the very first cause to these inferiours deriving her force into them like as it were a cord platted together and stretched along from heaven to earth in such sort as if either end of this cord be touched it will wag the whole therefore we may rightly call this knitting together of things a chain or link and rings for it agrees fitly with the rings of Plato and with Homers golden chain which he being the first author of all divine inventions hath signified to the wise under the shadow of a fable wherein he feigneth that all the gods and goddesses have made a golden chain which they hanged above in heaven and it reacheth down to the very earth But the truth of Christianity holdeth that the Souls do not proceed from the Spirit but even immediately from God himself These things a Magician being well acquainted withal doth match heaven and earth together as the Husband-man plants Elmes by his Vines or to speak more plainly he marries and couples together these inferiour things by their wonderful gifts and powers which they have received from their superiours and by this means he being as it were the servant of Nature doth bewray her hidden secrets and bring them to light so far as he hath found them true by his own daily experience that so all men may love and praise and honour the Almighty power of God who hath thus wonderfully framed and disposed all things CHAP. VII Of Sympathy and Antipathy and that by them we may know and find out the vertues of things BY reason of the hidden and secret properties of things there is in all kinds of creatures a certain compassion as I may call it which the Greeks call Sympathy and Antipathy but we term it more familiarly their consent and their disagreement For some things are joyned together as it were in a mutual league and some other things are at variance and discord among themselves or they have something in them which is a terror and destruction to each other whereof there can be rendred no probable reason neither will any wise man seek after any other cause hereof but only this That it is the pleasure of Nature to see it should be so that she would have nothing to be without his like and that amongst all the secrets of Nature there is nothing but hath some hidden and special property and moreover that by this their Consent and Disagreement we might gather many helps for the uses and necessities of men for when once we find one thing at variance with another presently we may conjecture and in trial so it will prove that one of them may be used as a fit remedy against the harms of the other and surely many things which former ages have by this means found out they have commended to their posterity as by their writings may appear There is deadly hatred and open enmity betwixt Coleworts and the Vine for whereas the Vine windes it self with her tendrels about every thing else she shuns Coleworts only if once she come neer them she turns her self another way as if she were told that her enemy were at hand and when Coleworts is seething if you put never so little wine unto it it will neither boil nor keep the colour By the example of which experiment Aâ—drocides found out a remedy against wine namely that Coleworts are good against drunkennesse as Theophrastus saith in as much as the Vine cannot away with the savour of Coleworts And this herbe is at enmity with Cyclamine or Sow-bread for when they are put together if either of them be green it will dry up the other now this Sow-bread being put into wine doth encrease drunkennesse whereas Coleworts is a remedy against drunkennesse as we said before Ivy as it is the bane of all Trees so it is most hurtful and the greatest enemy to the Vine and therefore Ivy also is good against drunkennesse There is likewise a wonderful enmity betwixt Cane and Fern so that one of them destroyes the other Hence it is that a Fern root powned doth loose and shake out the darts from a wounded body that were shot or cast out of Canes and if you would not have Cane grow in a place do but plow up the ground with a little Fern upon the Plough-shear and Cane will never grow there Strangle-tare or Choke-weed desires to grow amongst Pulse and especially among Beans and Fetches but it choaks them all and thence Dioscorides gathers That if it be put amongst Pulse set to seethe it will make them seethe quickly Hemlock and Rue are at enmity they strive each against other Rue must not be handled or gathered with a bare hand for then it will cause Ulcers to arise but if you do chance to touch it with your bare hand and so cause it to swell or itch anoint it with the juice of Hemlock Much Rue being eaten becometh poison but the juice of Hemlock expels it so that one poison poisoneth another and likewise Rue is good against Hemlock being drunken as Dioscorides saith A wilde Bull being tyed to a Fig-tree waxeth tame and gentle as Zoroaster saith who compiled a book called Geoponica out of the choice writings of the Antients Hence it was found out that the stalks of a wilde Fig-tree if they be put to Beef as it is boiling make it boil very quickly as Pliny writeth and Dioscorides ministreth young figs that are full of milky juice together with a portion of water and vinegar as a remedy against a draught of Bulls blood The Elephant is afraid of a Ram or an engine of war so called for as soon as ever he seeth it he waxeth meek and his fury ceaseth hence the Romans by these engines put to flight the Elephants of Pyrrhus King of the Epyrotes and so got a great victory Such a contrariety is there betwixt the Elephants members and that kind of Lepry which makes the skin of a man like the skin of an Elephant and they are a present remedy against that disease The Ape of all other things cannot abide a Snail now the Ape is a drunken beast for they are wont to take an Ape by making him drunk and a Snail well washed is a remedy against drunkennesse A man is at deadly hatred with a Serpent for if he do but see a Serpent presently he is sore dismaid and if a woman with child meet a Serpent her fruit becometh abortive hence it is that when a woman is in very sore travel if she do but smell the fume of an Adders hackle it will presently either drive out or destroy her child but it is better to anoint the mouth of the womb in such a case with the fat of an Adder The sight of a Wolfe is so hurtful to a man that if he spie a man first he takes his voice from him and though he would fain cry out yet he cannot speak but if he perceive that the man hath first espied him he
ground never grows old or barren but is everywhere naturally rank to receive new seed and to produce new and is ever unsatisfied in fruitfulnesse and brings perpetual increase and if nature be alwayes admirable she will seem more wonderful in Plants Copulation was but of one kind here it is almost infinite and not onely every Tree can be ingrafted into every Tree but one Tree may be adulterated with them all Living Creatures of divers kinds were not easily produced and those that come from other Countries were hard to get here is no difficulty at all grafts are fetcht and sent if need be to any part of the world And if diversity of Creatures are made in Africa by their copulating when they meet at the Rivers that so new creatures are alwayes produced here in Italy where the Air is alwayes calme and the Climate very indulgent strange and wilde plants find a good harbour and ground to grow in which is the mother and nourisher of all and so fruitful to produce new and diversity of plants that it can hardly be exhausted And we can better write of them and know the truth more then others because we have them still before our eyes and an opportunity to consider of their effects And if our Ancestors found many new things we by adding to theirs have found many more and shall produce more excellent things overpassing them because daily by our art or by chance by nature or new experience new plants are made Diodorus writes that the Vine at first was but one and that was wilde but now by the help of Bacchus alone from the quality of the ground the nature of the climate and the art of planting it is varied into many kinds that it were madnesse to number them up and not worth our time Nature brought forth but one kind of Pear-tree now so many mens names are honoured by it that one is called Decumana another Dolabelliana and another is named from Decumius and Dolabella The same thing is observed in Figges of Livy and Pompey Quinces are of many kinds some called Mariana from Marius Manliana from Manlius Appiana Claudiana from Appius Claudius Cestiana from Cestius their varieties have made the Authers names immortal What shall I say of Laurel cherries found in Pliny his time what of Citrons which as Athenaeus saith were too sharp to eat in the days of Theophrastus and the ancestors of Plutark and Pliny but Palladius made them to become sweet What of the Peach and Almond-peach Nuts fruits our fore-fathers knew not yet now are they eaten being pleasant and admirable what of Clove-gilliflowers that the Gardrers Art hath made so dainty and sweet scented and so of other plants I have everywhere set down in this work Our Naples abounds so with them that we would not go forth to see the Orchards of the Hesperides Alcinus Semiramis and at Memphis that were made to hang above ground But I shall briefly and plainly relate the History CHAP. I. How new kinds of Plants may be generated of putrefaction AS we have shewed before that new kinds of Living Creatures may be generated of putrefaction so to proceed in the same order as we have begun we will now shew that new kinds of Plants may grow up of their own accord without any help of seed or such like The Antients questionless were of opinion that divers plants were generated of the earth and water mixt together and that particular places did yield certain particular plants We rehearsed the opinion of Diogenes before who held that plants are generated of water putrified in it self and a little earth tempered therewith Theophrastus held that the rain causeth much putrefaction and alteration in the earth and thereby plants may be nourished the Sun working upon it with his heating and with his drying operation They write also that the ground when it is stirred brings forth such kinds of Plants alwaies as are usuall in the same place In the Isle Creta the ground is of that nature that if it be stirred anywhere and no other thing sown or planted in it it will of it self bring forth a Cypresse-tree and their tilled lands those that are somewhat moist when they lie fallow bring forth thistles So the herb Laser in Africa is generated of a kind of pitchy or clammy rain and thick dirt and the herb will shew it self out of the earth presently after the rain is fallen Pliny said that the waters which fall from above are the cause of every thing that grows upon the earth nature shewing therein her admirable work and power and many such things they report which we have spoken of in the books of the knowledge of Plants And I my self have oft-times by experience proved that ground digged out from under the lowest foundations of certain houses and the bottom of some pits and laid open in some small vessel to the force of the Sun hath brought forth divers kinds of Plants And whereas I had oftentimes partly for my own pleasure and partly to search into the works of Nature sought out and gathered together earths of divers kinds I laid them abroad in the Sun and watered them often with a little sprinkling and found thereby that a fine light earth would bring forth herbs that had slight stalkes like a rush and leaves full of fine little ragges and likewise that a rough and stiff earth full of holes would bring forth a slight herbe hard as wood and full of crevises In like manner if I took of the earth that had been digged out of the thick woods or out of moist places or out of the holes that are in hollow stones it would bring forth herbs that had smooth blewish stalkes and leaves full of juice and substance such as Peny-wort Purslane Senegreek and Stone-croppe We made trial also of some kinds of earth that had been farre fetcht such as they had used for the ballast of their Shippes and we found such herbs generated thereof as we knew not what they were Nay further also even out of very roots and barks of Trees and rotten seeds powned and buried and there macecrated with water we have brought forth in a manner the very same herbs as out of an Oken root the herb Polypody and Oak-fern and Splenewort or at least such herbs as did resemble those both in making and in properties What should I here rehearse how many kinds of toad-stools and puffs we have produced yea of every several mixture of putrified things so many several kinds have been generated All which I would here have set down if I could have reduced them into any method or else if such plants had been produced as I intended but those came that were never sought for But happily I shall hereafter if God will write of these things for the delight and speculation and profit of the more curious for t which I have neither time nor leisure now to mention seeing this work is ruffled up in
haste But let us see How Toad-stools may be generated Dioscorides and others have written That the bark of a white Poplar-Tree and of a black being cut into small pieces and sowed in dunged lands or furrows will at all times of the year bring forth mushromes or toad-stools that are good to be eaten And in another place he saith that they are more particularly generated in those places where there lies some old rusty iron or some rotten cloth but such as grow neer to a Serpents hole or any noisome Plants are very hurtful But Tarentinus speaks of this matter more precisely If saith he you cut the stock of a black Poplar peece-meal into the earth and pour upon it some leaven that hath been steeped in water there will soon grow up some Poplar toad-stools He addeth further If an up-land or hilly field that hath in it much stubble and many stalks of corn be set on fire at such time as there is rain brewing in the clouds then the rain falling will cause many toad-stools there to spring up of their own accord but if after the field is thus set on fire happily the rain which the clouds before threatned doth not fall then if you take a thin linnen cloth and let the water drop through by little and little like rain upon some part of the field where the fire hath been there will grow up toad-stools but not so good as otherwise they would be if they had been nourished with a showre of rain Next we will shew How Sperage may be generated Dydimus writes That if any man would have good store of Sperage to grow he must take the horns of wilde Rams and beat them into very small powder and sow them in eared ground and water it and he shall have his intent There is one that reports a more strange matter that if you take whole Rams horns not powned into small pieces but only cut a little and make a hole in them and so set them they will bring forth Sperage Pliny is of Didymus opinion that if the horns be powned and â—igged into the earth they will yield Sperage though Dioscorides thinks it to be impossible And though I have made often trial hereof but could not find it so to be yet my friends have told me of their own experience that the same tender seed that is contained within the Rams horn hath produced Sperage The same my friends also have reported That Ivy doth grow out of the Harts horn and Aristotle writes of an Husband-man that found such an experiment though for my own part I never tried it But Theophrastus writes that there was Ivy found growing in the Harts horn whereas it is impossible to think how any Ivy seed could get in there and whereas some alledge that the Hart might have rubbed his horn against some Ivy roots and so some part of the horn being soft and ready to putrifie did receive into it some part of the root and by this means it might there grow this supposal carries no shew of probability or credit with it But if these things be true as I can say or see nothing to the contrary then surely no man will deny but that divers kinds of plants may be generated of divers kinds of living Creatures horns In like manner may plants be generated of the putrified barks and boughs of old Trees for so is Polypody and the herb Hyphear generated for both these and divers other plants also do grow up in Firre-trees and Pine-trees and such other for in many Trees neer to the bark there is a certain flegmatick or moist humour that is wont to putrifie which when it abounds too much within breaks forth into the outward shew of the boughs and the stock of the Tree and there it meets with the putrified humour of the bark and the heat of the Sun working upon it there quickly turns it into such kinds of herbs CHAP. II. How Plants are changed one of them degenerating into the form of the other TO work Miracles is nothing else as I suppose but to turn one thing into another or to effect those things which are contrary to the ordinary course of Nature It may be done by negligence or by cunning handling and dressing them that plants may forsake their own natural kind and be quite turned into another kind wholly degenerating both in taste and colour and bignesse and fashion and this I say may easily be done either if you neglect to dresse or handle them according to their kind or else dresse them more carefully and artificially then their own kind requires Furthermore every plant hath his proper manner and peculiar kind of sowing or planting for some must be sowed by seed others planted by the whole stem others set by some root others graffed by some sprig or branch so that if that which should be sowed by seed be planted by the root or set by the whole stock or graffed by some branch or if any that should be thus planted be sowed by seed that which cometh up will be of a divers kinde from that which grows usually if it be planted according to its own nature as Theophrastus writes Likewise if you shall change their place their air their ground such like you pervert their kind and you shall find that the young growing plant will resemble another kind both in colour and fashion all which are clear cases by the books of Husbandry Some examples we will here rehearse If you would change A white Vine into a black or a black into a white sow the seed of a white Garden-Vine and that which cometh of it will be a black Wilde-vine and so the seed of a black Garden-vine will bring forth a white Wilde-vine as Theophrastus teacheth The reason is because a Vine is not sowed by seed but the natural planting of it is by sprigs and roots Wherefore if you deal with it otherwise then the kind requires that which cometh of it must needs be unkindly By the like means A white Fig-tree may degenerate into a black for the stone of a Fig if it be set never brings forth any other but a wilde or a wood Fig-tree and such as most commonly is of a quite contrary colour so that of a white figtree it degenerates into a black and contrariwise a black fig-tree degenerates into a white Sometimes also of a right and noble Vine is generated a bastard Vine and that so different in kind oftentimes that it hath nothing of the right garden-vine but all meerly wilde In like manner also are changed The red Myrtle and the red Bay-tree into black and cannot chuse but lose their colour for these likewise degenerate as the same Theophrastus reports to have been seen in Antandrus for the Myrtle is not sowed by seed but planted by graffing and the Bay-tree is planted by setting a little sprig thereof that hath in it some part of the root as we have shewed in our
