to prevent some have affirmed that if you take Soot of Chimnies and lay it in Water till the Water be strongly tinged therewith and with that imbibe your Seed and then sow it neither the Birds nor Flies will meddle with it You may sow them in April to have Turnips in the Summer but sowing them after for the Winter is most seasonable In the Winter before the great Frosts prevent you may take them up and cutting off the Greens dispose of them in some cool place on heaps and they will keep long and much better and longer in case they be laid in Sand and covered with it They will root the better and larger if the Leaves spread and grow flat than if they stand upright or grow upwards which to prevent sow them not too thick or if they come up too thick in any place reduce them to a convenient number or distance of about ten or twelve inches and supply the defects by transplantation and you will find that the increase of your Root shall ballance the lessening your number for the near standing of any Vegetables cause them to aspire upwards as is evident in most Trees planted in Copses which otherwise are apt to spread But if the over fatness of your Ground which is a great fault for Turnips or overmuch wet cause them to run out in leaf more than in root then treading down the leafs will make them root the better The Greens or Leaves of Turnips that have been sown late and lived over the Winter are usually boyled and eaten with salt Meats and prove an excellent Condiment Thus ordered will a small spot of Ground yield you a second Crop after Pease Beans or Sallee-Herbs of excellent Food which the most curious plates disdain not and much more in value then any of Corn or Grain whatever Carrots have been anciently used for Meat Of Carrots but not so much as Turnips have been yet are they the sweeter Meat and more easily eaten without Bread or rather better serve to supply that cefect than Turnips for Turnips are much the better Condiment but Carrots the pleasanter Food There are two sorts of them the yellow and the Orange or more red the last of which is by much the better They delight in light Ground with a mixture of Sand if it be rich or heavy you must take the more pains in digging it to make it as light as you can If you dung your Land the same year you sowe your Carrots you must be sure to bury your Dung so low that the roots may not extend to it for as soon as they touch the Dung they grow forked The Season for sowing them is in February or March in dry Weather To make them large you must do with them as with the Turnips only they will admit of a greater number on the same quantity of ground than the other If sown between Beans set in wide rows after the Beans are taken up your Carrots will thrive and you may have a second Crop but these not so fair nor early as those that are sown in Beds by themselves To improve this and other Roots gather your Seeds from the highest aspring Branches and sow them as before is directed then when you take them up select the fairest and preserve for Seed the next year then Plant them and take the Seeds from the highest tops as before Carrots are preserved as Turnips over the Winter but if you will have Carrots early in the Spring you must sow them in August and preserve them from the Frost in the Winter by covering them with Pease-haum But these are not so good as those that are sown in the Spring Next unto Carrots are Parsnips in great Parsnips use for a delicate sweet Food and were so esteem'd in Plinys time and by him reputed to be excitatives unto Venus an argument that they are very nutrimental They delight in a richer Soyl than the Carrots but as light and well stirr'd as may be else in every respect to be ordered as the Carrots but are not to stand so thick The Skirret or Skirwort-Root was also a very ancient Dish amongst the Romans and is the sweetest whitest and most pleasant of Roots and by Physicians esteemed a great restorative and good for weak Stomachs and an effectual Friend to Dame Venus Skirrets delight in a very Rich Light and Of Skirrets not too dry Soyl for in moist Summers they are fairest They are increased by Plants divided in February or March and set in single Buds at six or eight inches distance and in a dripping year or otherwise if they be watered in dry Seasons you will have a very plentiful increase the succeeding Winter you may also Plant them here and there on the edges of your other Beds They endure the Winter very well and you may take them up at any time before the Spring be too forward if the Frosts prevent you not when you take the Roots cover the tops in Earth for your farther encrease The Root Scorsonera is as yet not common Of Scorsonera but very much commended by some to be good Meat after the outer Rind is scraped off and the Root steep'd a while in Water to take away that little bitterness it hath They are said to lie in the ground all the Winter and from year to year without any prejudice but will still grow bigger and bigger although they yearly run up to Seed They are increased either by Seed or by Slips as the Skirrets or by cutting the Roots in several pieces which planted in good ground at about eight or nine inches distance in March will yield a considerable increase or may be planted at any other time they being hardy They are esteem'd to be very cordial and excellent in Feavers Potato's are much used in Ireland and in America Of Potato's as Bread and are of themselves also an usual Food They grow in any good mellow ground and are increased by cutting the Roots in pieces and planting them as the Scorsonera These and the Jerusalem Artichoaks which Of Jerusalem Artichoaks are by much the meaner Food although somewhat like them may be propagated with advantage to poor People a little ground yielding a very great quantity as the many small Welsh Territories adjoyning to the High-ways in those parts planted with them plainly demonstrate The Red Beet or Roman Parsnip and the Of Beets White Beet were amongst the ancient Romans and by several are now used as well in Root as in Leaf at the Table Beets delight in a rich and deep Soil as doth the Parsnip and must be sown about the same time or rather set about fifteen inches asunder because their Leaves are large Or you may sow them in a Bed promiscuously and when they are grown a little then transplant them and they will yield fairer Roots the other being apt to be forked There are Chards of Beets as well as of Artichoaks and after the
management and durableness in all seasons hot and cold SECT I. Of Tulips OF all Bulbous-rooted Flowers the Tulip hath obtained and not undeservedly the preference yielding so great a Variety that they are not here to be enumerated every year producing new Flowers Nor is it all the words I can invent can convince you of the beauty of these Glories of Nature but must refer you to the choice your self or Friend for you can make out of that Magazine of Varieties that are collected by the ingenious Florists Their Colours are various from the deepest dye of any other Flowers to the purest White intermixt with the brightest Yellow transcendent Scarlet grave Purple and many other compounds of these inclining to the Blew and Green Many double Tulips are now raised whereof there is some variety Their Season of blowing continues long the Praecoces or early Tulips beginning some of them to blow at the Vernal Aequinox the Medias which are the prime continue all April and sometimes the half of May till the end whereof the Serotines or late flowring Tulips continue When the principal of them display their Colours in the heat of the day there is not a more glorious sight in Nature nor is it to be imitated by Art no Limner nor Painter dares pretend to so great skill But as all things else that are in excess are soonest apt to decline so these that exceed all others in beauty and lustre soonest fade not any of them continuing in its Glory above eight or ten days unless the mildness of the Weather or some artificial shade preserve them nor are they succeeded by any other from the same root Tulips are not only preserved by taking them up yearly when the stalks are turning yellow or begin to be dry but are by that means multiplied and increased exceedingly The usual way is to take them up at that convenient time and spread them thin on some board or floor until they are through dry then cut off the stalks and so let the roots lye in some box or boxes or other convenient places until September or October in a dry place but not in the Sun or Wind then separate the main Bulbs from the lesser Chives taking all that are large and round though small for Roots that will yield you Flowers the next year and set them in the places appointed for them but let the ground be digg'd or otherwise loosened that the Root may the better dilate it self and encrease for in a narrow or stiff hole your Root will remain till the next year as you left it It is not good to take them up after they have shot their Fibres or small Sprigs until after they have flower'd lest it hinders their flowring and perhaps perish them When you plant them stick into the ground by them small sticks marked with the numeral Letters which you may do ad infinitum and in a small Book for that purpose may you insert the mark and name of the Flower When you take them up and disperse them into Boxes or other Receptacles you may transfer the marks with them The ground you plant them in ought not to be too luxurious this Noble Flower is content with a little Room and poor Soyl. In the worst Mold this Flower better thrives And berren Earth miraculously gives More beauty to it than a fertile ground And when least strong it is most comely found The vulgar field or hazle Earth with a little mixture of Sand in it is best for the richness of the Soyl causes them to run as they term it into dark and plain Colours But if your ground be naturally rich or that your Tulips have grown several years in it you may abate it and supply it with that which is fit or lay a bed of sandy Earth about a finger thickness below the bulb when it is in its proper place that so the Fibres may receiv a check Tulips may be raised in January and February on hot beds but they must be the praecoces that are to flower early Some prescribe to plant your Tulips in a natural Earth somewhat impoverished with Sand so that a little below the root the Earth may be better within reach of the Fibres If the ground be digg'd where your Tulips stood the last year it is equal to a change of Mould the Roots rarely falling into the same Earth again where they were before Your small Cions or Off-sets you may plant in a Bed by themselves which will furnish you at another time with great variety As Tulips run or degnerate take them up and plant them in your outward Groves your prime Colours will multiply fast enough Tulips that are apt to decline towards a sadder Colour may be taken up a little before they come to flower and laid in the Sun to abate their luxury which will make them come better the year following From such Tulips that have their Tamis that is the seed-like things that stand up about the Seed-Vessel and bottoms of dark Colours and their Seed-Vessel three square may Seeds be obtained when they are thorough ripe in June or July that may after a long expectation afford you great variety of Flowers These Seeds may be sown in September and every two years removed until they yield Blossoms but this labour and patience are too great for an ingenious and fit only for a dull Florist The often removing of the roots of Tulips and their Off-sets into various ground gives you a great encrease and great variety of Colours without that tedious way of raising them It is not good to let a Tulip stand too long after it hath blown lest by weakning the root it may prevent its blooming the next year The next of kin to the Tulip is the Fritillary 2. Of Tritalines whereof there is some variety as the white yellow red dark coloured some of them checquered and thence called the checquered Tulip but the double is the most rare their seasons and manner of ordering much like that of the Tulip only the dry Roots ought to be planted about the beginning of August SECT II. Of Hyacinths and Star-Flowers THE Hyacinths are all bulbous rooted except the tuberous rooted Indian Hyacinth which we reserve for the Conservatory The sorts of them that are termed Muscaries or Grape-flowers whereof there are many diversities as yellow ash-coloured red white blue and Sky-coloured are pretty things and may for variety-sake but not for their beauty be planted But there are other varieties of them as the fair hair'd branched Jacinth the fair curled hair'd Jacinth the blue white and blush starry Hyacinth of Peru and the blue Lilly-leaved starry Hyacinth that yield fair Flowers on large Stalks that adorn your Garden and Flower-pots These flower in May and may be removed in August they lose not their Fibres and are therefore not to be kept long out of the ground There are several sorts of them that lose their Fibres and may be kept longer
