the fat liquor of dung to discharge them of their burden by pruning their superfluous branches Item to giue their humors issue and as it were by way of phlebotomie to let them bloud and to skice and scrape their bark round about in maner of scarification To take downe their strength and keep them vnder that they be not too lusty proud Also if the cold hath caught their buds or burgeons therby caused them to look burnt rough and vnpleasant to slick polish smooth them again with the pumy stone These verily be the diuers helps to cure trees howbeit vsed they must be with great discretion for that which is very good for one is not so good for another and some trees require this course others that to be taken with them As for example the Cypres tree canot abide either to be dunged or watered it hateth all digging and deluing about it it may not away with cutting and pruning it is the worse for all good physick nay all remedies to others are mischiefs to it and in one word go about to medicine it you kil it All Vines and Pomegranat trees especially loue alife riuer sides desire to be watered for thereby will they thriue and prosper The Fig tree also it selfe is nourished and fed in waterie grounds but the fruit that it beareth is the poorer by that means Almond trees if they be plied with digging will either not bloome at all or else shed their floures before due time Neither must any yong plants or trees newly graffed be digged about their roots before they haue gathered sufficient strength and begin to beare fruit Most trees are willing enough to be disburdened of their superfluous and ouer-â—…ank branches like as we men can spare our nails to be pared and bush of hair to be cut when they be ouergrowne As for old trees they would be cut down hard to the ground for vsually they rise again of some shoot springing from the root and yet not all of them Regard therefore must be had that none be so vsed but such as we haue noted before as are able of nature to abide it For trees to be watered at the roots in the heate of summer it is good but in winter it is as bad In the fal of the leaf it may be wholsom it may also be hurtfull and therefore the nature of the soile would be considered for the grape-gatherer in Spain meeteth with a good vintage notwithstanding the Vines stand in a marish and fennie ground howbeit in most parts of the world besides it is thought good husbandry to draine away from the roots the very rain water that falls from aboue in Autumne About the rising of the Dog-star trees desire most of all to be wel watered and yet they would not haue too much thereof euen in that time for in case their roots be ouer-drenched and drowned therewith they will catch harm Herein also the age of trees is to be respected which in this case prescribeth what is meet and sufficient for yong trees be lesse thirsty than others also Custome is a great matter For such as haue beene vsed vnto watering must not change their old woont but they require most of all others to be vsed so still Contrariwise Those Trees which grow vpon dry grounds naturally desire no more moisture than that which is needful In the territory about Sulmo in Italy and namely within the Liberties of Fabianum the Vines which doe beare the harder and sowrer Grapes must of necessitie be watered And no maruaile for the verie lands and Corne-fields vse to haue water let in vnto them And here a wonderfull thing is to be obserued This water cherisheth the Corne but killeth all the hurtfull Grasse among and the riuer ouer flowing the lands is as good as a weeding In the same countrey the maner is in midwinter to open a sluce or draw vp their floodgates for to ouerflow their vine roots with the riuer and so much the rather if either it be an hard frost or snow lie vpon the ground And why so because the pinching cold should not burne them and this they call there by the name of Tepidare i. to giue them a kindly warmth as in a stouve see the memorable nature of this only riuer to be warme in winter and yet the same in summer is so cold that hardly a man can endure his hand in it CHAP. XXVII ¶ Of caprification or scarifying trees also the maner of dunging them TOuching the remedies for blasting as well by heat as cold I will treat in the booke next following Meane while I cannot omit one manner of cure by way of Scarification For when the bark is poore and lean by reason of some disease or mislike so as it clengs together pressing and binding the quick wood
than to labor a ground exceeding much and to ouer-til it L. Rarius Rufus a man of very base and low parentage descended yet aduanced to the Consular dignity for his prowesse in feats of arms was otherwise very thrifty and sparing after the maner of the old world insomuch as partly by his niggardise and partly through the liberality of Augustus Caesar he had gathered good together amounting to the sum of an hundred millions of Sesterces all which masse of money what with purchasing land to land in the Picene country and what with bestowing such a deale of husbandry vpon it more ywis of a vain glory and ostentation than for any profit that he reaped thereby he laid forth and spent euery whit of that stock insomuch as hardly he could finde any man that would take vpon him to be his executor or to accept simply of the inheritance What shall we say then or what good commeth of such houses or lands so chargeable as that they are like to cost a man his life and that by famine I hold therfore that in all things a mean is best and bringeth greatest profit in the end To till and husband ground well is necessary to ouer-do the same and to exceed turneth more to the damage than the profit of the lord vnlesse it were done by his own children or to maintain the charge of keeping such hinds as otherwise must be found if they sat still and did nothing for setting that cause aside it falleth out oftentimes that the gathering and inning of some haruest if a man count all the pains emploied and the mony of the purse is nothing beneficial to the master In like maner Oliues would not alwaies be tended and looked vnto ouermuch neither do some grounds require much diligence but are the worse for such attendance as may be seen by report in Sicily which is the cause that new commers thither for to be tenants and to occupy those lands are many times deceiued and put besides their reckoning After what manner then shall we proceed in the husbandry of our land to most benefit and behoofe Learn a rule out of the Oracle or sententious riddle which goeth in this forme Malis bonis i. Cheapest Best But herein me thinks good reason it is that our old great grandfathers should be defended and excused for holding these strange and obscure paradoxes they I say who by such rules and precepts tooke great care and paines to instruct vs how to liue Would you know then what they meant by this word Malis surely they vnderstood those that were cheapest and stood them in least The chiefe point of all their prouidence and forecast was to goe the nearest way to worke and to be at the smallest cost and no maruell for who were they that gaue out these thriftie precepts euen those who reproched a victorious General and one who triumphed ouer the enemy for hauing a cupboord of siluer plate weighing but ten pound those I say who if their bayliffes of husbandrie chanced to die whereby their lands in the countrey stood void would make suit to be gone themselues thither and to return to their own fermes leauing behind them the glory of all their victories by them atchieued and to conclude euen those who whiles they were imploied in the conduct of armies had their grounds looked vnto and tilled at the charges of the common-weale and had no other for their bayliffs than the noble Senators of Rome From their mouths came these other oracles and wise sentences following An ill husband is he who is forced to buy that which his ferme might affoord him As bad is that housholder master of a family who doth that in the day which might be don by night vnlesse vnseasonable weather driue him to it worse than either of these is he who doth that vpon work-daies which should haue bin done on play daies or idle holidaies but the worst of all other is he who when the weather is fair wil chuse to work rather within close house than abroad in the open field here I cannot hold and rule my selfe but I must needs alledge one example out of antient histories whereby it may be vnderstood How it was an ordinary matter to commense actions and to maintaine pleas in open court before the body of the people in the case of Husbandry as also in what sort those good Husbandmen of old time were wont to defend their owne cause when they were brought into question And this was the case There was one C. Furius Cresinus late a bond-slaue and newly infranchised who after that hee was set at liberty purchased a very little piece of ground out of which he gathered much more commodity than all his neighbors about him out of their great and large possessions whereupon he grew to be greatly enuied and hated insomuch as they charged him with indirect means as if he had vsed sorcery and by charmes and witch-craft drawne into his owne ground that increase of fruits which should otherwise haue growne in his neighbors fields Thus vpon complaint and information giuen he was presented and indited by Spurius Albinus an Aedile Curule for the time being and a day was set him down peremptorily for his personal appearance to answer the matter He therfore fearing the worst and doubting that he should be cast to pay some grieuous fine at what time as the Tribes were ready to giue their voices either to acquit or condemne him brought into the common place his plough with other instruments and furniture belonging to husbandry he presented likewise in the open face of the court his owne daughter a lusty strong lasse and big of bone yea and as Piso telleth the tale well fed and as well clad he shewed there I say his tooles and plough yrons of the best making and kept in as good order maine and heauy coulters strong and tough spades massie and weighty plough-shares and withall his draught Oxen ful and faire Now when his course came to plead his own cause before the people and to answer for himselfe thus he began and said My masters quoth he you that are citizens of Rome behold these are the sorceries charms and all the inchantments that I vse pointing to his daughter his oxen furniture abouenamed I might besides quoth he alledge mine owne trauell and toile that I take the early rising and late sitting vp so ordinary with me the carefull watching that I vsually abide and the painefull sweats which I daily indure but I am not able to represent these to your view nor to bring them hither with me into this assembly The people no sooner hard this plea of his but with one voice they all acquit him and declared him vnguilty without any contradiction By which example verily a man may soone see that good husbandrie goeth not all by much expence but it is pains taking and careful diligence that doth the deed And hereupon came the old
of the Frenchmen the tamis raunger for course bread as also the fine floure boulter for manchet made both of linnen cloth the Spaniards inuented In Aegypt they made them of Papyr reed and rushes But now that we are entred so far into this matter as touching corne I thinke it not amisse before I proceed any farther to speak with the first of the frumentie called Alica and the manner thereof being as it is so excellent and wholsome to be eaten and which no doubt throughout all Italy bears the name for the very best of all corne whatsoeuer No question but there is made thereof in Aegypt howbeit nothing to the other In Italy many places there be where it is to be had as namely in the territories of Verona and Pisae but that of Campain carieth the price and praise aboue all the rest a champion or plaine countrey this is for the space of forty miles lying as a vale vnder the hils and mountaines subject to watery clouds and tempestuous winds The soile of this whole tract to speake directly of the nature thereof and defer no longer is light and dustie if a man respect the vpper coat thereof but vnderneath it drinks in much moisture whereunto apt it is by reason of certain fistulous porosities therin like a pumish stone in which regard the mountaines commanding these plaines ill neighbors otherwhiles do it much good and mend the soile very well for many a sound showre which ordinarie falleth from the hills passeth and runneth through it as it were a colander by means wherof the ground standeth not drenched and soked with water but is thereby more pliable easie to be tilled Now this soile hauing thus receiued store of water doth not yeeld it vp again boiling out at any springs but keepeth and cherisheth it still within as it were the radical and nutritiue humor concocting the same to a very good temperature All the yere long a man shall see it sown and standing with corn one or other for the same ground bears one crop of Panick and two of the red wheat Far it neuer resteth but beareth somwhat for say that some lands lye fallow between-while and are not sowed with corn they yeeld roses in the spring of themselues naturally and those far sweeter than the garden roses so fruitful is it and canot abide to be idle and do nothing Herupon arose the prouerb of this land of Campaine That greater store is there to be found of sweet perfumes and odoriferous ointments than of simple oyle in other countries whatsoeuer And looke how much this tract of Campaine surpasseth all other lands in goodnesse and fertility so much excelleth one quarter therof called in Latin Laboriae and by the Greeks Phlegraeum all the rest and goeth beyond it selfe This plain aforesaid named Laboriae is confined on both sides with the great causeis or high waies raised by the Consuls and thereupon called Consulares the one goeth from Puteoli the other from Cumes and lead both to Capua But to come againe vnto our Frumentie Alica made it is of the graine Zea which before we tearmed by the generall name of Seed This corne for to make Frumenty is to be pound in a wodden morter when it should be cleansed from the huske for if a man beat in one of stone the hardnesse thereof would bruise and breake it The best way of cleansing and husking it is with a pestill such as bondslaues and prisoners do vse to stamp withall and to work by task for their punishment in the forepart therof it hath a circle of yron made in fashion of a round Box wherewith after the corne is drawn naked out of the husk the very same instrument serueth again to stamp and bruise the white marrow and floure thereof within And thus by this means there be three sorts of Alica or Fourmentie aforesaid The finest which is the best the meane which is the second and the greatest or grossest which the Greekes call Aphaerema When all this is done yet haue they not that whitenesse of their owne for which cause they are so much esteemd as namely those that are come nowadays from Alexandria which are taken to be the best and to excell all other And therfore there is chalk a wonderfull thing to be spoken mingled afterwards and incorporate therwith and so by that means the Frumenty becomes white and tender withall Now this chalke or plastre is found between Puteoli and Naples in a little hill which thereupon is called Leuco-gaeon i. white earth And in truth when Augustus Caesar late Emperor of Rome erected a colonie at Capua and peopled it with Roman citizens he assigned vnto the Neapolitanes by vertue of a decree now extant an yerely rent or pension of twentie thousand deniers to be paid out of his owne treasure in regard of the chalk which came from the hill aforesaid being within their territorie and siegnorie He rendereth also a reason inducing him thus to do Because the inhabitants of Capua alleadged that they could not make good Alica or Frumenty without that mineral of chalke In the same hil there is also found a Brimstone mine and out of the veines thereof fountaines springing called Oraxi the water whereof is singular good to cleer the eies to cure and heale green wounds and to fasten the teeth that are loose in ones head As touching a bastard kind of Frumenty it is made verily for the most part of a Speltor Zea in Affrick which there doth degenerat and grow out of kind The ears that it carieth are broader and blacker than the other and the straw is but short They vse to cleanse and huske it by stamping or braying it together with sand and for all that deuise much ado they haue to fetch off the huls and huskes wherein the graine lieth enclosed now when it is thus cleansed and naked it is not past halfe as much in measure as it was before Which done there is a fourth part of plastre strewed mingled among and when al is together they sift it down through a meal sieue That which remaineth behind and passeth not through is the grossest part thereof and is called in Latine Exceptitia That which was thus searced is driuen againe through a narrower and finer sieue and those groats that tarie in the ranger the call Secundaria In like manner doe they a third time searcing it through so fine a sieue that nothing can passe but the very small sand and pouder and this last kind of Frumenty gurts they name Cribraria Another way there is besides in all places practised to sophisticat and counterfeit the right Frumenty groats indeed They chuse out of our common Wheat the fairest fullest and whitest grains which beeing half sodden in an earthen pot they lay out afterwards in the Sun till they be as drie as they were at first which don they lightly sprinckle some water ouer then bruise them in a quearn mill Fairer Frumentie groats