To be short we may procure The timely ripening of all kind of fruit If we sow or plant them in some place where they may lie still opposite against the Sun or if we put them into certain vessels made for the same purpose and still water them with warm water and let them lie continually in the Sun And if we would have them to hasten their fruit very speedily we should have an Oven made under those vessels that so by reason of a double warmth one from above and the other from beneath the fruit may more speedily be produced And surely this is the only cause why fruits and flowers are more forward and sooner ripe in the Country Puteoli and the Island Inatime then in all other places of Campania because there they hasten the concoction and ripening of them by cherishing the roots thereof with fire and heat within the earth CHAP. IX How we may have fruits and flowers at all times of the year BY these wayes of procuring fruit to be timely ripe it may be effected that we shall have fruits and flowers at all times of the year some very forward that come before their ordinary season and some late-ward that come after as for their own time then Nature of her self affords them unto us Aristotle in his Problems sheweth How we may have Cucumbers all the year long both in season and out of season When they are ripe saith he you must put them into a waterish ditch neer the place where they grew and cover it over for by this means the heat of the Sun cannot come at them to dry them and the waterishnesse of the place will keep them supple and moist so that they will still be fresh and green And Theophrastus after him saith the like that Gourds and Cucumbers must be taken when they are small and in their tender growth and must be hidden in some ditch where the Sun cannot come to waste and consume their moisture nor the wind to dry them which two things would maâ— and hinder their growth as we see it falleth out in Trees that are so situate as both the winde and the Sun have their full scope upon them If you would have Citron trees bear fruit all the year to have Citrons still growing fresh upon the Tree you must observe that manner and custom which was first peculiar in Assyria but is now usual in many places When their season is to be gathered you must cut off some of the fruit from the Tree and prune those parts well where you have left no fruit but you must leave some behinde upon some other parts of the Tree so shall you find a new supply of fresh fruit there where you cut off the former and when these be ripe then cut off those which you left upon the Tree before and so fresh fruit also will come up in their stead Pontanus hath set down the same experiment in verse that part of the fruit is to be gathered and the rest left hanging upon the Tree for so it will come to passe that the Tree will bud forth a fresh in those parts where it finds it self destitute of fruit grieving as it were that one bough should be beautified with fruit and the other should have none at all We may also effect this by the help of engraffing for if we desire To have Apples all the year Dydimus in his Georgicks saith that if we engraffe an Apple into a Citron-tree it will bring forth for the most part continual fruit And if we would have Artichockes grow continually we may learn to do it out of Cassianus who following the Authority of Varro saith that Artichocks always bring forth fruit about the same season that they are set in and therefore it is easie to have them all the year long The ordinary season of planting Artichocks is in November September and commonly they bear fruit in July and August but they will bring forth also in March and April if they be planted accordingly for by that time they will have as perfect a soul as at any time else If you practise it three years together to plant them in the moneths of November December January February and March you shall have Artichockes of that kind as will bring forth fresh fruit almost all the year long Likewise if you desire to have Sperage alwayes growing fresh and fit to be eaten you must take this course as soon as you have gathered the fruit you must dig round about the roots as they lie in their own place under the earth and by this means they will shoot up into new stalks In like manner if you desire to have Roses growing all the year long you must plant them in every moneth some and by dunging them and taking good heed unto them you shall have fresh Roses continually By the like practice you may also have Lillies all the year long for if you take the roots or cloves of Lillies and set them in the ground some fourteen some twelve some eight fingers deep you shall by this means have Lillies all the year long and so many several flowers of them as you have planted several roots And as this may be done by Lillies so Anatolius thinks the same practice will take like effect in all other flowers Theophrastus saith that we may have Violets alwayes growing if we set them in well-fenced places and such as lie open to the force of the Sun for commonly fruits and flowers will grow there when they will grow no where else but they must be very carefully lookt unto and then they will come on the better The best way is to set them in earthen vessels and keep them from vehement cold and heat bringing them forth still when the Air is calm and temperate and applying them with moisture and muck and carefull dressing So we may procure also that The Herbe Oenanthe shall flourish all the year for Theophrastus writes that if we deal thereby as in the procuring of Violets we shall have flowers upon it continually CHAP. X. How to produce fruits that shall be later and backward WE have already shewed how to produce forward fruits that will be very timely ripe now it remaineth that we set down such cunning sleights and devices as whereby we may procure fruit to grow very later not to be ripe before the lowest of Winter And this we may learn to effect by contrary causes to the former and whereas we were to heat that which we would have to be timely ripe we must here use coolers to make things ripen slowly and whereas before we were to engraffe later fruits into forward Trees here we must engraffe forward fruits into later Trees Likewise we must sow or plant late that we may receive later fruit for as beasts that are long ere they be perfectly bred are long before they have their hair and do not change their hair before the same time of the year come again
better filled and the larger grown Likewise Florentinus sheweth how to make Pease of a bigger growth If saith he you take Pease and steep them in warm water the day before you sow them they will grow the greater Some men take more pains then needeth who because they would have a greater Pease growing they steep them shells and all and put Nitre into the water wherein they are steeped and sow them in their shells Vitches may be made bigger if they be set with a little pole to grow up thereby for this will cause them to thicken as Theophrastus saith So also Onions may be thickned as Sotion sheweth About some twenty days before you translate them from the place where they first grew you must dig away the earth about them and let them lie a drying that all moisture may be kept from them and then plant them again and they will grow much bigger But if withal you pill of the top-skin and so plant them they will be far greater Likewise we may cause Artichocks to bear a fuller fruit as Varro sheweth If you plant them in a well-soiled place and cover them with old dung and water them often in the summer-time you shall by this means have a fuller and a more tender Artichock We may also practise another Device whereby to make greater fruit which Theophrastus hath set down and he brings an Example how to make Pomegranates to grow greater then ordinary for Art may cause the greatness of Fruit. When the first buds be formed upon the boughs they must be put into an earthen vessel that is made with a hole quite thorow and the bough whereon they grow must be swayed downward without hurting it then cover the pot with earth and so you shall have exceeding great Pomegranates The reason whereof is this The pot preserves the fruit from the vapours that would otherwise annoy it and besides the earth ministreth some moisture unto it so that the bigness thereof is increased by the store of nourishment It receives no more help from the tree then if it were out of the earth and therefore the kernels are no greater then ordinary but the pill is much thicker the proper juice of it is somewhat wasted and consumed for which cause the taste of this fruit so handled is waterish and worse then others but the rine receives outward nourishment and spends none for which cause that is much thicker The like practise Palladius and Martial use thereby to procure A great Citron They take a Citron when it is young and shut it up fast in an earthen vessel for the Citron will increase continually till it come to be of the bigness and fashion of the vessel wherein it is put but there must be a hole made thorow the vessel whereby the air may get in unto it By the like device Theophrastus assays to produce Cucumbers and Gourds greater then ordinary by hiding them while they are young both from Sun and from Winde that nothing may come at them to hinder their growth Like to this Device is the setting of them in Fennel-stalks or in earthen Pipes whereby the natural Juyce and Nourishment is kept in to the increasing of their growth We will also shew out of Theophrastus a like Device whereby the Herb Alisander or Parsley may be made greater You must dig the Alisander round about the root and cover it with Cachryl and then heap earth upon it For the roots spend all the moisture themselves and suffer no nourishment to ascend into the buds This Cachryl is hot and thick and as by the thickness it draws nourishment to it so by vertue of the heat it doth concoct and digest that which it hath attracted and therefore seeing this doth both draw more nourishment to the Alisander and also concoct it there must needs be a greater augmentation of that herb This practice he borrowed of Aristotle This herb may also be made bigger by another means namely if when you plant it you make a hole for it in the ground with a great stake for the root will at length fill up the hole So there is a means to make A radish-Radish-root grow bigger if it be planted in a cold ground as Pliny sheweth For Radishes are much cherished and delighted with cold as in some cold places of Germany there be Radishes growing as big as a little childe Some have reported that if you drive a stake into the ground six inches deep and put chaff into the pit which the stake hath made and then put in the Radish-seed covering it over with earth and muck the Radish will grow up to the bigness of the pit By a Device not much unlike to this Florentinus sheweth how to Make great Lettise You must remove them and water them well and when they are grown half a handful high you must dig round about them that the roots may be seen then wrap them in Ox-dung and cover them over again and water them still and when they are waxen bigger cut the leaves cross with a sharp knife and lay upon them a little barrel or tub that never was pitcâ—ed for Pitch will hurt the herb that so it may grow not in height but onely spread forth in breadth So the herb Beet may be made greater as Sotion sheweth To make Beet grow in bigness saith he thou must cover the roots over with some fresh Ox-dung and divide the leaves or buds and lay a broad stone or a tyle upon it to cause it to spread forth in bredth You may also make Leeks greater by removing them and laying a great stone or a broad tyle upon them but in no case must they be watered By the very same Device Anatolius sheweth how to make Garlick greater by laying tyles upon the roots thereof as upon Leeks Theophrastus sheweth another kinde of Device whereby to make Radishes greater and he saith that the Gardeners of his time were wont to practise it They took away the leaves in the Winter-time when they flourish most and cast the Radishes into the ground covering them over with earth and so they lasted and grew till Summer came again never shooting forth either into buds or leaves except it were where the earth was gone that they lay uncovered The like Experiment doth Palladius teach concerning the Rape-root whereby to make Rape-roots greater Assoon as you have plucked them up you must strip off all the leaves and cut off the stalk about half an inch above the root then make certain furrows for them in the ground for every one of them a several furrow and there bury them asunder about eight inches deep and when you have cast earth upon them tread it in and by that means you shall have great Rape-roots By the like means Theophrastus thinks we may procure The herb Wake-robbin to grow greater When it is most full of leaves and when the leaves be at the broadest we must bow them downward winding them round about the root
Tree round about the roots Likewise we may colour fruit by colouring the seeds of them for look what colour we procure in the seed either by steeping it in some coloured liquor or by any other means the fruit will grow to be of the same colour which the seed is when it is set or sown As for example we may colour Peaches with Sanguinary or Vermillion If we bury a Peach-stone in the ground and take it up again seven dayes after for in that time the stone will open of it self and then put into it some Vermillion and bury it in the earth again and afterward look carefully unto it we shall thereby procure Vermillion-peaches And Dsmocritus is perswaded that if we should put into it any other colour after the same manner the Peach would be of that other colour It is a thing commonly reported among us and it is not unlike to be true that Peaches may be of a sanguine-colour by another means You must take a Peach-stone and put it into a Carrot that is then growing and the stalk which grows of that stone in the Carrot if it be carefully nourished and preserved will bring forth Peaches of a sanguine colour In like manner If you would have White kernels growing in a Pomegranate Palladius sheweth how to do it by the authority of Martial If you take chalk and white clay and with them mingle a quarter so much plastering and apply the Pomegranate-tree roots with this kind of soilage or dunging for the space of three whole years together you shall obtain your purpose Likewise if you desire Mellons of a Sanguine colour you must take Mellon-seeds and steep them in sanguine liquor for three or four daies together before you set them you may easily have your desire Or else if you open a little the skin of the seed and put within it the juice of red Roses Clove-gilliflowers and Black-berries that grow upon Brambles or of any other like thing so that it be not hurtful to the seed you may effect your purpose And I suppose that the sanguine-coloured Mellons which are seen in these Countries are thus used that they may be of this colour Consequent upon these devices is that sleight whereby A Peach may grow with any writing upon it The Greeks affirm that a Peach may be made to grow with a writing upon it if you take out the stone and bury it in the earth for seven dayes and then when it begins to open pluck out the kernel and write in it what you will with Vermillion-juice then binde up the kernel into the stone again and set it so into the ground and you shall have growing a written fruit Now as the Sun doth colour the herbs that it may well come at as we have shewed so by keeping the force of the Sun away from them we may whiten them for so A Lettice may be made white as Florentinus sheweth If you would saith he procure goodly white Lettice then must you bind together the tops of the leaves two dayes before they be gathered for so they will be fair and white Likewise you may whiten them by casting sand upon them And with us Artichocks are made white by the very same means which we speak of And if you would cause Beets to become whiter then ordinary you must cover the roots over with Cow-dung and as we spoke before concerning Leeks so here you must cleave the bud and lay a broad stone or a tile upon it as Sotion sheweth So Columella teacheth how to make Endive to grow white when the leaves are shot forth you must tie them about the tops with a small string and cover them over with an earthen vessel set fast into the ground and the herb will be white Others are at less charges and cover them over with some earth our Gardeners lay them in sand and so make them very white If you would procure White Sperage you must put the slips as soon as ever they appear out of the earth into a broken reed and there let them grow for a while and afterward when you take away the cane or reed the Sperage will be whiter then ordinary CHAP. XV. How the colour of Flowers may also be changed IN transforming and meddling the colours of flowers together we may procure such strange medleys as nothing can be more delightful to be seen Those which are of a â—eep purple colour may be meddled with azure blue those which are as white as milk may be meddled either with a duskish hew or with a green or crimson or some other compound colours in the beholding whereof the minde cannot chuse but be affected with great delight and be ravished with admiration and as it were quite overcome with the excellent beauty of them Wherefore we will set down certain Rules whereby we may be able to alter the colour of flowers as we prescribed certain rules before whereby we shewed how to alter the colour of fruits And first we will shew how by engraffing Gilliflowers that are of themselves purple or else white may become azure blue You must cut off somewhat neer the root a stalk of Endive or Blue-bottle or Bugloss but the old wilde Endive is best for this purpose and let it be grown to an inch in thickness then cleave that in the middle which is left growing in the ground and plant into it a Gilliflower new pluckt up out of the earth root and all then bind up the stalks or slips with some slâ—ght bond and lay good store of earth and dung round about it so shall it yield you a flower that is somewhat bluish of a most delightful colour to behold This many of my friends will needs perswade me though for my own part I have often made trial of it and yet never could see it effected But this I have seen that a white Gilliflower slip being engraffed into a red Carrot made hollow for the same purpose and so buried in the earth hath yeelded a Sea-coloured flower Likewise you may procure the white Gilliflower to be of a skarlet-colour if after the same manner you engraffe it into the root of Orchanet by which means also you may turn a purple Gilliflower into a skarlet If you would have A Rose as also the flower Jasmine to be of a yellow-colour you may procure it by engraffing either of them into a broom-stalk for of all other the broom-flower is most yellow and though we cannot do it so well by clapping the leaf or the bud of the one upon the leaf or bud of the other yet it may be effected by boring into the stalk after this manner You must set a Rose or a Jasmine neer to the broom and when they are somewhat grown take them up together with the earth that is about them for they will prove better when they are set again with their own earth which is about them being as it were their mother then with any other earth that