rub it together in a wooden Vessel and the Seeds will mix with the Earth by which means you may sowe them equally be sure to sow them not too thin After you have sown your Seeds sift Earth upon them about half a finger in thickness when they have been come up about a Month sift more Earth finely over them about half an inch and cover them at some distance all the next Winter The August following you may remove them into convenient Beds where they may remain till they bear Flowers at which time you may cull them as you please Forget not a gentle irrigation of your young Anemones in dry Weather for it will much forward them as will a little artificial shade at opportune Seasons The Ranunculus or Crowfoot being so near Of Ranunculus in resemblance to the Anemone differ very little from them in their ordering They exceed all Flowers whatever in the richness of their Colours nor is there any Flower so fine and fair as are the larger sorts of them Their times of Flowering taking up and planting are near about the same time as the Anemones but they agree better with a richer Mold than the other They are not so apt to multiply their Roots unless their Ground be rich and light therefore it is by the most skilful prescribed to lay a broad bed of old Thatch or almost rotten Straw and on that to sift fine rich Earth six or eight inches thick and therein to plant your Ranunculus's wherein they will thrive and increase If you plant them early in the Winter they must be defended from the sharp Winds and Frosts but if late there is no necessity of it they are somewhat more tender than the Anemone Irrigation in a dry season much advantages this Flower as it doth the Anemone SECT II. Of Peonyes THis although a common Flower yet yields the fairest and most double Blossom of any and very well becomes your Chimney or Flower-pots But the White purple and changeable Peonyes are acceptable in the Gardens of the best Florists and the single Peonyes in the physick Garden for their specifical virtues of their Roots against the most dangerous of Diseases The manner of their planting and ordering is known to most that have any interest in a Garden only it is necessary to understand that September and october are the fittest times for their transplantation CHAP. V. Of divers other Select Flowers SECT I. Of Gilliflowers NOtwithstanding the Flower-bearing Trees are compleat Ornaments with little trouble the Bulbous rooted Flowers so illustrious that they merit great esteem from the most curious being less subject to Casualties than most others and the Tuberose Roots yield such incomparable Beauties in the Spring yet must they concede to the Gilliflower the pride of the Summer that hath its scent as pleasing as its variegations beautiful Lovely Carnations then their Flowers dilate The worth of them is as their Beauty great Their smell is excellent Rapinus Their Colours are not many but infinitely and variously compounded and being so easily and frequently raised of Seed do annually produce new mixtures and those have imposed on them new Names that it is impossible to give you a true account of them therefore it will be more proper for you to please your own fancy or confide in the integrity of a Gardener than to trust to the lame descriptions you may meet withal or to the florid Names that are given them on purpose to beget your admiration of such that little deserve it Their times of Flowering are generally in July and August sometimes the early Buds may yield you Flowers in June but their latter Buds in September and October and by careful defending them in November The right Dutch Gilliflowers rarely produce Seed here but when they do you must preserve it from wet till it be ripe then gather it and lay it by in the Husk until the Spring In May after the cold Nights are spent is a good time to sow these Seeds which ought to be on good Earth in some shady place where it may have the Morning or Evening Sun only They should be sown thin and the Earth sifted over it half a Finger thick In August or September following you may remove them into their proper Beds and the Summer following they will inform you of their worth by their Flowers The single and poorer sort reject and those that blow fair and whole or are well marked preserve For the first Winter after sowing them there is little danger of their being hurt by Cold in that particular they are like the stock Gilliflowers which in their first Winter are extream heardy and in the second very tender You may plant your best Gilliflowers in Pots filled with Earth for that purpose that you may give them Sun or Rain according to the Season of the Year and as they require Plant them not under a Wall or other Fence that may reflect the heat of the Sun upon them for they delight in an open Air and not in intemperate Heat Great Rains especially in the Winter and Spring Prejudice them much therefore you are to defend them from it equally as from Cold. Those Flowers that are planted in Beds and not in Pots are to be defended from Wet and Cold as there is occasion by some Cover or Shelter to place over them which must be open at the top or on one side The fittest for this occasion are old Bee-hives with a Door of about a Span square on the side that may be open off from the Weather which you defend them against You may increase your Flowers by laying them in June July and August but in June or July is the best time the method is this First trim your Slip you intend to lay by clipping off the side Leaves and topping the other then with a sharp Pen-knife cut a Tongue half through from one of the middle Joynts under the Slip to the next Joynt towards you beginning next the Root and cutting upwards loosen the Earth under it and with a small hooked Stick force it down that the Tongue or Slit may open and the end of the Slip point upwards cover it with Earth and water it which irrigation must be reiterated according as the drought of the Season requires it If the Slips be so high that they cannot be bent to the Ground with ease then take a small Earthen Pot with a slit on the side in which you may dispose of your Slip as you desire About a Month after your Layers will have taken Roots then may you take them off with some of the adhering Earth and plant them in their places prepared for them But if any should not have taken root you may anew lay them and make the Cut a little deeper and so let them remain till the Spring and then you may plant them out as you see fit Plant your Layers not too deep for thereby many a good Plant hath been spoiled
excellent surely by a continued improvement to this day must they needs now be much better There are several kinds of them as the more ordinary which run up tall and bear small heads which are very hardy and are usually called the Thistle-Artichoaks the other sorts are more large and grow low and much to be preferred but are more tender and unable to endure the severity of the Winter The best and largest sort is that called the Globe-Artichoak bearing a very large Fruit of near twelve inches over The meanest is that called the Red Artichoak with the Plants whereof many have been deceived expecting a more excellent than ordinary Fruit when instead thereof they produced the worst of Artichoaks They are increased by Slips taken from the sides of the old Roots at the time of dressing them in the Spring with as much root to them as you can Artichoaks delight in a rich and deep Soyl and not very dry which Soyl must be trenched about two foot deep and mixed very well with good old rotten Dung and so laid up into Beds of what form you think best for you may go between them as you please the Artichoak roots very deep and if it likes its ground will grow very large and continue many years You may plant them four foot apart at least that they may have room to spread their leaves and at their first planting be fure to water them in dry Weather until you observe them to grow The best times for the planting them is in the beginning of April and you may sow any Sallet-Herbs between them that may be gathered and disposed of before the Artichoaks spread too far These Plants will some of them yield heads in the Autumn following If you throughly water your Artichoaks with water enriched with Sheeps-Dung it will make them very large Watring of them in dry Land or in dry Years much advantageth them for in moist Years they are much more plentiful and large than in dry Years and the better it will be in case the Water be fat Water drawn from Ashes or improved by any fixed Salt is very good for the same purpose for I have known that Artichoaks have been the larger for Turf-ashes casually with Dung laid at their Roots to preserve them in Winter In November or the beginning of December it will be a good time to secure your Artichoaks from the Frost by raising the Earth about them and encompassing them with long Dung or any hawmy substance but not to cover them lest it perish them for it 's the Frost that perisheth the Roots and the wet and want of Air that perish the Leaves About London where they have great Gardens of Artichoaks they cannot so well cover them with long Dung but instead thereof they cut off all the Greens which they sell for feeding of Cows after the rate of 20 s. per Acre as they themselves tell me and then cover the plants over with Earth to defend them from Frosts so that it is not necessary to preserve the Greens over the Winter But this way of covering them with Earth did not preserve them in the great Frost of 1683 when all so covered were killed and at the same time those that were covered well with long Dung were preserved in the smaller Gardens remote from London and some that were buried in Dung all that winter being cast out of the Gardens were found in the Spring to be living Some prescribe to whelm over them an earthen Pot Bee-hive or such like open at the top to give them Air which may serve if the Winter be not too sharp About the middle of March you may gently move the Dung from them and at the end the Earth that was cast up and the first week in April may you dress them by digging deeply about each Root and slipping of every Set as low as possibly you can leaving two or three of the greatest and most distant the one from the other for Bearers then fill them up round with good old Dung or rich Soil mixt with the Earth and they will afford you fair Heads If you would have latter Artichoaks you must cut the first Crops betimes or expect them from your new set plants A small spot of ground thus planted and ordered will furnish your Table with many of these Fruits in a year and are equal to the best of Vegetables for Food charge and trouble and very little in comparison of the advantage They will continue six eight or ten years sometimes twenty years and more according to the goodness of the Land they grow in and then must be renewed when you perceive them to degenerate which they surely do if they like not the ground The young Buds of Artichoaks may be eaten raw with Pepper and Salt as usually Melons Figs c. are eaten The Chard of the Artichoaks which is the Stalk of a young Artichoak arising out of an old Root and preserved from the Air and from heading by winding it about with Straw to blanch it and make it tender is by the French esteem'd an excellent Dish The Roots Stalks and Leaves of them whilst young and tender are delicate Meat especially if so preserved and blanched as is by some affirmed and it is not improbable for I have often found that by covering a Winter Bud to preserve it from Frost the Snails have greedily devour'd it Those esculent Herbs that are perennial because they are not so much used for Food as for Condiment I shall discourse of in another Chapter CHAP. II. Of Esculent Roots THere are several Roots that have afforded us great plenty of substantial pleasant Of Turnips and wholesome Food whereof the Turnip is esteem'd the best there are several sorts of them the round long and yellow of which the round is the most common though the others are very good the long are usually called Navews they have been an ancient Food throughout Europe Southward and have been very much improved in England of late years They will grow on the meanest Land in its first tilth and much the more if the Season prove moist or dripping The Season of sowing them is about Midsummer that they may be ready to improve upon the Autumnal Rains which maketh them much sweeter than the Vernal They are fickle at their first coming up in a too dry Season and if being sown early they happen to fail you may at the end of July or beginning of August new sow your Ground These Seeds are much sought for and devoured by small Birds who will smell them in the ground and when they first send their pale heads above the earth the Birds will draw them out and eat of their Seeds and leave the naked Shoots on the ground Those that escape the Birds in small Gardens or places amongst or near to Trees and Groves as well as in the larger Fields the Flies in dry and hot Summers usually devour so that few or none escape them which