he contained in long and flat according to the forme and figure of the seed which they hold Pease by themselues haue a long round cod in forme of a Cylinder The Pulse called Phasâ—…oli i. Kidney Beans vse to be eaten cod and al together These may be set or sowne in what ground you list from the Ides of October to the Calends of Nouember Finally all kinds of Pulse so soone as they begin to ripen are to be gathered or plucked hastily for stay neuer so little they leape out of their cods and shed and being once fallen they lie hidden in the ground like as the Lupine also CHAP. XIII ¶ Of Rapes or Neuewes of Amiternium Turneps NOw let vs proceed and passe to other matters and yet in this discourse it were meet to write somwhat as touching Rapes or Nauews The Latin writers our countreymen haue slightly passed by and touched them only by the way The Greeks haue treated of them somwhat more diligently and yet among pot-hearbes and worts growing in gardens whereas indeed according to good order they would be spoken of immediatly after Corne or Beanes at least wise considering there is not a plant of more or better vse than is the Rape or Nauew First and formost they grow not only for beasts of the earth and the Foules of the aire but also for men For all kinds of Pullen about a Farme-house in the countrey doe feed vpon the feed thereof as much as of any thing else especially if they be boiled first in water As for four-footed beasts they eat the leaues thereof with great delight and wax fat therewith Last of al men also take as great pleasure and delight in eating the leaues and heads of Rapes or Nauewes in their season as they do of young Coly-flories Cabbages or any tender crops of hearbs whatsoeuer yea when they are faded flaggie and dead in the Barn they are esteemed better than being fresh and green As for Rapes or Nauewes they will keep long and last al Winter both within the ground where they grew and being well wintered they will continue afterwards out of the earth lying abroad euen almost till new come so as they yeeld men great comfort to withstand hunger and famin In Piemont Lombardie those countries beyond the Po the people make the most account of gaine by gathering Rapes next to wine vintage and corne haruest It is not choise and daintie of the ground where it will grow for lightly it wil prosper where nothing els can be sowed In foggy mists hard frosts and other cold weather it thriues passing wel and grows to a wonderfull bignes I haue seene one of their roots weigh aboue fortie pounds As touching the handling and dressing of them for our table there be many waies and deuises to commend and set them out Preserued they may be till new come specially condite with sharp and biting Senuie or Mustard seed Moreouer our Cooks know how to giue them six other colours besides their owne which is pure and naturall they haue the cast to set euen a purple hew vpon them And to say a truth there is no kind of viands besides that being thus painted colored hath the like grace The Greeke writers haue diuided them by the sexe and therby made two principal kinds therof to wit the male and the female Nay more than that out of one and the same seed according as it is sowed they can make male or female whether they please For if they sow thicke and chuse therto a hard and churlish ground it will proue of the male kind Also the smaller that the seed is the better it is esteemed But of al Rapes male or female three especiall sorts there be no more For some roots spread flat and broad others are knit round like a ball the third sort that runs downe into the ground with a long root in manner of a Raddish they cal the wild Rape or Nauew this bears a rough lease and ful of angles or corners the juice that it yeelds is sharp hote and biting which being gathered in haruest time reserued mundisieth the eies and cleareth the sight especially being tempered with brest-milke If the weather be cold they are thought not only to thriue in bignesse of the root but also to prooue the sweeter whereas contrariwise in a warm season they run vp all to stalke and leafe The best simply are those that grow in the Nursine territory For they are sold by the weight and euery pound is worth a Roman Sesterce yea and otherwhiles twaine if there be any scarcity of them Next to these in goodnes be those that come out of Algidum Thus much of Rapes Navews As for the Turneps of Amiternum they be in a manner of the same nature that the Rapes aforesaid cold they loue as well Sown they are before the Calends of March foure quarts of their seed will take vp a whole acre of ground The best Husbandmen and such as are more exquisite in their practise of Agriculture giue order That the ground for Turneps should haue fiue tilthes whereas Rapes or Nauewes are content with foure but both the one and the other had need of a soile well inriched with dung or compost By their sayings also Rapes will prosper the better and come vp thicker if they be sowed in their huls chaffe and all together Moreouer they would haue the seeds-man to be naked when he sowes them and in sowing to protest that this which he doth is for himselfe and his neighbors and withall to pray as he goeth The proper season for the seednesse of them both is between the feasts of the two gods to wit Neptune and Vulcan To conclude there is a subtill and curious obseruation that many go by and do hold namely this To marke how many daies old the Moon was when the first snow sel the winter next before for if a man do sow Rapes or Turneps within the foresaid compasse of that time the moon being so many daies old they will come to be wondrous great and increase exceedingly Men vse to sow them also in the Spring but then they make choise of moist and hot grounds CHAP. XIIII ¶ Of Lupines AFter Rapes and Turneps the Lupines haue greatest vse and serue to be raunged next for that they indifferently serue both men and also all foure footed beasts that be houfed either whole or clouen Now for that the stalke is very shittle in mowing and therefore flyeth from the edge of the syth the onely remedie therefore that the mower may catch it is to goe to worke presently after a good shower And verily there is not a plant growing vpon the earth I meane of such as are sowne of seed more admirable than the Lupine in regard of the great amity and sympathie betweene the earth and it Looke how the Sun keepeth his course in our Horizon aboue so doth it turne and go withall insomuch as the
winds hurt all spiked corne as well Wheat as Barly at three seueral times to wit in their floure presently vpon their blooming and last of all when they begin to ripen for then namely when they are vpon the point of maturitie those blasts consume the grain and bring it to nothing which before was full whereas at the two former seasons they hinder it altogether from knitting and growing The hot gleames moreouer of the Sun betweene often clouding do much harme to corne Furthermore there be certaine little wormes breeding in the root that do eat it which happeneth by occasion of much raine falling immediatly after the seednesse especially when some sudden heat and drowth ensueth therupon which bindeth the earth aboue and so encloseth the moisture conceiued within the very cause nourice of putrifaction Ye shall haue other such like vermin engender likewise in the very grain of the corn namely when the ear doth glow within and is chafed with sultry hot rains Ouer and besides there be certain green flies like small Beetles called Cantharides which do gnaw and eat the corne But al these and such like worms or flies die presently when the corn which was their food is gone Moreouer Oile Pitch and Tarre all manner of greace also be contrarie to seed-corne especially and therefore take heed that you sow none such as hath caught oile pitch or grease As for showers of raine good they are for corne so long only as it is in the green blade when corne is blooming be it either wheat or barley or such like raine is hurtfull Mary Pulse takes no harme thereby vnlesse it be the Cich-pease All kinds of wheat and other bread corne when they be toward ripenesse catch hurt by showers but Barley more than any Besides all this there is a certaine white hearbe or weed resembling Panicke growing among corne and ouerspreading whole fields which not onely hindereth corne but also killeth all the cattell that feedeth thereupon For as touching ray or darnel burs thistles and brambles I may hold and reckon them not so much for faults and imperfections of corn as rather the plagues and infections proceeding from the very earth And for blasting which commeth of some distemperature of the aire a mischiefe common as well to corn as vines it is as hurtful as any other malady whatsoeuer This vnhappie blast falleth most often in places subject to mists and dewes and namely hollow vallies and low grounds lying vnder the winde for contrariwise windie quarters and such as are mounted high are not subiect to this inconuenience Also we may number among the faults incident to corne their rankenesse namely when the blade is so ouergrowne and the stalke so charged and loden with a heauie head that the corn standeth not vpright but is lodged lieth along Moreouer when there fals a great glut of rain insomuch as the ground stands with water there befalleth vnto all corn and pulse yea and whatsoeuer is sowne a certaine disease called in Latine Vrica insomuch as the very Cich-pease taketh hurt therby for by reason that the rain washed from them that salt quality which was naturall thereunto it becommeth sweeter than it should be and loseth the kind tast There is a weed that claspeth and tieth about Ciches and Eruiles wherby it choketh and killeth them both and thereupon it is called Orobanctum i. Choke Eruile After the same maner dealeth Ray or Darnel by wheat wild Otes likewise named by some Aegilops with barly as also the weed Securidaca i. Ax-fitch which the Greeks also for the resemblance that it hath to an axe head call Pelicinon with Lentils These weeds I say kill corne by winding about it Another herb there is growing neere to the city Philippi which killeth Beans if the ground be fat and good they name the said weed Ateramnon but if it be found in a hungry and leane soile and namely when being wet some vnhappy wind bloweth vpon it they call it Teramnon As for the graine of Raie or Darnell it is very small and lieth inclosed with a sharpe-pointed husk The bread which hath any of this seed in it soone causeth dizinesse and swimming of the head And by report in Asia and Greece the masters of the common Bains and Stuphes when they would keep away the great resort of multitude thither haue a deuise to cast Darnell seeds vpon burning coles for this perfume will quickly set them farther off Moreouer if the Winter proue to be wet and waterish ye shall haue in the Pulse called Eruile a little vermin ingendred there called Phalangion and it is of the kind of these spiders Likewise vpon Vetches there wil breed naked dew-snails yea otherwhile those little ones with shels or houses on their backs which creeping from the ground wil gnaw eat them that it is a wonder to see what foul work they will make Thus much concerning all the maladies and inconueniences to speak of incident to corne It remaineth now to treat of the remedies As touching the cure of those harms that come by hurtful weeds to the corn in blade it consisteth principally in two things namely either in the vse of the weeding knife or hooke when they be newly come vp or els in strewing ashes when the corn is a sowing But as for those dangers that touch the seed or grain in the eare and cod as also that settle about the root they must be preuented by good forecast euen before it be thrown into the ground It is generaly thought that if seed-corn lie steeped beforehand in Wine it will be better able afterwards to resist all diseases whatsoeuer Virgil giueth order to infuse or soke the Beanes that must be sown in nitre and oile lees or dregs and he assureth vs that they will prosper mightily besides and become exceeding great But others are of opinion that if for 3 daies before they be cast into the earth they lie in vrine shere water mingled together they wil being thus prepared come on apace and thriue passing well It is said moreouer That if Beans be thrice raked and rid from weedes one Modius of them being whole and solid wil yeeld a Modius again after it is husked broken As for other seed-corn it wil escape the danger of the worme if either it lie before among Cypresse leaues bruised or be sowed in and about the change of the Moon namely when she is not to be seen aboue the earth in our hemisphaere Many there be who practise other remedies namely for the Millet they would haue a toad to be caried round about the field before that it be harrowed which done to be put close within an earthen pot and so buried in the middest of the said field and by this meanes for sooth neither Sparrows will lie vpon the corn nor any worm hurt it Mary in any case this same toad must be digged out of the ground againe before the field be
both lighter and also more massie and richer ground for our ordinary wheat In a low and wet piece of ground it is good to sow the red wheat Adoreum rather than the common wheat Triticum but both it and barley will sort well with a soile of a middle temperature The hills yeeld a firm fast and strong kind of wheat but the grain is but smal And to conclude the best kinds of wheat to wit Far and Siligo challenge for their lot to bee seated in a chalky soile and therwith alwaies wet and soked in water CHAP. XVIII ¶ Of strange prodigies and wonders obserued in corne the knowledge and skill of earing and tilling the ground also diuers sorts of plough-shares ALbeit I haue in the title of this chapter purposed to write of prodigies seen in corne yet to my knowledge there neuer happened but once the like wonder and portenteous sight to this which I shall tell and which befell in the time that P. Aelius and Cn. Cornelius were Consuls of Rome that very yeare wherein Annibal with his whole armie was defeated and vanquished for then by report there was corne grew vpon trees But forasmuch as I haue discoursed at large of the sundry kinds as well of corn as of ground I will proceed now forward and come to the manner of ploughing the earth after I haue first set downe before all things els how easie the husbandrie is in Egypt for there the riuer Nilus seruing in stead of a good plough man beginneth to swel and ouerflow as we haue before rehearsed at the first new Moone after the Summer Sunstead Hee beginneth faire and softly and so increaseth more and more by little and little but all the while that the Sun passeth vnder the signe Leo he higheth apace vntill he be risen to his ful heigth being entered once into Virgo his fury slaketh then decreaseth he as fast vntill hee be fallen againe into his wonted channell which ordinarily happeneth by the time that the Sun is in Libra Now this is obserued That if he rise not plumb aboue 12 cubits high the people are sure to haue a famine of corn that yere the like also do they make account of in case he passe the gage of sixteen cubits for the higher that he is risen the longer it is again ere he be fully fallen by which time the Seednesse is past and men cannot sow the ground in due season It hath bin generally receiued for a truth That presently vpon the departure of this deluge and ouerflowing of Nilus they were woont to cast their seed-corne vpon the floten ground and presently let in their swine after for to trample it with their feet into the earth whiles it was soft and drenched And verily for mine owne part I beleeue wel they vsed so to do in old time for euen now adaies also much more ado they make not about it Howbeit this is certaine that first they cast their seed vpon the slime and mud so soone as the riuer is downe which commonly falleth out in the very beginning of Nouember which done they go ouer it with the plough and giue it a light tilth so as it may be couered only and lie vnder a small furrow Some few there be that afterwards fall aweeding which point of husbandry they call Botanismos but the most part after they haue once sowed and turned their seed into the ground neuer after make a step into field to see how their corne groweth vntil they go once for all with syth on neck or sickle in hand namely at the end of March for then they fall to reaping and cutting it downe so as by the moneth of May they sing in Egypt Haruest in and all is done for that yeare As touching this corne gathered in Base Egypt the straw is neuer a cubit long the reason is because the seed lieth very ebbe and hath no other nutriment than from the mud and slime aforesaid for vnder it is nothing but sand and grauell But those that inhabit higher vp into the countrey namely about Thebais they be far better prouided for corne because Egypt indeed for the most part lyeth low vpon marais ground Toward Babylon likewise and Seleucia where the riuers Euphrates and Tigris doe swell ouer their banks and water the country the same husbandry is practised but to better effect and greater profit by reason that the people may let in the water at sluces and floud-gates more or lesse with their owne hands according as they list themselues Also in Syria they haue their small ploughs for the nones to take a shallow stitch and make light worke whereas in many places here with vs in Italy eight oxen are little enough to euery plough and to go away withall they must laborat it till they blow and pant again It is an old said Saw and may goe for an Oracle to be practised in all parts of husbandry but in this point of ploughing especially Bee ruled by the nature of euery countrey and see what each ground will abide To come now vnto our ploughes Of Shares there be many sorts first there is that instrument called a culter which serueth to make way before cutting and cleauing the hard and thick ground as it goeth before it be broken vp and turned atoneside this sheweth by the slits and incisions that it maketh as it were by a true line drawn how the furrows shal go after which commeth the broad bit of the ploughshare indeed lying flat-wise and in earing casteth vp all before it and cleareth the furrow A second sort there is commonly vsed in many places and it is no more but a bar of yron pointed sharpe in manner of a beak-head or stem of a ship and it may be called a Rostle And when the ground is not stubborn but gentle to be wrought there is a third kind vsed which is nothing but a piece of yron not reaching all ouer the plough head and shooing it to the full but turning vp like a snout with a small point sharp at the end This neb is somewhat broader in a fourth kinde of shares but as it is broader in blade and trenchant withall so it is sharper also at the end insomuch that both with the point forward the edges of the sides it not only pierces the ground before it poinctant like a sword but also cutteth the roots of weeds which it incountreth a deuise inuented not long since in Rhoetia As for the Gaules they set too besides certain smal roundles or wheels a plough thus shod harnaised they call in their language Planarati the head of their share is broad fashioned like vnto the bit of a spade and thus they sow their grounds for the most part new broken vp and not tilled nor eared before And for that their plough-shares be large and broad so much the easier turn they vp good turfs of earth and make broad furrows Presently after the plough they