it be somewhat dry But then when the fruit comes to be of a greater and stronger growth you must prepare earthen vessels made for the purpose with a hole in them at the lower end that the stalk of the fruit may there be let in Into these earthen vessels you must enclose the fruit and binde them about with a strong band for otherwise the growth of the fruit will break them open And when you have procured the fruit to grow up into his counterfeit or sheath as it were that it is come to the just bignesse of a fruit of that kinde it will bear the same shape and figure which you would have in it The like we have shewed before out of Florentinus Pontanus also speaks of the same device If saith he you would have a Citron to grow in divers shapes you must cover it being young with some counterfeit of clay or wood or earth wherein it may be swadled as a tender infant in his Nurses bosom and that counterfeit will fashion the fruit into any form and when it is taken out it will resemble any image that you have carved within the counterfeit So also you may deal by Pomegranates Pears or any kind of Apples making them to receive any kinde of form for the same Author writes that if you bestow the same pains and diligent care upon any other sort of Apples you may frame them to every fashion for so it is in brief saith he that all Apple-fruits may be made to grow up to the shape of any living creature if you first carve the same shape into a counterfeit of wood or earth and let the fruit be shut up into that counterfeit that it may grow up within it So may you make A Quince grow in the shape of living Creatures as Democritus affirmeth by putting them into some counterfeit that is carved within to the same proportion and so let the Quince grow in it But it is easiest to make Cucumbers grow to any form for if you take earthen vessels of any fashion and therewith cloath the Cucumbers when they are very young and binde them very fast about they will receive any shape or impression very easily If you take a Cane and make it hollow all along and bind it fast about and then put into it a young Cucumber or a young Gourd it will grow so pliable within it that it will fill up the whole length of the Cane Pliny saith Cucumbers grow to any fashion that you would frame them unto insomuch that you may if you will make a Cucumber grow in the shape of a Dragon winding himself many wayes Likewise a Gourd will be made to grow picked and sharp by many means especially if it be put into a case that is made of such pliant twigs as Vines are bound withal so that this be done as soon as it hath cast the blossom But if you lay a Gourd betwixt two platters or dishes it will grow to the same plainnesse and roundnesse and of all other fruit this is the easiest and fittest to be formed to any fashion You may make them to grow like a Flagon or like a Pear great at the one end and small at the other if you tye it hard in that part which you would have to be the lesse afterward when it is come to full growth dry it and take out all that is in it and when you go abroad carry it about you it will serve for a cup to drink in Hence we learn how it may be effected that An Almond should grow with an inscription in it Take an Almond and steep it for two or three dayes and then break the shell of it very charily that the kernel receive no harm then you must write in the kernel what you will but write it as deep in as you safely may then winde it up in some paper or some linen cloth and overlay it with morter and soil it with dung and by that device when the fruit cometh to be of full growth it will shew you your handy work as Africanus recordeth So may you make A Peach to grow with an inscription in it as Democritus sheweth After you have eaten the fruit you must steep the stone of it for two or three dayes and then open it charily and when you have opened it take the kernel that is within the stone and write upon it what you will with a brazen pen but you must not print it too deep then wrap it up in paper and so plant it and the fruit which that will afterward bear will shew you what was written in the kernel But A Fig will grow with an inscription in it if you carve any shape upon the bud the fig will expresse it when it is grown or else if you carve it into the fig when it is first fashioned but you must do it either with a wooden pen or a bone pen and so your labour shall be sure to take effect I have printed certain characters upon the rine of a Pomegranate and of a Quince-pear having first dipped my pensil in morter and when the fruit came up to the just magnitude I found in it the same impressions Now it remains that we shew how we may Fashion Mandrakes those counterfeit kind of Mandrakes which couzeners and cony-chatchers carry about and sell to many instead of true Mandrakes You must get a great root of Brionie or wilde Nep and with a sharp instrument engrave in it a man or a woman giving either of them their genitories and then make holes with a puncheon into those places where the hairs are wont to grow and put into those holes Millet or some other such thing which may shoot out his roots like the hairs of ones head And when you have digged a little pit for it in the ground you must let it lie there until such time as it shall be covered with a bark and the roots also be shot forth CHAP. XIX How fruits may be made to be more tender and beautiful and goodly to the eye NOw at length that nothing may passe us we will set down divers kinds of of sleights in husbanding and trimming of herbs and fruits whereby they may be made not onely tenderer sweeter larger and better relished but also fresher coloured and more sightly to the eye And first How an Apple-tree and a Myrtle-tree may be bettered we may learn out of Theophrastus who counselleth to water their roots with warm water and promiseth the bettering of the fruit by that means nay it will cause the Myrtle fruit to be without any kernel at all And this saith he was found out by chance in certain of these Trees growing neer unto a hot Bath If you would procure Goodlier Figs then ordinary Columella shews how you make them to grow more plentifully and to be a sounder fruit When the tops of the Fig-tree begin to be green with leaves you muâ—â— cut off the tops of the boughs with an
meal Do this thrice or four times and so you may increase it continually and this must be done in a stove that the dewy spirit may be fostered I thought good to tell you also before that you must not prick the lump lest the generative blast should breath forth and flie into the air for so you will lose your labour and there must not want presently a dewy vapour which being carried into the air and made to drop may moisten the lump so you will rejoice at the wonderful increase but you must be cunning in the manual application Pray do not destroy by your negligence what was invented by the careful ingenuity of those that tried it CHAP. XX. How we may long endure hunger and thirst THe Antients had some compositions to drive away hunger and thirst and they were very necessary both in times of Famine and in wars Pliny saith some things being but tasted will abate hunger and thirst and preserve our forces as Butter Licoris Hippace and elsewhere Scythia first produced that root which is called Scythia and about Baeotia it grows very sweet And another that is excellent against Convulsions also it is a high commendation of it that such as have it in their mouths fell nor hunger nor thirst Hippace amongst them doth the same which effects the same in horses also And they report that with these two herbs the Scythians will fast twelve dayes and live without drink also all which he translated out of Theophrastus first book The Scythian Hippace is sweet also and some call it Dulcis it grows by Maeotis Amongst other properties it quencheth thirst also if it be held in the mouth For which cause both with both with that and with the other called equestris men say the Scythians will endure hunger and thirst twelve dayes Hence it appears that Pliny translated all this out of Theophrastus But I think he erred for Hippace signifies Cheese made of Mares milk and is no herb Theodorus translated it Equestrem as it were a root like Licoris fit to drive away hunger and thirst For Hippocrates saith the Scythian shepherds eat Hippace but that is Mares Cheese and elsewhere The Scythians pour Mares milk into hollow vessels of wood and shake it and that froths with churming and the fat of it they call butter which swims on the top that which is heavy sinks to the bottom they separate this and dry it when it is dry they call it Hippace the reason is because Mares milk nourisheth exceedingly and is as good as Cows milk Dioscorides The west Indians use another composition also To endure hunger and thirst Of the herb called Tobacco namely of the juice thereof and the ashes of Cockle shells they make little balls and dry them in the shade and as they travel for three or four dayes they will hold one of them between their under lip and their teeth and this they suck continually and swallow down what they suck and so all the day they feel neither hunger thirst nor weariness but we will teach another composition which Heron mentions and it was called The Epimenidian composition to endure hunger and thirst For it was a medicament that nourished much and abated thirst and this was the food the besiegers of Cities and the besieged also lived on It was called the Epimenidian composition from the Sea-onion called Epimendium that is one of the ingredients of that composition it was made thus The squil was boiled and washt with water and dryed and then cut into very small pieces then mingle sesamum a fift part poppy a fifteenth part make all these up with honey as the best to make up the mass to mitigate it divide the whole as into great Olives and take one of these about two of the clock another about ten and they felt no hurt by hunger that used it There is another composition of the same that hath of Athenian sesamum half a Sextarius of honey a half part of oyle a Cotyle and a Chaenice of sweet Almonds mundified the sesamum and Almonds must be dried and ground and winowed then the squil must have the outsides taken off and the roots and leaves must be cut into small pieces and put into a morter and bruised till they be well mollified then you must make up the squils with the like quantity of honey and of oyle and put all into a pot and set them in cold and stir them well with a wooden ladle till they be well mingled when the lump is firm it is good to cut it into little morsels and he that eats one in the morning another at night hath meat enough This medicament is good for an Army for it is sweet and so fills a man and quencheth thirst we had this in an old Scholiast a Manuscript upon the book of Heron in the Vatican Library I saw the same composition in Philo in his fifth book of wars where he describes such like other things CHAP. XXI Of what fruits wines may be made NOw we shall speak of fruits of which wines may be made And first our Ancestors did do thus but they had two wayes for some were for Physicks which are found plentifully in Physick books others again were for ordinary use and they were divers and almost infinite according as the differences of places and Nations are for what is granted to one is denyed to another First Wine of Dates Pliny saith that in the East they make wine of Dates and he reckons up fifty kinds of Dates and as many different wines from them Cariotae are the chief full of juice of which are made the principal wines in the East they are naught for the head and thence they have their name The best are found in Judaea chiefly about Jericho yet those of Archelaiis are well esteemed and of Phaselis and of Libias valleyes of the same Country The chiefest property they have is this they are full of a white fat juice and very sweet tasting like wine with honey The wine will make one drunk and the fruit also eaten largely Dioscorides teacheth thus Put ripe Dates called Chydeae into a pitcher with a hole at bottom and stopt with a pitched reed shut the hole with linnen and to fourty Sextarii pour on three gallons of water If you would not have it so sweet five gallons will be sufficient to pour on after ten dayes take away the reed with the linnen take the thick sweet wine and set it up Also wine is made Of Figs. Sotion relates it thus Some make wine of green figs filling half the vessel with them and the other half to the brim they fill with fair water and they try still by tasting for when it tasts like wine they strain it and use it It is made faith Dioscorides of ripe figs and it is called Catorchites or Sycites Chelidonian or Phaenician figs called Caricae are steeped in a pot with a hole in the bottom with a pitched reed
not out of the low and hollow parts but out of the highest And there are four seeds required because so many will easily and fitly close together A matter which if it were true it might be a very ready means which would produce exceeding many and wonderful experiments By such a means Berries that are party-coloured may be produced If you take a great many berries white and black and red one amongst another and sow them in the earth together and when they are shot up bind all their stalks into one they will grow together and yeeld party coloured berries Pliny writes that this way was devised from the birds Nature saith he hath taught how to graffe with a seed for hungry birds have devoured seeds and having moistened and warmed them in their bellies a little after have dunged in the forky twistes of Trees and together with their dung excluded the seed whole which erst they had swallowed and sometimes it brings forth there where they dung it and sometimes the wind carries it away into some chinks of the barks of Trees and there it brings forth This is the reason why many times we see a Cherry-tree growing in a Wilow a Plane-tree in a Bay-tree and a Bay in a Cherry-tree and withal that the berries of them have been party-coloured They write also that the Jack-daw hiding certain seeds in some secret chinks or holes did give occasion of this Invention By this self-same means we may produce A Fig that is partly white and partly red Leontius attempts the doing of this by taking the kernels or stones that are in a Fig somewhat inclinable to this variety and wrapping them up together in a linnen cloth and then sowing them and when need requires removing them into another place If we would have An Orenge or Citron-tree bear divers Apples of divers relishes Pontanus our Country-man in his work of Gardening hath elegantly taught us how to do it We must take sundry seeds of them and put them into a pitcher and there let them grow up and when they come forth bind the sprigs together and by this means they will grow up into one stock and shrowd themselves all under one bark but you must take heed that the wind come not at them to blow them asunder but cover them over with some wax that they may stick fast together and let them be well plaistered with morter about the bark and so shall you gather from them in time very strange Apples of sundry relishes Likewise we may procure A Damosin and an Orenge or Limon to be mixt together In our books of Husbandry we shewed at large by many reasons alledged to and fro that sundry seeds could not possibly grow into one but all that is written in favour of this practice is utterly false and altogether unpossible But this experiment we our selves have proved whereby divers kinds of Damosins are mixt together While the Damosin-trees were very tender and dainty we fastened two of them together which were planted neer to each other as Sailers plat and tie their Cables but first we pared off the bark to the inmost skin in that place where they should touch together that so one living thing might the more easily grow to the other then we bound them up gently with thin lists made of the inner bark of Elm or such like stuff that is soft and pliable for such a purpose lest they should be parted and grow asunder and if any part of them were so limber that it would not stick fast we wedged it in with splents yet not too hard for fear of spoiling it Then we rid away the earth from the upper roots and covered them with muck and watered them often that by this cherishing and tilling on they might grow up the better and thus after a few years that they were grown together into one tree we cut off the tops of them about that place where they most seemed to be knit together and about those tops there sprung up many buds whereof those which we perceived had grown out of both Trees we suffered to grow still and the rest we cut away and by this means we produced such kind of fruit as we speak of very goodly and much commended And concerning Limons I have seen some in the Noble-mens Gardens of Naples which partly by continual watering at seasonable times and partly by reason of the tendernesse and the ranknesse of the boughs did so cling and grow together that they became one tree and this one Tree brought forth fruit compounded of either kind We may also effect this featly by earthen vessels for the plants that are set therein we may very conveniently cherish up with continual watering and perform other services towards them which are necessary for their growth And as it may be done by Limons so we have seen the same experiment practised upon Mulberry-trees which growing in moist and shadowed places as soon as their boughs closed one with another presently they grew into one and brought forth berries of sundry colours If we would procure that A Lettice should grow having in it Parsley and Rotchet and Basil-gentle or any such like commixtion we must take the dung of a Sheep or a Goat and though it be but a small substance yet you must make a shift to bore the Truttle through the middle and as well as you can get out the inmost pith and in stead thereof put into it those seeds which you desire to have mingled together packing them in as hard as the Truttle will bear it and when you have so done lay it in the ground about two handful deep with dung and hollow geer both under it and round about it then cover it with a little thin earth and water it a little and a little and when the seeds also are sprung forth you must still apply them with water and dung and after they are grown up into a stalk you must be more diligent about them and by this means at length there will arise a Lettice mixed and compounded with all those seeds Palladius prescribes the same more precisely If you take saith he a Truttle of Goats dung and bore it through and make it hollow cunningly with a bodkin and then fill it up with the seed of Lettice Cresses Basil Rotchet and Radish and when you have so done lap them up in more of the same dung and bury them in a little trench of such ground as is fruitful and well manured for such a purpose the Radish will grow downward into a Root the other seeds will grow upward into a stalk and the Lettice will contain them all yeelding the several relish of every one of them Others effect this experiment on this manner They pluck off the Lettice leaves that grow next to the root and make holes in the thickest substance and veins thereof one hole being a reasonable distance from the other wherein they put the forenamed seeds all but
the Radish seed and cover them about with dung and then lay them under the ground whereby the Lettice grows up garded with the stalks of so many herbs as there were seeds put into the leaves If you would procure Party-coloured flowers to grow you may effect it by the same ground and principle You must take the seeds of divers kinds of flowers and when you have bound them up in a Linen cloth set them in the ground and by the commixtion of those seeds together you shall have flowers that are party-coloured By this means it is thought that Daisies of divers kinds were first brought forth such as are to be seen with golden leaves reddish about the edge nay some of them are so meddled with divers colours that they resemble little shreds of silk patcht together CHAP. VI. How a double fruit may be made whereof the one is contained within the other THere is also another way of Composition whereby fruits may be so meddled together not as we shewed before that one part of it should be of one fruit and the other part of another kinde nor yet that one and the same bough shall at once bear two or three several kinds of fruits but that one and the same fruit shall be double containing in it self two several kinds as if they were but one whereof I my self have first made trial But let us see how the Ancients have effected this and first How to make an Olive-grape Diophanes sheweth that the Olive being engraffed into the Vine brings forth a fruit called Elaeo-staphylon that is to say an Olive-grape But Florentinus in the eleventh book of his Georgicks hath shewed the manner how to engraffe the Olive into a Vine that so it shall bring forth not only bunches or clusters of grapes but an Olive fruit also We must bore a hole through the Vine neer to the ground and put into it the branch of an Olive-tree that so it may draw and receive both from the Vine sweetnesse and also from the ground natural juice and moisture whereby it may be nourished for so will the fruit taste pleasantly And moreover if while the Vine hath not yet born fruit you take the fruitful sprigs thereof and plant them elsewhere these sprigs will retain the mixture and composition of the Vine and the Olive-tree together and bring forth one fruit that shall have in it both kinds which therefore is called by a name compounded of both their names Eleo-staphylus an Olive-grape He reports that he saw such a tree in the Orchard of Marius Maximus and tasting the fruit thereof he thought with himself that he felt the relish of an Olive-berrie and a grape kernel both together He writes also that such plants grow in Africa and are there called by a proper name in their Country language Ubolima But we must set props under them to bear up the weight and burden of the boughs though if we engraffe them any other way but this we shall need no polls at all I suppose also that by this self-same means it may be effected That a Grape should have Myrtle in it Tarentinus writes that the Vine may be engraffed into the Myrtle-tree and the Vine-branches thereon engraffed will bring forth grapes that have Myrtle-berries growing underneath them But the manner of this engraffing he hath not set down If you engraffe the Vine-branches in the higher boughs or arms of the Mrytle then they will bring forth grapes after their ordinary manner not having any Myrtle in them but if you engraffe them as she shewed before neer to the ground as the Olive-tree must be into the Vine then you may produce Myrtle-grapes though not without some difficulty We may likewise produce Damosins that shall be of the colour of Nuts for such kind of fruit were produced by the Ancients and called Nucipruna that is Nut-Damosins as Pliny reporteth It is a peculiar property of these fruits that are engraffed into Nut-trees that they are in colour like to their own kinde but in taste like unto Nuts being therefore called by a mixt name Nuci-pruna So there may be produced as the same Pliny writes Damosins that have sweet Almonds within them There is saith he in this kind of fruit an Almond-kernel neither can there be any prettier double fruit devised The same Pliny reports also that there is a kind of Damosin that hath in it the substance of an Apple which of late was called by the Spaniards Malina which cometh of a Damosin engraffed into an Apple-tree There is also a kind of fruit called by the Apothecaries Sebesten or Mixa which hath in it a sweet Almond This same Mixa is a kind of Damosin which differs from all others for whereas others have a bitter Almond or kernel within their stone this only hath a sweet kernel It is a plant peculiar to Syria and Egypt though in Plinies time it was common in Italy and was engraffed in the Service-tree whereby the kernel was the pleasanter They engraffed it into the Service-tree likely for this cause that whereas the fruit of it self would make a man laxative the sharp taste of the Service being mixed with it might cause it to be more binding But now we will shew How to produce an Almond peach which outwardly is a Peach but within hath an Almond-kernel The former means producing double fruits which the Ancients have recorded are but vain fables not only false matters but indeed impossible to be so done for we shewed in the book of Husbandry if you engraffe the Vine into the Myrtle there will be no such fruit brought forth after that manner Besides it is impossible to engraffe the Olive-tree into the Vine or if it were engraffed yet would it not bring forth any such grapes Pliny speaks of Apple-damosins and Nut-damosins but he sheweth not the manner how they may be produced happily because it was never seen nor known But we will demonstrate the manner of it to the whole world by this example this fruit is called an Almond-Peach by the late Writers because it bears in it self the nature both of the Almond and the Peach compounded together And it is a new kind of Adultery or commixtion wrought by skill and diligence used in graffing such a fruit as was never heard of in former ages partaking both of the shape and also of the qualities of either parent outwardly it resembles the Peach both in shape and colour but inwardly it hath a sweet Almond within the kernel that both looks and tastes like an Almond and so is the Tree also a middle betwixt the Almond-tree and the Peach-tree outwardly like the Peach-tree and inwardly like the Almond-tree The manner of engraffing is by clapping the bud of one upon the bud of another either upon one of the trees that bare one of the buds or else setting them both into a third tree as we have done when the Trees have been old We may also go farther and upon that