same manner may be prepared You must take them up before the Frost prevent you and house them as before was directed for Turnips and Carrots After the same manner plant the best for Seed as was directed for Turnips and Carrots Radishes in the more Southern Countries Of Redishes are a delicate Meat especially if sown in brackish Lands or watred with brackish Waters and therefore were they in such esteem with the Egyptians where were the daintiest and sweetest Radishes in the World The Greeks also so highly preferr'd them to all other Meats in regard of their good nourishment that in an Oblation of Garden-fruits unto Apollo in his Temple at Delphos they dedicated the Beet in Silver the Turnip in Lead but the Radish in beaten Gold Also Moschian the Greek Writer had so great an esteem for the Radish that he compiled a whole Book of it as Pliny relates These in our more Northern Clime attain not to that degree of maturity as to become Food except it be the Leaves which boyled are eaten with salt Meats But are very much regarded as a Sallade for their biting and quick taste especially in the Spring eaten with Salt There are three sorts of Radishes the small eating Radish the Horse Radish and the black Radish The first is that which hath been so much in repute and is now ordinarily eaten and is raised of Seed To have them early they must be raised on a hot Bed with a snfficient thickness of good rich light Moul that they may have depth enough to root in before they reach the Dung. To have large and clean Radishes make holes as deep as your finger about three inches distance into each hole drop a sound Seed or two if suspitious and cover the Seeds a little leaving the rest of the hole open thus will they growe to the height of the hole ere they dilate their Leaves and yield you a long and transparent Root You may sowe them all the year those in the Winter in hot Beds those sown after Midsummer will not run to Seed that year They delight in rich and light ground and require watring for in dripping years they prove fairest The Horse Radish is increased by Plants as Horse Radishes well as from Seeds and used by many as an excellent and wholesom Sauce The black Radish is so mean a Root that it Black Radish finds no place in a good Garden Onions are an ancient Food especially of Of Onions the Egyptians and are much esteem'd of by the Spaniards who eat them as Englishmen do Apples for in the hotter Countries they are a little milder than here There are several sorts of them the Strasburgh Onion red Spanish white Spanish and the English the red the most tart and the white the mildest the ordinary English are not so fair as those of Biscay or St. Omers but these by often sowing degenerate Sowe Onions in February or beginning of March between the full of the Moon and the last Quarter and they will head very well and not run to Chibols They delight in good Land well tempered and freed from Weeds they extend not their Fibers far downwards therefore in your sowing them tread your Bed or beat it flat then sowe it with your Seed as equally dispersed as you can and not too thick then sift over in fine rich Earth a finger thick at most by this means the root will grow larger and not be apt to run into the ground for an Onion and a Turnip the more on the surface they grow the fairer they prove This I had from an experienced person Omons sown with Salt are said to prosper and grow large it is not improbable because they seem to extract much of the blackish moisture of the Earth You may sow Onions all the year for the use of the young Onions or Scallions those sown in Autumn may be covered with Straw or pease-haum and so preserv'd all the Winter and will be early Chibols or Scallions in the Spring You may plant small Onions or such that are grown or beginning to shoot in the Spring in deep holes and they will prove good Chibols There is a distinct species of Chibols or Ascalonian Onions in France that are increased by Off-sets as the Eschalots but they are not usual with us The use of Onions is generally known and the advantage they bring to the careful Gardener very great Of Garlick The use of Garlick is as ancient as that of Onions with the Egyptians who had them both in very great esteem as now our Welsh have Leeks and used to swear by Garlick and Onions deeming them Sacred because they afforded them so much rare Food much after the same manner do our ancient Britains dedicate the Leek to their Saint David on his day and Aegyptian-like some of them are known by their Magazine of Garlick-fume at a great distance Garlick is planted by Off-sets in February or March in good rich Soyl and it will increase wonderfully About the end of June you must tie the Leaves in knots which will make them head and prevent their spindling it may be taken up in August when the Blade withereth Much of it is eaten in Wales and Scotland and some part of England and much more of it would be spent for its wholsomeness were it not for the offensive smell it gives to the by-Standers which is taken away by eating of a Beet-root rosted in the Embers as Menander a Greek Writer quoted by Pliny saith Eschalots are now from France become an Of Eschalits English Condiment and are increased and managed near after the same manner as the Garlick only they are to be set earlier because they spring sooner and take up as soon as the leaves begin to wither which is before the Garlick They must not lie in the ground long after for either they rot in the ground or the Winter kills them They give a fine relish to most Sauces and the breath of those that feed on them is not offensive to others as it is of those that feed on Garlick or Onions they are apt to degenerate being planted two or three Years in the same ground therefore it is best to renew your plantation with new plants lately brought from France within two or three Years Leeks were in use as anciently as Onions or Of Leeks Garlick not only in foreign parts but here in Britain as is evident by the constant use of them by the Welsh who propagate an abundance of them insomuch that I have seen the greatest part of a Garden there stored with Leeks and part of the remainder with Onions and Garlick By reason of their mild nature they are much used in Porrage which hath derived its Name from Porrum a Leek though now from the French we call it Pottage They are raised of Seeds as the Onions and sown about the same time About August plant your Leeks in very fat rich Ground and make
raised by Slips and the pot Marjoram by the same way there is also of this latter sort some that is party-coloured or White and Green and some only White propagated for variety sake the use of these is commonly known Thyme was anciently celebrated for its great Of Thyme plenty of Food it yieldeth for Bees as Virgil writing of Bees At fessae multâ referunt se nocte minores Crura Thymo plena But those that youthful be and in their prime Late in the Night return laden with Thyme Pliny saith that by the plenty or scarcity of the Blossoms of Thyme you may foresee the plenty or scarcity of Honey for that year But the worth of this Herb is not so much to be disputed in this place as the usefulness of it in the Kitchin where it ought not to be wanting Of Thyme there are many sorts The Vulgar English the Lemon Thyme so called from its most exact smell like a Lemon Gilded Thyme Musk and Mastich Thyme which last is incomparably sweet and ought to be carefully preserved any of the other are fit for the Kitchin Of Savory there are two sorts the Summer Of Savory and Winter The former is so called because it is annual and raised of Seed it is usually sown amongst Onions because there is an ancient Tradition that the growing of it there makes the Onions the more sweet if you let some of it stand to shed its Seed it is so hardy that it will come up again the succeeding Spring although the ground be again digged The Winter-Savory is so called because it lives over many Winters and is increased by Cions as well as by Seed the uses of both are very well known in the Kitchin Hysop is nominated amongst culinary Herbs Of Hysop although not so much in use in the Kitchin as for Medicine or its natural sweetness it is so vulgar an Herb that every one knows its propagation There are many other sweet Herbs that are Of several others useful in the Kitchin although not so generally as the former but according to the particular occasions that require them as Penny-royal Sweet Maudlin Tansie Balm Basil Burnes and Ceast-Mary also Lavendar and Cammomil are not to be wanting though not excellent in any Case CHAP. VIII Of some other Eseulent Vegetables THere are some Plants Herbs or parts of them that are Esculent either of themselves or in Condiments that are not usually propagated in Gardens for that purpose as the young Buds of Hops boyl'd do much resemble Asparagus in the eating and are very pleasant and wholesome where the other are not to be had the young shoots of a new lopp'd Elder-Tree being boyl'd are esteem'd a most excellent Dish the ordinary Buds of Elder and the red young tops of Nettles and of Water-cresses and also of Brook-lime every Herb-woman can tell you are good Spring Sallads or Pottage-herbs The green tops of young Pease cut off and boyl'd are reported to be a most delicate Dish quaere Whether if they being cut off the remaining Roots will not emit new shoots and produce a fair Crop of later Pease If they will then may you have late Pease better this way than by sowing late Green Corn bruised yields a Juyce that is used in the Kitchin in Esculents and so may be reckon'd amongst the number notwithstanding my Lord Bacon did not esteem it Esculent Champignons Mushromes or Mousserons have Mushromes been ever reputed a dainty Dish in the choice and preparing of which the ancient Romans took a great delight Yet then were several Persons poysoned with the use of such of them that were of a venomous nature and in these colder Climates some sorts of them are not much to be confided in Those that are edible here with us are either Mushromes of the Woods and grow by the Borders of Woods and Forests and are very large or Mushromes of the Meadows and sweet Pastures which grow frequently where Cattel feed which usually flourish in the Autumn and are most esteem'd because of their Beauty and whiteness above and Vermilion beneath having also a pleasant Scent with them It is said that you may raise Mushromes in Beds in your Gardens by preparing a Bed with the Soil of Mules or Asses and covering it over four Fingers thick with rich Dung and after it hath laid a while to cool then to cast on it the parings and refuse of Mushromes and old rotten Mushromes with the Water used about them and in a short time your Bed will produce them Or such Water poured on Melon Beds will cause it to send forth Mushromes It is probable that these though unperfect Plants may have a Seed which sown in an apt place may produce others of the same Species My Lord Verulam in his Natural History Century 6. gives a very good Character of them imputing unto them two strange Properties The one that they yield so delicious a Meat the other that they come up so hastily I have known one of about a foot in diameter almost round and full of scarce twice 24 hours growth The same honourable Lord tells you that it 's dangerous surfeiting with them and gives you several Reports that the Bark of white or red Poplar cut small and cast into Furrows well dunged will cause the Ground to put forth Mushromes at all Seasons of the year fit to be eaten He also adds a Report that Harts-horn shaven or in small pieces mix'd with Dung and watred putteth up Mushromes CHAP. IX Of General Improvements and Miscellaneous Experiments SECT I. Of Improving Garden Ground by Labour only HAving thus briefly given you a particular of ornamental as well as useful Parts and Materials for your several Gardens and the specifical ways of preparing ordering and managing of the various Plants Flowers and other Curiosities usually growing in them it now remains that something be said as to the more general manner of improving your Ground and preparing of Dungs Soils and Composts proper for your use and making of hot Beds with many other things necessary to be known by such that delight in the improvement of Hortulans Of the general mixtures of the Earth the one with the other to qualifie their Natures by adding that of a contrary I have before discoursed Of the preparation of Earth without any such mixtures Sir Hugh Platt hath given you an Aenigmatical Description calling it his Philosophical Garden his Precept is To pave a square Plot with Brick if covered with Plaister of Paris the better making up the sides of Brick also plaistred likewise let it be of a convenient depth fill it with the best vegetative Saturn which you can get that hath stood two years or one at the least quite within his own Sphere make contrition of the same and be sure to avoid all obstructions imbibe it with Aqua Coelestis in a true proportion grind it once a day till it be dry being dry let it stand two
for hasty Watering and hasty Showers discover them For most Flowers and Plants whose Leaves lie near the Ground it is best to water them at some distance by making a Ring round the Plant a little hollow and pouring the Water into it whereby you annoy not the Leaves with your discolouring Water or chill them with the Coldness of it In all warm Weather the Evening is the best Season to water in because the Water will have time to sink into the Earth and the Plant to attract it before the Heat of the Sun exhales it but in cold Weather and when the Nights are cold the Morning is the most proper time that the superfluous Moisture may be evaporated before the cold Night overtake you and chill your Plant. By no means use Liquors either naturally hot as Spirits or artificially made so by heating it over the Fire A Plant that delights in Moisture or a drooping Plant that you may suppose Water will preserve may be watered by Filtration which is by placing an earthen Pot full of Water near the Plant and putting therein the end of a List of Woollen-cloth the other end thereof to hang down on the outside of the Pot to the Ground near the root of the Plant by means of which List if it be thick enough the Water will filtrate or distil over the Brim of the Pot through the List of Woollen so long as any Water is in reach of the List in the Pot always observing that the end of the List in the outside of the Pot be longer than that in the inside and that the List be thorowly wet before you add it The Reasons of this Operation which many Country Colona's daily experiment we will not here discourse of To water your Flower-pot that the Water Watering of Flower-pots may the easier descend to the bottom and throughout the whole Pot you may before you fill it with Earth place in it a Pipe of Lead Latton or such like close at the bottom with divers Holes at the sides of it let the Pipe extend in height to the top of the Pot and when the Pot is full of Earth and planted with Flowers and that you cannot conveniently otherwise water it then with a Funnel fill the Pipe with Water and reiterate your filling of it until you think there is enough and by the Holes on the sides of the Pipe the Water will moisten the whole Pot of Earth The Water you use here ought to be meliorated by some of the former ways For Earth thus separated from the Ground is more apt to decay than that which is remaining on its natural Foundation which continually receives an Improvement by perspiration of the vegetating Spirit There are several