some observations made upon the herb cassiny imported from carolina shewing its admirable virtues in curing the small pox / written by a physitian in the countrey to esq. boyle at london. peachi, john, fl. 1683. 1695 approx. 6 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 5 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2007-10 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a56763 wing p933 estc r27602 09981186 ocm 09981186 44433 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a56763) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 44433) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1337:15) some observations made upon the herb cassiny imported from carolina shewing its admirable virtues in curing the small pox / written by a physitian in the countrey to esq. boyle at london. peachi, john, fl. 1683. boyle, robert, 1627-1691. pechey, john, 1655-1716. 8 p. [s.n.], london : 1695. attributed also to john pechey--nuc pre-1956 imprints. reproduction of original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng ilex vomitoria. botany, medical -north carolina. 2006-03 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2006-05 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2006-09 judith siefring sampled and proofread 2006-09 judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited 2007-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion some observations made upon the herb cassiny ; imported from carolina : shewing its admirable virtues in curing the small pox . written by a physitian in the countrey to esq boyle at london . london , printed in the year 1695. some observations made upon the herb cassiny : shewing its admirable virtues in curing the small pox . in a letter , &c. sir , i am sorry to hear that the small pox is so rise at london , it 's the less wonder to find you so inquisitive after a good specifick remedy in that distemper : i must tell you , i know no better medicine in that case than the famous carolina herb called cassiny . there are abundance of persons now dye of the small pox in our town and countrey , but i attribute it very much to ill management of nurses and ignorant people , who give many hot medicines , under the pretence of driving out , as sack , and saffron , and mithridate , and venice treacle ; by this means they fire the blood into a feavor , and that kills them . i only give a few drops of the tincture of this temperate herb in water-gruel , or in panado , or posset-drink , and do nothing else all the while , but leave it to nature , and i find better success . i have had many in one family down at one time of this loathsome distemper , and all recover'd with this method ; but if any desire to dye with more pompous prescriptions , much good may it do them . the medicines made of this herb do not in the least heat the blood , but rather moderate and gently allay the violent fermentation of it , if it be too high , and yet safely help the expulsive faculty if it be too weak . this specifick keeps them out of the head and throat , and secures the lungs , by helping expectoration . i have often observed , that the slower they are in coming forth , the more dangerous ; and if the salivation or spitting ceaseth before the eleventh day , especially in a flux pox , there is then much more reason to fear the patients being poysoned by the return of the purulent matter inwards : and yet in this extream hazard the tincture of this herb in small beer , and some times in tare broath , hath saved the lives of many . i being once sent for to a boarding-school , where several young gentlewomen , who highly valued their beauty , were surprized with the small pox , i only gave them the drops drawn out of this herb in all their liquid aliment , as water-gruel , and posset-drink , and small beer , and caused them to keep their faces cover'd with their masks all the time , and they recover'd , and preserv'd their complections . i remember that an eminent physitian of london told me an extraordinary case of a court lady of great beauty , a patient of his , who was much afflicted at the death of many who dyed of the small pox , and he was resolved to try a contrary method to what had been taken with those , he kept her moderately warm cover'd with scarlet blankets , omitted bleeding , and caused her to take no more nourishment than would keep her from starving ; her drink was posset-drink , with figgs in it ; her food only bread and water boyl'd together , with seven drops of this specifick which came out of carlina ; he caused a live sheep to be kept in the chamber all the time of her illness , to draw away the malignity ; the sheep dyed , but the lady recover'd , although it was a very unkindly sort , which much threaten'd her life ; the dr. told me he durst never give her any opiate medicine , lest it should stop her spitting , which is the most proper way of evacuation in all sorts of poxes , both great and small . the virtues of this excellent plant are at large mentioned in an account of carolina , and also in the history of the west indies , a latine book written by john delait of antwerp , many years since , who tells us that it 's an admirable dioretick , it also greatly corroborates nature , and helps her to cast off whatever is offensive to the animal and vital spirits , and also it promotes genuine easie sweats , and mild friendly transpirations , preserving the mind serene , and the body active and lively a long while after , without any other nourishment , and none but persons of great quality are permitted to use this noble