within the earth that so the herb may not bud forth but all the nourishment may be converted to the head of the herb So may we make Onions to grow bigger as Theophrastus supposeth if we take away all the stalk that the whole force of the nourishment may descend downwards lest if it should be diffused the chief vertue thereof should spend it self upon the seeding Sotion saith that if a man plant Onions he must cut off both the tops and the tails thereof that so they may grow to a greater bigness then ordinary Palladius saith that if we desire to have great-headed Onions we must cut off all the blade that so the juyce may be forced down to the lower parts In like manner if we would have Garlick-heads greater then common we must take all the greenish substance thereof before it be bladed and turn it downward that so it may grow into the earth There is yet another Device whereby to make herbs and roots grow bigger then ordinary but yet I like not so well of it howsoever many ancient Writers have set it down and first How to make Leeks grow greater Columella hath prescribed this course you must take a great many Leek-seeds and binde them together in thin linen clouts and so cast them into the ground and they will yeeld large and great leeks Which thing Palladius also confirms by his authority in the very same words But both of them had it out of Theophrastus who putteth it for a general Rule That if a man sowe many seeds bound up together in a linen cloth it will cause both the root to be larger and the buds to be larger also and therefore in his time they were wont to sow Leeks Parsly and other herbs after the same manner for they are of more force when there be many seeds together all of them concurring into one nature Moreover it makes not a little to the enlarging of fruits to take the seeds which we would sow out of some certain part of the former fruit As for example we shall procure A Gourd of a greater or larger growth if we take the seed out of the middle of a Gourd and set it with the top downward This course Columella prescribes in his Hortulus Look saith he where the Gourd swells most and is of the largest compass thence even out of the middle thereof you must take your seed and that will yeeld you the largest fruit And this is experienced not in Gourds onely but also in all other fruits for the seeds which grow in the bowels or belly as it were of any fruit are commonly most perfect and yeeld most perfect fruit wheras the seeds that grow in the outward parts produce for the most part weak unperfect fruit Likewise the grains that are in the middle of the ear yeeld the best corn whereas both the highest and the lowest are not so perfect but because Gourds yeeld great increase therefore the experience hereof is more evidently in them then in any other Cucumbers will be of a great growth as the Quintiles say if the seeds be set with their heads downward or else if you set a vessel full of water under them in the ground that so the roots may be drenched therein for we have known them grow both sweeter and greater by this Device CHAP. XII How to produce fruit that shall not have any stone or kernel in it IT is a received thing in Philosophy especially amongst those that have set forth unto us the choicest and nicest points of Husbandry that if you take Quicksets or any branches that you would plant and get out the pith of them with some ear-picker or any like instrument made of bone they will yeeld fruit without any stone and without any kernel for it is the pith that both breedeth and nourisheth the substance of the kernel But the Arcadians are of a quite contrary opinion for say they every tree that hath any pith in it at all will live but if all the pith be taken out of it it will be so far from yeelding any stoneless fruit that it cannot chuse but die and be quite dried up The reason is because the pith is the moistest and most lively part of any tree or plant for the nourishment which the ground sends up into any plant is conveyed especially by the pith into all the other parts for Nature hath so ordained it that all the parts draw their nourishment as it were their soul and their breath thorow the marrow or pith of the stock as it were thorow a Squirt or Conduit-pipe Which may appear by experience seeing any bough or stalk so soon as the marrow is gone returns and crooks backward till it be quite dried up as the Ancients have shewed But I for my part must needs hold both against Theophrastus and against others also that have written of Husbandry both that trees may live after their marrow is taken from them and also that they will bring forth fruit having stones or kernels in them though there be no pith in the trees themselves as I have shewed more at large in my books of Husbandry Notwithstanding lest I should omit any thing belonging to this argument I have thought good here to set down the examples which those Ancients have delivered in writing that every man that lists may make trial hereof and haply some amongst the rest using greater diligence in the proof hereof then I did may finde better success herein then I have found There be many means whereby Plants may be deprived of kernels as namely by engraffing by taking out their pith by soiling with dung or by watering and by other Devices We will first begin as our wonted manner is with engraffing and will shew how to produce A Peach-apple without a stone Palladius saith he learned this new kinde of engraffing of a certain Spaniard which he saith also he had experienced in a Peach-tree Take a Willow-bough about the thickness of a mans arm but it must be very sound and two yards long at the least bore it thorow the middle and carry it where a young Peach-tree grows then strip off all the Peach-tree-sprigs all but the very top and draw it thorow the hole of the Willow-bough then stick both ends of the Willow into the ground that it may stand bending like a bowe and fill up the hole that you bored with dirt and moss bind them in with thongs About a year after when the Peach-tree and the Willow are incorporated into each other cut the plant beneath the joyning place and remove it and cover both the Willow-bough and the top of the plant also with earth and by this means you shall procure Peaches without stones But this must be done in moist and waterish places and besides the Willow must be relieved with continual watering that so the nature of the wood may be cherished as it delights in moisture and it may also minister abundant
kind of Nut which we now speak of I have growing in my own Orchard and it hath such a tender shell and so thin that as soon as ever it is but touched the shell falls off and the fruit is bare and naked Florentinus assayed to produce An Almond without a shell on this manner He break the shell very charily so that the kernel was kept whole then he took wool and sometimes green leaves of the Vine or of the Plane-tree and wrapt about the kernel lest if he should have set it without my covering about it the Emots or such like vermine should have gnawn it Columella sheweth another device whereby we may procure A Filberd to become a Tarentine Nut. When you have made your pit wherein you purpose to set your Nut put into it a little earth about half a foot deep and there plant the feed of Fennel-gyant and when the Fennel is come up cleave it and within the pith of it put your Filberd without any shell upon it and so cover it all over with earth this if you practise before the Calends of March or betwixt the Nones and the Ides of March you shall have your purpose They prescribe likewise another device whereby Gourds may bring forth fruit without any seeds within them The Gourd say they will grow seedless if you take the first branch or sprig of a Gourd when it is a little grown up and bury it in the earth as they use to deal by Vines so that onely the head thereof may appear and so soon as it is grown up again to bury it so again but we must have a special care that the slips which grow up out of the stalk be cut away and none but the stalk left behind so shall the fruit that grows upon it whether it be Gourds or Cucumbers be destitute of all seed within Likewise they will grow without seeds in them if the seeds which are planted be macerated or steeped in Sea-famine oyle for the space of three dayes before they be sowed CHAP. XIIII How to procure fruits to be of divers colours such as are not naturally incident to their kinde NOw we will shew how to colour fruits to the effecting whereof there have been divers means devised as waterings and engraffings which can never be sufficiently commended or spoken of and other like practises To begin with engraffing If we would colour any fruit we must engraffe it upon a plant that flourishes with the same colour which we would borrow As for example If we would produce Red Apples we must engraffe them upon a Plane-tree and the fruit will be red as Diophanes Didymus and Palladius affirm So we may procure that the fruit Rhodacen shall grow red if we engraffe it upon a Plane-tree as Africanus witnesseth Of whom Palladius learned that the way to make Rhodacens look red is to engraff them into a Plane-tree If you would have Citrons of a red scarlet-colour Avicenna shews you may effect it by engraffing them into a Pomegranate-tree for we shewed before that such an engraffing may well be made But if you would have Citrons to be blood-red Florentinus sheweth that you may effect this by engraffing them into a Mulberry-tree which experiment Deophanes approveth Likewise he that desires to have Red Pears must engraffe them into a Mulberry-tree for by this means the Pears will grow red as Tarentinus and Diophanes do witnesse So also you may procure A white Fig to become red by engraffing it upon a Mulberry-tree as the same Diophanes witnesseth By the same means Apples may be of a blood-red colour if they be engraffed into a Mulberry-tree as Avicenna sheweth But Beritius and Diophanes write that the Mulberry-tree it self which makes all other Apple-fruit to become red may be caused to bring forth White Mulberries if it be engraffed into a white Poplar tree for this will alter the colour of the fruit But Palladius procures this effect by another means not by engraffing the Mulberry into a white Poplar but into the Fig-tree for this also will alter their colour and cause White Mulberries as he shews in his verses wherein he saith that the Fig-tree doth perswade Mulberries to change their own colour and to take hers whereof I my self have seen the experience Likewise of A white Vine may be made red Wine if we engraffe a white Vine into a black for the stock into which it is engraffed will alter the colour much as I have seen by experience in hony-grapes those which we call Greek-grapes for the Vines which have been engraffed upon those Greek-Vines have yeelded a blackish juice or wine and the oftner such engraffing hath been made the blacker juice was yeelded In the places about the Hill Vesuvius the white-wine grape which grows upon her own stalk that is engraffed into the Greek-vine yeelds a more high-coloured wine then others do Another way to make Apples grow red is by diligent and cunning dressing even by applying them with hot and fat receipts for there are two chief Elements or principles of colours white and black or dark coloured now by dressing them and applying fat things unto them we may procure every flower or fruit that is blackish to become brighter and fresher coloured whereas on the other side if they be neglected that we do not bestow pains and care in trimming them their colour will not be so lively but degenerate into a whiterish hew for all colours that begin to fade wax somewhat whitish Beritius therefore endeavouring to make Apples grow red watered them with Urine and so obtained his purpose But Didymus To procure red Pomegranates watered the Tree with Bath-waters sodden into Lye and some other water mixed therewith But there is yet another device whereby we may procure Apples to grow red by opposing them directly to the greatest force of the Sun-beams for this will make them red Beritius that â—e might cause the reflex of the Sun-beams to be more forcible upon the fruit used this sleight He fastened certain stakes into the ground and weighing down the boughs that had fruit upon them he bound them charily without hurting the fruit to those stakes and neer thereunto he digged certain ditches filling them with water or else would place some other vessels full of water neer the boughs casting this in his conjecture that surely the heat of the Sun lighting upon the water would cause hot vapours which being reflected together with the heat of the Sun into the places neer adjoyning where the fruit hangs and so reflected upon the fruit would procure them to be of a reddish and a goodly colour Beritius assayed to procure Red Apples by another devise by a secret kind of operation Under the Tree he was wont to set Roses which did lend their goodly hew to the Apples that grow upon the Tree above them Democritus practised the like device not upon Apples but upon Rhodacens and made Red Rhodacens by planting Roses underneath the
iron tool and still as the leaves begin to buâ— forth you must take red chalk and blend it with Lees of oyle and mans dungâ— and therewithal cover the roots of the Tree and by this means the Tree wilâ— bear more store of fruit and besides the fruit will be a fuller and better fruit Pliny and Palladius record the same experiment out of the same Author When the Fig-tree begins to shew her leaves if you would have it yeeld you more and better fruit you must cut off the very tops of them when the bud begins to shew it self or if not so yet you must besure at the least to cutoff that top which groweth out of the midst of the Tree Palladius writes that some have reported that the Mulberry-tree will bear more and better fruit if you bore thorough the stock of the Tree in divers places and into every hole beat in a wedge into some of the holes wedges made of the Turpentine-tree and into some of them wedges made of the Mastick-tree Didymus saith that The Palm or Date-tree and the Damosin tree will grow to be of a larger and good-lier assize if you take the Lees of old Wine and after you have strained them water the roots therewith And he saith that it will take the better effect if you cast upon it a little salt ever now and then So The Myrtle-tree will have a goodlier leaf and also yield a better fruit if you plant it among Roses for the Myrtle-tree delighteth to be consorted with the Rose and thereby becomes more fruitful as Didymus reporteth So Rue will grow tenderer and more flourishing if it be engraffed into a Fig-tree you must only set it into the bark somewhat neer the root that you may cover it with the earth and so you shall have excellent good Rue Plutark in his Sympoâ—iakes commends no Rue but that only which grows very neer the Fig-tree Aristotle in his Problems demanding the cause of this at length concludes that there is such a sympathy and agreement betwixt the Fig-tree and the herb Rue that Rue never grows so fast nor flourishes so well as when it grows under the Fig-tree If you would have Artichocks grow without sharp prickles Varro saith that you must take the Artichock-seed and rub it upon a stone till you have worn it blunt at the top You may cause also Lettice to grow tenderer and more spreading as Palladius shews and Columella Palladius saith that if your Lettice be somewhat hard by reason of some fault either in the seed or place or season you must pluck it out of the earth and set it again and thereby it will wax more tender Columella shews how you may make it spread broader Take a little tile-sheard and lay it upon the middle of the Lettice when it is a little grown up and the burden or weight of the tile-sheard will make it spread very broad Pliny saith that it is meet also to besmear the roots with dung when they set them and as they grow up to rid away their earth from them and to fill up the place with muck Florentinus saith when you have a Lettice growing that hath been transplanted you must rid away the earth from the root after it is grown to be a handful long and then besmear it with some fresh Oxe-dung and then having cast in earth upon it again water it and still as the bud or leafe appears out of the earth cut it off till it grow up stronger and then lay upon it a tile-sheard that hath never been seasoned with any pitch and so you shall have your purpose By the like device you may procure Endive to be tenderer and broader When it is grown up to a pretty bignesse then lay a small tile-sheard on the middle of it and the weight of that will cause the Endive to spread broader So also you procure Coleworts to be more tender if you bedew them with salt water as Theophrastus writes The Aegyptians to make their Coleworts tender do water them with Nitre and Water mixt together So Cucumbers will be tenderer if you steep the seeds in milk before you set them as Columella reporteth If you would have Leeks to grow Cloven the Antients have taught you that first you must sow them very thick and so let them alone for a while but afterward when they are grown then cut them and they will grow cloven Or else you must cut it about some two moneths after it was set and never remove it from the own bed but help it still with water and muck and you shall have your purpose as Palladius saith Now we will speak of some monstrous generations as of the generation of the herb Dragon and of a cloven Onion And first How to produce the herb Dragon It is a received opinion amongst Gardeners that if you take Hemp-seed or Line-seed and engraffe it into an ordinary Onion or else into a Sea-onion as it grows neer the Sea or else into the Radish root thence will grow the herb Dragon which is a notable and famous Sallet-herb But surely howsoever they boast of it that this hath been of entimes done yet I have made sundry trials hereof and still failed of my purpose By the like setting of seeds they shew How to produce cloven Onions by making a hole into an Onion and putting into it a clove of Garlick and so planting it for that will grow to be an Ascalonian or a cloven Onion Now let us see how to make Parsley to grow frizled or curled Theophrastus writes that Parsley will grow frizled if you pave the ground where you have sowed it and ram it in with a roller for then the ground will keep it in so hard that it it must needs grow double Columella saith If you would have Parsley to bear curled leaves you must put your Parsley-seed into a morter and pown it with a Willow pestle and when you have so bruised it wrap it up in linen clouts and so plant it You may effect the same also without any such labour even by rolling a cylinder or roller over it after it is a little grown up wheresoever or howsoever it is sowed Palladius and Pliny record the same experiment out of the same Author I have often-times seen Basil growing with a kind of brush like hairs upon it The seed of withy-winde being planted neer to Basil as soon as it shoots up will presently winde it self round about the stalks of the Basil and by often winding about them will wrap them all into one The like will be effected also if the withy-winde grow elsewhere and a twig of it be brought and planted neer to Basil for by either of these means the Basil will grow so bushy and so thick of hair and that in a very short time that it will be most pleasant to be lookt upon So you may make the Ivy to bear very sightly berries if you burn three shell-fish especially of that kind