sorts of Watering-pots in Watering-pots use for Gardens the most useful is the common Watering-pot made of tinn'd Plate or Latton the Nose or end of the Spout whereof is covered with a Cover wherein are many small Perforations that the Water may force through in small Streams and besprinkle your Plants or Seeds like unto Rain This Cover is made to take off and on to cleanse at pleasure There is another sort of Watering-pot that hath a small Hole at the bottom and another at the top so that when you sink it into a Vessel of Water it will fill by the lower Pipe or Hole the Air passing out at the Hole at the top where the Handle is also When it is full take it by the Handle and stop the Hole with your Thumb and when you come to the Plant you intend to water you may ease the Hole whereon your Thumb lies and as you please let the Water out at the Pipe in the bottom for as the Air comes in at the top the Water will issue out at the bottom and so may you stop it and open it with your Thumb at your pleasure With this Pot you may easily let the Water down on your Plants that can bear with a washing Shower You may water any Ground by the first sort of Watering-pot with any enriched or thick Water if you take off the Cover of the Pipe and convey the same Water about the Roots of any Plants without fouling the Leaves or Flowers Also you may have a small Engine made like one of the Engines for the raising of Water to extinguish Fire withal and place it in a Frame to drive to and fro about your Garden you may fill it with Water and the Spout or Pipe with a perforated Cover like unto the common Watering-pots but not so broad as to spread the Water so much with this Engine may you imitate Rain over any of your Beds at a distance and wash your Wall-trees from Vermine and refresh them at your pleasure Any of these Watering-pots may be preserved To preserue your Watering-pots for many Years from Rust to which they are very apt by painting them over with Linseed Oyl and Red Lead SECT IV. Of making Hot-Beds IT is evident to all that most Plants do naturally observe the Season of the Year in their Germination Growth and Maturation and although they are removed into another Climate yet do they incline to the Observation of the same Time as they did in their own former natural Place of their Growth as the Persian Iris American Strawberry and several others which make them the more acceptable as they come earlier or later than others of the same Kind So is it with many other Flowers Fruits or Herbs For we annually observe how acceptable a Dish of early Pease is over what they are when later and common and so are Asparagus Cucumbers Melons c. The Growth of most Plants is quickned by a warm Position as under a warm Fence or Wall and by an artificial Heat as by being planted against a Place where Fire is usually kept or by watering them with Waters impregnated by hot Dungs which will very much accelerate Germination If you would have Herbs to sprout immediately To raise a Sallad in few Hours then lay a Bed of unslak'd Lime powdered with a Mixture of Ashes if you please or without on that a Lay of hot Dung and on that another Lay of Lime and then on that a Lay of fine rich Mould wherein sow your Seeds as Lettuce Purslain Corn-Sallad Parsley c. first steep'd in White-wine or some of the former prepared Waters and water them when sown with some of the same richest Waters and they will suddenly appear above ground and as you water them so will they prosper This should be done within doors lest the coldness of the Air should impede their growth the often watering them facilitates their nourishment But the Hot-beds that are most useful and whereon you are to raise your tender Exoticks and your early Flowers and also to raise and bring forward your Melons Cucumbers Cauly-flowers c. is usually made in February or March and after several manners Some prescribe the making of
taken off all over but mentions not at what time of its growth this is best to be done however it is a sufficient encouragement for Gardeners to take up the Onions where they casually come up too thick and plant them in thinner places Several Plants are so removed as Turnips Lettuce c. and are the fairer therefore this Observation may be of use Sift Ashes or Quick-lime beaten small about To preserve Plants from Snails and Worms any Plant and it will preserve it from Snails or Worms by reason their naked Bodies cannot endure the sharpness of the Salt of the Ashes or Lime So if you water the Ground with the Water wherein Lime or Ashes have been steeped the Worms will soon leave the Ground where the Water gets into their Holes from the same Cause You may also in a Summer Evening after Rain with a Candle draw the Worms as they lie on the Ground and put them in a Pail and dispose of them as you think fit but you must tread soft for the least motion of the Ground maketh them retire into the Ground Thus in two or three moist Evenings may you clear a whole Border of the greater Worms which are most hurtful Snails and Worms are all of them of an Hermaphroditical nature and are all Breeders and when they couple are easily destroyed especially the Snails who couple from the Spring until Midsummer and after And lay their Eggs in the Ground you will find them with their Bodies buried in the warm Dust and only their Shells above the Ground when you take them out you must rake out their Eggs and destroy them for otherwise they will lie there until they have strength to travel and then some in the same Year others in the Spring following you will have them dispersed amongst your tender Plants and your Wall-Trees where after a Shower you may pick them off If you doubt of the goodness of your Seeds To know good Seeds take some of them and put them in fair Water and set them in a gentle heat twenty four hours and if they are good they will sprout else not Also you may wash your Seeds in Water and the dead and light will swim and the good and heavy will sink but they must be all throughly immerged else you may be deceived Secure the Root as well as you can from the To defend Plants from Frost Frost for if you defend that the Branch seldom suffers but if the Root be not secured although the Branch be never so well defended it will perish Therefore earth up the Roots as well as you can and place any ordinary defence about the sides of the Plant and no Frost will hurt it unless it be your tender Plants that are for the Conservatory Thus may Gillyflowers Wall-flowers Stock-Gillyflowers Artichoaks c. be preserved Some Plants if the Roots stand dry the Set tender Plants dry Frosts rarely hurt them which if moist they are usually destroyed as Rosemary Sage Wall-flowers c. Either of these will grow on a Wall and endure the severest Colds but if they stand in a moist Ground although the Branches be â—ever so well defended they are apt to be destroyed with great Frosts The cause is that Water or Moisture stagnating about any Plant and a Frost following is apt to mortifie it when a Frost shall scarce injure a dry Plant. It is the same with young and tender Fruits a frosty Night after a wet Day destroys more Fruits than ten dry Frosts can do If you lay Saw-dust about any Plant it will To defend your Plants from Ants. defend it from the busie Ants who cannot easily pass over the Saw-dust because it is small and loose under them that they cannot have any sure footing and so by that means are forced to steer their course another way Thus may you defend your Wall-Trees from Ants by laying Saw-dust about the Roots of them Some anoint the Stems of their Trees with Tar to prevent the Ants from ascending them but then it is best to bind Paper about the Stems and anoint the Paper for Tar is apt to injure the Bark of your Tree Also you may bind about the Stem of the Tree Wooll about four Fingers breadth which will puzzle the Ants to find a way over or through it be sure to leave the Wooll rough that they may not find a way over the Threds you bind it withal Many of your Flower-Trees will in some Moss to destroy sorts of Land by long standing become mossy which not only defaceth but very much injureth the Tree and it is a sign the Tree dislikes the Ground it stands in To prevent the growing of it and the encreasing of it whilst it is yet but newly infected you must remove your Tree into better Ground more natural to it or in case you are willing to have it stand in the same place where now it is then you must take it up and alter the Ground and enrich it as it ought to be and then you may replant the Tree in the same place And as the Tree thrives and encreaseth in Shoots so the Moss will decline the Sap being wasted and expended more liberally another way But if the Moss hath long continued on the Tree your best way is after Rain that the Moss be wet and will easily come off to scrape it off with a Knife of Bone or Wood for in dry Weather it will not come off so well Moss is a very great annoyance to Trees Moss a great annoyance to Trees and Ground and to the Ground it self and is a manifest sign of a defect of the more nourishing Juice that is in fruitful Plants or Soil it is a spontaneous Excrescence as many other Vegetables are which made the learned Philosopher Van Helmont say That its Seed distilled from the Heavens which is no more than if he should have said that it proceeded from the natural inclination of the Matter on which it grew animated by the Coelestial Influences which gave it Life but the Matter on which it grew gave it form it varying according to the diversity of the Matter from whence it receives its Nourishment some Moss being hard some soft some White others Green There is also sweet Moss that grows on Apple-Trees and Poplar-Trees and the Moss of the Larix-Tree is sweet in the burning And although all these Mosses are mere Excrescences yet do they bear Seed and encrease as hath lately been discovered by a learned Vertuosi Hooks Lampas who by the help of a Microscope hath observed the Seed-Cods or Seed-Vessels of Moss to contain Seeds in them no less wonderful for the greatness of number than the smalness of bulk which Seed-Vessels when ripe he pressing them pretty hard found that there was a small Dust went out of them which seemed to vanish into the Air pressing and squeezing others of them upon a Black Plate and examining the Powder with a
somewhat resembles the French way of making Walls for Fruit for what-ever they are made of they are plastered over and hooks of Iron or Sheeps shank-bones placed in the building of the Wall at some convenient distance to affix the Poles unto as in the small French piece called the Planters Manual adapted only for that Countrey may be observed Also Rapinus at large describes the making of that Wall and both of them prescribe the plaistering of them as well to destroy the vermin that would otherwise shelter themselves in the rotten cavities of those Mud-Walls as to accelerate the maturation of your Fruits So that here in England where other Materials are scarce and such a stiff Loam in the place these Mud-walls may prove beneficial not only for security warmth and privacy but for the advancement and melioration of your Fruits more especially if Lime be not wanting to make a Plaister to cover it after that French mode It is not improbable that a mixture of Loam Lime Sand and Gravel or small Sand-stones may by being raised between two Planks and so by degrees to the height of a Wall and then well defended by a light coping make a very good and durable Fence and Shelter for your best Fruits This seems to be the same way that Pliny mentions The Walls to be made in his time which then had continued many Years and not impaired resisting all weathers he mentions Turrets and Sconces to have been made after this manner Lib. 35. Chap. 14. Good Oaken Timber sawn into Pales make 4. Of Pales a very good Fence and not dear where that Timber is plenty Next unto Oak Fir or Deal Boards will serve but scarce any other Board will endure the mutability of the weather long These Boards ought to be well season'd else will they shrink and chap exceedingly which will be inconvenient as well by rendring your solitary Walks less private as by admitting cold breezes to your tender Fruits but in case your Board do not meet in the dryest and hottest Seasons you may add a small Battin to each Interval fixt to each Rail by Nails between the Boards that the swelling and shrinking of the Board may not injure the Battin These boarded Fences are the warmest for your tender Fruits and maturates them beyond any other but being subject to decay are not repairable without damage to your Trees I have already mentioned the most principal 5. Of Pallisades and best Fences for the outsides of your Garden for privacy security and advantage to your Fruits There are yet other necessary Fences for the cantoning or dividing your Garden into lesser parts for the several uses you design them for or for the security of some particular parts of your Garden or Fruits or Flowers from the hands of every one that may otherwise have liberty or occasion to walk there yet not to impede or diminish the pleasure in viewing those objects of delight thus defended These open Fences are made of board of about three or four inches broad and three or four foot long either nailed to or let thorow two Rails with heads cut either round or like a Lance and painted white with Lin-seed Oyl and white Lead two or three times over to make them endure the weather But the best material to make these Pallisades withal is Iron so framed as are the Iron Balconies in London save only that these appear above the Rails with square painted heads which seem most beautiful by reason that Flowers and other delightsom Plants appear so plain through them This Fence is also permanent and needs no repair In imitation whereof there is newly made in some few Gardens a Pallisade of Boards of about three or