beverage , which they drink as we do tea and coffee . purchas in his pilgrimage tells us , that at florida , now called carolina , they live to a very great age , and speaks of one of their kings who was three hundred years old ; and whenever the inhabitants of that countrey meet with mournful accidents , or subjects of lamentation , they drink cassiny to chear their hearts . a famous sea-chyrurgeon who came from those parts , had most of his ships passengers taken sick of the small pox , and recover'd them with medicines made with this herb. i have so great an opinion of this plant , that if i had an only child who had the small pox , i would give him the tincture of it in all his drink , and depend upon it under god , as much as i would upon the peruvian bark in a quartan ague . finis . new-englands rarities discovered in birds, beasts, fishes, serpents, and plants of that country : together with the physical and chyrurgical remedies wherewith the natives constantly use to cure their distempers, wounds, and sores : also a perfect description of an indian squa ... with a poem not improperly conferr'd upon her : lastly, a chronological table of the most remarkable passages in that country amongst the english : illustrated with cuts / by john josselyn, gent. josselyn, john, fl. 1630-1675. 1672 approx. 111 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 63 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2004-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a46303 wing j1093 estc r20038 12353958 ocm 12353958 60068 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a46303) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 60068) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 212:3) new-englands rarities discovered in birds, beasts, fishes, serpents, and plants of that country : together with the physical and chyrurgical remedies wherewith the natives constantly use to cure their distempers, wounds, and sores : also a perfect description of an indian squa ... with a poem not improperly conferr'd upon her : lastly, a chronological table of the most remarkable passages in that country amongst the english : illustrated with cuts / by john josselyn, gent. josselyn, john, fl. 1630-1675. [6], 114, [2] p., 1 leaf of plates : ill. printed for g. widdowes ..., london : 1672. advertisements ([2] p.) at end. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng natural history -new england -pre-linnean works. indians of north america -medicine. botany, medical -new england. zoology, medical -new england. 2003-09 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2003-09 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2003-10 mona logarbo sampled and proofread 2003-10 mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-12 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion new-englands rarities discovered : in birds , beasts , fishes , serpents , and plants of that country . together with the physical and chyrurgical remedies wherewith the natives constantly use to cure their distempers , wounds , and sores . also a perfect description of an indian squa , in all her bravery ; with a poem not improperly conferr'd upon her . lastly a chronological table of the most remarkable passages in that country amongst the english . illustrated with cuts . by iohn iosselyn , gent. london , printed for g. widdowes at the green dragon in st. pauls church yard , 1672. to the highly obliging , his honoured friend and kinsman , samuel fortrey esq sir , it was by your assistance ( enabling me ) that i commenc'd a voyage into those remote parts of the world ( known to us by the painful discovery of that memorable gentleman sir fran. drake . ) your bounty then and formerly hath engaged a retribution of my gratitude , and not knowing how to testifie the same unto you otherwayes , i have ( although with some reluctancy ) adventured to obtrude upon you these rude and indigested eight tears observations , wherein whether i shall more shame my self or injure your accurate iudgment and better employment in the perusal , is a question . we read of kings and gods that kindly took a pitcher fill'd with water from the brook. the contemplation whereof ( well-knowing your noble and generous disposition ) hath confirm'd in me the hope that you will pardon my presumption , and accept the tender of the fruits of my travel after this homely manner , and my self as , sir , your highly obliged , & most humble servant , john josselyn . new-englands rarities discovered . in the year of our lord 1663. may 28. upon an invitation from my only brother , i departed from london , and arrived at boston , the chief town in the massachusets , a colony of englishmen in new-england , the 2●… th of iuly following . boston ( whose longitude is 315 deg . and 42 deg . 