wonderful quality in drawing into it self the juice of the Vine Pliny shews How to make that kind of wine which is called Phthorium and kills children in their mothers wombes That Hellebore which grows in Thassus as also the wilde Cucumber as also Scammony are good to make Phthorian wine which causeth abortives But the Scammony or black Hellebore must be engraffed into the Vine You must pierce the Vine with a wimble and put in certain withie-boughes whereby you may binde up unto the Vine the other plants that are engraffed into it so shall you have a grape full of sundry vertues So you may procure Figs that shall be purgative if you pown Hellebore and Sea-Lettice together and cast them upon the Fig-tree roots or else if you engraffe them into the same roots for so you shall have Figs that will make the belly loose Florentinus saith that you may make a Fig to grow which shall be good against the biting of venemous beasts if you set it after it hath been laid in triacle So we may procure Purgative Cucumbers You must take the roots of the wilde Cucumber and pown them and steep them in fair water two or three dayes and then water your Cucumbers with that liquor for five dayes together and do all this five several times Again you may make them purgative if after they are blossomed you dig round about their roots and cast some Hellebore upon them and their branches and cover them over with earth again So you may procure Purgative Gourds if you steep the seeds of them in Scammony-water nine dayes before you set them as the Quintiâ—es report Now if you would procure a man to be loose bellied and sleepy withal you may cause Purgative Damosins that be good also to cause sleep You must bore thorough a bough or through the whole stock of a Damosin-tree and fill it up with Scammony or the juice of black Poppy wrapt up handsomely in paper or some such covering and when the fruit is ripe it will be operative both for sleep and purgation Cato shews also how you may cause A Vine to be purgative After the Vintage at such time as the earth is used to be rid away from the roots of Vines you must uncover the roots of so many Vines as in your opinion will make wine enough to serve your turn mark them and lop them round about and prune them well Then pown some Hellebore roots in a morter and cast them about your Vines and put unto them some old rotten dung and old ashes and twice of much earth amongst them and then cover the Vine-roots with mould and gather the grapes by themselves If you would keep the juice of the grape long that it may last you a great while for that purpose you must take heed that the juice of no other grapes do come neer it When you would use it take a cup full of it and blend it with water and drink it before supper and it will work with you very mildely without any danger at all Late Writers have taken another course they rid and cleanse the Vine-roots and then poure upon the juice of some purgative medicine to water them withal and this they do for many dayes together but especially at such time as the bud beginneth to fill out when they have so done they cast earth upon the roots again and they take special regard that the roots never lie naked and open when the Northern winde bloweth for that would draw forth and consume the juice of the medicine that is poured upon the roots This if you diligently perform you shall have grapes growing upon your Vines that are very operative for loosing of the belly I have effected The same by another means I pierced the Vine with a wimble even unto the very marrow and put into it certain ointments fit for such an effect it will suffice if you put them within the rine and this I did in divers parts of the Vine here and there about the whole body of the Vine and that about graffing time by Inoculation for then the Vine is full of moisture whereby it cometh to pass that the moisture it self ascending at that time into the superior parts doth carry up with it the vertue of the ointments and conveys it into the fruit so that the fruit will be operative either for purgation or for childe-bearing either to hurt or help either to kill or preserve according as the nature and quality of the ointment is which was poured upon the roots of the Vine CHAP. XXI How to plant Fruits and Vines that they may yield greatest encrease THat we may conclude this whole book with a notable and much desired experiment we will now shew in the last place how we may receive a large encrease from the fruits and pulse and Vines which we have planted A matter surely that must needs be exceeding profitable for a man to receive an hundred bushels in usury as it were for one bushel that he hath sowed Which yet I would not have to be so understood as if a man should still expect to receive an hundreth for one precisely or exactly so much for sometimes the year or the air and weather or else the ground or else the plants may not perform their parts kindly and in this case the encrease cannot be so great but yet it shall never be so little but that it shall be five times more then ordinary but if those things do perform their parts kindly together you shall receive sometimes for one bushel an hundred and fifty by encrease This may seem a paradox to some and they will think that we promise impossibilities but surely if they would consider all things rightly they should rather think it a paradox why half a bushel well sown or planted should not yield two hundred bushels encrease seeing that one grain or kernel that is planted and takes kindly doth oft-times spread his root as we see and fructifie into sundry and many stems sometimes into fifteen and in the ear of every one of those stalks are contained sometimes threescore grains I spare to mention here the ground that lies in Byzatium in Africa whereof Pliny speaks which for one grain that was planted in it did yield very neer four hundred stalks and the Governour of that Country sent unto Nero three hundred and fourty stems growing out of one grain But let us search out the cause whereby this comes to pass Some think that the encrease commonly falls out to be so little because the greater part of the fruit which is cast into the ground is eaten up of worms or birds or moles and of other creatures that live in the earth But this appears to be false because one bushel of Pulse being planted never yields above fifteen Now the Pulse or Lupines is of it self so bitter that none of those devouring creatures will taste of it but let it lie safe and untouched and when they are
the stronger boughes that the winde may not shake them But all these practises must be used when the weather is fair and there is neither rain nor dew stirring as Columella teacheth But Beritius useth this means to make them stay long on their Tree He takes the blossoms of the Tree when they begin to wither and wraps in them every Pomegranate by it self and then binds them about with bonds thereby preventing their putrefaction and their chawns and chops which otherwise would be in them Others put them in earthen pots every one by it self and cover them well and settle them fast that they may not be broken by knocking against the stock or arms of the Tree not by hitting one against the other for by this means you shall have them alwayes better grown then by any other Varro saith that if you take Pomegranates before they be ripe as they stick upon their stalks and put them into a bottomless pot and cover them boughs and all in the ground so that no winde may come at them you shall not only finde them whole when you take them out but they will be greater also then if they had hung still upon the Tree Palladius shews Citrons may be preserved upon the Tree even by shutting them up in certain earthen vessels fit for such a purpose for so you may keep them upon their Tree almost all the year long If you would have Grapes hang upon the Vine fresh and good even till the Spring of the year Beritius prescribes you this course You must dig a pit in a very shadowy place neer to the Vines about a yard deep and fill it up with sand and set up some props in it then you must loosen the joints of the Vine-branches and winde them in together with the clusters of grapes to be tied to the props and then cover them that no water may come at them You must take heed also that the grapes do not touch the ground A thing which I have oft-times put in practise but it fell not out to my expectation for still the grapes were half rotten and their colour quite faded Columella saith There is no surer way then to prepare certain earthen vessels which may hold each of them a cluster of grapes so that they may have scope enough and they must have every one four handles whereby they may be tied to the Vine and their lids or coverings must be so framed that the middle may be the place of closing where both sides of the cover may fall close together when the clusters are in and so meeting may hide the grapes But you must see that both the vessels themselves and also their coverings be well pitched both within and without for the pitch will do good service herein When you have thus covered and shut up your grapes then you must lay good store â—f morter with straw chopt in it upon the vessels But in any case look that the grapes be so placed in the vessels that they touch no part thereof Tarentinus gives this counsel The clusters that first grow you must pluck off and then others will come up in their steads if you look carefully to the Vine now these later clusters will be very backward and long ere they be ripe take some earthen vessels and let them be somewhat open below put into them your later clusters and let the upper part of them be very close covered and then bind your vessels fast unto the Vine that so the wind may not shake them Palladius saith If you be desirous to keep grapes upon the Vine till the Spring-time you must take this course Neer unto a Vine that is laden with grapes you must make a ditch about three foot deep and two foot broad in a very shadowy place and when you have cast sand into it stick up certain props and winde the bunches daily towards them and when you have wrought them to stand that way bind them to your props without hurting the grapes and then cover them to keep them from the rain The Graecians likewise counsel you to shut up your grapes into certain earthen vessels which are somewhat open beneath but very close and fast shut above and so you may preserve them long upon the Tree If you would preserve Grapes upon the Vine till new come again so that upon one and the same Vine-branch may be seen old and new grapes both together you may effect it by this device which I my self have used for all the former experiments are the inventions of Antiquity and because there is great difficulty in working them and small profit when they are wrought therefore I esteem them as toyes and matters of little worth But this I have experienced my self and preserved good grapes upon a Vine until May and June and so have seen both new grapes and grapes also of the former year together upon one and the same branch When Vintage time is past you must take the tops and pliant twigs of such Vines as grow by the house side and winde them in at the window into the house and binde them fast to the summers or beams with the sprigs of Broom as with strings or thongs that they may be surely stayed from wagging up and down but you must let them in handsomely that the windows may be opened and shut conveniently By this means you shall keep them safe from the injury both of the cold weather and also of the devouting birds When there is any frosts or winds abroad keep the windows close shut and open them again when the air is waxed any thing calm and warm and so deal by them till the Spring come And when the Vine begins to bear new buds and new leaves then let your twigs out of prison and bring them back again into the open air and there let them take the comfort of the warm Sun So shall there grow new grapes upon the same twigs where the old grapes are I have also effected the same By another means Because it was a great trouble and a very irksome piece of work to take that course every year I have thought of another device whereby the same effect may be attained both more prettily and miraculously About the time wherein they are wont to prune Vines make choice of two special branches upon the Vine such as are most likely to bear fruit Cut off the tops of either of them but leave the branches still growing upon the Vine and leave two or three buds upon either branch Then take a vessel made of chalk or white clay and let there be a hole bored quite thorough the bottom of it and so place it that it may stand fit for the branches to be drawn thorough it so that they may stand a little out above the brims thereof When your branches are so seated then fill up the vessel with earth and that you may work more surely and speedily too you must set over your earthen
them when they are but half-ripe and hang them up with their boughs in some house Beritius shews How Pomegranates are to be gathered and laid up to last You must gather them saith he with a very chary hand lest if you touch them somewhat roughly they should be hurt or bruised and that would be an occasion of their putrefaction Columella saith that Pomegranates are to be gathered with their stalks and the stalks to be put into an Elder-tree because the Elder-tree is so full of pith that it may easily entertain the Pomegranate stalks The same Author reports out of Mago the Carthaginian that all fruits which you would lay up in store must be gathered with their stalks upon them yea and if it may be without the spoil or hurt of the Tree they must be gathered with their boughs too for this will be very helpful to cause the fruit to last the longer Palladius saith that Pomegranates may be preserved best if you gather them sound and lay pitch upon their stalks and hang them up in due order nay they will keep so much the better the longer the boughs are which are pluckt off from the Tree with them Pliny saith that they are to be gathered with their boughs and the boughs to be stuck into the Elder pith and so to be preserved Cato shews how we may preserve Myrtle twigs with their berries upon them They must be taken from the Tree when the berries are somewhat sowre and so bound up with their leaves about them Didymus hath taught us how we must gather Grapes that they may last long We must take special heed that every grape be perfect and sound and for this cause we must have a very sharp knife or hook to cut of those grapes that are unsound easily and without any stroke even with one touch as it were When you gather your grapes they must be in their full strength neither too raw nor yet past their best liveliness Some cut off the branches together with the clusters and when they have so done they espy out all the grapes that are either putrified or dryed away or unripe and pluck them off with a pair of nippers lest they should infect their fellows and after this they take the branches whereon the cluters grow and that end which was cut they dip into scalding pitch every one by it self Others hold that grapes must be hanged up in some high roof where the air may have full scope at them but the grapes must be none of those which grow toward the tops of the branches but they must be the lower clusters Palladius saith If we would have grapes to last we must see that we gather such as are without blemish they must not be too harsh and sowre neither must they be over-ripe but it must be a very clear grape to the eye and somewhat soft to be felt and yet it must have a reasonable tough skin If there be any amongst them that is bruised or hath any other blemish we must cut it way neither must we suffer amongst them any one that is over hard which the Sun hath not in some sort overcome with his heat After all this we must drench the cut ends of the stalks in scalding pitch and so hang them up CHAP. VI. In what grounds those fruits should grow and be gathered which we would lay up WE must not omit to speak of another necessary observation in this matter namely in what ground in what air under what Climate it is best that those fruits which we should lay up should grow and be gathered Whatsoever fruits do grow iâ— moist and waterish in hollow and low grounds as also those which grow in such grounds as are much soiled and manured with fat muck they are much subject to putrefaction for in as much as they grow with great store of moisture and heat in them they have the occasion and original of their own bane within their own bosome But in wilde fruits and such as grow upon the tops of mountains in dry grounds and such as are not manured at all and such as the Southern heat doth continually beat upon it falleth out clean otherwise for the fruits that grow in such places are for the most part dry and very solide not abounding either with heat or moisture Hesiodus in his book of Husbandry never makes any mention of muck or soiling and questionless he would never have omitted such a necessary part of Husbandry as this is but that he saw the inconvenience of it in this respect that it makes the fruit more subject to putrefaction and many infirmities Fruits that grow in wilde and stony grounds where the winde hath his full force will preserve themselves without any skill and device practised upon them wherefore if other sleights be added which are helpful to their preservation they will surely last much the longer But let us see whether Antiquity hath made any mention of this matter and first let us hearken to Theophrastus who shews In what ground there grow the best Dates or Palms to be preserved for store If you preserve and lay up any Dates or Palms saith he you must make choice of those which grow in sandy grounds as in that Country which is called Syria cava and there are in all that Country but three sandy places where they do grow and these are excellent good to be preserved those which grow in other places are not durable but presently wax rotten Of all those Palms which Syria yeelds it is held by some that none are good to last but those only which grow in the Palme-valley a place so called there But those which grow in Aegypt and Cyprus and elsewhere they are all very soon putrified And Pliny reports out of the same Author that those Palms which grow in salt and sandy grounds as in Judaea and Cyreniâ—n Africa may be preserved but not those which grow in Cyprus Aegypt Syria and Seleucia of Assyria The same Theophrastus speaking of Beans shews In what ground there grow the best Beans to be preserved for store One Country saith he differs from another and one Climate differs also from another in respect of the fruits that grow in them either to be good to lay up or to be subject to putrefaction And therefore the Beans that grow in Apollonia which is neer to the Ionian Sea are not subject at all to any worms or rottennesse so that they are best of all other to be preserved Likewise the Beans that grow about Cizicum are very durable CHAP. VII How fruits must be shut up and kept close that the air come not at them WE have shewed before that if we would preserve fruit long we must keep away both heat and moisture from them both which qualities are found in the air Wherefore we will first set down the devices of Antiquity in this behalf and then our own devices and experiments And first How to keep Apples close without