four inches broad which as before were set flat wise each place in the Pallisade is now set edge-wise the upper Rail running through each Pale and the foot cut with an Ox Mouth and set on an Arras Rail either near the ground or resting on a ground-pinning of Brick The head of each Pale is about three or four inches above the upper Rail divided into two parts the middle vacancy being about one third part of the whole breadth the two extream parts for about four or five inches being cut with square pyramidical points do very much resemble those made of Iron As you stand against them they appear open and every thing very conspicuous through them like the Iron but as you view them obliquely they appear full only their sharp heads more open and not unpleasant These Pallisades although they require somewhat more Timber and Workmanship than the ordinary sort yet are by far the more compleat and beautiful every motion of your Body from its place begetting a variety in the object These open Fences are much more pleasant and useful in your Partirs and inward Gardens than close Walls for these prevent not your view of the whole nor hinder the free Air from your Plants which is as necessary in some degree as warmth which ought to be obtained from Shelters and Fences at a distance not by too great a reverberation of heat and stifling in the Summer for want of Air either of which proves fatal to most Flowers Gardens are oftentimes secur'd by quick Fences 6. Of Quick Fences whereof the most easie to propagate is that of the white Thorn which being well planted in double treble or more Chests or Rows of Plants and kept weeded and defended for three or four years will thrive very well in most sorts of Land and being kept clipp'd sheer'd or cut with a sharp hook will grow so thick that a Bird cannot find its way through and from the ground to six it seven foot high it will prove a very great security against bad Weather evil Neighbors and Cattle but is a shelter for Snails and other Vermin that will constantly annoy your best Plants and are not therefore to be planted near your Partir wherein you plant your best Flowers A Quick Hedge of Holly is the most beautiful and most compact of any but the tediousness of its growth is enough to discourage any man from attempting its propagation its Seed being two years before they appear above the ground and its Plants long before they let you know of their like or dislike of the Soil Pyracantha planted for a Fence proves very strong by reason of its sharp Thorns and stubborn Branches Sweet-bryar also is very good and makes a fragrant Fence but the White-thorn will not give way to either of them being easily propagated most tonsile of any durable of a delicate colour and early appearing in the Spring CHAP. III. Of the Walks Arbors and Places of Repose in Gardens IT is not the least part of the pleasures of a Garden to walk and refresh your self either with your Friends or Acquaintance or else alone retired from the cares of the World or apart from Company that sometimes may prove burthensom to you and when your own
strong resinacious Juice that fortifies them against the Cold and is the cause of the continuing of the Leaf so long on the Stalk as may be observed in the Firr and Pine what an abundance of that Terebintine Sap do they contain enduring the most fierce Colds the Northern Climate yields the Cypress and the Rosemary both yield a very hot and resiny Sap. The Holly affords us out of its Bark that 18. Of the Holly glutinous Bird-lime that ensnares the heedless Fowl which diffuseth naturally into its Leaves enables them against all the inconveniencies of Winter and Cold. The Phylirea hath a very strong Sap that preserves it And all the other Winter Greens have more or less of the like resinous and glutinous Sap or Juice that is not so easily preyed upon by extreme Colds SECT II. Of Variegated or Gilded-leafed Plants THose perennial Greens are very Ornamental planted in their proper places of your Garden and Avenues by reason of their perpetual Verdure that the Winter that seems elsewhere most barren here amongst these Greens appears like a perpetual Spring yet must they give place to the most beautifull of Trees and Shrubs of the same kind as to their durableness by reason of their variegations much excelling those that are of a plain colour For what can be more pleasant than to have Groves or Walks when the Flowers that are but for a day are retired apparalled with gilded party-colour Garments some with yellow and green others with white and green emulating the two royal Metals that by the Gilder's hand adorn the Palaces of Princes The most excellent of all which gilded Plants is the Holly 1. Gilded Holly whose Bark as well as Leaf is variegated with a bright yellow the more yellow the Leaf is the more beautifull is the Plant some are strip'd throughout the Barks and Berries If vulgar green Holly be so glorious and refreshing an Object as Mr. Evelin hath Characterized it to be then certainly the same with a due mixture of a bright yellow must pre-excell In fine whosoever hath once seen this Tree will not think any perennial Green equal to it for it is like the true Scarlet-dy which present debaseth all other Colours The gilded Laurel is a very pleasant Tree 2. Gilded Laurel although inferiour to the Holly for want of that Oriental Verdure and more polite Leaf but this Plant is more rare to be obtained than the gilded Holly Of Phylirea also there is a sort that is much 3. Gilded Phylirea and Alaternus variegated with white and is very pleasant as the like there is of Alaternus which is not altogether so hardy as that of the Phylirea yet both both worthy of your care The Leaves of Box are on some Trees gilded 4. Gilded Box. with an edge round each of them with yellow but these Trees do not annually produce all their Leaves gilded sometimes they are green and sometimes gilded yet are these Trees not to be wanting in your golden Grove There is besides the Rosemary that is gilded 5. Gilded Rosemary with yellow a sort of it variegated with white very delightfull to the Eye and not so common as the yellow both these are to be preserved under warm Walls or other Fences to secure them from the too severe Winds but the white is the more tender The Periwinckle is a low creeping Plant some 6. Gilded Periwinckle bearing white some blew Flowers growing wild in many places and scarce worthy of a place in a Garden except for the covering the Ground in the Shades of your Groves and Avenues with its ever green and running Branches but the gilded Periwinckle whose Leaves are exceeding well variegated much resembling the gilded Phylirea or Alaternus is as compleat an Ornament for clothing the Earth of your golden Grove as any of the gilded Trees are for the more lofty part of it And although your gilded Trees are most 7. Gilded 〈◊〉 becoming in a Grove or Walk and the Periwinckle be proper for an humble Ornament yet some Plants of a middle rank or degree may not unbecome so splendid an Object of which none can be more suitable than the Lilly whose verdant shining pale-green Leaves are curiously painted by Nature's Pencil with yellow appearing at a great distance as well as near very beautifull these Leaves from the Ground to the top of the Stalk from the Spring to the Autumn being much more comely than the Blossom which is the fair white Lilly It is known to all Naturalists that the best 8. Gilded Night-shade and Mugwort Garden Ground is most prone to Weeds which are its Spontaneous productions and seeing that Weeds are expected in our Grove as well as in our Garden it were better that it were in part supplied for want of gilded leaved Flowers with gilded Weeds whereof the Night-shade otherwise a noisome Weed but with its variegated Leaves and here and there thinly dispersed and gilded Mugwort another Weed of the like nature would make a good mixture with the other richer Dyes like the ordinary Colours in a Picture which serve to illustrate the more excellent Some other sorts of gilded Plants there may 9. There is also variegated Wood-bine probably be but these are all that I have hitherto observed As these have been casually met withal and from them others have been raised so by the same reason may other sorts be discovered that yet have not been observed For travelling through some part of Glamorganshire and discoursing of these variegated Greens one of that Country assured me that in that Country was a very large Holly with all its Leaves curiously gilded growing wild in a Wood which was not unlikely for from the Woods they first came but that which was most strange was that the same Tree should be neglected and not a great number of Plants raised from it The Reasons why such variety of Colours should appear in the Leaves of Trees and Plants are not easily discovered seeing that we may observe the like in the various Colours of some sorts of Beasts and Birds whereof no account has been yet given and they as well as these are also apt to degenerate But the reason of such a variegation of Colours may be supposed to be a Defect in Nature because the more sterile the Land is wherein they grow the better are their Colours preserved and the more rich the Ground is the sooner do they degenerate And as these curious Plants are by accident or some secret inclination of Nature undiscovered unto us so they are the more to be valued and on them may we the better bestow our delight and admiration Thus will we conclude this Section of monstrous 10. The Embroidered Elder Curiosities in the Leaves of Plants with that of the Elder-Tree It hapned that about two years since being Anno 1674. a Gordener near London by accident discovered in a Hedge an Elder-Tree whose Leaves seem'd to be embroidered
by the swelling of the Veins that spread themselves throughout the Leaf and appearing of a different colour from the rest of it they being of a curious Texture made them appear to the Eye most beautifull and rare which Tree he transplanted into his Garden as no small curiosity These gilded party-colour'd Branches would well have became those Crowns and Garlands so frequently used by the Ancients had they been then known and might some of them at least have been incerted in Dr. Brown's Catalogue of Coronary Plants SECT III. Of other Trees propagated for their Beauty and Shade BEsides these perennial Greens and other Rarities in Nature that seem to take up 1. Of the Platanus so large a room in your Plantation yet are there other Trees that in the Spring and throughout the Summer do very much adorn your Groves and Avenues and cool and refresh those that delight to walk in them in the heat of those seasons The most principal of which is the Platanus a Tree so much admired by the ancient Romans that they preferred them before any of their own Native Productions and that for their Shades only it so absolutely excluding the Beams of the Sun in the Summer and admitting them in the Winter The Branches are but thin and slender the Leaves broad and of colour pleasant the Tree groweth large Pliny records that in his time a Plane-Tree was of that bigness that being hollow within eighteen persons usually sat on Benches in it and supp'd with Licinius Mutianus its owner This Tree delights in Water for the Tree that grew to that bigness had a cool Fountain adjoyning to it and those that had not so convenient a place for it yet it seems by Pliny out of their extraordinary affection to it irrigated it with better Liquor He also tells you of another that the Emperor Caligula had in his Ville in which was a capacious Room that fifteen Persons might sit at a Repast and yet space enough for their Servitors to wait on them In truth the World doth not yield a more beautifull Tree for shade than the Plane It grows and prospers well if planted in a moist Ground or be constantly watred whilst it is young and will soon arrive to your desired bigness Unto the Platanus 2. The Tilia High shooting Linden next exacts your care With gratefull Shades to those who take the Air. This Tree seems to contend with the Platanus for Beauty and Shade only its Leaves are not so fair but for its conick or pyramedical Form it exceeds most Trees and for its sweet scent wherewith it persumes the Air in the Months of July and August there is no Tree comparable to it of that magnitude The Bees will testifie it who in innumerable multitudes gather on the rows of these Trees when they are in Blossom They are reducible almost to any Form if planted at a distance they spread if near they aspire They delight in moist and good ground and are very quick of growth The many large Avenues planted of them in most places sufficiently demonstrate their Beauty Shade and Flavour The Horse Chesnut for the Beauty of its 3. The Castanea Equina Leaves in the Spring and the compleat from of its Bole is not unworthy of a place amongst the best of Trees for Shade and Ornament This Tree is very lately made English being brought in its Seeds or Nuts from Constantinople It prospers very well here in good light Mould it buds all the Winter and untill it springs are covered with a shining glutinous matter or Gum and about the beginning of May it usually makes its whole Years shoot in eight or ten days and then dilates its Leaves more pleasant than which scarce any Tree yields In the same Month it puts forth many Branches of Flowers so mixed that they seem to be enamell'd and are very beautifull in some years a few of those Blossoms are succeeded by Nuts in form of Chesnuts included in a Coat or outward Shell Christ's Thorn so named for that it is said to 4. Paliurus be the same wherewith our Saviour was Crown'd at Jerusalem near which is the natural place for its growth This Tree may be placed in your Garden as a Rarity as may that which is yet a greater wonder called The Glastenbury Thorn being in appearance 5. The Glastenbury Thorn a vulgar white Thorn