380 381 ATURAL HISTORY. CENTURY V. Experiments in consort touching the acceleration of We will now inquire of plants or vegetables: and we shall do it with diligence. They are the principal part of the third day's work. They are the first producat, which is the word of animation: for the other words are but the words of essence: and they are of excellent and general use for food, medicine, and a number of mechanical arts. 401. There were sown in a bed, turnip-seed, radishseed, wheat, cucumber-seed, and peas. The bed we call a hot-bed, and the manner of it is this: there was taken horse-dung, old and well rotted; this was laid upon a bank half a foot high, and supported round about with planks; and upon the top was cast sifted earth, some two fingers deep; and then the seed sprinkled upon it, having been steeped all night in water mixed with cow-dung. The turnip-seed and the wheat came up half an inch above ground within two days after, without any watering. The rest the third day. The experiment was made in October; and, it may be, in the spring, the accelerating would have been the speedier. This is a noble experiment; for without this help they would have been four times as long in coming up. But there doth not occur to me, at this present, any use thereof for profit; except it should be for sowing of peas, which have their price very much increased by the early coming. It may be tried also with cherries, strawberries, and other fruit, which are dearest when they come early. 402. There was wheat steeped in water mixed with cow-dung; other in water mixed with horse-dung; ancients of credit, that a sacrificed beast hath lowed after the heart hath been severed; and it is a report also of credit, that the head of a pig hath been opened, and the brain put into the palm of a man's hand, trembling, without breaking any part of it, or severing it from the marrow of the back-bone; during which time the pig hath been, in all appearance, stark dead, and without motion; and after a small time the brain hath been replaced, and the skull of the pig closed, and the pig hath a little after gone about. And certain it is, that an eye upon revenge hath been thrust forth, so as it hanged a pretty distance by the visual nerve; and during that time the eye hath been without any power of sight; and yet after being replaced recovered sight. Now the spirits are chiefly in the head and cells of the brain, which in men and beasts are large; and therefore, when the head is off, they move little or nothing. But birds have small heads, and therefore the spirits are a little more dispersed in the sinews, whereby motion remaineth in them a little longer; insomuch, as it is extant in story, that an emperor of Rome, to shew the certainty of his hand, did shoot a great forked arrow at an ostrich, as she ran swiftly upon the stage, and struck off her head; and yet she continued the race a little way with the head off. As for worms, and flies, and eels, the spirits are diffused almost all over; and therefore they move in their several pieces. early. And it is like the same effect would follow in other berries, herbs, flowers, grains, or trees. And therefore it is an experiment, though vulgar in strawberries, yet not brought into use generally: for it is usual to help the ground with muck; and likewise to recomfort it sometimes with muck put to the roots; but to water it with muck water, which is like to be more forcible, is not practised. 404. Dung, or chalk, or blood, applied in substance, seasonably, to the roots of trees, doth set them forwards. But to do it unto herbs, without mixture of water or earth, it may be these helps are too hot. 405. The former means of helping germination, are either by the goodness and strength of the nourishment; or by the comforting and exciting the spirits in the plant to draw the nourishment better. And of this latter kind, concerning the comforting of the spirits of the plant, are also the experiments that follow; though they be not applications to the root or seed. The planting of trees warm upon a wall against the south, or south-east sun, doth hasten their coming on and ripening; and the south-east is found to be better than the south-west, though the south-west be the hotter coast. But the cause is chiefly, for that the heat of the morning succeedeth the cold of the night: and partly, because many times the south-west sun is too parching. So likewise the planting of them upon the back of a chimney where a fire is kept, doth hasten their coming on and ripening: nay more, the drawing of the boughs into the inside of a room where a fire is continually kept, worketh the same effect; which hath been tried with grapes; insomuch as they will come a month earlier than the grapes abroad. 406. Besides the two means of accelerating germination formerly described; that is to say, the mending of the nourishment; and comforting of the spirit of the plant; there is a third, which is the making way for the easy coming to the nourishment, and drawing it. And therefore gentle digging and loosening of the earth about the roots of trees; and the removing herbs and flowers into new earth once in two years, which is the same thing, for the new earth is ever looser, doth greatly further the prospering and earliness of plants. 407. But the most admirable acceleration by facilitating the nourishment is that of water. For a standard of a damask rose with the root on, was set in a chamber where no fire was, upright in an earthen pan, full of fair water, without any mixture, half a foot under the water, the standard being more than two foot high above the water: within the space of ten days the standard did put forth a fair green leaf, and some other little buds, which stood at a stay, without any shew of decay or withering, more than seven days. But afterwards that leaf faded, but the young buds did sprout on; which afterward opened into fair leaves in the space of three months; and continued so a while after, till upon removal we left the trial. But note, that the leaves were somewhat paler and lighter-coloured than the leaves used to be abroad. Note, that the first buds were in the end of October; and it is likely that if it had been in the spring time, it would have put forth with greater strength, and, it may be, to have grown on to bear flowers. By this means you may have, as it seemeth, roses set in the midst of a pool, being supported with some stay; which is matter of rareness and pleasure, though of small use. This is the more strange, for that the like rose-standard was put at the same time into water mixed with horse-dung, the horsedung about the fourth part to the water, and in four months space, while it was observed, put not forth any leaf, though divers buds at the first, as the other. 408. A Dutch flower that had a bulbous root, was likewise put at the same time all under water, some two or three fingers deep; and within seven days sprouted, and continued long after further growing. There were also put in, a beet-root; a borage-root, and a radish-root, which had all their leaves cut almost close to the roots; and within six weeks had fair leaves; and so continued till the end of November. 409. Note, that if roots, or peas, or flowers, may be accelerated in their coming and ripening, there is a double profit; the one in the high price that those things bear when they come early: the other in the swiftness of their returns: for in some grounds which are strong, you shall have a radish, etc. come in a month, that in other grounds will not come in two, and so make double returns. 410. Wheat also was put into the water, and came not forth at all; so as it seemeth there must be some strength and bulk in the body put into the water, as it is in roots; for grains, or seeds, the cold of the water will mortify. But casually some wheat lay under the pan, which was somewhat moistened by the suing of the pan; which in six weeks, as aforesaid, looked mouldy to the eye, but it was sprouted forth half a finger's length. 411. It seemeth by these instances of water, that for nourishment the water is almost all in all, and that the earth doth but keep the plant upright, and save it from over-heat and over-cold; and therefore is a comfortable experiment for good drinkers. It proveth also that our former opinion, that drink incorporate with flesh or roots, as in capon-beer, etc. will nourish more easily, than meat and drink taken severally. 412. The housing of plants, I conceive, will both accelerate germination, and bring forth flowers and plants in the colder seasons: and as we house hotcountry plants, as lemons, oranges, myrtles, to save them; so we may house our own country plants, to forward them, and make them come in the cold seasons; in such sort, that you may have violets, strawberries, peas, all winter: so that you sow or remove them at fit times. This experiment is to be referred unto the comforting of the spirit of the plant by warmth, as well as housing their boughs, etc. So then the means to accelerate germination, are in particular eight, in general three. Experiments in consort touching the putting back or 413. To make roses, or other flowers come late, it is an experiment of pleasure. For the ancients esteemed |