carefully closed up must needs last unputrified even for a whole age nay for all eternity At Rome I saw a fish that was drenched in the water that had been distilled out of the Vine and she was preserved five and twenty years as fresh as while she was alive and at Florence I saw the like of fourty years continuance the vessel was made of glass and made up with the seal of Hermes And I make no question but that all things that are sowced in this kind of liquor will last sound and good for many ages How many sorts of things I have preserved by this one means it were too long here to rehearse CHAP. XI That fruits may be very well preserved in salt-waters NExt after wine salt-water is of special use for preserving from putrefaction for such things as have been drenched therein have lasted long very sound and good The Ancients saw that whatsoever was preserved in salt was kept thereby from putrifying wherefore that they might preserve fruits from corruption they have used to drench them in salt-waters Homer calls salt a divine thing because it hath a special vertue against putrefaction and by it bodies are preserved to all eternity Plato calls it the friend of God because no sacrifices were welcome to him without salt Plutark saith that the Antients were wont to call it a divine influence because the bodies of creatures that were seasoned with salt from above were thereby acquitted from corruption Salt binds and dries and knits together and doth priviledge bodies from putrefaction that in their own nature must needs putrifie as the Aegyptians custome manifestly sheweth who were wont to season their dead bodies with salt as Herodotus writeth But let us come to examples Beritius saith that Pomegranates are preserved in salt-waters You must take sea-water or else brine and make it boil and so put your Pomegranates into it and afterward when they are thorough cold dry them and hang them up in the Sun and whensoever you would use them you must steep them in fresh-water two dayes before Columella rehearses the opinion of a certain Carthaginian touching this matter Mago would have saith he that Sea-water should be made very hot and Pomegranates being tied together with thread or broom-twigs to be drenched in it till they change their colour and then to be taken forth and dried in the Sun for three dayes and afterward to be hanged up and when you would use them you must steep them in fresh and sweet water for the space of four and twenty hours before and so they will be fit for your use Pliny also reports out of the same Author that Pomegranates are first to be hardened in hot Sea-water and then to be dried in the Sun three dayes and so to be hung up that the evening dew come not at them and when you would use them to steep them first in fresh-water Palladius writes the same out of Pliny and he sheweth also that Damosins may be preserved in salt-waters They must be fresh gathered and then drenched either in brine or else in sea-water scalding hot and then taken forth and dried either in the Sun or else in a warm Oven Columella would have them drenched in new wine sodden wine and vineger but he gives a special charge also to cast some salt amongst them lest the worm or any other hurtful vermine do grow in them Palladius likewise sheweth that Pears will last long in salt-water first the water is to be boiled and when it begins to rise in surges you must skim it and after it is cold put into it your Pears which you would preserve then after a while take them forth and put them up in a pitcher and so make up the mouth of it close and by this means they will be well preserved Others let them lie one whole day and night in cold salt-water and afterward steep them two dayes in fresh-water and then drench them in new wine or in sodden wine or in sweet wine to be preserved Others put them in a new earthen pitcher filled with new wine having a little salt in it and so cover the vessel close to preserve them Likewise Modlars may be preserved in salt-water They must be gathered when they are but half ripe with their stalks upon them and steeped in salt-water for five dayes and afterward more salt-water poured in upon them that they may swim in it Didymus sheweth also that Grapes may be preserved long in salt-water You must take some sea-water and make it hot or if you cannot come at that take some brine and put wine amongst it and therein drench your clusters of grapes and then lay them amongst Barley straw Some do boil the ashes of a Fig-tree or of a Vine in water and drench their clusters therein and then take them out to be cooled and so lay them in Barley straw The grape will last a whole year together if you gather them before they be thorough ripe and drench them in hot water that hath Allome boiled in it and then draw them forth again The Antients were wont To put salt to Wine to make it last the longer as Columella sheweth They took new wine and boiled it till the third part was wasted away then they put it into vessels there to preserve it for their use the year following they put a pinte and a half of this liquor thus boiled into nine gallons of new wine unboiled and after two dayes when these liquors are incorporated together they wax hot and begin to spurge then they cast into them half an ounce of salt beaten small and that made the wine last till the next year Theophrastus and Pliny write that The fruits of those Palm-trees which grow in salt places are fittest to be preserved as those which grow in Judaea and Cyrenian Africk because those Countries especially do afford salt and sandy grounds for salt is a great nourisher of these kinds of fruits and they are preserved long even by their own saltnesse so that the salter the places are where they grow the better will the fruit be preserved So likewise that kind of Pulse which is called Cicer is preserved by its own saltness without any other dressing for the nature thereof is to have a saltish juice within it whereby it cometh to pass that whereas all other Pulse are subject to corruption and have some vermine or other breeding in them onely this kind doth not engender any at all because of the bitter and sharp saltish juice that is in it as Theophrastus writeth Didymus likewise writeth that Beans will last long in salt-water for if they be sowced in sea-water they will continue long without any blemish Pliny also sheweth that Garlick may be preserved in salt-water for if you would have Garlick or Onions to last long you must dip the heads thereof in warm salt-water so will they be of longer continuance and of a better taste So Cucumbers are preserved in
a spung dipped in vinegar and aqua vitae then let it dry which done strew it with unquenched Lime Alome and Salt let it hang so two days in the smoak of Myrrhe Bay Rosemary and Cypress in a dry and open place Then make a mixture of unquenched Lime five pound of burnt Alome one pound good Salt two pound of Aloes and Myrrhe half a pound of Aloes-wood half a pound of the Oyl of Spicknard three onces of the powder of Rosemary-flowers five of burnt Green-brass and Calcanthum two of the best Theriack four of the dust of Cypress half a pound of dryed Saffron one once of the seeds of Coloquintida three and a half of Antimony beaten to powder one and an half of the ashes of Wine-lees five and a half of Musk half a dragm of Amber two Let all be diligently brayed and mixed together and strewed upon the Body which must be for three days together strongly rubbed in an open and dry place This also we admonish that in fat Bodies the fat of the Abdomen Buttocks Hips Muscles of the Leggs thighs and all other places must be first abstracted Things may be also preserved by Balsom But seeing we can compass no true Balsom or if there be any it is exceeding dear we are glad to make artificial Balsoms as we shall shew in due place CHAP. XVI How divers sorts of Bread may be made WE have spoken of preserving fruits and other things It remains to shew how we may use those we have kept Amongst the rest we shall teach you concerning those things that are most necessary for dayly use as for many kinds of Bread Wine Vinegar and Oyls that not onely the Housholder may provide for his family with small cost but when provision is dear he may provide for himself with small pains in Mountains and Desarts of all those things almost we have spoken of But we will begin with Bread and see what our fore-fathers used in case of necessity I shall let pass those common things as Spilt and Bean-corn Amel-corn Typh-wheat Panick Sesamum being all well known But first To make Bread of Wall-nuts Dioscorides saith there is a kind of Thistle commonly found in the waters that onely in Rivers brings forth a certain seed as big as a Ches-nut with three points membranous full of white pith that tastes like Ches-nuts they call them water ches-nuts vulgarly and the Inhabitants use them in meats as they do Ches-nuts Pilgrims make Chapelets of them The Thracians that dwell by the River Strimon fat their horses with this Thistle when it is green and of the same seed they make Bread to eat Moreover in places where they grow amongst us the Inhabitants when provision is dear make Bread of them as at Ferrara they do of Ches-â—uts and the Brutii rost them in the embers and eat them for juncates Almost in the same manner To make Bread of the Lote tree Theophrastus teacheth it The Lote-tree grows in plain ground where the Countries are overflowed with water The fruit is like a Bean naturally but less and more slender That which grows on the head comes forth promiscuously as Beans do many and very thick together When the Sun sets it closeth and opens when he riseth and springs up above the water The head is as great as a Poppy-head where it grows in Euphrates The Egyptians lay those heads on heaps to putrefie and when the shells are putrefied they wash them in a River and part the fruit from them and dry it and break it and make bread of it and eat it Pliny There is also bread made of the seed of it like to Millet seed in Egypt by the Shepherds and they knead it with water especially or with milk They say that nothing is more wholesom then that bread or lighter whil'st it is hot but cold it is harder to digest and becomes heavy It is certain that those who live upon that are never troubled with Dysenteries Tenasmus or any diseases of the belly And therefore it is one of their remedies For it was of old a custom To make bread of Dates which Pliny writes of Dates that are very dry of Thebes and Arabia that are slender and very lean with a continual vapour they are terrified and are covered rather with a Shel then a Skin In Ethiopia it is crumbled so great is the draught and like meal it is made into bread Bread of the Mulberry-figtree In Caria and Rhodes there is a great Fig of Egypt or increase of the Sycamore-tree and in the neighbouring places where there is little wheat the people for want of corn use it for bread and for all bread corn So great and continual plenty is there of that Apple and abundance of bread is made of it pleasing to the stomach but it affords but little nutriment and we might make the same if we would We find it in Writers of husbandry How we may make bread without leaven Out of Didymus some adde Nitre for Nitre makes bread more crumbly as it doth flesh also Some the day before they make their bread cast Grapes into the water and the next day when they will make their bread they take them away for they swim above the water and they press them out and use the moisture pressed forth for leaven and so they make their bread more pleasing If you would have leaven last you all the year when the new wine hath boiled in the vessels Skim off the froth that boils on the top and mingle with it Millet-meal and work it well together and make morsels of it which dry in the Sun and lay up in a moist place and you may take a sufficient quantity and use it for leaven CHAP. XVII Divers sorts of Bread made of Roots and fruits NOw we shall proceed to other kinds of bread found out in our days that are no small profit to us when corn is dear How to make bread of the Roots of Cuckow-pint the root of Wake-Robin when it is not too acrimonious is eaten and desired in meats Dioscorides saith The decoction was drank as not being over sharp Galen That it was eaten as Rape-roots and in some Countries it grows more corroding To prepare it rightly pour out the water of the first boyling and presently cast it into other hot water In Cyrene those Roots are otherwise then amongst us for there it is no Physical root and is not acrimonious at all so that it is more profitable then a Rape-root Also our forefathers when Corn was dear used this Root in meats with great profit Caesar de bello civili Also there is a kind of Root found by them that were with Valerius which is called Chara which mingled with milk releived a Souldier that was hungry and it was made up like to bread There was great plenty of this Root and of it bread was made when those of Pompey his side objected to our Souldiers that they wanted food they would commonly
throw these at them that they might deceive their expectation And a little after the Army used this and were very healthful And in Dioscorides in the false names of simples Cuckow-pint was of old called Chara with us it is so acrimonious that we scarce can endure to touch it with our tongues But I shall open the reason how excellent bread may be made of it and if I may say so better then Wheat-bread The great Roots are made clean and they are cut into small thin plates for the thinner they are cut the sooner will they become pleasant and they must boil in vessels of hot water until you perceive the water grow sharp and the Roots somewhat sweet pour out the former water and pour in fresh then boil them again till the water become sweet and the root when it is cheweded hath no acrimony left Then take them out of the water and put them upon linnen cloths extended and hanging up until they be dry then grind them in hand-mils and the meal will be exceeding white which by it self a with a third part of wheat-meal added to it will make most pure bread and well rasted There are other ways to make it sooner when you have obtained this art you will be exceeding glad I am very certain of it For with great pleasure Bread of Asphodils is eaten This is so fruitful of round-heads with us that no Plant hath more for oftimes 80 heads will be heaped together Moreover Mountains and Sea-shores are full of them that it may be truly thought to be made for mans meat Pliny The Daffodil is eaten with the seed and head terrified But this rosted in the embers as Hesiod affirms is eaten with oyle also braied with figs it is eaten with great pleasure These Round-heads are like to Navews of moderate bigness So saith Galen also But with us they are so unpleasant and acrimonious in tast that a man cannot eat them and Sowes digging them up with their snowts will hardly feed on them no not when we want corn can we eat this in our greatest hunger it was the poor fair of frugal antiquity But by boiling the sharpness of it becomes more mild and the heat of it more tolerable as we said of Cuckow-pint It will be sufficient to satisfie a mans hunger as of old it was used As Pliny saith We have made most wholesom bread of these mingled with meal especially for men wasted and in consumptions also Bread is made of Rape-roots Turneps and Skirworts For of those boil'd and cooked first cleansed from all excrements a most commendable bread may be made as I have tried But meal must be mingled with them to a third part or else half as much of one and the other as we shall shew a little after And not to be tedious the same way-bread to eat may be made of all Navews Roots or Bulbous-heads Also there is made Excellent bread of Gourds For Gourds may be had very cheap and they make savoury bread with meal and so the bread is greater for this is the greatest of all fruits for with a very little meal in time of Famine we may feed many men and not onely use it for need but for dainties also for seasoned with Sugar and prepared for mens pallats and to quench feaverish heats they are carried about every where to be sold. The way to make them up is this Take great round Gourds and fully ripe and cut into many pieces the dry skin and the pith must be taken from them with a knife put them into a kettle of boiling water and boil them for by long boiling the grassy greenness and the rank smell and loathsom taste are taken away and they will smell better and taste and nourish better and will last as long as bread Being now brought to the form of an ointment press it through a linnen strainer with your hands that if any parts of it be not well boiled or any woddy pieces be there they may be kept back by the narrowness of the strainer To this Mass adde a third part of meal and make them into bread together which will be pleasant to eat daily I will not have you to eat your fill of it but if you eat it moderately it will profit much When it is new it is excellent but stale it is not so sightly nor dainty I have shew'd you the way how you must use such things of superfluous moisture now do you learn wisely to do it CHAP. XVIII Divers ways to make bread of all sorts of Corn and Pulse ANtiently they made Bread of divers kinds of Corn and Pulse it would be needless to repeat them for you may find them in the Books of the Antients and there can be no error in making them In Campania very sweet bread is made of Millet Also the people of Sarmatia are chiefly fed with this bread and with the raw meal tempered with Mares-milk or blood drawn out of the veins of their legs The Ethiopians know no other Corn then Millet and Barley Some parts of France use Panick but chiefly Aquitane But Italy about Po adde Beans to it without which they make nothing The people of Pontus prefer no meat before Panick Panick meal now adays is neglected by us and out of use for it is dry and of small nourishment of Millet bread and cakes are made but they are heavy and hard of digestion and clammy to eat Unless they be eaten presently when they are newly baked or not else they become heavy and compact together Of the Indian Mais heavy bread is made and not pleasant at all very dry and earthly next to Millet like to this is bread called Exsergo that is also void of nutrimental juice There was also of old bread called Ornidos made of a certain seed of Ethiopia so like Sesamum that it is hard to know them asunder Also Bread is made of Lupins The best kind was known also to the Antients For Didymus teacheth how Lupins will grow sweet being three days infused in River or Sea-water and when they grow mild they must be dried and laid aside and then the meal of them mingled with Barley-meal or Wheat-meal is fit to make bread But we make it thus First the Lupins are ground in mills and are made into flower fifty pound of these are put into a wooden vessel and fair water is cast upon them that it may swim four fingers breadth above them and it must be often stirred with a woodden stick then let it settle till the water grow clear and the meal sink down then strain the water well that no meal be lost and pour on water the second time and stir it as before do so the third time till the meal and water be come sweet which will be done in one day if the water be often changed As that is done put the meal into a linnen cloth laid abroad that the meal may be seperated with a wooden slice