yet budding and yielding plentifully its Blossoms in December I have for several years observ'd it in Blossom at Christmas sometimes it blossoms before if the Weather be mild but if the Cold be very severe it will retard it Those Blossoms are succeeded by Berries and Leaves although in the Winter as the ordinary white Thorns are in the Summer They that read and believe the Divinity of the Monastery of Glastenbury may the more easily believe the report of this Tree that by its blossoming on the twenty fifth day of December it doth not only indicate unto us the very day of our Saviour's Nativity but condemns our sloth and contumacy in not rejoycing with it at so glorious a dispensation This Tree flourished many years in Wilton-Garden near Salisbury and I suppose is there yet but is not altogether so exact to a day as its original from whence it came was reported to be it 's probable the Faith of our Ancestors might contribute much towards its certainty of time For Imagination doth operate on inanimate things as some have observed Thus have you a brief account of the most delightfull pleasant and ornamental Trees wherewith to beautifie your Garden Avennes and Groves which are shady and cool Recesses from the noise and cares of the World and the hot Gleams of the Sun and are an artificial Epitome of the larger Woods Forests and Groves so much celebrated by the Ancients who attributed unto them most Divine Honour Here you may in a small Room and at an easie Expence reap the advantage of those more ample Possessions Thus blest is he who tir'd with his Affairs For from all noise all vain applausè propares To go and underneath some silent Shade Which neither Cares nor anxious Thoughts invade Does for a while himself alone possess Changing the Town for Rural happiness He if he please into the Groves may stray Listen to the Birds which sing at break of day Rapinus SECT IV. Of the Propagating and Planting the said Trees THE several Trees before-mentioned are variously propagated and removed at various times being many of them Exoticks And therefore the nature of the Climate is to be considered Such of them that are natural to this or a more Northerly Climate may be removed at any time of the Winter but the nearer the Spring the better and are generally raised of Seed as the Holly the Eugh the Firr the Pyracantha and the Glastenbury-Thorn The Lawrel Laurus Tinus the Bay the Tilia the Castanea Equina although raised by Layers as well as by Seeds yet will endure a
if a part of our Land will yield us Food sufficient and uphold the yearly value of our Villes as by this Method it will cartainly do then may there be Corn enough raised in England not only to ballance but under-sell our foreign Neighbours to our great a dvantage and their detriment which is almost equal to it for the more of our own Growths we can vend the more is Navigation encouraged and the greater Returns are made It is when the Growths or Manufactures of other Contries are imported hither and in lieu of them ready Money returned that impoverishes us and enriches them Therefore when the contrary is done it must have a contrary effect The Private Advantages of the propagating Hortulans or Esculent plants as they are oftentimes represented are prodigious and incredible therefore a modest computation is the best encouragement for any rational man will more easily believe that an Acre of Turnips Carrots Onions or the like is four or five times more profitable to the Husbandman than an Acre of Wheat or Barley or such like than if it should be said to be ten or twenty times more profitable But for your Garden where you are confined to a less Room than a Farm which is divided into several squares or quarters and each square or quarter well manured and prepared for its proper Tillage there may you expect a far greater encrease especially of such plants that annually produce their Fruit without the renewing of the Gardeners Cost and Pains unless only to cherish and preserve them with the planting and propagating of which sort of Esculents we will begin CHAP. I. Of such Plants that are Perennial or continue over the Year THE best and most select of such Esculent Of Asparagus Plants that continue from Year to Year without new planting or sowing is the Asparagus which deserves to be first named because of its early and plentiful encrease it yields the delicacy of its Meat and the continuance of it before any other gains a repute above it So long since as in Pliny's time it was the most esteem'd of any in the Garden although in those parts they sometimes grew wild yet in the Gardens were they so cultivated that three of their Buds or Heads would weigh a pound and were though common the Romans dainty Dish And Cato many years before Pliny wrote very much concerning their propagation out of the abundant regard he had for them being then but newly reduced to the Gardener's care They grow naturally wild or at least some Bastard kind of them in the Meadows near Bristol but our more fair and large usually called Dutch Asparagus are propagated from Seed the Ground wherein you sow them must be rich and well tempered and prepared then may you with your Finger prick in the Berries at what distance you please the best time is in January or February Then after two years in March following will they be fit to remove into the Bed wherein they are to remain But the best and most expeditious way is to buy your Plants of two or three years growth of the Gardeners who raise them on purpose for Sale at an easie price The Bed you plant them in ought to be three or four foot wide and about two foot in depth the most part within the surface of the earth and about six inches above for it will settle When you have made clean and square your Foss you may fill it with good rotten Dung of any sort with a little mixture of earth the best Soyl is that which the Butchers make wherein there are Hoofs Rams-horns or any such cornuous substance wherein they exceedingly delight it 's probable woollen Rags or old Leather may do as well with these mixtures may you fill your Bed about eighteen inches then cover the same with good old rich Mold that came out of some Cucumber or Melon Bed for about six inches more in the midst whereof plant your Sets at sixteen or eighteen inches distance in a Quincunical order that they may lie coverd two or three inches plant them with their Roots spreading as much as you can Or you may cover the Dung with rich Mould three inches and then place your Sets with the Roots spreading and then gently cover them with the like Mold three inches You may make as many of these Beds and as long as you please leaving a two foot interval between them for the conveniency of dressing and cutting them for broad Beds are inconvenient no Tillage suffering more by treading than these About three years after they are planted you may cut of them the sooner you cut of them the more will the head of the Root knit and the more in number will it yearly yield you and the later you cut the more will the Root and head grow in bigness and the fairer Bud will you have Some will thus grow to be very large When Green Pease furnish your Table then may you let your Asparagus run to Seed that they may gather strength for the succeeding year In the cutting the Buds remove some of the Earth with your knife to avoid injuring the next Successor In November or the beginning of December cut the seedy stalk close to the ground and cover the Beds with new warm Horse-dung which will prevent them from extream Frosts for no other will injure them In the beginning of March uncover them if the Weather be open and either before you cover them or at this time weed them clean and after weeding lay on your Bed the Bottom of a Melon or Cucumber Bed or such like rich Earth about two fingers thick to supply the usual decay they are subject unto You may have early Asparagus if you take the old Roots with the Earth about them and place them on a hot Bed thus will they bud in January By the precedent Rules will a Garden of Asparagus furnish you with Buds near three Months of the year without the force of a hot Bed and that in such plenty that no other tillage whatever that is the perennial the Artichoak only excepted affords the like These whilst less common were received as Dainties at the best furnish'd Tables and now though plentiful are they an usual Dish at most Gentlemens Tables and by degrees may come to be a more vulgar Diet for after their first Planting the labour about them is but small and the cost less the trouble of cutting them not so great as gathering of Pease nor dressing them so tedious yet a Meat equalling the best of Tillage and the most salubrious of any About the time the Asparagus leaves you Of Artichoaks the Artichoak comes in request being one of the best of a Gardens products and anciently derived from Thistles as Pliny tells us and in his time and long before had been so improved that they became a most delicate Meat and were served up to the Tables of the most prodigal Romans If then they were so
February or March because the Cold and Mice will destroy a part Ground laid in deep Furrows from East to West and Pease sown or set on the South declining side of each Furrow will defend your Pease better in the Winter than if they were sown or set on a Level For on the Wiltshire Plains the Husbandmen leave their Land after it is sown with Wheat as rough and clotty as they can to shelter their Corn in Grass from the severity of the cold Winds in the Winter Pease on Sticks will bear more but on the ground will ripen sooner CHAP. IV. Of Cabbages and Caulyflowers THere is not a more ancient nor nor common Cabbage Esculent Plant than a Cabbage or Caulwort nor any Garden Aliment so wholesom if Cato that lived near two thousand years since and Chrysippus and Dieuches two famous Physitians more ancient that wrote each of them a Volume of the excellent Vertues of this Plant may be credited or the Country wherein they wrote considered Pythagoras himself long before Cato had not so mean an opinion of Beans but he had as high of this Ever since those Times we have had the consent and approbation of all our European Territories except the more severe Northern that Cabbages and Caulworts are a good and wholesom Food as their constant and vulgar use of them in every place sufficiently manifest Here in England not a Village without them and if there be a House without a Garden or a Garden without a Caulwort yet the Inhabitants or Owners of them will furnish themselves from the Market yet are they not so addicted to the use of them here as in France Holland Germany c. where in Germany that famous City of Wurtsburgh is said to derive its Name from the great plenty of Wurts as they call them that grow about it We have here many sorts of them besides the common which are known to every one as the Dutch Cabbage the large sided Cabbage the white-headed Cabbage the red Cabbage perfum'd Cabbage Savoy Cabbage and Russia Cabbage The first that heads is a small white Cabbage The Dutch Cabbage called the Dutch-Cabbage and comes in Season before the common English Cabbage and is very sweet notwithstanding it hath not felt the Frost which is a great improver of the tast of most Cabbage The Cabbage that is now much in request is the large-sided Cabbage it 's a very tender plant The largefided Cabbag sown not till May planted out in July and in the Autumn is eaten as the best Cabbage in the World The large white-headed Cabbage which is The white-headed Cabbage the biggest of all Cabbages is worthy your care for its greatness sake There is a sort of red Cabbage and another The red Cabbage inclining to purple they are small and grow near the ground and are planted only for varietysake and to garnish Dishes c. There are some sort that have a Musky Scent Perfum'd Cabbage and are therefore called perfum'd Cabbages which are not unworthy your Care But one of the best sorts of all is the Savoy The Savoy Cabbage Cabbage almost as hardy as our common English Cabbage the Winter Plants head very well being Planted out in the Spring as the ordinary Cabbage are the heads when the Frosts have touched them turn yellow and then are delicate Meat These that are raised of Seeds in the Spring will have but snall heads which as also those without heads in the succeeding Winter are exceeding any ordinary Caul or Cabbage The Russia Cabbage is the least and most The Russia Cabbage humble of all the Cabbages growing very near the ground is very pleasant Food hardy and quick of growth So that you need not be without all the Summer The Winter Plants heading early and the Spring Plants arriving to maturity in seven weeks after they are sown Sow all your Cabbage Seeds that you intend for Winter Plants in Argust or beginning of September and when they are grown with Leaves about three Fingers broad then draw them and plant them out in fresh and rich Land where they may remain all the Winter and at Spring replant them where they are to stand for Cabbages These are those they call Leger Plants that produce the fairest Cabbages You may sow your Seeds in the Spring in March and April for Cauls for the whole Summer and some of them if the Year prove dripping or they sometimes watered will head At the transplanting your young Plants water them with water that is enriched with dung Before the great Frosts surprise you you may take up your hardest Cabbages and after they have hung up by their Roots about a fortnight to drain the water from them you may either lay them in some Cellar where they will keep a long time or Plant them deep in the ground close one to another and cover them with Hawm or Straw until you have occasion to use them Those you intend for Seed you may plant in rich Soil indifferent deep and cover them from the Frosts and in the Spring they will quickly aspire Beside these variety of Cabbages Caul and Sprouts springing from the old decapitated Stumps there is a perennial Caul being usually called Sheer-Wurt or Sheer-Caul that will continually yield you a green Mess whenever you have occasion and deserves a place in your Kitchin Garden and is raised of Seed as the other There is also a sort of Caul that is very much curled and is very good and by some much esteem'd But the German Colewort exceeds all other for its delicate Taste and its hardiness against the greatest severity of the Winter although not yet commonly propagated There is a Species of Cauls much more excellent Of Cauly-flowers than any of the former which are Cauliflowers which merit a far greater esteem at the Table than the Cabbage for a time their prime Season lasts not above two Months But afterwards the Cabbage becomes a better Dish which is welcome to any Man's Table six Months together and the Sprouts and green Caul all the residue of the year Their Seeds are sown in August or September on Beds where they may be defended all the Winter by Mats or other close Shelter to preserve them from Frosts In the Spring about the end of March it is a good time to plant them out in Plants where they should stand which in a dripping Spring or by diligent watering will yield you fair Flowers but if they are not watered they will bring forth ragged and divided Flowers You may Sow their Seed in February on a hot Bed and have Flowers within a Month after those that were Sown before Winter Those that are of one growth usually Flower about a time which to prevent you may remove some of your Plants once every Fortnight for two three or four times as you think good which will keep them back from Flowring and so you may have them one after