night are sufficient to refresh and nourish the corne Virgil is of opinion That fallowes would be made euery yeare and that our corn field should rest betweene whiles and beare but each other yere And surely I doe find this rule of his most true and doubtlesse right profitable in case a man haue land enough for to let his grounds play them and rest euery second yere But how if a man is streighted that way and hath no such reach and circuit lying to his liuing Let him help himselfe this way let him I say sow his good red wheat Far against the next yere vpon that ground from whence he gathered this yeare a crop of Lupines Vetches or Beans or some such grain as doth inrich and muck the ground For this also is principally to be noted that some corne is sowne for no other purpose but by the way as it were to aduance and help others to fructifie howbeit small fruit and increase to speak of ariseth thereby as I haue obserued once for all in the booke immediatly going before because I would not willingly reiterate and inculcate one thing often For herein regard especially ought to be had vnto the nature and property of euery soile CHAP. XXII ¶ Of certaine countries exceeding fertile and fruitfull Of a vine bearing grapes twise in one yeare Of the difference and diuersitie obserued in waters THere is in Africke or Barbary a city called Tacape scituate in the midst of the sands as men go to the Syrts and Leptis the great the territory lying about which city by reason that it is so well watered is maruellous fruitfull and indeed passeth a wonder and is incredible Within this tract there is a fountain which serueth abundantly for three miles well neer euery way the head therof verily is large enough otherwise howbeit the inhabitants about it are serued with water from thence by turns and dispensed it is among them at certain set hours and not otherwise There standeth there a mighty great date-tree hauing vnder it growing an oliue vnder which there is a fig-tree and that ouerspreadeth a Pomegranat tree vnder the shade whereof there is a Vine and vnder the compasse thereof first they sow Frument or eared corne after that Pulse and then worts and herbs for the pot all in one and the same yere Euery one of these rehearsed liue joy and thriue vnder the shade of others Euery foure cubits square of this soile taking the measure of a cubit from the elbow not to the fingers ends stretched out in length but clasped together into the fist is sold for 4 deniers Roman but this one surpasseth all the rest The vines in the said territory beare twice a yeare and yeeld their grapes ripe for a double Vintage So exceeding fruitfull is the soile that vnlesse the ranknesse thereof were abated and taken downe by bearing sundry fruits one vnder and after another so that it were imploied to one thing alone the inhabitants should neuer haue any good thereof for by reason of the ouer-ranknesse each seuerall fruit would perish and come to nought but now by meanes of plying and following it still with seed a man shall gather one fruit or other ripe all the yeare long And for certaine it is knowne that men cannot ouercharge the ground no nor feed the fertilitie of it sufficiently Moreouer all kinds of water are not of like nature nor of equall goodnesse for to drench and refresh the ground In the prouince of Narbon now Languedoc there is a famous wel or fountain named Orge within the very head wherof there grow certaine herbes so much desired and sought for by kine and oxen that to seeke and get a mouthfull of them they will thrust in their whole heads ouer their eares vntill they meet therewith but howsoeuer these herbs seeme to spring grow within the water certain it is that nourished they are not but by rain from aboue And therefore to conclude knit vp all in one word Let euery man be wel acquainted with the nature both of his own land which he hath and also of the water wherewith he is serued CHAP. XXIII ¶ Of the diuers qualities of the soile Also the manner of dunging or manuring grounds IF you meet with a ground of your owne which we called heretofore by the name of Tenera the floure indeed and principall of all others after you haue taken off a crop of Barley you may very wel sow Millet thereupon and when that is inned and laid vp in the barne proceed to Raddish Last of all after they be drawne there may be barly or common wheat sowed in the place like as they do in Campaine for surely such a piece of ground needs no other tillage but often sowing Another order there is besides this in sowing of such soile namely that where there grew the red wheat Adoreum or Far there the ground should rest all the four winter moneths and in the Spring be sowed again with Beans so that it alwaies be imploied and kept occupied vntill Winter without any intermission And say that the ground be not altogether so fat yet it may be ordered so that it be euer bearing by turns in this sort that after the Frumenty or Spike corne be taken off there be pulse sowne three times one after another But in case the ground be ouer poore and lean it must be suffered to rest and take repose two yeares in three Moreouer many husbandmen do hold that it is not good to sow white corne or Frument vpon any land but such as lay fallow and rested the yeare before Howeuer it be the principall thing in this part of Agriculture consisteth in dunging wherof I haue written already in the former book next to this This one point only is resolued vpon by all men that none of our grounds ought to be sowed vnlesse they be manured and mucked before And yet herein must we be directed by certain rules peculiar and proper thereunto as follow Millet Panick Rapes Turneps or Navews ought neuer to be sowed but in a ground that is dunged If there be no compost laid vpon a ground sow vpon it Frument or bread-corne rather than Barley Likewise in grounds that rest and lie fallow euery other yere albeit in all mens opinion they are thought good for to beare Beans yet notwithstanding beans loue better wheresoeuer they come to be sowed in a ground but newly mucked He that mindeth to sow at the fal of the leafe must in the month of September before spread his dung turn it in with the plough and so incorporat it with the soile presently after a shower of rain euen so also if a man purpose to sow in the spring let him in the winter time dispose of his mucke vpon the lands and spread it The ordinary proportion is to lay 18 tumbrels or loads therof vpon euery acre Throwne abroad it must be also before it be dried and ere you sow or els
18 day before the Calends of Ianuary The Spring Aequinox when nights and daies be of a length in the eight degree of Aries Semblably the summer Sunstead or longest day of the yeare is alwaies when the Sun is entred eight degrees into Cancer Last of all the other Aequinox in Autumne when day and night is equall lighteth vpon the eight degree of Libra And certes seldom or neuer shall you see any of these foure daies without euident shew of some notable change in the weather Again these cardinall seasons or quarters of the yeare admit also their sub-diuisions still into some notable and special times obserued in the very middle space from the one and the other For betweene the summer Sunstead and the Aequinox in Autumne iust vpon the fiue and forty day after the same Sunstead the retrait or setting of the star called in Latine Fidicula i. the Harp beginneth the Autumne Likewise betweene that Aequinox and the winter Sunstead or shortest day of the yeare the Matutine or morning fall of the star Virgiliae vpon the three and fortieth day after the said Aequinox setteth the beginning of the winter So likewise vpon the fiue and fortieth day between mid-winter or the shortest day of the yeare and the spring Aequinox the blowing of the Western wind Favonius beginneth the Spring And last of all vpon the three and fortieth day from the sayd Aequinox toward the Summer Sunstead at what time as the star Virgiliae doth rise Matutine begins the Summer But to returne again to our Agriculture begin I will at the Seednes of Frument corne that is to say at the rising or apparition of the starre Vergiliae in the morning without making any mention at all of other pety stars for to interrupt the train and course of our treatise to heap difficulties one vpon another considering that the fierce and vehement star Orion is departed a great way off from vs by that time I am not ignorant that many fall to sowing corne long before and preuent this time beginning their Seednes within 11 daies after the Aequinox in Autumne namely at the approch and rising of the star Corona i. the Crowne promising themselues assuredly to haue rain vpon it for certain daies together Xenophon would not haue vs begin to sow before that God giue vs some good signe and token so to do And Cicero our countryman expounding this saying of Xenophon taketh the raines in Nouember to be that signe which God giueth whereas in very deed the true and vndoubted rule to goe by is to make no great hast into the field for to sow before the leaues begin to fall and this euery man holdeth to be at the very occultation or retrait of the star Vergiliae Some as we haue before said haue obserued it about 3 daies before the Ides of Nouember And for that the said star is so euident in the heauen and easiest to be known of all others called it is by the name of a garment hanging out at a Brokers shop And therefore by the fall or retrait thereof as many men as haue a care and forecast to preuent the couetous dealing of the merchant-Tailor as commonly such occupiers lie in the wind for gain guesse aforehand what winter will follow for if it be a cloudie season when the star retireth it threatens a rainy winter and then these merchants presently raise the price of the clokes which they sel but if the weather be faire and cleare at the setting or occultation thereof it sheweth a pinching and hard winter toward and then they hold other garments also very deare But this Husbandman of ours who cannot skill at all to looke vp and to learn the order and position of the heauens must spy this signe of winter amongst his briers and brambles he must find I say the time of Seednes as he looketh downe vpon the ground namely when he sees the leaues fallen and lying vnder his feet Thus may a man know the temperature of the climat and the yeare according as he perceiues the leaues be fallen more at one time than another sooner also in some places and later elsewhere For as the season is forward or late as the climate also is affected so are the trees knowne to shed their leaues accordingly And in very truth this is the truest signe of all others And the best thing therein is this that being generall throughout the whole world and yet peculiar to each place it neuer faileth A man might make a wonder hereat if he did not see and remember that vpon the very shortest day in the yere euen in midwinter when the Sun is entred Capricorn the herb Penyroyal vseth of it selfe to floure either set in chaplets or otherwise hanging and sticking in the shambles so willing is Nature to shew vs all her secrets and to keepe nothing hidden from vs. For loe what signes and marks she hath giuen vs wherby we might know the time of sowing corn and verily this is the only true and infallible direction grounded vpon approoued experience and the same shewed first by dame Nature for by this dropping fall of leaues what doth she els teach and counsell vs but to haue our eye vpon the ground and to cast seed into it assuring vs of a certain supply of dung and compost by ouerspreading the ground and cast seed into it that soon will turne into muck what doth she else I say but by couering the earth in this manner with leaues shew how carefull she is to defend it against hard frosts and pinching winds and in one word thereby putteth vs in mind to make the more hast and get our seed vnder mould As for Varro he is of the same opinion for beans also and willeth vs to obserue the said rule in sowing them at the fall of the leafe Others are of this mind that the best sowing thereof is in the full Moone But for Lentils we should attend the last quarter toward the change to wit from the 25 day to the thirtieth Also that Vetches must be sowed at the said age of the Moon for in so doing we shall preserue such pulse from the naked snaile Howbeit some others there be that indeed would haue these kindes of Pulse to be sowed at this time of the yeare and age of the Moon for prouender and forrage to be spent out of hand mary if we would keepe the same for seed then we should take the season of the Spring Besides those rules and tokens aboue specified there is one more which Nature vpon an extraordinarie prouidence ouer vs hath presented vnto our eies after a wonderfull manner which Cicero expresseth in these termes Iam vero semper viridis semperque gravata Lentiscus triplici solit a est grandescere foetu Ter fruges fundens tria tempora monstrat arandi The Mastick tree All times you see Is clad and richly dight With green in cold With fruit three-fold A faire and goodly
especially I say if it thunder much Secondly they wil not last aboue one yere Item The tenderest daintiest be those that breed in the Sprinâ—… and that indeed is the best time for them Item In some countries the ouerflow of riuers engender Mushromes and namely at Mitylene where by report they will not otherwise grow but vpon floten grounds and namely in such places whither the water hath brought from Tiara a certain vegetatiue seed to breed them And verily That Tiara is wonderfully stored replenished with such As touching the Truffles or Mushroms of Asia the most excellent of all others be neer vnto Lampsacum and Alopeconnesus but the best that Greece yeeldeth are in the territorie about the citie Elis. In this Toad-stoole or Mushrome kind are those flat Fusses and Puffes to be reckoned which the Greekes name Pezitae as they haue no root at all so they be altogether without either stele or taile In the next place to these I must needs speake of the most noble and famous plant Laserpitium which the Greeks name Silphium discouered and found first in the abouesaid prouince of Barbarie Cyrenaica The juice or liquor drawne out of this hearb they cal Laser a drug so magnified of such singularitie and vse in Physicke especially that it was sold by weight and a dram thereof cost commonly Romane denier For these many yeares of late there is none of this plant to be found in that country of Cyrenaica beforesaid for that the Publicans and Farmers of the pastures and grounds there vnder the people of Rome doe put in their cattell among these plants and eat al downe by that means finding thereby a greater gaine or commodity than by letting them stand for the juice or liquor aforesaid One only stalk or stem thereof hath bin found in our days which was sent vnto Emperor Nero as a present for a great nouelty If it chance at any time that either sheepe or goat which commonly bite neer to the ground do light vpon a yong plant thereof newly peeping forth and not euident to be seene you shall know it by these signes The sheepe presently so soone as she hath tasted it will drop asleep and the goat fal a neesing For these many yeres the merchants haue brought vs into Italy no other Laser than that which grows abundantly in Persis or Media and in Armenia but it is far inferior to this of Cyrenaica and commeth short of it for goodnes And this that we haue is no better than it should be for they sophisticate and corrupt it with gum with Sagapeum or else with bruised Beans In regard of which scarsity I canot chuse but remember that which befell at Rome in that yere wherin C. Valerius and M. Herennius were consuls when by great good fortune there was brought from Cyrenae thirtie pound weight of the best Laser and set abroad to be seene in open place of all commers As also I may not let passe another occurrent namely how Caesar Dictatour at the beginning of the ciuile war tooke forth openly out of the chamber of the citie with other treasure both of gold and siluer an hundred and eleuen pounds of the best Laser Moreouer this one thing more I canot forget the best and most renowned Greeke Authors haue left in writing That 7 years before the foundation of the citie Cyrenae which was built 143 yeres after our citie of Rome this plant Laserpitium that beareth the said Laser was engendered at one instant by occasion of a certain thicke grosse and black shewer of raine in manner of pitch which sodainely fell and drenched the ground about the hortyards or gardens of the Hesperides the greater Syrtis The which rain was effectual and left the strength thereof for the compasse of foure thousand stadia within Affricke or Barbarie They affirme moreouer That the herb Laserpitium there growing is of so sauage and churlish a nature that it canot abide any culture or good ordering by mans hand but if one should goe about to tend and cherish it it would rather chuse to be gon into the desart and vnpeopled parts of the countrey or else winder away and die Moreouer they set downe this description of it That it hath many roots and those bigge and thicke a stemme or stalke resembling the hearb Sagapeum or Fennell-geant howbeit not altogether so great the leaues of this plant which they termed by the name of Maspetum come very near in all respects to those of Smallach or Persely As touching the seed that it beareth flat and thin it is in maner of leaues but the leafe it selfe therof sheddeth in the Spring time The cattell that vse to feed thereupon and whereof they be very greedy first fall a scouring but afterwards when they be clensed and rid of il humors begin to wax fat and their flesh by this means becommeth wonderfull sweet and pleasant They report moreouer that after the leaues be fallen men also were wont in old time to eat the stem or stalk thereof either rosted and baked vnder the cindres or else boiled and sodden in water and their bodies likewise for the first 40 daies ensuing did nothing but purge til they were cleared of al diseases breeding by occasion of any Cacochymie or collection of ill humours within them Now concerning the juice or soueraigne liquor before said the manner was to draw it after two sorts to wit by scarification either out of the root or forth of the stem and maister stalke And hereof it came to haue two names Rhizias and Caulias But the later of these two to wit that which came of the stem was counted the worst fubiect to putrifaction and sold cheaper than the other To come now to the root of Laserpitium it hath a blacke rind or barke vpon it wherewith the merchants vse to sophisticat many of their drugs As for the manner of dressing and ordering the juice thereof it was no sooner drawne but they put it into certaine vessels together with brans among then euer and anone they plied it with stirring and shogging vntil it had lost the cruditie and verdure thereof and by that working came to the maturity and perfection for if it were not thus well followed soon would it catch a vinew begin to putrifie and so continue but a while In this worke of theirs they had an eye vnto the color how it changed for when they perceiued it to be high that they saw it once drie and haue don sweating breathing out the raw humidity and vapor within then they knew therby that it was wrought sufficiently and come to the full ripenesse Others there be who say that the root of Laserpitium beareth more than a cubit in bignesse and that out of it there swelleth an excresence aboue the ground out of which there was wont by way of incision to issue forth a certaine white juice in manner of milke vpon which grew the stalke
