most of those fruits that use to be grafted, if they be set of kernels, or stones, degenerate. It is true that peaches, as hath been touched before, do better upon stones set than upon grafting; and the rule of excéption should seem to be this: that whatsoever plant requireth much moisture, prospereth better upon the stone or kernel, than upon the graft. For the stock, though it giveth a finer nourishment, yet it giveth a scanter than the earth at large.

520. SEEDS, if they be very old, and yet have strength enough to bring forth a plant, make the plant degenerate. And therefore skilful gardeners make trial of the seeds before they buy them, whether they be good or no, by putting them into water gently boiled; and if they be good, they will sprout within half an hour.

521. It is strange which is reported, that basil too much exposed to the sun doth turn into wild thyme; although those two herbs seem to have small affinity; but basil is almost the only hot herb that hath fat and succulent leaves; which oiliness, if it be drawn forth by the sun, it is like it will make a very great change.

522. THERE is an old tradition, that boughs of oak put into the earth will put forth wild vines: which if it be true, no doubt, it is not the oak that turneth into a vine, but the oak-bough putrifying, qualifieth the earth to put forth a vine of itself.

523. It is not impossible, and I have heard it verified, that upon cutting down of an old timber tree, the stub hath put out sometimes a tree of another kind; as that beech hath put forth birch; which, if it be true, the cause may be, for that the old stub is too scant of juice to put forth the former tree; and therefore putteth forth a tree of a smaller kind, that needeth less nourishment.

524. THERE is an opinion in the country, that if the same ground be oft sown with the grain that grew upon it, it will in the end grow to be of a baser kind.

525. It is certain, that in very steril years corn sown will grow to another kind.

Grandia sæpe quibus mandavimus hordea sulcis, Infelix lolium, et steriles dominantur avenæ. And generally it is a rule, that plants that are brought forth by culture, as corn, will sooner change into other species, than those that come of themselves; for that culture giveth but an adventitious nature, which is more easily put off.

THIS work of the transmutation of plants one into another, is inter magnalia natura; for the transmutation of species is, in the vulgar philosophy, pronounced impossible: and certainly it is a thing of difficulty, and requireth deep search into nature; but seeing there appear some manifest instances of it, the opinion of impossibility is to be rejected, and the means thereof to be found out. We see, that in living creatures, that come of putrefaction, there is much transmutation of one into another; as caterpillars turn into flies, etc. And it should seem probable, that whatsoever creature, having life, is generated without seed, that creature will change out of one species into another. For it is the seed, and the nature of it, which locketh and boundeth in the creature, that it doth not expatiate. So as we may well conclude, that seeing the earth of itself doth put forth plants without seed, therefore plants may well have a transmigration of species. Wherefore, wanting instances which do occur, we shall give directions of the most likely trials and generally we would not have those that read this our work of Sylva sylvarum account it strange, or think that it is an over-haste, that we have set down particulars untried; for contrariwise, in our own estimation, we account such particulars more worthy than those that are already tried and known for these latter must be taken as you find them; but the other do level point-blank at the inventing of causes and axioms.

526. FIRST therefore, you must make account, that if you will have one plant change into another, you must have the nourishment over-rule the seed: and therefore you are to practise it by nourishments as contrary as may be to the nature of the herb, so

nevertheless as the herb may grow; and likewise with seeds that are of the weakest sort, and have least vigour. You shall do well, therefore, to take marshherbs, and plant them upon tops of hills and champaigns; and such plants as require much moisture, upon sandy and very dry grounds. As for example, marsh-mallows and sedge, upon hills; cucumber, and lettuce seeds, and coleworts, upon a sandy plot; so contrariwise, plant bushes, heath, ling, and brakes, upon a wet or marsh ground. This I conceive also, that all esculent and garden herbs, set upon the tops of hills, will prove more medicinal, though less esculent, than they were before. And it may be likewise, some wild herbs you may make sallad herbs. This is the first rule for transmutation of plants.