30 min. of north latitude ) is built on the south-west side of a bay large enough for the anchorage of 500 sail of ships , the buildings are handsome , joyning one to the other as in london , with many large streets , most of them paved with pebble stone , in the high street towards the common there are fair buildings some of stone , and at the east end of the town one amongst the rest , built by the shore by mr. gibs a merchant , being a stately edifice , which it is thought will stand him in little less than 3000 l. before it be fully finished . the town is not divided into parishes , yet they have three fair meeting ▪ houses or churches , which hardly suffice to receive the inhabitants and strangers that come in from all parts . having refreshed my self here for some time , and opportunely lighting upon a passage in a bark belonging to a friend of my brothers , and bound to the eastward , i put to sea again , and on the fifteenth of august i arrived at black-point , otherwise called scarborow , the habitation of my beloved brother , being about an hundred leagues to the eastward of boston ; here i resided eight years , and made it my business to discover all along the natural , physical , and chyrurgical rarities of this new-found world. new-england is said to begin at 40 and to end at 46 of northerly latitude , that is from de la ware bay to new-found-land . the sea coasts are accounted wholsomest , the east and south winds coming from sea produceth warm weather , the northwest coming over land causeth extremity of cold , and many times strikes the inhabitants both english and indian with that sad disease called there the plague of the back , but with us em●…iema . the country generally is rocky and mountanous , and extremely overgrown with wood , yet here and there beautified with large rich valleys , wherein are lakes ten , twenty , yea sixty miles in compass , out of which our great rivers have their beginnings . fourscore miles ( upon a direct line ) to the northwest of scarborow , a ridge of mountains run northwest and northeast an hundred leagues , known by the name of the white mountains , upon which lieth snow all the year , and is a land-mark twenty miles off at sea. it is rising ground from the sea shore to these hills , and they are inaccessible but by the gullies which the dissolved snow hath made ; in these gullies grow saven bushes , which being taken hold of are a good help to the climbing discoverer ; upon the top of the highest of these mountains is a large level or plain of a days journey over , whereon nothing grows but moss ; at the farther end of this plain is another hill called the sugar-loaf , to outward appearance a rude heap of massie stones piled one upon another , and you may as you ascend step from one stone to another , as if you were going up a pair of stairs , but winding still about the hill till you come to the top , which will require half a days time , and yet it is not above a mile , where there is also a level of about an acre of ground , with a pond of clear water in the midst of it ; which you may hear run down , but how it ascends is a mystery . from this rocky hill you may see the whole country round about ; it is far above the lower clouds , and from hence we beheld a vapour ( like a great pillar ) drawn up by the sun beams out of a great lake or pond into the air , where it was formed into a cloud . the country beyond these hills northward is daunting terrible , being full of rocky hills , as thick as mole-hills in a meadow , and cloathed with infinite thick woods . new-england is by some affirmed to be an island , bounded on the north with the river canada ( so called from monsieur cane ) on the south with the river mohegan or hudsons river , so called because he was the first that discovered it . some will have america to be an island , which out of question must needs be , if there be a northeast passage found out into the south sea ; it contains 1152400000 acres . the discovery of the northwest passage ( which lies within the river of canada ) was undertaken with the help of some protestant frenchmen , which left canada and retired to boston about the year 1669. the northeast people of america , i. e. new-england , &c. are judged to be tartars called samoades , being alike in complexion , shape , habit and manners , ( see the globe : ) their language is very significant , using but few words , every word having a diverse signification , which is exprest by their gesture ; as when they hold their head of one side the word signifieth one thing , holding their hand up when they pronounce it signifieth another thing . their speeches in their assemblies are very gravely delivered , commonly in perfect hexamiter verse , with great silence and attention , and answered again ex tempore after the same manner . having given you some short notes concerning the country in general , i shall now enter upon the proposed discovery of the natural , physical , and chyrurgical rarities ; and that i may methodically deliver them unto you , i shall cast them into this form : 1. birds . 2. beasts . 3. fishes . 4. serpents and insects . 5. plants , of these 1. such plants as are common with us , 2. of such plants as are proper to the country , 3. of such plants as are proper to the country and have no name known to us , 4. of such plants as have sprung up since the english planted and kept cattle there , 5. of such garden herbs ( amongst us ) as do thrive there and of such as do not . 6. of stones , minerals , metals ▪ and earths . first , of birds . the humming bird. the humming bird , the least of all birds , little bigger than a dor , of variable glittering colours , they feed upon honey , which they suck out of blossoms and flowers with their long needle-like bills ; they sleep all winter , and are not to be seen till the spring , at which time they breed in little nests made up like a bottom of soft silk-like matter , their eggs no bigger than a white pease , they hatch three or four at a time , and are proper to this country . the troculus . the troculus , a small bird , black and white , no bigger than a swallow , the points of whose feathers are sharp , which they stick into the sides of the chymney ( to rest themselves , their legs being exceeding short ) where they breed in nests made like a swallows nest , but of a glewy substance , and which is not fastened to the chymney as a swallows nest , but hangs down the chymney by a clew-like string a yard long . they commonly have four or five young ones , and when they go away , which is much about the time that swallows use to depart , they never fail to throw down one of their young birds into the room by way of gratitude . i have more than once observed , that against the ruin of the family these birds will suddenly forsake the house and come no more . the pilhannaw . the pilhannaw or mechquan , much like the description of the indian ruck , a monstrous great bird , a kind of hawk , some say an eagle , four times as big as a goshawk , white mail'd , having two or three purple feathers in her head as long as geeses feathers they make pens of , the quills of these feathers are purple , as big as swans quills and transparent ; her head is as big as a child 's of a year old , a very princely bird ; when she soars abroad , all sort of feathered creatures hide themselves , yet she never preys upon any of them , but upon fawns and iaccals : she ayries in the woods upon the high hills of ossapy , and is very rarely or seldome seen . the turkie . the turkie , who is blacker than ours ; i have heard several credible persons affirm , they have seen turkie cocks that have weighed forty , yea sixty pound ; but out of my personal experimental knowledge i can assure you , that i have eaten my share of a turkie cock , that when he was pull'd and garbidg'd , weighed thirty pound ; and i have also seen threescore broods of young turkies on the side of a marsh , sunning of themselves in a morning betimes , but this was thirty years since , the english and the indian having now destroyed the breed , so that 't is very rare to meet with a wild turkie in the woods ; but some of the english bring up great store of the wild kind , which remain about their houses as tame as ours in england . the goose. the goose , of which there are three kinds ; the gray goose , the white goose , and the brant : the goose will live a long time ; i once found in a white goose three hearts , she was a very old one , and so tuff , that we gladly gave her over although exceeding well roasted . the bloody-flux cured . a friend of mine of good quality living sometime in virginia was sore troubled for a long time with the bloody-flux , having tryed several remedies by the advice of his friends without any good effect , at last was induced with a longing desire to drink the fat dripping of a goose newly taken from the fire , which absolutely cured him , who was in despair of ever recovering his health again . the gripe and vulture . the gripe , which is of two kinds , the one with a white head , the other with a black head , this we take for the vulture : they are both cowardly kites , preying upon fish cast up on the shore . in the year 1668. there was a great mortallity of eels in casco bay , thither resorted at the same time an infinite number of gripes , insomuch that being shot by the inhabitants , they fed their hogs with them for some weeks ; at other times you shall seldome see above two or three in a dozen miles travelling . the quill feathers in their wings make excellent text pens , and the feathers of their tail are highly esteemed by the indians for their arrows , they will not sing in flying ; a gripes tail is worth a beavers skin up in the country . a remedy for the coldness and pain of the stomach . the skin of a gripe drest with the doun on , is good to wear upon the stomach for the pain and coldness of it . the osprey . the osprey , which in this country is white mail'd . a remedy for the tooth-ach . their beaks excell for the tooth-ach , picking the gums therewith till they bleed . the wobble . the wobble , an ill shaped fowl , having no long feathers in their pinions , which is the reason they cannot fly , not much unlike the pengwin ; they are in the spring very fat , or rather oyly , but pull'd and garbidg'd , and laid to the fire to roast , they yield not one ▪ drop . for aches . our way ( for they are very soveraign for aches ) is to make mummy of them , that is , to salt them well , and dry them in an earthen pot well glazed in an oven ; or else ( which is the better way ) to bury them under ground for a day or two , then quarter them and stew them in a tin stew●…an with a very little water . the looue . the looue is a water fowl , alike in shape to the wobble , and as virtual for aches , which we order after the same manner . the owl . the owl , avis devia , which are of three kinds ; the great gray owl with ears , the little gray owl , and the white owl which is no bigger than a thrush . the turkie buzzard . the turkie buzzard , a kind of kite , but as big as a turkie , brown of colour , and very good meat . what birds are not to be found in new-england . now by what the country hath not , you may ghess at what it hath ▪ it hath no nightingals , nor larks , nor bulfinches , nor sparrows , nor blackbirds , nor magpies , nor iackdawes , nor popinjays , nor rooks , nor pheasants , nor woodcocks , nor quails , nor robins , nor cuckoes , &c. secondly , of beasts . the bear , which are generally black . the bear , they live four months in caves , that is all winter ; in the spring they bring forth their young ones , they seldome have above three cubbs in a litter , are very fat in the fall of the leaf with feeding upon acorns , at which time they are excellent venison ; their brains are venomous ; they feed much upon water plantane in the spring and summer , and berries , and also upon a shell-fish called