any good defence then will they be fit for use before that time Those that are sown in March or April in good rich Land will head very well yet it is said they will head better if transplanted whilst they are young although some are of another opinion Lettuce sown in the Autumn then transplanted and preserv'd over the Winter will head in the Spring before any that are sown and transplanted in the Spring The sorts of Lettuce that are usually accounted are the Cabbage Lumbard Roman Arabian Savoy Rose Red and Curled Lettuice You may blanch the largest Roman Lettuce when they are at their full growth by binding them up with Straw or raw Hemp or by covering them with Earthen Pots fit to enclose them and afterwards heating the Pots with long Dung Purslain in some moist Islands between the Of Purslain Tropicks is a natural wild Plant but here in England is propagated with some difficulty and used as an excellent Sallad It is tender in the Spring the Frosts usually nipping it but rather the drought or small dew Snails for I have known more than once the Seeds of Purslain that have been spontaneously fallen in the Autumn to flourish in the Spring notwithstanding the Winter which indeed was not very severe But to have it early you may sow it on the hot Bed or in April in any rich soil finely dressed and after the Seeds are sown to clap over the Bed with the back of your Spade and water it for it delighteth in moisture If it be sown thin or transplanted apart it will yield you fair Plants either for Seed or to pickle or to boyl When the Seed looks very black then gather the stalks and lay them abroad in the Sun which will the better maturate the Seed lay them on a Board or Cloth to preserve them from spilling and house them in the night and expose them in the day until they are ripe It is said that the Seed of three or four years old is better than the new Corn Sallad is well known to be an early Corn Sallad and excellent Sallad in the first of the Spring it is first raised by sowing of its Seed but afterwards it will sow it self Spinage is known to be an excellent Herb Spinage crude or boyl'd it is raised of Seed sown early in the Spring but much better if sown in September that it may gain strength to withstand the Winter as is by some affirm'd these Winter Plants are fittest for the Lent season the Spring Plants for the Summer Endive Succory Beets and Orach are all Endive c. them good Sallads boyl'd and are raised of Seeds in the Spring Of Sorrel there are several sorts but the Sorrel largest is most proper for your Garden serving for many uses in the Kitchin it 's raised most easily of Plants which should not be set too near it being apt to spread and grow large There is an Herb called Patience that is Patience planted by Sets in some Gardens and makes a very good boyl'd Sallad Borrage and Bugloss are very well known for Borrage and Bugloss the excellent properties of their Leaves and Blossoms and are not to want a Room amongst your best Gulinary Herbs Chervil may be sown in the hot Bed to make Chervil an early Sallad or in March for other times The Seed lies long in the ground you may therefore sow it at several times that you may have it young and tender throughout the Summer This Sallad is much preferr'd for its fine biting taste before many other dull Herbs There is another sort of it called sweet Chervil Allisanders are sown in the Spring and live Allisander Sceleri over the succeeding Winter and are blanch'd by surrounding them with long Dung or covering them with Pots and then are they fit to make an excellent Sallad after the same manner is Sceleri ordered Some set the Plants deep in the ground as before was directed for the Leeks Thus Beets Succory Endive Lettuce and these two Plants so blanch'd make very good Sallads Smallage is an Herb some use in their Pottage Smallage and is raised by Seed But Parsley is the most universally used in Parsley the Kitchin of all Garden Herbs Pliny said of it so long since that scarce any man there was but loved it and that it was in so great repute in his time that in Achaia they honoured it by Crowning the Victors in their sacred Games with Chaplets of it and as divers were the opinions of Physicians then as now of the vertues and qualities of it This however we know that it is an excellent Ingredient in most Pottages Sawces and Sallads its way of sowing is genernlly known Nasturtium or Garden Cresses are sown in Garden Cresses many Gardens for culinary uses Nasturtium Indicum Indian Cresses or Yellow Indian Cresses Lark-spurs from a Flower are now become an acceptable Sallad as well the Leaf as the Blossom They are raised for early Sallads in the hot Bed but sown in April will grow very well on ordinary garden-Garden-ground and give you a plentiful encrease of Leaves and Blossoms The Buds before they are throughly blown are an excellent Sallad pickled as Clove Gilliflowers and Cowslip Blossoms usually are Tarragon for its fine biting tast is much used Tarragon by some in their Sallads and is encreased by Cions and Tops There are several other Herbs that are nourished and propagated in Gardens for the use of the Kitchin as Blood-wort Clary Arach Lang de beuf Nep Violets Strawberries Carraways Fennel Dill Mustard-seed Rocket Rampions Ramsons Sage of Jerusalem and Marigolds The Methods of raising and increasing them being so well known as also their Uses that it would be superfluous here to describe them CHAP. VII Of Sweet Herbs BEsides all those before mentioned there Of sweet Herbs are divers sweet Herbs as they are termed that are very necessary for the compounding many excellent Condiments and to add a relish to the best Pottage which shall be here briefly enumerated Garden Mints were universally used for Sauces Of Mints in Pliny's time and much commended for their singular Vertues especially the young red Buds in the Spring with a due proportion of Vinegar and Sugar refresh the Spirits and stirreth up the Appetite and is one of the best Sallads the Garden affords There are divers sorts of Mints but the red Garden Mint is the best Sage is also an Herb or Shrub much used in Of Sage the Kitchin and the young Leaves thereof especially of the red Sage is a very wholsome Sallad in the Spring The Slips thereof planted in April or May are very apt to grow There are several sorts of Sage the red green small and variegated but the red is the best for most uses Of Marjoram there are several kinds the Of Marjoram fine sweet which is yearly raised of Seed sown in May the vulgar sweet
be rotten and hath its Acidity abated or digested Straw or any dry Vegetables become rotten Straw and mix'd with Earth maketh it light and fit for your choicest Anemonies and all fibrous rooted Flowers Tobacco dried or cur'd and afterwards Tobacco mix'd with your Garden-mould will doubtless exceedingly enrich it For it is of a very high and strong nature and containeth much of a Volatile Nitrous Salt in it and is reported to be equally as effectual in the tanning of Leather as the Bark of the Oak which if it be true as I have no reason to doubt it it may prove a considerable Improvement of many Country Farms and of great benefit and advantage to the Nation in general either of which Uses is better than that to which it is now usually put unto SECT I. Of Watering Gardens BEsides the Mixture of several Materials Fat Waters and Composts with Land to make it fruitful you may add enriched Waters which serve where you cannot conveniently change your Ground or remove your Plant as in several Flower-trees and Artichoaks Asparagus c. That Water is very good that is taken out of standing Pools where Cattel usually resort to shade or cool themselves in hot Weather and leave their Dung in it which by the stirring of their Feet enricheth the Water Ducks and Geese also much improve standing Pools where they frequent Several Waters may be prepared in which you may steep or macerate your Seeds or Pulse to make them sprout the sooner or come the fairer and with the same Water may you irrigate your Ground Many Receipts there are to that end I shall only mention some of them Take Sheeps Dung well dissolved in warm Water and after it hath stood twelve Hours strain it through a course Cloth with compression for it is so slimy that it comes through with difficulty therefore I suppose a Decantation may serve To two or three Gallons of this Liquor add a handful of Bay-salt and somewhat a lesser proportion of Salt-petre and let them both be dissolved in the former Water which to expedite let it be made luke-warm and stirred often in which Liquor let your Seeds lie for twenty four hours or more till they are throughly swelled Pulse need not lie so long Then take out your Seeds or Pulse and expose them thinly on some Floor to the Air not the Sun until they be half dry then sow them It is also prescribed that the remainder of the Sheeps Dung that was not made liquid should be dried and calcined and the fix'd Salt extracted out of it and added to the former Composition but it 's more probable that another parcel of Sheeps Dung calcined would yield more and better Salt than the remaining part of the dissolved Dung. This latter part makes the process too difficult and troublesom and adds but little to the vertue of it any other fixed Salt having the same effect as that so hard to be obtained This Liquor is more effectual for the watering of Plants than it is for the maceration of Seeds and so are any other salt Waters Some add a greater quantity of Salt-petre and Bay-salt some only Salt-petre others use Pigeons Dung in stead of Sheeps Dung also Lime-water after that manner enrich'd with Sheeps Dung Pigeons Dung or Neats Dung is equal in vertue if not exceeding that to which Salt-petre or Bay-salt is added Every Husbandman hath experimented the Effect of Lime the Salt only extracted by the Rains enriching the Earth occasioning so plentiful a Crop the other remaining part like a Caput Mortuum only tempereth the Land for the future and maketh it more sad where before it was too light which if the Land did not require it then doth Lime after its Salt is wasted much injury to the Land whereon it is laid Nitre or Salt-petre only dissolv'd in Water a Pound to four or five Gallons is held to be very effectual to enrich barren Mould This agrees with our Observations about Earth covered with Building or otherwise defended from Sun and Rain for the generation of Nitre Some commend the sprinkling of Milk and Rain-water on the Beds first sifted over with Lime pulverized whether by pounding or slacking with Water it mattereth not neither of which can improve or abate the vertue or quantity of its Salt the thing we desire and after every Watering sifting more Lime This way may not be amiss for such Lands that the Caput Mortuum of the Lime remaining after the Salt is extracted will not prejudice and for such Plants that the Lime lying on the Ground will not injure The Milk may be left out not signifying so much as the value of it amounts unto the Liquor wherein Flesh Meats whether Fresh or Salt have been boyled is much better and easier obtained The Salt of Lime extracted with Water in some large wooden Vessel containeth in it the same improving Vertue and is less troublesom to make use of and free from the Inconveniences that attend the other way Much more might be said concerning these improving Liquids as well as Solids but that the most learned and experienc'd of Rural or Mr Evelyn Hortulane Authors hath lately been very copious on the same Subject Only I may here advise the unexperienced not to water his Plants in either Garden with a cold Spring or Well-water if he can obtain any other which if he cannot then to expose this to the Sun or Air some time before he useth it or enrich it by some pinguid Mixtures as Lime Ashes Dung or such like which will quickly qualifie it for his purpose by abating the sudden Coldness of it to the Plant For it is a very great Injury to most tender Plants to be diluted with cold Water from the Well or Spring and checks their Growth exceedingly as may be observed in a bleeding Vine to the naked Roots of which if you pour store of cold Spring or Well-water it suddenly checks the ascension of the Sap by means whereof the Bleeding ceaseth and the Wound consolidates again before the more liberal ascent of the Sap much more then will it check the Growth of a weak Herb or Flower Also as it is observed to sow in the Dust whereby the Seeds gradually swell from the cold Dews of the Night and Air and are made ready to sprout with the next Rains so it is not good to water new-sown Seeds until the long defect of Showers invite you to it lest you wash off the Earth from them before they have sprouted whereby they fasten themselves the better to endure a Watering Some Seeds as Radish Lettuce Gilliflower-seed c. remain not long in the Earth and therefore may in two or three Days for want of Rain be watered by hand but Tulip Auricula Parsley Carrot-seed c. lie longer in the Ground and require not so speedy an Irrigation All Seed ought to be watered by the smallest or Rain-like Drops as you can and not too much