527. THE second rule shall be, to bury some few seeds of the herb you would change, amongst other seeds; and then you shall see whether the juice of those other seeds do not so qualify the earth, as it will alter the seed whereupon you work. As for example, put parsley seed amongst onion seed, or lettuce seed amongst parsley seed, or basil seed amongst thyme seed; and see the change of taste or otherwise. But you shall do well to put the seed you would change into a little linen cloth, that it mingle not with the foreign seed.

528. THE third rule shall be, the making of some medley or mixture of earth with some other plants bruised or shaven either in leaf or root; as for example, make earth with a mixture of colewort leaves stamped, and set in it artichokes or parsnips; so take earth made with marjoram, or origanum, or wild thyme, bruised or stamped, and set in it fennel seed, etc. In which operation the process of nature still will be, as I conceive, not that the herb you work upon should draw the juice of the foreign herb, for that opinion we have formerly rejected, but that there will be a new confection of mold, which perhaps will alter the seed, and yet not to the kind of the former herb.

529. THE fourth rule shall be, to mark what herbs

some earths do put forth of themselves; and to take that earth, and to pot it, or to vessel it; and in that to set the seed you would change: as for example, take from under walls or the like, where nettles put forth in abundance, the earth which you shall there find, without any string or root of the nettles; and pot that earth, and set in it stock-gilly-flowers, or wall-flowers, etc. or sow in the seeds of them; and see what the event will be: or take earth that you have prepared to put forth mushrooms of itself, whereof you shall find some instances following, and sow in it purslane seed, or lettuce seed; for in these experiments, it is likely enough that the earth being accustomed to send forth one kind of nourishment, will alter the new seed.

530. THE fifth rule shall be, to make the herb grow contrary to its nature; as to make ground-herbs rise in height: as for example, carry camomile, or wild thyme, or the green strawberry, upon sticks, as you do hops upon poles; and see what the event will be.

531. THE Sixth rule shall be, to make plants grow out of the sun or open air; for that is a great mutation in nature, and may induce a change in the seed: as barrel up earth, and sow some seed in it, and put it in the bottom of a pond; or put it in some great hollow tree; try also the sowing of seeds in the bottoms of caves; and pots with seeds sown, hanged up in wells some distance from the water, and see what the event will be.

Experiments in consort touching the procerity, and lowness, and artificial dwarfing of trees.

532. IT is certain, that timber trees in coppice woods grow more upright, and more free from underboughs, than those that stand in the fields: the cause whereof is, for that plants have a natural motion to get to the sun; and besides, they are not glutted with too much nourishment; for that the coppice shareth with them; and repletion ever hindereth stature: lastly, they are kept warm; and that ever in plants helpeth mounting,

533. TREES that are of themselves full of heat, which heat appeareth by their inflammable gums, as firs and pines, mount of themselves in height without side-boughs, till they come towards the top. The cause is partly heat, and partly tenuity of juice, both which send the sap upwards. As for juniper, it is but a shrub, and groweth not big enough in body to maintain a tall tree.

534. IT is reported, that a good strong canvas, spread over a tree grafted low, soon after it putteth forth, will dwarf it, and make it spread. The cause is plain; for that all things that grow, will grow as they find room.

535. TREES are generally set of roots or kernels; but if you set them of slips, as of some trees you may, by name the mulberry, some of the slips will take; and those that take, as is reported, will be dwarf trees. The cause is, for that a slip draweth nourishment more weakly than either a root or kernel.

536. ALL plants that put forth their sap hastily, have their bodies not proportionable to their length; and therefore they are winders and creepers; as ivy, briony, hops, woodbine: whereas dwarfing requireth a slow putting forth, and less vigour of mounting.

Experiments in consort touching the rudiments of plants, and of the excrescences of plants, or super-plants.

THE Scripture saith, that Solomon wrote a Natural History, from the cedar of Libanus, to the moss growing upon the wall: for so the best translations have it. And it is true that moss is but the rudiment of a plant; and, as it were, the mold of earth or bark.

537. Moss groweth chiefly upon ridges of houses tiled or thatched, and upon the crests of walls; and that moss is of a lightsome and pleasant green. The growing upon slopes is caused, for that moss, as on the one side it cometh of moisture and water, so on the other side the water must but slide, and not stand or pool. And the growing upon tiles, or walls, etc. is caused, for that those dried earths, having not moisture