or stem which they called Magydaris And they affirme besides that it beareth leafy flat graines for the seed in color like gold which shed presently vpon the rising of the Dog-star especially if the wind be south Of which grains or seeds fallen to the ground young plants of Laserpitium vse to grow vp vnderneath that within the compasse of one yere wil thriue both in root and stem to the just and full perfection they haue writen moreouer that the vse was to dig about their roots and to lay them bare at certain times of the yeare Also that they serued not to purge cattell as is aforesaid but to cure them if they were diseased for vpon the eating thereof either they mended presently or else ended and died out of hand but few they were that miscaried in this sort As touching the former opinion of purging and scouring true it is that it agreeth well to the other Silphium or Laserpitium of Persia aforesaid Another kind there is of it named Magydaris more tender and lesse forcible and strong in operation than the former and affourdeth no such juice or liquor at all it grows about Syria and commeth not vp in all the region about Cyrenae Moreouer vpon the mount Pernassus there is great plentie found of a certaine hearbe which the inhabitants would needs haue to be Laserpitium and so they cal it wherewith indeed they are wont to abuse and sophisticat that singular and diuine plant the true Laserpitium so highly commended and of so great account and regard The principall and best triall of the true and sincere Laser is taken from the colour somewhat enclining to rednesse without breake it you shall haue it appeare white within and anone transparent If you drop water vpon it or otherwise thin spittle it will resolue and melt Much vse there is of it in many medicines for to cure mens maladies Two plants more therebe well knowne to the common sort and base multitude and to say a truth few els are acquainted with them notwithstanding they be commodities of much gaine and many a peny is gotten thereby The first is Madder in great request among diers and curriers and for to set a color vpon their wooll and leather right necessarie The best of all and most commended is our Madder of Italie principally that which groweth about villages neere vnto our citie of Rome And yet there is no country or prouince lightly but is full of it It commeth vp of the owne accord and is sowed besides of seed and set of slips in manner of Eruile Howbeit a prickie stalke it hath of the owne the same is also full of joints and knots and commonly about euery one of them it hath fiue leaues growing round in a circle The seed is red What medicinable vertues it hath and to what purpose it serueth in Physicke I will declare in place conuenient The second is that which is called in Latin Radicula i Sope-wort an hearb the juice wherof Fullers vse so much to scoure their wooll withall and wonderfull it is to see how white how pure how neat and soft it will make it Beeing set it will come vp and grow in any place but of it selfe without mans hand it groweth most in Asia and Syria among rough craggie and stony grounds The best is that which is found beyond the riuer Euphrates and that bears a stem like tall Fennell howbeit small and slender and whereof the inhabitants of the countrey there doe make a delicate dish for besides that it hath a commendable tast and much desired it giueth a pleasant colour to what meat soeuer is sodden in the pot with it It beareth a leafe like the Oliue the Greeks cal it Strution it floureth in Summer louely it is to the eie but no smel at all it hath to content the nose prickie moreouer it is like a thorne and the stalke notwithstanding couered with a soft down seed hath it none but a big root which they vse to cut shred mince small for the purposes aforesaid CHAP. IV. ¶ The manner of trimming and ordering Gardens the sorting of all those things that grow out of the Earth into their due places besides corne and plants bearing fruit IT remaineth now to treat of Gardens and the carefull diligence thereto belonging a commendable thing in it selfe and recommended vnto vs besides by our fore-fathers and auncient writers who had nothing to speake of in more account and admiration in old time than the gardens of the Hesperides of Adonis and Alcioniis as also those pendant gardens vpon tarraces and leads of houses whether they were those that Semyramis Queene of Babylon or Cyrus K. of Assyria deuised and caused to be made Of which and of their workmanship my intent is to make a discourse in some other booke Now for this present to goe no farther than Rome the Romane KK verily themselues made great store of gardens and set their minds vpon them for so we read that Tarquin surnamed the Proud the last king of Rome was in his garden when he gaue dispatch vnto that messenger that was sent from his sonne about a cruell and bloudie errand for to know his fathers aduise and pleasure as touching the citizens of Gabij In all the twelue tables throughout which contain our ancient lawes of Rome there is no mention made so much as once of a Grange or Ferm-house but euermore a garden is taken in that signification and vnder the name of Hortus i. a Garden is comprised Haeredium that is to say an Heritage or Domain and herupon grew by consequence a certain religious or rediculous superstition rather of some whom we ceremoniously to sacre and blesse their garden and hortyard dores only for to preserue them against the witchcraft and sorcerie of spightful and enuious persons And therefore they vse to set vp in gardens ridiculous and foolish images of Satyres Antiques and such like as good keepers and remedies against enuy and witchcraft howsoeuer Plautus assigneth the custodie of gardens to the protection of the goddesse Venus And euen in these our daies vnder the name of Gardens and Hortyards there goe many daintie places of pleasure within the very citie vnder the color also and title of them men are possessed of faire closes and pleasant fields yea and of proper houses with a good circuit of ground lying to them like pretie farmes and graunges in the countrey all which they tearme by the name of Gardens The inuention to haue gardens within a citie came vp first by Epicurus the doctor and master of all voluptuous idlenesse who deuised such gardens of pleasance in Athens for before his time the manner was not in any citie to dwell as it were in the countrey and so to make citie and countrey al one but all their gardens were in the villages without Certes at Rome a good garden and no more was thought a poore mans cheiuance it went I say for land and liuing The
hearbs be not all commendable in one and the same respect For of some the goodnesse lieth only in their bulbous and round root of others contrariwise in their head aloft There be of them that haue no part good but their stem or maister stalk and there are for them againe the leaues wherof be only eaten Now a man shall haue amongst them those that are wholesome meat both leafe and stalke In some the seed or graine in other the outward pil or rind alone of the root is in request And as there be that tast well in the skin or cartilage and gristly substance without-forth so there are that haue either their pulpous carnosity within or else their fleshy coat aboue as daintie All the goodnes of many of them lieth hidden within the earth and of as many again aboue the ground and yet some there be that are al one as good within as without Some traine along and run by the ground growing on end stil as they creep as Gourds and Cucumbers And yet the same as well as they loue to be neere the earth yet are led lpon trailes and hang thereon yea and be knowne for to rampevpon trees How beit much weightier and better nourished be they that keepe beneath As for the Cucumber it is the cartilage substance of the fruit thereof that delighteth and pleaseth our tast for of all fruits this propertie it alone hath that the vtmost rind which it beareth groweth to a very wood when it is once ripe Within the earth lie hidden and are kept all Winter Raddishes Nauews Turneps or Rapes Elecampane also after another sort so doe Skirworts and Parseneps or Wypes Moreouer this I would aduertise the Reader that when I tearme some hearbes Ferulacea I meane such as resemble in stalke Dil or the great Mallowes For some writers doe report That in Arabia there be a kind of Mallowes which after they haue grown six or seuen months come to be in the nature of pretie trees insomuch as their stalks streightwaies serue in stead of walking staues But what should I stand vpon this In Mauritania by report of trauellers neer the frith or arme of the sea adjoining to Lixos the head citie of Fez where somtimes as folke say were the hort-yards and gardens of the Hesperides not aboue halfe a quarter of a mile from the maine ocean hard vnto the chappell of Hercules farre more ancient than that temple of his which is in the Island Calis there groweth a Mallow that is a very tree indeed in height it is twentie foot and in bodie bigger and thicker than any man can fadome In this kind I meane for the raunge the Hempe likewise And as I purpose to tearme such Ferulacea so there bee some others that I will call Carnosa such as resemble the riuer or fresh-water Spunges which commonly are seene vpon ouer-floten medowes where the water standeth For as touching the fungous substance or calliositie of some plants I haue alreadie spoken thereof in the Treatise of Wood and Trees and of their nature Likewise in our late discourse of another sort of Mushroomes and Toad-stooles CHAP. V. ¶ Garden plants their natures kinds and seuerall histories OF the cartilage and pulpous kind such I meane onely wherof there is nothing good but that which is aboue the ground I reckon the Cucumber a fruit that Tiberius the Emperor much loued and affected for he tooke such a wondrous delight and pleasure therein that there was not a day went ouer his head but he had them serued vp to his table The beds and gardens wherein they grew were such as went vpon frames to be remooued euery way with wheeles and in winter during the cold and frosty daies they could draw them backe into certaine high couert buildings exposed to the Sun and there house them vnder roufe Moreouer I find in some ancient Greek writers that their seed ought to lie 2 daies in steepe or infused in honied milke before they be prickt or set into the ground for by that meanes the Cucumbers will be the sweeter and more pleasant The nature of them is to grow in what forme and fashion soeuer that a man would haue them Throughout all Italy green they be of colour and least of any others in the out-prouinces they be as fair and great and those either of a yellow color like wax and citrons or els blacke In Affrick or Barbary men take delight to haue the greatest plenty of them wheras in Moesia they lay for to haue them passing big and huge Now when they exceed in greatnes they be called Pepones is Melons or Pompons Let a man eat them alone they will lie raw and greene in the stomacke a whole day and neuer be digested howbeit with meats they are not vnwholsom and yet for the most part swim they will aloft and ride vpon a mans stomacke A wonderfull thing in their nature they cannot abide oile in any wise but water they loue well insomuch as if they be cut off or fallen from the place where they grew they wind and creep therinto if it be but a little way off contrariwise flie they will as fast from oile if a man set it by them and in case any thing be in their way to let them or that they hang still vpon their plant a man shall perceiue how they wil turn vp and crook to shun auoid it This amitie to the one and enmity to the other may be seene euen in one nights space for if a man set vnder them 4 fingers off where they grow a vessel with water ouer-night he shal see by the morning that they wil come downe to it contrariwise let oile stand the like distance from them shrink they wil from it and hook vpward Marke another experiment in the cucumber If when it hath don flouring you enter the knot of the fruit into a long cane or trunk it will grow vo a wonderfull length But behold a very straunge and new fashion of them in Campaine for there you shall haue abundance of them come vp in forme of a Quince And as I heare say one of them chanced so to grow first at a very venture but after from the seed of it came a whol race and progeny of the like which therupon they cal Melopepones as a man would say the quince pompions or Cucumbers These neuer hang on high but go low by the ground and gather round in form of a globe A strange case it is of this kind for ouer and besides their shape their color and sauor different from the rest they are no sooner ripe but presently they fall from the stele or taile wherto they grew notwithstanding they hang not hollow from the ground where their owne poise might weigh them downe Columella tells of a pretie deuise that he hath of his own how to keep of them fresh all the yere long chuse quoth he the biggest bramble you can meet with among a thousand
of the stomack The Empresse Iulia Augusta passed not a day without eating the Elecampane root thus confected and condite and therupon came it to be in so great name and bruit as it is The seed therof is needlesse and good for nothing therefore to maintaine and increase this plant gardeners vse commonly to set the joints cut from the root after the order as they doe Reeds and Canes The manner is to plant them as well as Parsnips Skirwirts and Carrots at both times of seednes to wit the Spring and the Fall but there would be a good distance betweene euery seed or plant at least three foot because they spread and braunch very much and therewith take vp a deale of ground As for the Skirwirt or Parsnip Siser it will do the better if it be remoued and replanted It remaineth now to speak in the next place of plants with bulbous or onion roots and their nature which Cato recommendeth to Gardeners and he would haue them to be set and sowed aboue all others among which he most esteemeth them of Megara Howbeit of all this bulbous kind the Sea-onyon Squilla is reputed chiefe and principall notwithstanding there is no vse of it but in Physick and for to quicken vinegre As there is none that groweth with a bigger head at the root so there is not any more aegre and biting than it Of these Sea-onyons there be two kinds medicinable the male with the white leafe the female with the blacke There is a third sort also of Squillae which is good for to be eaten the leaues whereof be narrower and not so rough and sharp as the other and this they cal Epimenidium All the sort of these squilles are plentifull in seed howbeit they come vp sooner if they be set of cloues or bulbes which grow about their sides And if a man would haue the head of the root wax big the leaues which vsually be broad and large ought to be bended downe into the earth round about and so couered with mould for by this means all the sap and nourishment is diuerted from the leafe and runneth backe into the root These Squils or sea-onions grow in exceeding great abundance within the Baleare Islands and Ebusus as also throughout all Spaine Pythagoras the Philosopher wrote one entire volumne of these onions wherein he collected their medicinable vertues and properties which I meane to deliuer in the next booke As touching other bulbous plants there be sundry kinds of them differing all in colour quantity and sweetnesse of tast for some there bee of them good to be eaten raw as those of Cherrhonesus Taurica Next vnto them are they of Barbary and most commended for goodnesse and then those that grow in Apulia The Greeks haue set downe their distinct kindes in these terms Bulbine Setanios Pythios Acrocorios Aegylops and Sisyrinchios But strange it is of this Sisyrinchios last named how the foot and bottom of the root wil grow down stil in winter but in the Spring when the Violets appeare the same diminisheth and gathereth short vpward by which meanes the head indeed of the root seedeth and thriueth the better In this rank of bulbous plants is to be set that which in Egypt they call Aron i. Wake-Robin for bignesse of the head it commeth next to Squilla beforesaid the leaues resemble the herb Patience or garden Dock it riseth vp with a streight stem or stalke two cubits high as thicke as a good round cudgell As touching the root it is of a soft and tender substance and may be eaten raw If you would haue good of these bulbous roots you had need to dig them out of the ground before the spring for if you passe that time they will presently be the worse You shall know when they be ripe and in their perfection by the leaues for they will begin to wither at the bottom If they be elder or if their roots grow small and long they are reiected as nothing worth Contrariwise the ruddy root the rounder and the biggest withall are most commended know this moreouer That the bitternesse of the root in most of them lyeth in the crowne as it were or top of the head for the middle parts be sweet The antient writers held opinion That none of these bulbous plants would grow but of seed only howbeit both in the pastures and fields about Preneste they come vp of themselues and also among the corn lands and arable grounds of the Rhenians they grow beyond all measure CHAP. VI. ¶ Of the roots leaues floures and colours of Garden-herbes ALl Garden plants ordinarily put out but one single root apiece as for example the Radish Beet Parsley and Mallow howbeit the greatest and largest of all others is the root of the herb Patience or garden Docke which is knowne to run downe into the ground three cubits deep In the wild of this kind which is the common docke the roots be smaller yet plumpe and swelled whereby after they be digged vp and laied aboue ground they will liue a long time Some there be of them that haue hairy strings or beards hanging to the roots as namely Parsley or Ach and Mallows Others there be againe which haue branching roots as the Basill As the roots of some be carnous and flâ—…ie altogether and namely of the Beet but especially of Saffron so in others they consist of rind and carnositie both as we may see in Radishes and Rapes or Turneps And ye shall haue of them that be knotty and full of ioints as for example the root of the Quoich grasse or Dent-de-chien Such hearbs as haue no streight and direct root run immediatly into hairie threds as we may see plainly in the Orach and Bleet as for the sea Onion Squilla and such bulbous plants the garden Onions also and Garlicke they put forth their roots streight and neuer otherwise Many hearbes there be which spring of their own accord without setting or sowing and of such many there be that branch more cloue in root than in leafe as we may see in Aspalax Parietarie of the wall and Saffron Moreouer a man shall see these hearbes floure at once together with the Ash namely the running or creeping Thyme Southernewood Naphewes Radishes Mints and Rue and by that time as others begin to blow they are ready to shed their floures whereas Basill putteth forth floures by parcels one after another beginning first beneath and so going vpward by leisure which is the cause that of all others it is longest in the floure The same is to be seene in the herb Heliotropium i. Ruds or Turnsol In some the floures be white in others yellow and in others purple As touching the leaues of herbes some are apt to fall from their heads or tops as in Origan and Elecampane yea and otherwhiles in Rue if some iniurie be done vnto it Of all other herbes the blades of Onions and Chibbols be most hollow Where by