and the water may run away through the cloth and the meal may dry the better upon the cloth In the mean time boil two pound of Rice and being boil'd mingle them with the Lupins divide the whole into two parts and mingle one with the leaven and a hundred pound of wheat-meal and make bread of it let the other be set by with the leven till the next day which being mingled again with wheat-meal will make excellent bread and will not taste of Lupins But you must use all diligence in the making of it for if you make it not of the best meal the bread will be naught wherefore the work lies in the right preparation of it For the worse Corn or Pulse you make it of the more Corn must be taken to prepare it After this manner it may be made of Tares and Vetches and the favour of them is dulcified with water and mingling meal with them Bread is made also of Peason Chiches Tarses Lentils Beans and chiefly of Acorns But it is not unprofitable to make Bread of Herbs If a man cut the Herb Clot-bur small and grind it in a mill to very fine powder and adde as much or a third part of wheat-meal to it it will make good bread that may be eaten when there is a famine and I have heard that the poor eat it in some places and it hurts them not and that some in a siege have lived a moneth with such bread CHAP. XIX How bread may be increased in weight NOw I shall shew how bread may be augmented a thing very strange and profitable not onely to help in time of need but it is good for the Housholder for with little meal he may nourish many and fill their bellies and that three wayes For there be things that added to Corn will increase the substance of the bread other things are dry and of a clammy nature that will thicken the Element by refraction into the substance of bread The last way is the life of the heat of it whereby it waxes and grows as if it were alive As much as is lost by the bran taken from it is added to it by casting water on it when it is ground and in the other workmanship Moreover the baking of bread takes away a tenth part and a half of the weight Let us see how our Ancestors did by some Earth or Chalk make their bread more weighty and white Pliny teacheth that Spelt will grow white by a kind of chalk thus Let this Spelt be of Beer-corn which he called a seed the corns of it are bruised in a wooden morter for it will be spoiled and consumed by the hardness of a stone the best as it is well known is made by those that are condemned to bray in morters for their punishment For the best there is an iron box the hulls being then beaten off again with the same instruments the marrow of it being made bare is broken so are there made three kinds of this Spelt-meal the finest the second sort and the third that is the coursest But yet they are not white which makes them excellent yet now are these preserved at Alexandria after this it is very strange chalk is mingled with them that passes both into the body and the colour of them and makes them tender You shall find this between Puteoli and Naples on the Hill called Leucogaeum And there is extant a decree of Divus Augustus wherein he commanded to pay them at Naples yearly 20000 Sestertia out of his Treasury drawing his Colony to Capua and he assigns the cause by reason that they of Campania affirmed that Spelt-meal could not be made without that stone Rice makes bread weigh It neither corrupts the taste or goodness of the bread but increaseth both and it brings it closer by one eighth part for by a continual turning it it will retaineth volatil meal and from hence you shall see it coagulate and when it is coagulated put leaven to it but it must first grow cold lest the force of the coagulation should be hindred To binde this fugitive servant fast adde so much Wheat-meal as may fasten it well together till you see there is enough and you shall find it increased to the weight desired By this example You may increase the weight of bread with Millet This is easily done for it is dry ctumbles and will not hang together and is weak let it be bruised with a wooden pestle and sifted through a sieve till the hulls be parted as we see it done at Rome and at Florence by this we hold it that it flie not away by its hungry driness then we mingle it with Wheat and the air reflects back and it will be converted into the substance of Alica that you will think nothing taken from the taste colour or goodness nor yet added to it Nor will it be unpleasant to see Bread weigh more by adding milk to it This is an experiment of great profit and praise-worthy for it adds weight and whitenesse to bread and makes it short being put in instead of water whilst it is hot I never tasted any thing more pleasant or tender I thought fit to adde this for the singular vertue of it adding also such things as we knew to be necessary for this art But truly that is admirable by the same Wheat to increase the weight of Wheat This is done without any addition for if we would we could do this with many and almost infinite things with any small addition but in this a leaven is drawn forth of the very substance of the Wheat which being strained cleansed and added to the same again either by increasing the substance of it or by retracting the air into its substance it will be much augmented giving you this warning before-hand that the augmenting heat must not be diminished but preserved and increased that all may depend on this But an admirable work of Nature and full of wonder it is how it may be that Wheat may increase out of it self I cannot discover this how it came into my mind lest it should be made publike to every common fellow and ignorant Animal Yet not to conceal it from ingenious men I shall hide it from these and open it to those That our fore-fathers knew it not is clear because there is no such thing mentioned in all their works of making bread The whole businesse consists in this that the Wheat-meal may be managed with the life of its heat which is the off-spring of celestial fire By nature it is of such renuity that being raised with its heat it will make the lump swell so much that it will come up to the top of the vessel the next day cast it into a Hutch and adde more meal to it which again being raised by its heat and coming back again by the same and meeting with the lump as flowing back again it joins into the refracted Elements and so into clotters of
not you will not easily obtain your deâ—â—re I have set them down here that you might not be put to seek them elswhere First To draw forth the life of Tinne The filings of Tinne must be put into a pot of earth with equal part of salt-peter you shall set on the top of this seven as many other earthen pots with holes bored in them and stop these holes well with clay set above this a glass vessel with the mouth downwards or with an open pipe with a vessel under it put fire to it and you shall hear it make a noise when it is hot the life flies away in the fâ—me and you shall find it in the hollow pots and in the bottom of the glased vessel compacted together If you bore an earthen vessel on the side you may do it something more easily by degrees and you shall stop it So also From Stibium we may extract it Stibium that Druggists call Antimony is grownd small in hand-mills then let a new crucible of earth be made red hot in a cole fire cast into it presently by degrees Stibium twice as muâ—h Tartar four parts of salt-peter finely powdred when the fume riseth cover it with a cover lest the fume rising evaporate then take it off and cast in more till all the powder be burnt then let it stand a little at the fire take it off and let it cool and skim off the dregs on the top and you shall find at the bottom what the Chymists call the Regulus it is like Lead and easily changed into it For saith Dioscorides should it burn a little more it turns to Lead Now I will shew how one may draw a more noble Metal To the out-side As foolish Chymists say for they think that by their impostures they do draw forth the parts lying in the middle and that the internal parts are the basest of all but they erre exceedingly For they eat onely the outward parts in the superficies that are the weakest and a little quick-silver is drawn forth which I approve not For they corrode all things that their Medicament enters the harder parts are left and are polished and whitened may be they are perswaded of this by the medals of the Antients that were within all brass but outwardly seemed like pure silver but those were sodered together and beaten with hammers and then stamp'd Yet it is very must to do it as they did and I think it cannot be done But the things that polish are these common Salt Alom Vitriol quick Brimstone Tartar and for Gold onely Verdigrease and Salt Ammoniack When you would go about it you must powder part of them and put them into a vessel with the metal The crucible must be luted with clay and covered there must be left but a very small hole for perspiration then set it in a gentle fire and let it burn and blow not lest the metal melt when the powders are burnt they will sink down which you shall know by the smoke then take off the cover and look into them But men make the Metal red hot and then when it is hot they drench it in or otherwise they put it in vinegar till it become well cleansed and when you have wrapt the work in linnenrags that was well luted cast it into an earthen vessel of vinegar and boil it long take it out and cast it into urine let it boil in salt and vinegar till no filth almost rise and the foul spots of the ingredients be gone and if you find it not exceeding white do the same again till you come to perfection Or else proceed otherwise by order Let your work boil in an earthen pot of water with salt alom and tartar when the whole superficies is grown white let it alone a while then let them boil three hours with equal parts of brimstone salt-peter and salt that it may hang in the middle of them and not touch the sides of the vessel take it out and rub it with sand till the fume of the sulphur be removed again let it boil again as at first and so it will wax white that it will endure the fire and not be rejected for counterfeit you shall find it profitable if you do it well and you will rejoyce if you do not abuse it to your own ruine CHAP. VIII How to make a Metal more weighty IT is a question amongst Chymists and such as are addicted to those studies how it might be that silver might equal gold in weight and every metal might exceed its own weight That may be also made gold without any detriment to the stamp or engraving and silver may increase and decreasâ— in its weight if so be it be made into some vessel I have undertaken here to teach how to do that easily that others do with great difficulty Take this rule to do it by that The weight of a Golden vessel may increase without hurting the mark if the magnitude do not equal the weight You shall rub gold with thin silver with your hands or fingers until it may dâ—ink it in and make up the weight you would have it sticking on the superficies Then prepare a strong lixivium of brimstone and quick lime and cast it with the gold into an earthen pot with a wide mouth put a small fire uâ—der and let them boil so long till you see that they have gain'd their colour then take it out and you shall have it Or else draw forth of the velks of eggs and the litharge of gold water with a strong fire and quench red hot gold in it and you have it Another that is excellent You shall bring silver to powder either with aqua fortis or calx the calx is afterwards washt with water to wash away the salt wet a golden vessel or plate with water or spittle that the quantity of the powder you need may stick on the outward superficies yet put it not on the edges for the fraud will be easily discovered by rubbing it on the touch stone Then powder finely salt one third part brick as much vitriol made red two parts take a brick and make a hole in it as big as the vessel is in the bottom whereof strew alâ—m de plume then again pour on the powder with your work till you have filled the hole then cover the hole with another brick and fasten it with an Iron pin and lute the joynts well with clay let this dry and let it stand in a reverberating fire about a quarter of a day and when it is cold open it and you shall find the gold all of a silver colour and more weighty without any hurt to the stamp Now to bring it to its former colour do thus Take Verdi rease four parts Salammoniack two parts salt-peter a half part as much brick alom a fourth part mingle these with the waters and wash the vessel with it then with iron tongs put it upon burning coles that it
their Shells distil all at a gentle fire add to the water a little Camphire and Borax put into a glazed vessel two yong naked Pigeons with their guts taken forth and put in as much Milk as will cover them and add one ounce of Borax Turpentine three ounces Caâ—phire one ounce five whites of Eggs put on the cover and distil them for it is fat things that make the Face soft I shall say more when I come to speak of making the hands white and soft the reason is the same for both CHAP. XII How to make the face clear and shining like silver THe face is not onely made clear but white as silver by those things that I said were white as silver yet not exactly as silver but they shine as clear as silver There is an herb commonly called Argentaria or Argentina or wilde Tansey whose leaves are green above but on the backside they shine of a silver colour the distilled water of it is drank by women against spots in their faces and to make them white as silver The snails that are found in moist places and leave behind them as they creep a silver cord Dioscorides saith will cure the spots in the face women much desire them for they put them in a still and draw out water from them that polisheth the skin exceedingly and makes it contract a silver gloss And the seashell-fish like an ear whose shell is of a silver colour within or pearl colour and many kinds of shells that being steeped in vinegar will grow pure casting off the outward crust as the Oystershel doth that brings forth pearl There are also shells we call the Mothers of pearl that inwardly are shining and of a silver colour like pearls all which women use for their art of beautifying themselves for they make the face smooth and to shine as white as silver But pearls do it best of all things when they are dissolved in sharp juyces and soaked in rotten dung till they send forth a clear oyl that is the best thing to beautifie the face as I shall shew elsewhere For the same use is a glass-stone used that shines like silver But no better water is prepared then from Talk or Quick-silver as I shall shew in that which follows CHAP. XIII How to dissolve Talk for to beautifie women THough I shall speak in a work on purpose more at large how Talk may be dissolved into water or oyl We shall here onely set down how it may be fitted for womens use Of all such ways as are used I shall set forth such as I have tried to be good Beat Talk in a mortar of metal then put it into a pot of the strongest clay and cover it and bind it in with strong iron wyer lute it well all cover and stop the joynts that nothing breathe out and set it in the Sun to dry Then put this stone in an oven that flames strongly or in some other place where the fire is most vehement When the fire of the oven is out take it forth and break the vessel and if it be well calcined it is enough Otherwise do the same again until the calx of it be as white as it ought to be When the calcined body of it is white as it must be grind it on a porphyry-stone and put it into a little bag or upon a marble in a very moist place or deep well or cistern and let it lie there long and with much moisture it will drop forth at last It will more easily and perfectly dissolve into water if it were burnt long enough and turned into a calx For the parts being turn'd to lime and made exceeding dry by force of fire they attract moisture It is also done Another way that is good Calcine the Talk and put it in an earthen pot and set it in the hottest part of a potters oven to stay there six days When the Talk is thus turn'd to a calx put it into a gourd-glass which you shall first make clean and make a hole at the bottom of it and setting a vessel under it you shall have the moisture of it drop forth and the calx will resolve into water put this into a glass vial and let the water evaporate in Balâ—eo take the sediment out for your use I use also Another way Put snails in an earthen vessel in the open air that they may be kept hungry three days and pine for want of meat and be purged then take a silver Loadstone or Talk most finely powdred mingle it with the white of an egge and make an ointment anoint the earthen vessel with it and put the snails into it for they will eat up all the Talk When they have eaten all and voided their excrements bruise the snails with their shells and putting them into a retott draw out their moisture with a gentle fire the humour that drops forth will exceedingly adorn the face CHAP. XIV The preparation of Sublimate I Said that there was nothing better than quick-silver for womens paints and to cleanse their faces and make them shine Wherefore I shall set down many ways to Prepare it that you may have the use of it to your desire Take one ounce and half of pure quick-silver not falsified with lead for if there be lead mingled with it all your labour is lost How it must be purged and known I taught elsewhere Mingle this with half a pound of Mercury sublimate and put it into a marble mortar and with a new wooden pestle stir it well turning it round about First it will be black in six hours it will grow white if you cease not to beat it Then adde one ounce and half of white salt always turning it about with the pâ—stle for the more you grind it the perfecter it will be When it is very well ground it must be washt Sprinkle boiling clear water into the mortar and stir it and then stay a while until the muddy part may sink down and the filth that was lighter and swims on the top laying the vessel on one side pour out the water gently and pour in fresh do this five or six times in the same manner until the pure and onely powder remain without dregs make little cakes of it and dry it in the sun Some whilst they bruise it sprinkle water on lest the powder by grinding should be made so small that it should fly away into the air The chief business is to purge it and grind it well that it be not troubled when it is strain'd forth that which is gone to the bottom and so part of it be lost some open a hole in the belly of a pot that when it is settled the hole being opened the water with the dregs may run forth Others to sublimate adde a third part of quick-silver and grind it in a wooden mortar and in the â—â—an while they chew four grains of mastick in their mouths and they spit the clammy spittle
When it is all soft that it is transparent as Crystal they fry them with butter and milk and bring them to the Table So Squils grow tender We must do as we did to Crabs for they cast their shells as Crabs do and Nature did this for some end for when their shells are grown too thick and weighty they can scarce crawl wherefore by the excrements that go into it that are consumed to make a new shell within the former that was made is broken and falls off CHAP. V. That living Creatures may be made more fat and well tasted I Shall endeavour to shew how living Creatures may be made more fat and well tasted that we may set more favory meats before our guests The Antients were not negligent in this matter Wherefore you shall find many ways not onely amongst Cooks but such as write concerning Husbandry Liccorish Gluttons found out the ways to fat Cattle that they might feed on them more plentifully and daintily Hence they called them cram'd because they were full fed and had gross bellies Those were called Bird pens where they fatted all sorts of Birds M. Lelius Strabo was the first that appointed this and he appointed Crammers to take care of them and ordered how much every crammed bird should eat They will fat better in winter than in summer because Birds at that time of the year are best being not so much wasted with yong and Cocks will fat better then Hens and such as never trod nor made eggs In summer when it is at an end and the sowre Grapes hang yet upon the Vines they are at the best I shall therefore teach How Hens and other Birds must be crammed Choose a place that is hot and obscure shut them all up apart and so close in their pens that they cannot come together nor turn and make two holes one for their heads to put forth and the other for their tails that they may both at their meat and shite it out again when it is digested Lay soft hay under them for if they lye hard they will never fat Pull off all the feathers from their heads thighs and 〈◊〉 under their wings there that it may breed no lice here that the dung corrupt it not For meat give them gobbets of Barley-Meal made up with water at the first for some time more sparingly then after give them as much as they can digest and you must give them no new meat till you feel their câ—ops that all the old is digested When the Bird is full let him go a while not to wander abroad but if there be any thing that urgeth him he may pick it off with his bill Let him not be set to fatting before five or after twenty Moneths old Yong Pigeons or Chickens will fat better with their dams if you pull off a few of their feathers and bruise their legs that they may stay in their places and if you give meat plentifully to their dams that they may feed themselves and their yong ones sufficiently Turtles are best fatted in summer give them nothing but meat especially Millet-seed for they much delight to eat that but Geese in winter They must be put up to fat four Moneths you need give them nothing else but Barley-Meal and Wheat-meal three times a day so that you give them water enough to drink and no liberty to walk about thus they will fat in two Moneths But tender Pullers will not be made fat in forty days Ducks will grow fat with all nutriment if it be abundance especially with Wheat Millet-seed Barley and with Water-squils Locusts and Creatures found in Lakes Columella Pheasants Partidges Heath-cocks and Turky-hens will fat being shut up and the first day they eat meat the next set them water or good strong wine to drink Let their meat be raw Barley-Meal made up with water giving them it by degrees or else broken and ground Beans and Barley sod with water and whole Millet-seed Linseed boil'd and dry mingled with Barley-meal to these you may add Oyl and make gobbets of them and give them to eat to the full and they will grow fat at longest in sixty days Now I shall shew how Four-footed Beasts are fatted The Sow will soonest fat for in sixty days she will be far First kept hungry three days as all the rest must be She grows fat with Barley Millet Acorns Figs Pears Cucumbers rest and not wandring But Sows will grow fatter by wallowing in the mire Figs and Chick-peason will fat them soonest and they desire change of meats Varro The Sow is fed with Beans Barley and other Grain for these will not onely fat them but give them a good rellish The Olive wilde Olive Tares Corn in straw Grass and they are all the better sprinkled with brine but the more effectual will they be if she fast three days before Aristotle Bean-husks and Coleworts are pleasant meat for them Salt put to them will make them have a stomack which in summer put into their troughs will season their meat and make them eat it up and by that seasoning of it they will drink and eat the more Colunmella Oxen will grow faâ— with Corn and Grass Tares ground Beans and Beanflalks Also with Barley whole or broken and parted from the hulls also by sweet things as pressed Figs Wine Elm-boughs and with a Lotion of hot water Aristotle We feed them at home with Wine of Surrentum or else we put Calfs to two Cows and thus being fed with abundance of Milk they can scarce go for fat Also in their craâ—ches we strew Salt stones that they may lick them and so drink and they will grow exceeding fat and tender CHAP. VI. How the flesh of Animals is made sweeter NOw shall I shew with some Meats and Arts How not onely the parts of Animals but their whole bodies are made fat tender and more delicate And first How to fat the Livers of Geese Out wise Ancestours saith Pliny who knew the goodness of a Goose liver taught how by cramming to make it grow great also taken forth it is augmented by sweet Milk And it is not without cause demanded who was the first man that found out so profitable a thing Whether it were Scipio Metellus that was Consul or Mar Sejus that in the same age was a Gentleman of Rome Palladius taught the way how when Geese have been fatting thirty days if you desire to have their livers tender you shall bruise old Figs and steep them in water and make gobbets of them and feed the Geese with them twenty days together But Quintilius way is when they grow fat you shall break dry wilde Radish in small pieces and tempering them with water give them this to drink for twenty days Some that the liver may be made great and the Geese fat feed them thus They shut up the Goose and cast to him Wheat sleeped in water or Barley the same way Wheat makes him fat quickly but Barley makes