Microscope he found it to be a great heap of exceeding small Seeds globular and pretty transparent Ninety Thousand whereof extended in length take up no more room than the length of one single Barley-corn or a quarter of an Inch and Twelve Millions of the same Seeds laid quadrangularly cover no more of a Superficies than one square inch And 1382400000 weighing only one Grain Eighty of these superficies of Seeds make but the thickness of a piece of fine Paper so that they be laid in a trigonal order as most round Bodies usually place themselves that is the round part of the Seed bearing on the concave distance between the Seeds in the neather laying For the truth of which Observations and Narration the same Author appeals to your own Sense and Reason in case you make use of those artificial Helps he hath for that purpose But his Conclusion is somewhat doubtful that these Seeds being thus small may be carried in the Air from place to place even to the tops of the highest Towers or places remote and be there sown from whence he supposeth proceeds the growth of Moss and doth not consider that these Seeds being globular and transparent an Argument of their solidity and weightiness are as uncapable of being drawn up into the Air and carried far as the Seeds of Pease Radish Purslain Thyme Marjoram c. For their smalness is rather an impediment to their Transportation than a help and we find that such Seeds that have a Down or Hair with them are more usually carried away with the moving Air as those of Thistles Lettuce Carrots c. than those that are more solid and naked Nor needeth there any such help as that of Seed to beget Moss for it may as well naturally proceed from any place prone for it as Plants of greater Bulk it being not unusual for Oak Beech Holly Birch and such like to grow plentifully out of the Ground where other Trees of another kind have been lately felled from a natural Inclination of the Earth and not from Seeds brought thither by the Air the Seeds of Oak Beech and Holly being too big for that purpose The same may be observed in Ground inclinable to Broom which being thoroughly eradicated and taken away and the Ground plowed sown and cleansed for several Years yet laid up for some time will naturally yield Broom yet those Seeds uncapable of being carried in the Air. Also if that be true that all Plants are procured Evelin 's Philo. Discourse of Earth of Seed it may be question'd how so great a quantity of the Erysimum or Irio should be sown in the Ruines after the late great Conflagration in London where it was observed that more of it grew there than was known to be in all Europe besides This plentiful encrease of this Plant which is not a Denizen in England and observed not to grow plentifully any where but at Naples and that in the time of Fabius Colonna could not well be produced of Seed unless you will imagine that the Seeds of most Plants pass with the Air over Sea and Land But the great variety of spontaneous Productions of the Earth in different Years different Seasons and different ways of tilling the Earth and its various Generations also of Insects and small Animals although these also may be raised of Seed and by propagation is enough to convince the Intelligent that Moss may be a natural spontaneous Production or Excrescence out of Trees Plants Soil or any thing else capable to bear it and that it may be occasioned by the defect of a liberal expence of the Sap or Juices another way Besides the ordinary way of killing Moles Moles to destroy with Traps you may in the Spring of the Year when they are most busie and in their Work cast them alive out with a Paddle-staff made for that purpose by standing very still whilst they work for the least motion of the Ground disturbs them they having the want of their sight supplied in their hearing and feeling They do much mischief in a Garden and the setting of Traps or digging them out doth also prejudice your Garden therefore the best way is as soon as you perceive that they have made way into your Garden and that they are retired as in the latter part of the day they usually do into the adjacent Grounds where they lie more quiet and out of fear open their common Passages and smoak them well with Brimstone Rosin Pitch or such like combustible Matter with Onions Garlick or such like mixed with it and close up the Holes or Passages This will deter them from your Garden as I have tried and make them take to some other place or you may take a dead Mole and lay it in the Haunt and that will operate the same effect To prevent the encreases of Carterpillars Caterpillars to destroy them where you find any of their Puckets which adhere to the Twigs of Trees in which they lay their Eggs all the Winter as Silk Worms do in their Bags take them off and burn them for the approaching Sun in the Spring gives life to those pernicious Animals who multiply exceedingly But if the Year be dry and prone to the generation of Insects these Vermin are apt to be bred in abundance on Cabbages Caulyflowers c. which to prevent there is nothing so effectual as watring for in dripping Years they are not so apt to breed as in dry To destroy Caterpillars on Trees it is said An ingenious way to destroy them that if you make a Ring of Tar towards the bottom of your Tree then hang a Bag full of Pismires on the Tree that they may easily get out and when they cannot get down by reason of the Tar rather than they will starve for hunger they will eat up all the Caterpillars which if true it is like the falling upon Scylla to avoid Charibdis Several sorts of Flowers are apt to turn Running of Colours White by long standing or removing into bad Ground as Red and Purple Primroses Blew Violets Sweet-williams Gillyflowers c. which proceedeth from scarcity of nourishment there requiring good nourishment to maintain the dark Colours as in Tulips the best and lightest Colours are preserved by the more barren Earth when a rich Soil turneth them to a plain dark Colour But always observe that change of Soil preserves variety of Colours so that it be to the degrees of fatter or leaner as you would have your Flowers incline to darker or lighter Colours It is observed that there is more of White Of the variety of Colours in Flowers than of any other Colour in Flowers and least of Green that being the general Colour although in different Shades of all Leaves of Plants except some few Rarities that are Red or White leaved as Red Sage White Marjorum Amarantbus and some variegated Plants In Flowers from White there are all sorts of Shades to the
tho' the Seed were naught which if sown in the Dust and a Shower happen in three or four days after those Seeds tho' never so meanly covered rarely fail only here you may take notice that such Seeds that are apt to be devoured by Birds as those of Cabbages Turneps Radishes c. if they lie long before a Shower come or be watred by hand have need of some defence from their Devourers Many sorts of Trees and Flowers naturally Of making and taking off of Off-sets or Suckers afford Off-sets or Suckers from their Roots by which their kinds are propagated some there are that afford them very plentifully even to excess as the Dwarf Almond Hypericum Frutex and several others and some there are that rarely yield any as the Mezerion Althea Fruticosa c. It is therefore worthy of knowledge to understand how to cause Trees that will not naturally afford such Off-sets to emit them from their Roots the way prescribed is thus Make bare the Roots of the Plant of woody substance and then make an Incision on the upper-side of the naked Root as you do on the under side of a Branch which you intend to lay make the Incision from the Tree downwards and put a small Stone or Stick under the Lip to keep the Cleft open then cover the Root over about three Inches with good Mould and as the Lip in a Branch that is laid will send forth Fibrous Roots so will this as ingenious Planters affirm send forth Branches which with the Root out of which it springs may be transplanted securely Some Plants there are which are propagated Of propagating of Plants by Cuttings or encreased by Cuttings as most sorts of Garden-Herbs and some Trees as Evergreen Privett Jassamines Laurel Woodbine c. and some Flowers as Wall-Flowers Periwinkles c. The best time for encreasing Herbs and tender Plants by this way is in the Spring and from that time till the Autumn only observe that if you set any Slips or Cuttings in hot or dry Weather you must be careful to water and shade them but woody Plants that bear Leaves should be slipt or cut and planted some time before they begin to shoot as the Woodbine in the Autumn and Jassamines Laurels c. In the Spring Plants propagated this way emit their Fibrous Roots at a Joint therefore it is best to cut them off just at or below a Joynt and they will take root the sooner for so much Wood beyond the place of rooting is apt to rot and hinder the young Fibres If your Tree be so high and stubborn that Of Propagation by Circumposition its Branches will not stoop to the Ground then it is convenient to raise the Earth to the Branch you intend to propagate but first take off the Bark of the Sprigs or Branch as near as you can to the Stem of the Tree for the better supporting the weight of the Earth If you cannot conveniently place it so near the Trunk of the Tree you may support it with some Stake or the like then take a Box Basket old Hat Boot or the like and place it so that the Branch may go through the middle of it and that the disbarked or cut place may be also in the middle then prick the Bark on the upper side of the Cut with an Awl or such like Tool to cause the Branch more easily to emit its fibrous Roots then fill the Vessel with good Mould and in dry Weather water it sometimes This Application is most proper to be done before the Sap begins to rise and the end of the Bark of the Branch you intend to take off will before the Autumn be furnished with Roots enough to feed it without the assistance of the old Tree then saw or cut it off and plant it as you desire Those that delight in blanched Lettuce may To blanch Lettuce blanch them with expedition by covering every Plant with a small Earthen Pot and laying hot Soil upon them It is thus prescribed Sow it in the Spring upon To blanch Succary the Borders and when it hath six Leaves replant it in rich Ground about eighteen Inches distance each Plant from the other paring them at the tops When they are grown so large as to cover the Ground tie them up in several places with long Straw or raw Hemp at several times as they grow fair leaving the other to grow larger Or you may gently bind them and take away the Earth on one side of each Plant and couch it down gently without bruising the Leaves and so cover it with Earth and it will become white in a little time without running to Seed Couch them all one way and then they will not hinder one another To blanch them for the Winter it is thus prescribed At the first Frosts tie them after the former way about eight Days after make a Trench about the height of your Plant then pluck up your Plants and place them in this Trench range them side by side a little shelving as they may gently touch Cover them with rotten Dung of the same Bed they were sown in you may make Trench after Trench till you have finished Then cover the whole Bed four Fingers thick with hot Dung from the Stable and in a short time they will be blanched To preserve them from rotting you may cover them with Mats placed aslant to cast off the great Rains Or you may take them into the House and cover them with Sand in some Cellar observing to place them with the tops downwards that the Sand may not run in between the Leaves Let the Sand cover them four Fingers thick when you take them up shake them well with the Root upmost that all the Sand may fall out from the Leaves Cover the Plants with reasonable warm Dung To blanch Endive draw them out at the first appearance of Frost then keep them in Sand in your Cellar Or when they are grown to some reasonable greatness before they shoot out any Stalks for Seed take them up and the Roots being cut away lay them to wither for three or four Hours and then bury them in Sand so as none of them may lie one upon another or touch one another they will by this means change whitish and thereby become very tender THE GARDENER'S Monthly Directions Shewing what is NECESSARY to be DONE Throughout the YEAR IN Sowing Planting and Propagating the most Valuable of the Shrubs Flowers Esculents and other Hortensian Plants before treated of And what Ornamental Trees and Flowers Are in their PRIME in each MONTH LONDON Printed for William Freeman at the Bible over against the Middle Temple-gate in Fleet-street 1700. THE PREFACE AT the first publishing this small Treatise it was not my Intention to have added a Kalendar by reason that I had composed a large one for Husbandry in general which was printed at the end of my Systema Agriculturae which contained many