serpents haue recourse to this hearb and eat thereof The juice drawne out of this herb after it is sodden in wine bindeth the belly The same is singular good to rectifie couch and lay euen the disorderly hairs of the eye-lids as effectually as the best gum in the world Dorotheus the Poet hath deliuered in his verses that it is good for the stomack and helpeth digestion Some hold opinion That it is naught for women hurtful to the eies also that it is contrarie to the feed of man and doth hinder generation Among all those things which are earen with danger I take that Mushromes may iustly be ranged in the first and principal place true it is that they haue a most pleasant and delicat tast but discredited much they are and brought into an ill name by occasion of the poyson which Agrippina the Empresse conueighed vnto her husband Tiberius Claudius the Emperour by their means a daungerous president giuen for the like practise afterwards And verily by that fact of hers she set on foot another poison to the mischiefe of the whole world and her owne bane especially euen her own sonne Nero the Emperor that wicked monster The venomous qualitie of some of these Mushromes may be soone known by their weak rednesse their mouldy hew so vnpleasant to see to their leaden and wan colour within-forth their chamfered streakes full of chinks and chaps and finally their edges round about pale and yellow For others there be that haue none of all these markes but are drie and carie certain white spots like to drops or grains of Sal-nitre putting foorth in the top out of their tunicles And in truth before that the Mushrome is formed the earth bringeth forth a certain pellicle or coat first called in Latin Volua for this purpose that the Mushrome should lie in it and then afterwards shee engendreth it enclosed within much like as the yolke of an egge câ—…uched within the while And so long as the Mushrome is young and not come forth but â—…eth as a â—…abe within the said core or tunicle is as good meat as the Mushrom it selfe but so soon as the Mushrom is formed this membran breaketh and incontinently the body or substance therof is spent in the stele or foot that beareth it vp and seldom shall you see 2 Mushromes vpon one of these steles or feet Moreouer these mushroms take their first originall and beginning of a slim mud and the humor of the earth that is in the way of corruption or els of some root of a tree such for the most part as beare Mast. It seemeth at the first as if it were a kind of glutinous some or froth then it growes to the substance of a pellicle or skin and soone after sheweth the Mushrom indeed bred formed and consummat within as is aforesaid And verily al such are pernicious and vtterly to be rejected neer to which when they come new out of the ground there lay either a grieue-stud or leg harneisnaile or some rustie yron or so much as an old rotten cloutâ—… for looke what naughtiuesse soeuer was in any of them the same they draw and conuert into venome and poyson But none are able to discern these hurtful Mushromes from others how curious and circumspect soeuer they be saue only the peasants of the country where they grow and such as haue the gathering of them And here is not al the mischiefe that lieth in them For dangerous they be otherwise and meet with more meanes to make them deadly namely if a serpents hole or nest be neare by or if at their first discouerie and comming forth a serpent chance to breath and blow vpon them for so prepared they be and disposed as a fit subject to enter that presently they will catch and entertain any poison And therfore on any hand we must not be bold and lusty with them before the time that serpents be retired into the ground there taken vp their harbor Which is an easy matter to know by the tokens of so many herbs trees shrubs which from the time that they first came abroad aboue ground vntill they haue taken vp their winrer lodging again looke alwaies fresh and greene and principally by the leaues of the Ash alone if there were no more trees for Ashes neither bud and spring forth but after that serpents come abroad nor shed and fall away before they be gone into the ground again In summe this would be noted That Mushromes be vp and down come and gon alwaies in a seuen-night space Thus much of the Mushromes named in Latine Boleti CHAP. XXIII ¶ Of other Mushromes or Tad-stoles called Fungi Of Silphium and Laser AS touching those excrescenses in manner of Mushromes which be named Fungi they are by nature more dull and slow And albeit there bee many kinds of them yet they all take their beginning of nothing els but the slimy humor of trees The safest and least daungerous be those which haue a red callositie or outward skin and the same not of so weak a red as that of the Mushromes called Boleti Next to them in goodnesse are the white and such as hauing a white foot also bear a head much resembling the Flamins turbant or mitre with a tuffet or crest in the crown As for the third sort that be called Suilli as one would say Swine-Mushroms or Puffs they are of al others most perilous and haue the best warrant to poison folk It is not long since that in one place there died thereof all that were of one houshold and in another as many as met at a feast and did eat thereof at the same bourd Thus Anneus Serenus captaine of the Emperour Nero his guard came by his death with diuers coronels and centurions at one dinner And I wonder much what pleasure men should take thus to venture vpon so doubtfull and daungerous a meat Some haue put a difference of these mushroms according to the seuerall Trees from which they seeme to spring and haue made choise of those that come from the Fig-tree the Birch and such as beare gum For mine own part as I haue said before I hold those good that the Beech Oke and Cypresse trees doe yeeld But what assurance can a man haue hereof from their mouths who sit in the market to sell them for all the sort of those Puffes and Toadstooles look with a leaden hew and wan color Howbeit the nearer that a Mushrome or Toadstoole commeth to the color of a fig hanging vpon the tree the lesse presump tion there is that it is venomous Touching the remedies for to help those who suspect they haue eaten these dangerous mushroms I haue said somwhat alreadie and wil say more herafter Mean while this would be noted that as perilous as they be yet some goodnesse there is in them and diuers medicines they doe yeeld First and foremost Glaucias thinketh and affirmeth That the Mushromes Boleti be
for the most part into three or foure grains or branches the same is white odoriferous and hot in the mouth it loueth to grow vpon rockes and stonie grounds lying pleasantly vpon the Sun The infusion of this root in wine is good to be drunke for the paine and other diseases of the matrice but of the said root there ought to be taken three ounces stamped and the same to steepe a day and night in 3 sextars of wine for to make the infusion aboue-named This portion also serues to send down the after-birth if it stay behind The seed of this herbe drieth vp milke if it be drunke in wine or mead Cirsion commeth vp with a slender stalke two cubits high and seemeth to be made 3 cornered triangle-wise the same is beset round about with prickie leaues howbeit the said prickes are but tender and soft The leaues in forme resemble an oxe tongue or the herb Langue-deboeufe but that they be smaller and somewhat white in the top whereof there put forth purple buttons or little heads which in the end turne to a plume like thistle down Some writers hold that this herb or the root onely bound vnto the swelling veines called Varices doth allay the paine thereof Crataeogonos spindleth in the head like vnto the eare of wheat and out of one single root ye shall haue many shoots to spring and rise vp into blade and straw and those also ful of ioints It gladly groweth in coole and shadowie places the seed resembleth the grain of the Millet which is very sharp and biting at the tongues end If a man his wife before they company together carnally drink before supper for 40 daies together the weight of three oboli of this seed either in wine or as many cyaths of water they shall haue a man childe betweene them as some say There is another Crataeogonos called also Thelygonos the difference from the other may soon be known by the mildnesse in taste Some authors affirm that if women vse to drinke the floures of Crataeogonos they shal within 40 daies conceiue with child But as well the one as the other applied with hony do heale old vlcers they incarnat and fill vp the hollow concauities of fistulous sores and such parts as do mislike and want nourishment they cause to gather flesh and fill the skin again foule and filthy vlcers they mundifie the flat biles and risings called Pani they rarifie and discusse gouts of the feet they mitigat generally all impostumations in womens brests specially they resolue and assuage Theophrastus would haue a kind of tree to be called Crataegonos or Crataeogon which here in Italy they call Aquifolia Crocodilion doth in shape resemble the thistly herbe or Artichoke called the blacke Chamaeleon the root is long and thicke in all parts alike of an hard and vnpleasant smel it groweth ordinarily in sandy or grauelly grounds If one drinke of it they say it will set the nose a bleeding and send out a deale of thicke and grosse bloud that the spleene will diminish and weare away by that means As touching Testiculus Canis or Dogs-stones which the Greeks cal Cynosorchis others simply Orchis it hath leaues like vnto those of the oliue soft tender they are and about halfe a foot long and therfore no maruell if they lie spred vpon the ground the root is bulbous and growing long-wise in a double ranke or two together the one aboue which is the harder the other vnder it and that is the softer when they be sodden folke vse to eat them after the manner of other bulbs and lightly a man shall find them growing in vineyards Of these two roots if a man eat the bigger it is said that he shal beget boies and if the woman eat the smaller she shal conceiue a maiden childe In Thessalie men vse for to drinke in goats milke the softer of these roots to make themselues lustie for the act of generation but the harder when they would coole the heat of lust whereby we may see that they be contrarie and one hindereth the operation of the other Chrysolachanon commeth vp like a Lettuce and commonly groweth in plots of ground set with Pines the vertue of this herbe is to heale wounds of the sinewes thought they were cut quite asunder if it be presently laied too There is another kinde of Chrysolachanon bearing floures of a golden colour and leafed like vnto the Beet when it is boiled folke vse to eat it in stead of meat and it looseneth the belly as well as Beets Coleworts and such like and if it be true that is reported whosoeuer beare this hearbe tied fast about any place of their bodies which is euer in their eie so as they may see the same continually it wil cure them of the jaundise Touching this hearb Chrysolachanum well I wot that I haue not written sufficiently that men might know it by this description and yet could I neuer meet with any author who hath said more or described it better This verily hath been the fault and ouersight euen of our moderne Herbarists of late daies To write sleightly of those herbes and simples which they themselues knew and were acquainted with as if forsooth they had been knowne to euery man setting downe onely their names and no more which is euen as much as to tell vs a tale and say that with the rennet or rundles of the earth one might stay a laske or giue free passage to the vrine in the strangury so it be drunke in wine or water As for Cucubalum they write of it That if the leaues bee stamped with vineger they heale the stings of serpents and scorpions Some of them cal this herb by another name Strumus and others giue it the Greeke name Strychnos and black berries they say it hath The iuice thereof taken to the quantity of one cyath with twice as much honied wine is soueraigne for the loins or small of the back likewise it easeth the head-ache if together with oile of roses it bee distilled vpon the head by way of embrochation The herb it selfe in substance made into a liniment healeth the wens called the kings euill Concerning the fresh water Spunge for so I may more truly terme it than either mosse or herbe so thicke of shag haires it is and fistulous withal it groweth ordinarily within the riuers that issue from the root of the Alpes and is named in Latine * Conferua for that it is good to conglutinat in manner of a souder Certes I my selfe know a poore labourer who as he was lopping a tall tree fell from the top down to the ground and was so pitiously bruised thereby that vnneth he had any sound bone in all his body that was vnbroken and in very truth lapped he was all ouer with this mosse or spunge call it whether you will and the same was kept euermore moist and wet with sprinckling his owne
them to some part of the patient or els the snails which be found naked without their shels Others put a liue Stellion or star-lizard in some little casket or box lay the same vnder the pillow or bolster where the patient laieth his head but when the ague beginneth to decline and is like to go away they let the Stellion go againe at liberty They prescribe likewise to swallow downe the heart of a sea-gull or cormorant taken forth of the bodie without any knife or instrument of yron if not so to keepe the same dried to beat it to pouder and then to drink it in hot water The hearts of swallows condite in hony and so eaten bee excellent good for the quartane ague as our Magitians say And yet some of them make no more ado but giue of their dung to the weight of one dram in 3 cyaths of goats milke and ews milk or els of wine cuit before the accesse come Howbeit others would haue the Swallowes themselues to be eaten whole without any dressing at all The people of Parthia drink for the quartan ague the sixt part of a denier weight of an Aspis skin with the like poise of pepper they hold it to be a soueraigne remedy Chrysippus the Phylosoper was of opinion and so he hath put down in writng That to carry one Phryganium tied to some part of the body is excellent for the quartan But what liuing creature he would meane by that same Phryganium neither hath he himselfe described nor euer could I meet with any man that knew it howbeit I thought it good to set downe this remedy being thus deliuered by so graue an Author as Chrysippus was to stir vp the diligence of others if haply there be any so industrious as will take paines to search farther into the thing and learne what it might be In any of these long diseases which be called Chronique it is commonly thought That to eat the flesh of a Crow to apply vnto their body their nest is most excellent to bring them to an end As for Tertian agues it were an easie matter to try the experiments of such receits as are giuen out for them considering how the poore patients in hope of ease are willing enough delighted to be doing and working conclusions and namely to see whether the copweb nest and all of that spider which they cal Lycos incorporat with rosin and wax so appliedas a frontale to the forehead and temples on both sides of the head will do any good to rid them away Certes some vse to wear about them the spider it selfe inclosed within a quil or piece of a reed in which sort it is reported to auaile much in the cure of other feuers Also it is thought That a green lizard hung about the neck aliue in some box sufficient to receiue it is as effectuall And these kind of medicines they affirm to be of great efficacy for to driue away those agues which by way of relapse vse often to return againe when they were thought to be cleane gone Touching the dropsie the tried grease of sweaty wooll taken in wine with a little Myrrh so that the whole arise to the quantity of an Hazel nut is supposed to be a singular receit but some put there to Goose grease also and oile of Myrtles The filthy ordure that gathereth about Ewes vdders hath the same effect Likewise the flesh of an vrchin long kept in pouder or otherwise and eaten doth much