the flesh white Let her be sed with the said grain but severally with them both for twenty days giving to her twice a day a moyst Medicament made thereof so that seven of those meats may be given her for the first five days and by degrees the days following increase the number of these meats until twenty five days be past that the days in the whole may be thirty and when they are over heat Mallows and in the decoction thereof being yet hot give her leaven moystned therewith do so for four days and in the same days give her water and honey changing it thrice every day not using the same again and do this the days following till sixty days mingle dry Figs bruised all this time with the said leaven and after sixty days you may eat the Goose and its liver that will be white and tender Which being taken forth must be put into a large vessel wherein there is hot water that must be changed again and again But the Bodies and Livers of the females are best but let them be Geese not of one year but from two years old to four Horace in Serm. speaks of this Fat Figs do make the Goose white Liver great And Juvenal Satyr 5. A Goose's Liver fed before him stood As big as a Goose and to eat as good And Martial The Liver 's greater then the Goose that 's true But now you l wonder where this Liver grew Athenaus writes That this was of great account at Rome When you kill the Goose take out the Liver quickly and cast it into cold water that it may be solid then fry it in Goose-grease in a frying pan and season it with spices It is a dish for a Prince and highly commended by many So is A Sows Liver fatted Pliny There is art used for Sows Livers as well as for Geese It was the invention of Marcus Apicius when they are fat with dry Figs give them sweet wine to drink and kill them presently Apicius Add to the Liver of a Sow fatted with Figs Wine-pickle Pepper Time Lovage Suet and a little Wine and Oyl Aetius If saith he any man feed that creature with dry Figs the Sows Liver is preferred before all meat I said out of Aristotle that Figs and Chick peason will fat a Sow best Galen As whilst Sows are living their Livers are fed for delight with dry Figs so for Geese I see their meats are moystned with milk that their Livers may be not onely most pleasant meat but may be fed exceedingly and be most delicate If you will That Cattle may be more excellent to eat Cattle that use to feed on Masterwort and to be first cleansed will grow very fat and their flesh will be exceeding sweet Pliny Whence it is that this Benjamin is not for many years to be found in Cyrene because the Farmers that hire the grounds finding more gain by it devour them by their Cattel Moreover in India and chiefly in the Country of the Prasil it rains liquid honey which falling down on the grass and the tops of Reeds in the Lakes is admirable food for Sheep and Oxen and the Shepherds drive them thither where most of this sweet dew falls from the Air and there they are feasted with it as with pleasant bankets and they recompence their Shepherds with a pleasant reward for they milk very sweet milk from them and they have no need as the Grecians do to temper honey with it Aelian But How Pullets are made most white tender and delicate Such as I use to set before my friends The way is I shut them up five days in chambers or cellars and I give them a dish full of chippins of bread wet with milk and sometimes with honey fed thus they will grow as fat as great Sappers in Fig time and so tender that they will melt in your mouth and they taste better by far then Pheasants Heath-cocks or Thrushes And it seems the Antients knew this For saith Pliny when a crammed Hen was forbid to eat at supper by the Laws of the Antients they found out this evasion to feed Hens with meats wet in milk and so they were far more delicate to set on the Table And Columella They that will make Birds not onely fat but tender they sprinkle the foresaid Meal with water and honey new made and so they fat them Some to three parts of water put one of good wine and wet Wheat-bread and fat the Bird which beginning to be fatted the first day of the Moneth will be very fat on the twentieth day CHAP. VII How the Flesh of Animals may be made bitter and not to be eaten AGain if we will that Flesh shall be rejected for the bitterness and ill taste of it we must do contrary to what hath been said Or if we will not take the pains we must wait the times that these creatures feed on such meats as will do it whereby sometimes they become venemous also As if we would have Deers flesh become venemous Simeon Sethi saith That Deers flesh that is catcht in summer is poyson because then they feed on Adders and Serpents these are venemous creatures and by eating of them they grow thirsty and this they know naturally for if they drink before they have digested them they are killed by them wherefore they will abstain from water though they burn with thirst Wherefore Stags-flesh eaten at that time is venemous and very dangerous Sometimes also Partridge are nought Namely when they eat Garlick The Chyrrhaei will eat no Partridge by reason of their food for when they have eaten Garlick they stink and their flesh is stinking meat that the Fowler will not eat them So also Quails and Stares are rejected at that time of the year that black Hellebour is the meat they like onely Wherefore when Quails feed on Hellebour they put those that feed on them into so great danger of their lives that they swell and suffer convulsions and are subject to vertigo's Wherefore Millet-feed must be boil'd with them Also Birds are not to be eaten when the Goose-berries are ripe for their Feathers will grow black thereby and men that eat them fall into scowrings Dioscorides The Eggs of the Barbel or Spawn not to be eaten in May because they are dangerous but the Eggs are not dangerous of themselves nor do they breed such mischiefs For they do not do it always for often you may eat them without danger but they are onely then hurtful when they feed on Willow-flowers that fall into the waters So are Snails to be rejected when they stick fast to briars and shrubs for they trouble the belly and the stomack and cause vomiting Dioscorides And not onely these Animals themselves cause this mischief but their excrements as milk honey and the like For Milk must not be eaten when Goats and Sheep feed on green food because it will loosen the belly the more but Goats-milk doth not try the belly so
but especially take heed to the cleft and the place where you pilled off the bark that you plaister it up well with morter Thus if you do the graffe will very kindly prosper and the bud grow forth into a fruit that is compounded of both kinds and it shall carry the hue both of the Peach-apple and the Nut-peach by equal proportion such as was never seen before By this means also we may procure the bringing forth Of a Figge halfe white and half black for if we take the buds of each of them paring them off together with the bark round about them and then cut them in the middle and put the half of one and the half of the other together and so emplaister them into the Tree as we spake before the fruit thereof will be a Figge half white and half black So also Pomegranates may be brought forth which will be sweet on the one side and sowre on the other If you take either the shoots or the buds of each of them and after you have divided them in the midst put the half of each together as before was spoken But this may be done best upon the shoots or sprigs for the bud can hardly be pared off nor well divided because the bark is so weak and so thin and slender that it will not endure to be much or long handled Likewise Orenges compounded of divers kinds and such as are half Limons as also Limons half sweet and half sowre may be produced if we mix them after the same manner as we spake before for these are very fit to be graffed by emplastering and these kinds of compound Orenges and Limons are very commonly to be seen in many Orchards in Naples In like manner we may mingle and compound A Peach of the white and the red Peach if we put those two kinds together by such emplastering for there are of this compound fruit to be sold in Naples at this day Likewise we may procure A grape that hath a kernel or stone half black and diversly coloured We must deal by the shoots of Vines as we shewed before was to be done by the buds of other Trees cleave them in the middle and binde two shoots or more of divers sorts of Vines handsomely together that they may grow up in one and graff them into a fruitful Vine of some other kind And the same which we have shewed concerning fruits may be as well practised also upon flowers As for example If we would produce Roses that are half white and half red we must take the sprigs of white Rose and of a red and pare off the buds of each of them and having cut them asunder in the middle put the halfs of each together as we spake before and engraffe them artificially into the bark and then have a diligent care still to cherish them the compound bud wil in due season bring forth Roses which will be white of the one side and red of the other But if you would make trial hereof in Clove-gilli-flowers and desire To produce some that are half red seeing they have no buds at all you must practise this experiment upon their root you must take two roots of them and cleave them in the middle and match them fitly together that they may grow each to other and binde them up well and then will they yeeld compound Clove-gilli-flowers of which kind we have great store and they are common amongst us everywhere and they do not onely bring forth party-coloured flowers but the very same bough and one and the same sprig will bear white ones and red ones and such as are wrought and as it were embroidred with divers goodly colours most pleasant to be seen CHAP. IV. Of a second means whereby fruits may be mingled and compounded together THere is also a second way of compounding divers kinds of fruits together namely by another manner of graffing As for example If we would produce Pomegranates compounded of divers kinds Theophrastus sheweth us how to do it We must take the young slips or branches of divers kinds and bruise them with a Beetle so that they may stick and hang together and then binde them up very hard each to other and set them in the ground and if they be well laid together all those slips will grow up jointly into one Tree but so that every one of them retains his own kind and receives his several nourishment by it self and severally digests it and the chief community which they have all together is their mutual embracing each of other The same Theophrastus teaches us in the same place How one and the same Vine-branch may bring forth a black and a white grape both together and how in the same grape may be found a white and black stone hanging together Take the branch of a white Vine and another of the black and the uppermost half of either of them must be bruised together then you must match them equally and binde them up together and plant them for by this means they will grow up both into one joint for every living thing may be matcht with another especially where one is of the same or the like kind with the other for then if they be dissolved as these are in some sort when they are bruised their natures will easily close together and be compact into one nature but yet either of these branches hath his several nourishment by it self without confusion of both together whereby it cometh to passe that the fruit arising from them is of a divers nature according as either of the sprigs requireth Neither ought this to seem strange that both of them concurring into one should yet retain each of them their severall kind seeing the like hereof may be found in certain Rivers which meet together by confluence into one and the same channel and yet either of them keeps his own several course and passage as do the Rivers Cephisus and Melas in Boeotia Columella teacheth us to do this thing on this manner There is saith he a kind of engraffing whereby such kind of grapes are produced as have stones of divers kinds and sundry colours which is to be done by this means Take four or five or more if you will Vine-branches of divers kinds and mingle them together by equal proportion and so binde them up Afterward put them into an earthen pipe or a horn fast together but so that there may be some parts of them seen standing out at both ends and those parts so standing forth must be dissolved or bruised and when you have so done put them into a trench in the ground covering them with muck and watering them till they begin to bud And when the buds are grown fast together after two or three years when they are all knit and closed into one then break the pipe and neer about the middle of the stalk beneath the sprouts there where they seem to have most grown together cut off
the Vine and heal that part where it is so cut and then lay it under the ground again about three fingers deep and when that stalk shall shoot up into sprigs take two of the best of them and cherish them and plant them in the ground casting away all the other branches and by this means you shall have such kinds of grapes as you desire This very same experiment doth Pliny set down borrowing it of Columella But Didymus prescribes it on this manner Take two Vine-branches of divers kinds and cleave them in the middle but with such heedful regard that the cleft go as far as the bud is and none of the pith or juice be lost then put them each to other and close them together so that the bud of either of them meet right one with the other and as much as possibly may be let them touch together whereby both those buds may become as one then binde up the branches with paper as hard together as you can and cover them over with the Sea-onion or else with some very stiff clammy earth and so plant them and water them after four or five daies so long till they shoot forth into a perfect bud If you would produce A Fig that is half white and half red Leontinus teacheth you to do it after this manner Take two shoots of divers kinds of Fig-trees but you must see that both the shoots be of the same age and the same growth as neer as you can then lay them in a trench and dung them and water them And after they begin to bud you must take the buds of each and binde them up together so that they may grow up into one stalk and about two years after take them up and plant them into another stock and thereby you shall have Figs of two colours So then by this means All fruits may be made to be party-coloured and that not onely of two but of many colours accordingly as many kinds of fruits may be compounded together And surely these experiments are very true though they be somewhat hard to be done and require a long times practice as I my self have had experience The like experiment to these is recorded by Palladius and by other Greek Writers who shew the way How a Vine may bring forth clusters of grapes that are white but the stones of the grapes black If white and black Vines grow neer together you must shred the branches of each and presently clap them together so that the bud of either may meet right together and so become one then binde them up hard in paper and cover them with soft and moist earth and so let them lie three dayes or thereabouts after that see that they be well and fitly matcht together and then let them lie till a new bud come forth of a fresh head and by this means you shall procure in time divers kinds of grapes according to the divers branches you put together I my self have made choice of two shoots of two divers Vines growing one by another I have cleft or cut them off in that place where the buds were shooting forth leaving the third part of the bud upon the branch I fastened them together and bound them up into one very fast lest when the buds should wax greater one of them might flie off from the other I fitted them so well branch with branch and bud with bud that they made but one stalk and the very same year they brought forth grapes that had cloven kernels or stones This shoot so springing up I put to another and when that was so sprung up I put that also to another and by this continual fitting of divers sprigs one to another I produced clusters of divers-coloured and divers-natured grapes for one and the same grape was sweet and unsavoury and the stones were some long some round some crooked but all of them were of divers colours Pontanus hath elegantly shewed How Citron-trees may bear divers kinds namely by joining two sundry boughs together after the bark hath been pared a-away and fastning each to other with a kind of glue that they may grow up one as fast as the other and when they are engraffed into one stock they must be very carefully covered and looked unto and so one and the same branch will bring forth fruit of divers kinds So you may procure An Orenge-tree to bring forth an Apple half sweet and half sowre And this kind of commixtion was invented by chance for there were graffed two boughs of Orenge-trees one brought forth a sweet and the other a sharp fruit When occasion served to transplant and remove the Tree it was cut off in the middle according as Husband-men are wont to do when they plant such Trees after they are grown old and by great chance it was cut off there where the two boughs had been before engraffed and so when the stock budded afresh there arose one bud out of the sharp and sweet branches both together as they were left in the stock and this one bud brought forth Apples or fruit of both relishes Wherefore no question but such a thing may be effected by art as well as it was by chance if any man have a minde to produce such kind of fruits CHAP. V. Of a third way whereby divers kinds of fruits may be compounded together WE will also set down a third way whereby we may mingle and compound divers kinds of fruits together A way which hath been delivered unto us by the Ancients though for my own part I think it to be not onely a very hard but even an impossible matter Notwithstanding because grave Ancient Writers have set it down I cannot scorn here to rehearse it and though I have put it in practice but to no purpose for it hath not so fallen out as they write yet I will not discourage any man that hath a mind to make trial hereof for it may be that fortune will second their endeavours better then she did mine The way is this to gather many seeds of sundry Trees and fruits and wrapping them up together so to sow them and when they are grown up into stalks to bind all the stalks together that they may not flie asunder but rather grow up all into one Tree and this Tree will bring forth divers kinds of fruits yea and one and the same fruit will be mingled and compounded of many It should seem that the Authors of this experiment learned it first out of Theophrastus who writes that If you sow two divers seeds neer together within a hands breadth and then sow two other divers seeds a little above them the roots which will come of all these seeds will lovingly embrace and winde about each other and so grow up into one stalk or stock and be incorporated one into another But special care must be had how the seeds be placed for they must be set with the little end upward because the bud cometh