good To conclude it is thought that if the belly be rubbed well and annointed with that which a dog doth vse to cast by way of vomit it helpeth those that bee in a dropsie for it is reported to haue a speciall vertue to draw a water and to drie vp the superfluous humidity ingendring that disease CHAP. XII ¶ Medicines for S. Anthonies fire Carbuncles fellons burns crampes or contractions of sinewes THe suet or grease of vnwashed wooll incorporat with oile of Roses and Tutie is a proper liniment for S. Anthonies fire so is the bloud of a tike and earth-wormes reduced into an vnguent with vineger but especially these Cricquets crushed and wrought within ones hand to the consistence of an vnguent and so applied And this medicine last mentioned is passing effectuall for the party himselfe that hath the handling of it for it assureth him afore hand that he shall not fal into the said disease in a whole yere following but this Criquet must bee digged out of the ground with some instrument of yron and the earth all to be taken vp with it for to serue in this cure Moreouer it is said That goose grease is very good in this case so are the ashes of a Vipers head kept dried then calcined if the same be afterwards applied in form of a liniment with vineger The old sloughs that snakes cast off reduced into an vnguent with Bitumen and Lambs suet quencheth this burning humor of S. Anthonies fire if the body be annointed therewith tempered in water presently after the baine As for Carbuncles the means to rid them away is to annoint them either with Pigeons dung alone or els mixed with Lineseed and honied vineger likewise it is good to make a cataplasme of those Bees which haue bin drowned or killed in their own honey and lay the same vpon the sore Others apply vnto them either a pultesse of fried Barley groats or else a pouder made with their meale If there be a carbuncle risen in their priuities the fattinesse of greasie and vnwashed wooll incorporat in hony and the skales refuse or cinders of lead into a salue cureth it and the same healeth generally all other botches or vlcers in those parts Sheeps dung that is fresh and greene they hold to be singular for carbuncles taken in the very beginning All tumors and hard swellings which had need to be mollified are made soft and brought downe most effectually with Goose grease or the fat of a Swan Moreouer it is said That a spider laid to any fellon before it be once named what thing it is eureth the same but it must not be remoued from the place before the third day The mouse called an Hardishrew hanged vp aliue vntill it be dead is very good for these fellons in case it touch not the ground afterward and that there be 3 circles or turnes made with it round about the sore so that withall both the patient and the party that hath this cure in hand spit vpon the floore three times in the doing thereof Also the dung of Cocke or Henne that which looketh reddish especially tempered with vineger laid to a fellon healeth it but the said dung ought to be fresh and newly meuted Of the same operation and effect is the gisier of a Storke boiled in wine Some there be that take certain flies of some odde and vneuen number bruise and work them into the consistence of a saue with their
in that violence and causing such trouble and broils as if the world were at war within it selfe And can there bee any thing more wonderfull and miraculous than to see the waters congealed oboue in the aire and so to continue pendant in the skie And yet as if they were not contented to haue risen thus to that exceeding height they catch and snatch vp with them into the vpper region of the aire a world of little fishes otherwhiles also they take vp stones and charge themselues with that ponderous weighty matter which is more proper to another Element The same waters falling downe againe in raine are the very cause of all those things here below which the earth produceth and bringeth forth And therefore considering the wonderfull nature thereof and namely how the corne groweth vpon the ground how trees and plants doe liue prosper and fructifie by the means of waters which first ascending vp into the skie are furnished from thence with a liuely breath and bestowing the same vpon the herbs cause them to spring and multiply we cannot chuse but confesse that for all the strength and vertue which the Earth also hath shee is beholden to the Waters and hath receiued all from them In which regard aboue all things and before I enter into my intended discourse of Fishes and beasts liuing in this Element I meane first to set down in generaility the maruellous power and properties of water it selfe and to illustrat the same by way of sundry examples for the particular discourse of all sorts of waters what man liuing is able to performe CHAP. II. ¶ The diuersitie of waters their vertues und operations medicinable and other singularities obserued therein THere is in maner no region nor coast of the earth but you shall see in one quarter or other waters gently rising and springing out of the ground here and there yeelding fountains in one place cold in another hot yea and otherwhils there may be discouered one with another neere adioyning as for example about Tarbelli a towne in Guienne and the Pyrenaean hills there do boile vp hot and cold springs so close one vnto the other that hardly any distance can be perceiued between Moreouer sources there be which yeeld waters neither cold nor hot but luke-warme and the same very holesome and proper for the cure of many diseases as if Nature had set them apart for the good of man only and no other liuing creature beside To these fountains so medicinable there is ascribed some diuine power insomuch as they giue name vnto sundry gods and goddesses and seeme to augment their number by that means yea otherwhiles great towns cities carrie their names like as Puteoli in Campane Statyellae in Liguria Aquae Sextiae in the prouince of Narbon or Piemont but in no countrey of the world is there found greater plenty of these springs and the same endued with more medicinable properties than in the tract or vale Baianus within the realm of Naples where you shall haue some hold of brimstone others of alume some standing vpon a veine of salt others of nitre some resembling the nature of Bitumen and others again of a mixt qualitie partly soure and partly salt Furthermore you shall meet with some of them which naturally serue as a stouph or hot-house for the very steeme and vapour only which ariseth from them is wholesome and profitable for our bodies and those are so exceeding hot that they heat the bains yea and are able to make the cold water to seeth boile again which is in their bathing tubs as namely the fountaine Posidianus whithin the foresaid territory Bajanus which name it tooke of one Posidius a slaue sometime and enfranchised by Claudius Caesar the Emperour Moreouer there be of them so hot that they are able to seeth an egg or any other viands or cates for the table As for the Licinian springs which beare the name of Licinius Crassus a man may perceiue them to boile and reeke again euen out of the very sea See how good Nature is to vs who amid the waues and billows of the sea hath affourded healthfull waters But now to discipher their vertues in Physick according to their seuerall kinds thus much in generality is obserued in these baths That they serue for the infirmities of the sinews for gout of the feet sciatica Some more properly are good for dislocations of ioints and fractures of bones others haue a property to loosen the bellie to purge and as there be of them which heale wounds and vlcers so there are again that more particularly be respectiue to the accidents of the head and ears and among the rest those which beare the name of Cicero and be called Ciceronianâ—… besoueraign for the eies Now there is a memorable manour or faire house of plaisance situat vpon the sea side in the very high way which leadeth from the lake Auernus to the cittie Puteoli much renowmed for the groue or wood about it as also for the stately galleries porches allies and walking places adioyning therunto which set out and beautifie the said place very much this goodly house M. Cicero called Academia in regard of some resemblance it had vnto a colledge of that name in Athens from whence he tooke the modell and patterne where he compiled those books of his which carrie the name of the place and be called Academice quaestiones and there he caused his monument or sepulchre to be made for the perpetuitie of his memoriall as who would say he had not sufficiently immortalized his name throughout the world by those noble works which he wrote and commended vnto posteritie Well soone after the decease of Cicero this house and forrest both fell into the hands and tenure of Antistius Vetus at what time in the very forefront as it were and entrie thereof there were discouered certaine hot fountaines breaking and springing out of the ground and those passing medicinable and wholesome for the eies Of these waters Laurea Tullus an enfranchised vassall of Cicero made certaine verses and those carying with them such a grace of majestie that at the first sight a man may easily perceiue how affectionat and deuout he was to the seruice of his lord and master and for that the said Epigram is worthy to be read not onely there but also in euery place I will set it downe here as it standeth ouer those baines to be seene in this Decasticon Quo tua Romanae vindex clarissime linguae Sylva loco melius surgere jussa viret Atque Academiae celebratam nomine villam Nunc reparat cultu sub potiore Vetus Hîc etiam apparent lymphae non ante repertae Lanquida quae infuso lumina rore levant Nimirum locus ipse sui Ciceronis honori Hoc dedit hacfontes cum patefecit ope Vt quoniam totum legitur sine fine per orbem Sint plures oculis quae medeantur aquae O
all the corne vpon the ground The like also fell as often in Egypt for the rain that fel caused all the washes arising from the riuer Nilus which watred the grounds to be bitter whereupon insued a great plague and pestilence to the whole region It chanceth many times that presently vpon the cutting and stocking vp of Woods there arise and spring certaine fountaines which beforetime appeared not but were spent in the nourishment of the tree roots as it fell out in the mountain Haemus when as Cassander held the Gallogreeks besieged for when the woods thereupon were cut down to make a palaisad for a rampier presently there issued forth springs of water in their place Moreouer it hath bin oft times known that by occasion of spoiling some hils of the wood growing therupon the springs haue met altogether in one streame and done much hurt in sudden ouerflowing the vaile beneath whereas the trees before-time had wont to drink vp digest and consume all the moisture wet that fell and fed the said waters And verily it auaileth much for the maintenance of water to stirre with the plough and to till a ground thereby to break vp and loose the vppermost callositie and hide as it were of the earth that kept it clunged and bound Certes it is recorded for a truth that vpon the rasing and destroying of Arcadia a towne so called in Creet wherby the place was dispeopled all the fountaines waxed dry and the riuers in that tract which were many came to nothing but six yeares after when the said town was re-edified euen as the inhabitants fell to earing and ploughing any grounds within their territorie the foresaid fountains appeared again and the riuers returned to their former course CHAP. V. ¶ Divers historicall obseruations touching this point MOreouer Earthquakes as they discouer sometimes new springs and sources of water so otherwhiles they swallow them vp that they are no more seene like as it hapned as it is well knowne 5 times about the riuer Pheneus in Arcadia And in manner abouesayd there issued forth a riuer out of the mountaine Corycus so soone as the peisants of the country began to break it vp for tillage But to return again to the change and alteration of waters wonderfull they must needs be no doubt when there is no euident cause thereof to be knowne as namely in Magnesia where al the hot waters of the bains suddenly became cold without any other change besides of the tast also in Caria where standeth the temple of Neptune the riuer which was knowne before to be fresh and potable all on a sudden turned into salt water Ouer and besides is not this a strange miracle that the fountain Arethusa in Syracuse should haue a sent or smell of dung during the solemne games and exercises at Olympia But there is some probable reason to be rendred hereof Because the riuer Alpheus passeth from Olympus vnder the very bottom of the sea into that Island of Sicily where Syracuse standeth and so commeth to the foresaid fountain The Rhodians haue a fountain within their Chersonese which euery ninth yere purgeth it self sends out an infinit deale of ordure and filthines And as the tast smell of waters do alter so their colours also do change as for example there is a lake in the country of Babylon which euery summer for the space of 11 daies looketh red and Borysthenes also in the summer time runneth with a blewish colour like violets or the sky and yet a most pure and subtill water it is of all other which is the reason that it swims aloft and floteth naturally vpon Hypanis the riuer In which two riuers there is another maruell reported That all the while a Southern wind bloweth the riuer Hypanis is discerned aboue it But there is one argument more besides that proueth the water of Borysthenes to be passing light thin for that there arise no mists out of it nay it is not perceiued to yeeld any exhalation or breath at al from it To conclude they that would seem to be curious and skilfull in these matters do obserue and affirme That generally all waters grow to be heauier after that mid-winter is once past CHAP. VI. ¶ The maner of water-conduits How and when those waters which naturally are medicinable ought to be vsed Also for what diseases it is good to saite and take the aire of the Sea The vertues and properties of sea waters as touching Physicke IF a man would convey water from any head of a spring the best way is to vse pipes of earth made by potters art and the same ought to be 2 fingers thick and one jointed within another so as the end of the vpper pipes enter into the nether as a tenon into a mortaise or as a box into the lid the same ought to be vnited and laid euen with quicklime quenched and dissolued in oile The least leuell for to carry and command water vp hill from the receit is one hundred foot but if it be conueyed but by one canel and no more it may be forced to mount the space of two Actus i. 240 foot As touching the pipes by means whereof the water is to rise aloft they ought to be of lead Furthermore this is to be obserued That the water ascend alwaies of it self at the deliuerie to the heigth of the head from whence it gaue receit if it bee fetched a long way the worke must rise and fall often in the carriage thereof that the leuell may bee maintained still As for the pipes ten foot long apiece they would bee if you do well Now if the said pipes of lead be but fiue fingers in compasse ordinarily they should weigh sixty pound if they be of eight fingers size they must carry the weight of one hundred pound but in case they bear a round of 10 fingers their poise would be at the least 120 pound and so the rest more or lesse according to this proportion Those pipes be called properly in Latine Denariae the web or sheet whereof beareth ten fingers in breadth before it be turned in and brought to the compasse of a pipe like as Quinariae when the same is halfe so broad Moreouer this is to be obserued That in euery turning and twining of an hill the pipe ought of necessity to be fiue fingers round and no more for to represse and breake the violence of the water in the current Likewise the vaulted heads which receiue and contain water from all the sources meeting together musâ—… be of that capacity as need requireth And since I am falne into the treatise and discourse of fountains I wonder much at Homer that he hath made no mention at all of hot springs and yet otherwise throughout his whole poëme hee bringeth in oftentimes those who bathed and washed in hot baines But it may verie wel be that the reason therof is because in those times
ashes which as it is lightest so none is so white as it There is that also which is called the Floure of salt altogether different from salt as being a kind of dew of a moister nature resembling safron in yellow colour or els inclining rather to a sad red or russet colour and is as a man would say the rust of falt the strong vnpleasant smell likewise which commeth neere vnto that of the pickle Garum bewraieth that it is a distinct thing from salt as well as from the froth thereof This Floure of salt came first from Aegypt and it seemeth as though it floted vpon the riuer Nilus were carried down the stream thereof And yet there be some fountains which doe beare and put vp the same vpon which it swimmeth aloft Of this kind the best is that which yeeldeth a certain fatty and vncteous oyle for this you are to think that salt is not without a kinde of fattinesse wonderfull though it be This floure of salt is sophisticated commonly coloured with red ocre or els many times with potshards reduced into pouder but this deceit may be quickly known and found by water for if it be a false and artificiall colour water will wash it off wheras the true floure of salt indeed will resolue by nothing but by oile and verily the Apothecaries confectioners of sweet oiles and ointments vse it most of all for the colour sake when they would giue a fresh liuely hue to their compositions Being put vp in any vessell it seemeth white hoarie aloft but the middle part within is as I haue said more moist ordinarily As touching the properties of this flour of salt by nature it is biting hot and hurtfull to the stomack it moueth sweat and looseth the belly taken in wine water good also it is for to enter into those ointments which are deuised for lassitude and wearinesse and by reason of the abstersiue faculty that it hath fit for sope and scouring bals Nothing so effectuall to cause the haire to fall from the eie-lids As for the residence or grounds therof setling in the bottom of the pot where this floure is kept they vse to shog and shake the same together to bring it again to the colour of Safron Ouer and besides there is in salt-houses another substance like brine which in Latine is called Salsugo or Salsilago altogether liquid salter in tast than sea-water but in strength far short of it and different and yet is there one kind more of an exquisit and dainty liquor in manner of a dripping called Garum proceeding from the garbage of fishes and such other offall as commonly the cooke vseth to cast away as it lieth soking in salt so as if a man would speak properly it is no other but the humor that commeth from them as they do lie and putrifie In old time this sauce was made of that fish which the Greeks called Garon Where by the way this commeth to my mind that if a woman sit ouer the perfume or suffumigation of the head of this fish whiles it burneth it is of power to fetch away the afterbirth that staieth behind when the child is borne CHAP. VIII ¶ Of the fishes called Scombri Of fish pickle and the fish sauce namedin old time Alex. NOw adaies the most dainty and exquisit Garum is made of the fish called Scomber and that in new Carthage where there groweth such store of Spart or Spanish broome and namely in the stews and ponds by the sea side where fishes are kept salted In times past and yet it beareth the name of the Allies sauce as their Garum so costly and so much in request that every 2 gallons thereof might not be bought much vnder the price of a thousand sesterces Certes setting aside sweet perfumes odoriferous ointments there was not a liquor almost in the world that began to grow vnto a higher rate reckoning insomuch as some places and people carried the name thereof and were innobled thereby And verily in all Mauritania Granade in Spaine and Carteia the inhabitants lie in wait to fish for these Scombri and to take them as they enter out of the Ocean into the straits of Gilbretar and all for this Garum being indeed good for nothing els The city Clazomenae in Asia the townes Pompeij Leptis are much renowned for this sauce like as Antipolis Thurij and of late daies Dalmatia for their pickle The grosse grounds or dregs of this sauce before it be strained purified and fully finished is called Alex euen the very defect imperfection therof Howbeit of late time men haue gone in hand to make the said Alex or Garum of one kind of fishes apart by themselues which otherwise are good for little or nothing of all others be smallest this fish we in Latin call Apua the Greeks Aphye for that it is engendered of raine and showers In the the territory of Forojulium the fish whereof they make this sauce they call Lupus But in processe of time Garum arose to excesse both in price varietie of vse insomuch as there grew an infinit number of diuers kinds for one sort there was of Garum that in colour resembled old honied wine and became so cleare and sweet withall that it might wel enough haue bin drunk for wine another kind there was which our superstitious votaries vse for to keep themselues chaste continent the Iews also in their holy sacrifices imployed the same especially that which is made of skaly fishes In like manner the other sauce Alex is come to be made of Oisters sea Vrchins sea Nettles Crab fishes Lobstars and the liuers of sea Barbles In sum thus wee haue deuised a thousand waies to dissolue salt with the consumption of the substance of fish and all to procure appetite to meat and to content the belly Thus much I thought good to note cursarily as touching those sauces which are so greatly longed after in the world the rather for that in some sort they serue in the practise of Physick for the grosse liquor or sauce Alex healeth the scab in sheep if the skin be scarified or skiced and the same Alex poured therupon Also it is singular against the biting of a mad dog or the prick of the sea dragon the same likewise serues to soke linnen wreaths to be laid in wounds or tents made of lint to bee put into sores As for Garum it healeth any fresh burne if a man drop it vpon the place without naming it or saying that it is Garum good it is besides for the biting of mad dogs but especially for the Crocodiles tooth as also for running vlcers which be either corrosiue or filthy Of wonderful operation effect besides for the sores of the mouth and ears as also for their pains The pickle Muria likewise or that salt liquor that commeth from salt-fish called in Latin Salsugo is astringent biting discussiue and
it they haue a good guesse and aim that directeth them to gold whether it lie deep or shallow And by this conjecture otherwhiles their hap is so good as to find that which they desire aloft euen ebbe vnder the vpmost coat of the earth but I must needs say a rare felicity is this yet of late daies during the Empire of Nero there was found in Dalmatia a vaine of gold ore within one spades griffe in the first turfe of the ground which yeelded euery day the weight of fifty pound This manner of earth if it be found also vnder a vaine of gold they call Alutatio Moreouer this is to be noted That ordinarily the dry and barren mountains in Spaine which beare and bring forth nothing else are forced as it were by Nature to furnish the world with this treasure and doe yeeld mines of gold As for that gold ore which is digged forth of pits some call it in Latine Canalitium others Canaliense And verily this is found sticking to the grit and vtmost crust of hard rocks of marble not after the manner of drops or sparkes glittering in orient Saphire or The Thebaick marble and in many other pretious stones which are marked here and there with specks of gold but this ore or mettall doth clasp and embrace whole pieces of marble such like found in rocks And commonly these canales as I may so say of gold ore follow the veins of such marble and stone in the quarry diuiding and spreading as they do here and there wherupon the gold tooke the foresaid name of Canalitium they wander also along the sides of the pits as they are digged so that the earth had need to be borne vp and supported with posts and pillars for the getting of it lest by hollow vndermining it fall vpon the pioners This mine or vein of gold ore when it is once digged vp and landed aboue ground the manner is to bray and stamp to wash burn and melt yea and otherwhiles to grind into pouder As for that which as they pun thus and beat in mortars is knocked from it they call Apilascus but the mettall which sweateth out and commeth forth by the violent heate of the furnace where the foresayd ore is melted they name Argentum i. Siluer The grosse substance cast vp from the pot or vessel and swimming aloft whether it be the drosse comming of gold thus tried or any other mettal is named Scoria Howbeit this drosse that gold doth yeeld from it in the trying is set ouer the fire again to take a new melting is stamped in maner aforesaid As for the pans or vessels wherin gold is thus tried and refined they be made of a certain earth named Tasconium and the same is white like vnto a kinde of potters clay For surely there is no other earth or matter whatsoeuer will abide either the heate of the fire vnderneath plied continually with the bellows or the matter with in it when it is melted And thus much of the two first waies of finding out gold The third manner of searching for this mettal is so painfull and toilesome that it surpasseth the wonderfull works of the Geants in old time For necessary it is in this enterprise busines to vndermine a great way by candlelight to make hollow vaults vnder the mountains In which labor the pioners work by turns successiuely after the maner of the reliefe in a set watch keeping euery man his houres in iust measure and in many a moneths space they neuer see the Sun or day light This kind of work and mines thus made they call Arrugiae wherin it falleth out many times that the earth aboue head chinketh and all at once without giuing any warning setleth and falleth so as the poore pioners are ouerwhelmed buried quick insomuch as considering these perils it seemes that those who diue vnder the water into the bottom of the Leuant seas for to get pearls hasard themselues nothing so much as these pioners a strange thing that by our rashnesse and folly wee should make the earth so much more hurtfull to vs than the water Wel then to preuent as much as possibly may be these mischiefes and dangerous accidents they vnderprop the hils and leaue pillars and arches as they go set thick one by another to support the same And yet say they worke safe enough and be not in jeopardy of their liues by the fall of the earth yet there be other difficulties that impeach their work for otherwhiles they meet with rocks of flint and rags as wel in vndermining forward as in sinking pits downe-right which they are driuen to pierce and cleaue through with fire and vineger But for that the vapor and smoke that ariseth from thence by the means may stifle and choke them within those narrow pits and mines they are forced to giue ouer such fire-work and betake themselues to great mattocks and pickaxes yea and to other engines of iron weighing 150 pounds apiece wherewith they hew such rocks in pieces and so sinke deeper or make way before them The earth and stones which with so much ado they haue thus loosed they are fain to cary from vnder their feet in scuttles and baskets vpon their shoulders which passe from hand to hand euermore to the next fellow Thus they moile in the dark both day and night in these infernal dungeons and none of them see the light of the day but those that are last and next vnto the pits mouth or entry of the caue If the flint or rock that they work into seem to run in a long grain it will cleaue in length and come away by the sides in broad flakes and therefore the pioners with ease make way trenching and cutting round about it Howbeit be the rock as ragged as it will they count not that their hardest work for there is a certaine earth resembling a kinde of tough clay which they call white Lome and the same intermingled with gritty sand so hard baked together that there is no dealing with it it so scorneth and checketh all their ordinary tooles and labour about it that it seemeth impenetrable What doe the poore labourers then They set vpon it lustily with iron wedges they lay on lode vncessantly with mighty beetles and verily they thinke that there is nothing in the world harder than this labour vnlesse it bee this vnsatiable hunger after gold which surpasseth all the hardnesse and difficulty that is Wel when the work is brought to an end within the ground that they haue vndermined hollowed the ground as far as they think good down they go with their arch-work abouesaid which they builded as they went they begin first at those props which are farthest off cutting the heads of the stancheons still as they return backward to the entrance of the work Which don the sentinel only which of purpose keeps good watch without vpon the top of the same
enginers who vndertooke the weighing vp this Obeliske ouer the young prince for feare of hurting him would induce them also to be the more heedfull to preserue the stone Certes this Obelisk was a piece of work so admirable that when Cambyses had woon the city where it stood by assault and put all within to fire and sword and burnt all before him as far as to the very foundation vnderpinning of the obelisk commanded expresly to quench the fire and so in a kind of reuerence yet vnto a masse and pile of stone spared it who had no regard at all of the city besides Other Obeliskes there be twaine the one erected by K. Smarres the other by Eâ—…aphius both without characters and the same are 48 cubits in height apiece At Alexandria K. Ptolomaeus syrnamed Philadelphus set vp another obelisk 80 cubits high the which king Nectabis had caused to be hewed out of the quarry plaine without any work but much more difficultie there was in carying it from the quarry setting it vpright than there had bin labor in the hewing some write that Satyrus a great architect enginer conueied it to Alexandria by means of flat bottoms or sleds But â—…alixenus saith that one Phaenix did the deed who caused a trench to be cut from the riuer Nilus and to be carried with water as far as to the place where the obelisk lay along then he deuised two broad barges prepared well fraught with smal squares of the same stone a foot euery way to the double poise or weight of the Obelisk it selfe in proportion by reason whereof the vessels hauing their full load might come vnder the Obelisk iust as it lay hollow ouerthwart the head of the fosse with either end resting vpon the banks which done he began to discharge the vessels vnderneath to throw out the stones were with they were laden by meanes whereof as they were lightened they rose vp higher and higher to the very Obelisk and receiued the charge ordained for them He writes moreouer that there were six other like to it hewed out of the same mountain the workmen who cut and squared them had fifty talents for a reward But the foresaid Obelisk was afterwards by the abouenamed king erected in the hauen of Arsinoë in testimonie of loue to Arsinoë his wife and sister both But for that it did hurt to the ship-docke there one Maximus a gouernor of Egypt vnder the Romans remoued it from thence into the market place of the said city cutting off the top of it intending to put a filiall thereupon gilded which afterwards was forelet and forgotten Two Obelisks more there were in the hauen of Alexandria neere to the temple of Caesar which were hewed out of the rocke by Mesphees king of Egypt being 42 cubits high But aboue all other difficulties it passeth what a do there was to transport them by sea to Rome and verily the ships prepared of purpose therefore were passing faire and wonderfull to see to As for one of the said ships which brought the former Obelisk Augustus Caesar the Emperor of famous memorie had dedicated it vnto the harbor or hauen of Puteoli there to remain for euer as a miracle to behold but it fortuned to be consumed with fire the other wherein C. Caesar had transported the second Obeliske into the riuer after it had bin kept safe for certaine yeares together to be seen for that it was the most admirable Carrick that euer had bin known to flote vpon the sea Claudius Caesar late Emperour of Rome caused it to be brought to Ostia where for the safetie and securitie of the hauen he sunk it and thereupon as a sure foundation he raised certaine piles or bastions like turrets or sconces with the sand of Puteoli which being done a new care and trouble there was to bring the Obeliske vp the riuer Tiberis to Rome Which being effected it appeared well by that experiment that vpon the riuer Tiberis a vessel draweth as much water full as Nilus As touching the said Obelisk which Augustus Caesar late Emperor erected in the great shew-place or cirque at Rome it was first â—…ut out of the rock by Semneserteus King of Egypt in the time of whose reign Pythagoras soiourned in Egypt the same contains 125 foot nine inches besides the foot or base of the said stone As for the other standing in Mars field being 9 foot lower than it hewed and squared it was by commandement from Sesostris K. of Egypt In the characters ingrauen in both of them a man may see all the philosophie and religion of the Egyptians for they contain the interpretation of nature CHAP. X. ¶ Of that Obelisk at Rome which standeth in Mars field and serueth for a Gnomon ANd as for that Obelisk which standeth in Mars field Augustus Caesar deuised a wonderfull means that it should serue to mark out the noontide with the length of day and night according to the shadowes that the Sun doth yeeld by it for hee placed vnderneath at the foot of the said Obelisk according to the bignes and length therof a pauement of broad stone wherein a man might know the sixt houre or mid-day at Rome when the shadow was equall to the Obelisk and how by little and little according to certain rules which are lines of brasse inlaid within the said stone the daies do increase or decrease A thing no doubt worth the knowledge and an inuention proceeding from a pregnant wit Manlius a renowned Mathematician Astronomer put vnto the top of the said Obelisk a gilded ball in such sort that all the shadow which it gaue fell vpon the Obeliske and this cast other shadowes more or lesse different from the head or top of the Obeliske aforesaid The reason whereof they say was vnderstood from the sundry shadowes that a mans head yeelds But surely for these thirty yeares past or thereabout the vse of this quadrant aforesaid hath not been found true and what the reason of it should be I know not whether the course of the Sun in it self be not the same that hertofore or be altered by some disposition of the heauens or whether the whole earth be somwhat remoued from the true centre in the midst of the world which I heare say is found to be so in other places or that it proceed by occasion of the earth quakes which haue shaken the city of Rome and so haply wrested the Gnomon from the old place or lastly whether by reason of many inundations of Tyber this huge and weighty Obelisk hath setled and sunk down lower and yet it is said the foundation was laid as deep vnder ground as the obelisk it selfe is aboue ground CHAP. XI ¶ Of the third Obelisk in the Vaticane THere is a third Obelisk at Rome standing within the cirque or shew-place of the two Emperors C. Caligula and Nero and this is the only Obeliske known to haue bin broken in the rearing This
therupon but these braue painted floors were put downe when pauements made of stone and quarrels came in place the most famous workman in this kind was one Sosus who at Pergamus wrought that rich pauement in the common hall which they cal Asaroton oecon garnished with bricks or small tiles enealed with sundry colours and he deuised that the worke vpon this pauement should resemble the crums and scraps that fel from the table and such like stuffe as commonly is swept away as if they were left stil by negligence vpon the pauement Among the rest wonderfull was his handiworke there in pourtraying a Doue drinking which was so liuely expressed as if the shadow of her head had dimmed the brightnesse of the water there should a man haue seen other Pigeons sitting vpon the brim of the water tankard pruning themselues with their bils and disporting in the Sunshine The old paued floors which now also are much vsed especially vnder roofe and couvert howsoeuer they came from barbarous countries were in Italy first patted and beaten downe with heauie rammers as we may collect by the verie name it selfe Pauement which comes of Pavire i. to ram downe hard As for the manner of pauing with smal tiles or quarrels ingrauen the first that euerwas seen at Rome was made within the temple of Iupiter Capitolinum and not before the third Punicke war begun But ere the Cimbrian wars began such pauements were much taken vp in Rome and men tooke great delight and pleasure therein as may appeare sufficiently by that common verse out of Lucilius the Poët Ante Pavimenta aeta emblemata vermiculata c. Before the Pauements checker-wrought in painted Marquettry c. As touching open galleries and terraces they were deuised by the Greeks who were wont to couer their houses with such And in truth where the country is warme such deuises doe well howbeit they are dangerous and deceitfull where there is store of rain and frost But for to make a terrace so paued necessary it is first to lay two courses of boords or plankes vnderneath and those crosse and ouerthwart one the other the ends of which planks or boords ought to be nailed to the end they should not twine or cast atoside which done take of new rubbish two third parts and put thereto one third part of shards stamped to pouder then with other old rubbish mix two fiue parts of lime and herewith lay a couch of a foot thicknesse and be sure to ram it hard together Ouer which there must be laid a coator course of mortar six fingers bredth thick and vpon this middle couch broad square pauing tiles or quarrels and the same ought to enter at least two fingers deep into the said bed of mortar Now for that this floore or pauement must rise higher in the top this proportion is to be obserued that in euery ten foot it gain an inch and a halfe After which the pauement thus laid is to be plained and polished diligently with some hard stone and aboue al regard would be had that the planks or boorded floor were made of oke As for such as do cast or twine any way they be thought naught Moreouer it were better to lay a course of flint or chaffe between it and the lime to the end that the said lime might not haue so much force to hurt the bourd vnderneath Requisit also it were to put vnderneath round pebbles among After the like maner be the spiked pauements made of flat tiles shards And here I must not forget one kind of pauing more which is called Grecanicke the manner wherof is thus The Greeks after they haue well rammed a floore which they mean to paue lay therupon a pauement of rubbish or else broken tile shards and then vpon it a couch of charcoale well beaten and driuen close together with sand lime and small cindres well mixed together which done they do lay their pauing stuffe to the thicknesse of halfe a foot but so euen as the rule and souare will giue it and this is thought to be a true earthen paued floore of the best making But if the same be smoothed also with a hard slicke stone the whole pauement wil seem all black as for those pauements called Lithostrata which be made of diuers coloured squares couched in works the inuention began by Syllaes time who vsed thereto small quarrels or tiles at Preneste within the temple of Fortune which pauement remaines to be seen at this day But in processe of time pauements were driuen out of ground-floores and passed vp into chambers and those were seeled ouer head with glasse which also is but a new inuention of late deuised for Agrippa verily in those baines which he caused to be made at Rome annealed all the potterie worke that there was and enamelled the same with diuers colours whereas all others be adorned only with whiting no doubt he would neuer haue forgotten to haue arched them ouer with glasse if the inuention had bin practised before or if from the wals partitions of glasse which Scaurus made vpon his stage as I said before any one had proceeded also to roofe chambers therwith But since I am fallen vpon the mention of glasse it shall not be impertinent to discourse somewhat of the nature thereof CHAP. XXVI ¶ The first inuention of glasse and the manner of making it Of a kind of Glasse called Obsidianum Also of sundry kindes of Glasse and those of many formes THere is one part of Syria called Phoenice bordering vpon Iurie which at the foot of the mount Carmell hath a meere named Cendeuia out of which the riuer Belus is thought to spring and within fiue miles space falleth into the sea near vnto the colony Ptolemais This riuer runneth but slowly and seemeth a dead or dormant water vnwholesome for drinke howbeit vsed in many sacred ceremonies with great deuotion full of mud it is and the same very deepe ere a man shall meet with the firm ground and vnlesse it be at some spring tide when the sea floweth vp high into the riuer it neuer sheweth sand in the bottom but then by occasion of the surging waues which not only stir the water but also cast vp scoure away the grosse mud the sand is rolled too and fro and being cast vp sheweth very bright and cleare as if it were purified by the waues of the sea and in truth men hold opinion That by the mordacity and astringent quality of the salt water the sands become good which before serued to no purpose The coast along this riuer which sheweth this kind of sand is not aboue halfe a mile in all and yet for many a hundred yeare it hath furnished all places with matter sufficient to make glasse As touching which deuise the common voice and fame rnnneth that there arriued sometimes certain merchants in a ship laden with nitre in the mouth of this riuer being landed minded to seeth their
victuals vpon the shore and the very sands but for that they wanted other stones to serue as treuets to beare vp their pans and cauldrons ouer the fire they made shift with certaine pieces of sal-nitre out of the ship to support the said pans and so made fire vnderneath which being once afire among the sand and grauell of the shore they might perceiue a certaine cleare liquor run from vnder the fire in very streams and hereupon they say came the first inuention of making glasse But afterwards as mans wit is very inuentiue men were not content to mix nitre with this sand but began to put the Load-stone among for that it is thought naturally to draw the liquor of glasse vnto it as well as yron Then they fell to calcine and burne in many other places shining grauell stones shels of fishes yea and sand digged out of the ground for to make glasse therewith Moreouer diuers authors there be who affirme That the Indians vse to make glasse of the broken pieces of Crystall and therefore no glasse comparable to that of India Now the matter whereof glasse is made must be boiled or burnt with a fire of dry wood and the same burning light and cleare without smoke and there would be put thereto brasse of Cypros and nitre especially that which commeth from Ophyr The furnace must bee kept with fire continually after the manner as they vse in melting the ore of brasse Now the first burning yeeldeth certaine lumps of a fatty substance and blackish of colour This matter is so keen and penetrant whiles it is hot that if it touch or breath vpon any part of the body it will pierce and cut to the very bone ere one be aware or do feele it These masses or lumps be put into the fire againe and melted a second time in the glasse houses where the colour is giuen that they shall haue and then some of it with blast of the mouth is fashioned to what form or shape the workman will other parcells polished with the Turners instrument and some againe engrauen chased and embossed in manner of siluer plates in all which feats the Sidonians in times past were famous artificers for at Sidon were deuised also mirroirs or looking glasses Thus much as touching the antique maner of making glasse But now adaies there is a glasse made in Italy of a certain white sand found in the riuer Vulturnus for six miles space along the shore towns from the mouth where he dischargeth himselfe into the sea and this is between Cumes and the lake Lucrinus This sand is passing soft and tender whereby it may be reduced very easily into fine pouder either to be beaten in morter or ground in mill to which pouder the manner is to put three parts of nitre either in weight or measure and after it is the first time melted they vse to let it passe into other furnaces where it is reduced into a certain masse which because it is compounded of sand and nitre they call Ammonitrum this must be melted againe and then it becomes pure glasse and the very matter indeed of the white clear glasses in this sort throughout France and Spain the maner is to temper their sand to prepare it for the making of glasse Moreouer it is said That during the reigne of Tiberius the Emperor there was deuised a certain temper of glasse which made it pliable and flexible to wind and turne without breaking but the artificer who deuised this was put downe and his work-house for feare lest vessels made of such glasse should take away the credit from the rich plate of brasse siluer and gold and make them of no price and verily this bruit hath run currant a long time but how true it is not so certain But what booted the abolishing of glasse-makers seeing that in the daies of the Emperor Nero the art was growne to such perfection that two drinking cups of glasse and those not big which they called Pterotos were sold for 6000 sesterces There may be ranged among the kinds of glasses those which they call Obsidiana for that they carry some resemblance of that stone which one Obsidius found in Aethyopia exceeding blacke in colour otherwhiles also transparent howbeit the sight therein is but thicke and duskish It serueth for a mirroir to stand in a wall and instead of the image yeeldeth back shadows Of this kind of glasse many haue made jewels in maner of precious stones and I may selfe haue seene massiue pourtraitures made thereof resembling Augustus late Emperor of famous memory who was wont to take pleasure in the thicknes of this stone insomuch as he dedicated in the temple of Concord for a strange and miraculous matter foure Elephants made of this Obsidian stone Also Tiberius Caesar sent back again to the citizens of Heliopolis a certain image of prince Menelaus found among the moueable goods of one who had bin lord gouernor in Aegypt which he had taken away out of a temple among other cerimoniall reliques and the said statue was all of the Iaiet called Obsidianus And by this it may appeare That this matter began long time before to be in vse which now seemeth to be renued again and counterfeited by glasse that resembleth it so neare As for the said Obsidian stone Xenocrates writeth That it is found naturally growing among the Indians within Samnium also in Italy and in Spaine along the coast of the Ocean Moreouer there is a kind of Obsidian glasse with a tincture artificiall as blacke as Iaiet which serueth for dishes and platters to hold meat like as other glasse red throughout and not transparent called for that colour Haematinon By art likewise there be vessels of glasse made white and of the colour of Cassidony resembling also the Iacinct and Saphire yea any other colors whatsoeuer In sum there is not any matter at this day more tractable and willing either to receiue any forme or take a color than glasse but of all glasses those be most in request and commended aboue the rest which be white transparent and cleare throughout comming as neare as it is possible to Crystall And verily such pleasure do men take now adaies in drinking out of faire glasses that they haue in maner put downe our cups and boules of siluer or gold but this I must tell you that this ware may not abide the heat of the fire vnlesse some cold liquor were put therin before and indeed hold a round bal or hollow apple of glasse ful of water against the Sun it will be so hot that it is ready to burne any cloth that it toucheth As for broken glasses well may they be glued and sodered againe by a warme heat of the fire but melted or cast again they cannot be whole vnlesse a man make a new furnace of pieces broken one from another like as we see there be made counting rundles thereof which some call Abaculos whereof some
sowed needs the great harrows and clotting Contrariwise a man may know where there is good worke namely if the turfe be so close couched that there be no seams to be seen where the plough-share went finally it is a profitable point of husbandry and much practised where the ground doth both beare and require it For to draw here and there broad gutters or furrows to drain away the water into ditches and trenches cast for the nones betweene the lands that otherwise would stand within and drowne the corne CHAP. XX. ¶ Of harrowing and breaking clods Of a certaine kind of ploughing vsed in old time Of the second tilth or fallow called Stirring and of cutting AFter the second fallow called Stirring done with crosse and ouerthwart furrow to the first then followeth clodding if need be either with rakes or great harrowes vpon which insueth sowing and when the seed is in the ground harrowing a second time with the smal harrow In some places where the manner of the country doth so require this is performed with a tined or toothed harrow or els with a broad planke fastened vnto the plough taile which doth hide and couer the seed newly sown and in this maner to rake or harrow is called in Latine Lirare from whence came first the word Delirare which is to leaue bare balks vncouered and by a Metaphore and borrowed speech to raue and speake idlely It should seem that Virgil prescribed that the ground should haue foure tilthes in all by these words when he said That the corne was best which had two Summers and two Winters But if the ground be strong and tough as in most parts of Italy there needs a fift tilth before sowing and in Tuscan verily they giue their ground otherwhiles no fewer than nine fallowes before it be brought into tillage As for Beans and Vetches they may be sowed vnder furrow without breaking vp the ground before for this is a ready way gaining time sauing charges sparing labour And here I cannot ouerpasse one inuention more as touching earing and ploughing the ground deuised in Piemont and those parts beyond the Po by occasion of some hard measure and wrong offered to the people and peisants of that country during the wars And thus stood the case The Salassians making rodes into the vale lying vnder the Alpes as they forraied and harried the country all ouer assaied also to ouerrun their fields of Panick and Millet being now come vp and wel growne meaning thereby to destroy it but seeing the nature of that graine to be such as to rise againe and to check this iniury they set ploughs into it and turned all vnder furrow imagining by that means to spoil it for euer But see what insued therupon those fields thus misused in their conceit bare a twofold crop in proportion to other yeres yeelded so plentifull an haruest as that thereby the peisants aforesaid learned the deuise of turning corn in the blade into the ground which I suppose in those days when it new came vp they called Aratrare And this point of husbandry they put in practise when the corne beginnes to gather and shew the stem or straw to wit so soone as it hath put forth two or three leaues and no more Neither will I conceale from you another new deuise practised and inuented first not aboue three yeres past in the territory of Treuiers neer to Ferrara For at what time as their corn fields by reason of an extreme cold winter seemed to be frost-bitten and spoiled they sowed the same again in the month of March raking and scraping the vpper coat of the ground onely without more ado and neuer in their liues had they the like increase when haruest came Now as touching all other tillage and husbandry meet for the ground I will write thereof respectiuely to the seuerall kinds of corne CHAP. XXI ¶ Of the tillage and ordering of the ground THe fine Wheat Siligo the red bearded Wheat Far and the common Wheat Triticum Spelt or Zea generally called Seed and Barly when they be new sown would be wel clotted and couered first harrowed afterwards weeded at the last to the very root al at such seasons as shall be shewed hereafter And to say a truth euery one of these is a sufficient worke for one man to do in a day throughout an acre As for the Sarcling or second harrowing it doth much good to corn for by loosening the ground about it which by the winter cold was hardened clunged and as it were hide bound it is somwhat inlarged and at libertie against the Spring tide and full gladly admitteth and receiueth the benefit of the fresh and new come Sun-shine daies let him take heed who thus sarcles or rakes the ground that he neither vndermine the roots of the corn nor yet race or disquiet loosen them The common wheat Barley the Seed Zea i. Spelt and Beans would do the better if they were thus sarcled and the earth laied loose about them twice the grubbing vp of weeds by the root at what time as the corne is iointed namely when the vnprofitable and hurtful hearbs are plucked forth and rid out of the way much helpeth the root of the corn discharging it from noisom weeds procuring it more nutriment and seuering it apart from the other green sourd of common grasse Of all Pulse the cich pease asketh the same dressing and ordering as the red wheat Far. As for beans they passe not at all for weeding and why they ouergrow all the weeds about and choke them The Lupines require nought els to be done to them but only weeding Millet and Panick must be clotted and once harrowed vntill they be couered they call not for a second raking scraping about them for to loosen the earth and to lay fresh mould vnto them much lesse to be weeded As for Silicia or Siliqua i. Fenigreeke and Fasels i. Kidney-beans they care onely for clodding there an end Moreouer there be certain grounds so fertile that the corn comming vp so thick ranke in the blade ought then to be kembed as it were raked with a kind of harrow set with teeth or spikes of yron and yet for all this they must be grased or eaten down besides neuerthelesse with sheep Now we must remember that after such cattel hath gon ouer it with their teeth the same corne thus eaten downe must of necessity be sarcled and the earth lightly raked and raised vp fresh againe Howbeit in Bactriana Africke and Cyrene there needs no such hand at all for the climate is so good so kinde and beneficiall that none of all this paines is required for after the seed is once sowne they neuer visit it but once for all at nine months end at what time they returne to cut it down and lay it vpon their thrashing floores the reason is because the drought keepeth downe all weeds and the dewes that fall by