a horse-foot , and are never mankind , i. e. fierce , but in rutting time , and then they walk the country twenty , thirty , forty in a company , making a hideous noise with ●…oaring , which you may hear a mile or ●…wo before they come so near to endanger ●…he traveller . about four years since , ●…corns being very scarce up in the coun●…ry , some numbers of them came down amongst the english plantations , which generally are by the sea side ; at one town called gorgiana in the province of meyn ( called also new-sommerset-shire ) they kill'd fourscore . for aches and cold swellings . their grease is very good for aches and cold swellings , the indians anoint themselves therewith from top to toe , which hardens them against the cold weather . a black bears skin heretofore was worth forty shillings , now you may have one for ten , much used by the english for beds and coverlets , and by the indians for coats . for pain and lameness upon cold. one edw. andrews being foxt , and falling backward cross a thought in a shallop or fisher-boat , and taking cold upon it , grew crooked , lame , and full of pain , was cured , lying one winter upon bears skins newly flead off , with some upon him , so that he sweat every night . the wolf. the wolf , of which there are two kinds ; one with a round ball'd foot , and are in shape like mungrel mastiffs ; the other with a flat foot , these are liker greyhounds , and are called deer wolfs , because they are accustomed to prey upon deer . a wolf will eat a wolf new dead , and so do bears as i suppose , for their dead carkases are never found , neither by the indian nor english. they go a clicketing twelve days , and have as many whelps at a litter as a bitch . the indian dog is a creature begotten 'twixt a wolf and a fox , which the indians lighting upon ▪ bring up to hunt the deer with . the wolf is very numerous , and go in companies , sometimes ten , twenty , more or fewer , and so cunning , that seldome any are kill'd with guns or traps ; but of late they have invented a way to destroy them , by binding four maycril hooks a cross with a brown thread , and then wrapping some wool about them , they dip them in melted tallow till it be as round and as big as an egg ; these ( when any beast hath been kill'd by the wolves ) they scatter by the dead carkase , after they have beaten off the wolves ; about midnight the wolves are sure to return again to the place where they left the slaughtered beast , and the first thing they venture upon will be these balls of fat . for old aches . a black wolfs skin is worth a beaver skin among the indians , being highly esteemed for helping old aches in old people , worn as a coat ; they are not mankind , as in ireland and other countries , but do much harm by destroying of our english cattle . the ounce . the ounce or wild cat , is about the bigness of two lusty ram cats , preys upon deer and our english poultrey : i once found six whole ducks in the belly of one i killed by a pond side : their flesh roasted is as good as lamb , and as white . for aches and shrunk sinews . their grease is soveraign for all manner of aches and shrunk sinews : their skins are accounted good fur , but somewhat course . the raccoon . the raccoon liveth in hollow trees , and is about the size of a gib cat ; they feed upon moss , and do infest our indian corn very much ; they will be exceeding fat in autumn ; their flesh is somewhat dark , but good food roasted . for bruises and aches . their fat is excellent for bruises and aches . their skins are esteemed a good deep fur , but yet as the wild cats somewhat coarse . the porcupine . the porcupine in some parts of the countrey eastward , towards the french , are as big as an ordinary mungrel cur ; a very angry creature and dangerous , shooting a whole shower of quills with a rowse at their enemies , which are of that nature , that wherever they stick in the flesh , they will work through in a short time if not prevented by pulling of them out . the indians make use of their quills , which are hardly a handful long , to adorn the edges of their birchen dishes , and weave ( dying some of them red , others yellow and blew ) curious bags or pouches , in works like turkie-work . the beaver , canis ponticus , amphybious . the beaver , whose old ones are as big as an otter , or rather bigger , a creature of a rare instinct , as may apparently be seen in their artificial dam-heads to raise the water in the ponds where they keep , and their houses having three stories , which would be too large to discourse : they have all of them four cods hanging outwardly between their hinder legs , two of them are soft or oyly , and two solid or hard ▪ the indians say they are hermaphrodites . for wind in the stomach . their solid cods are much used in physick : our englishwomen in this country use the powder grated , as much as will lye upon a shilling in a draught of fiol wine , for wind in the stomach and belly , and venture many times in such cases to give it to women with child : their tails are flat , and covered with scales without hair , which being flead off , and the tail boiled , proves exceeding good meat , being all fat , and as sweet as marrow . the moose deer . the moose deer , which is a very goodly creature , some of them twelve foot high , with exceeding fair horns with broad palms , some of them two fathom from the tip of one horn to the other ; they commonly have three fawns at a time ; their flesh is not dry like deers flesh , but moist and lushious somewhat like horse flesh ( as they judge that have tasted of both ) but very wholsome . the flesh of their fawns is an incomparable dish , beyond the flesh of an asses foal so highly esteemed by the romans , or that of young spaniel puppies so much cried up in our days in france and england . moose horns better for physick use than harts horns . their horns are far better ( in my opinion ) for physick than the horns of other deer , as being of a stronger nature : as for their claws , which both englishmen and french make use of for elk , i cannot approve so to be from the effects , having had some trial of it ; besides , all that write of the elk , describe him with a tuft of hair on the left leg behind , a little above the pastern joynt on the outside of the leg , not unlike the tuft ( as i conceive ) that groweth upon the breast of a turkie cock , which i could never yet see upon the leg of a moose , and i have seen some number of them . for children breeding teeth . the indian webbes make use of the broad teeth of the fawns to hang about their childrens neck when they are breeding of their teeth . the tongue of a grown moose , dried in the smoak after the indian manner , is a dish for a sagamor . the maccarib . the maccarib , caribo , or pohano , a kind of deer , as big as a stag , round hooved , smooth hair'd and soft as silk ; their horns grow backwards a long their backs to their rumps , and turn again a handful beyond their nose , having another horn in the middle of their forehead , about half a yard long , very straight , but wreathed like an unicorns horn , of a brown jettie colour , and very smooth : the creature is no where to be found , but upon cape sable in the french quarters , and there too very rarely , they being not humerous ; some few of their skins and their streight horns are ( but very sparingly ) brought to the english. the fox . the fox , which differeth not much from ours , but are somewhat less ; a black fox skin heretofore was wont to be valued at fifty and sixty pound , but now you may have them for twenty shillings ; indeed there is not any in new-england that are perfectly black , but silver hair'd , that is sprinkled with grey hairs . the iaccal . the iaccal , is a creature that hunts the lions prey , a shrew'd sign that there are lions upon the continent ; there are those that are yet living in the countrey , that do constantly affirm , that about six or seven and thirty years since an indian shot a young lion , sleeping upon the body of an oak blown up by the roots , with an arrow , not far from cape anne , and sold the skin to the english. but to say something of the iaccal , they are ordinarily less than foxes , of the colour of a gray rabbet , and do not scent nothing near so strong as a fox ; some of the indians will eat of them : their grease is good for all that fox grease is good for , but weaker ; they are very numerous . the hare . the hare in new-england is no bigger than our english rabbets , of the same colour , but withall having yellow and black strokes down the ribs ; in winter they are milk white , and as the spring approacheth they come to their colour ; when the snow lies upon the ground they are very bitter with feeding upon the bark of spruce , and the like . thirdly , of fishes . pliny and isadore write there are not above 144 kinds of fishes , but to my knowledge there are nearer 300 : i suppose america was not known to pliny and isadore . a catalogue of fish , that is , of those that are to be seen between the english coast and america , and those proper to the countrey . alderling . alize , alewife , because great bellied ; olafle , oldwife , allow . anchova or sea minnow . aleport . albicore . barble . barracha . barracoutha , a fish peculiar to the west-indies . barsticle . basse. sea bishop , proper to the norway seas . river bleak or bley , a river swallow . sea bleak or bley , or sea camelion . blew fish or hound fish , two kinds , speckled hound fish , and blew hound fish called horse fish. bonito or dozado , or spanish dolphin . river bream . sea bream . cud bream . bullhead or indian muscle . river bulls . burfish . burret . cackarel or laxe . calemarie or sea clerk. catfish . carp. chare , a fish proper to the river wimander in lancashire . sea chough . chub or chevin . cony fish. clam or clamp . sea cob. cockes , or coccles , or coquil . cook fish. rock cod. sea cod or sea whiting . crab , divers kinds , as the sea crab , boat-fish , river crab , sea lion , &c. sea cucumber . cunger or sea eel . cunner or sea roach . cur. currier , post , or lacquey of the sea. crampfish or torpedo . cuttle , or sleeves , or sea angler . clupea , the tunnies enemy . sea cornet . cornuta or horned fish. dace , dare , or dart. sea dart , iavelins . dogfish or tubarone . dolphin . dorce . dorrie , goldfish . golden-eye , gilt ▪ pole , or godline , yellowheads . sea dragon or sea spider , quaviner . drum , a fish frequent in the west indies . sea emperour or sword fish. eel , of which divers kinds . sea elephant , the leather of this fish will never rot , excellent for thongs . ears of the sea. flayl fish. flownder or flook , the young ones are called dabs . sea flownder or flowre . sea fox . frogfish . frostfish . frutola , a broad plain fish with a tail like a half moon . sea flea . gallyfish . grandpiss or herring hog , this , as all fish of extraordinary size , are accounted regal fishes . grayling . greedigut . groundling . gudgin . gulf. sea grape . gull. gurnard . hake . haccle or sti●…klebacks . haddock . horse foot or asses hoof. herring . h●…llibut or sea pheasant . some will have the turbut all one , others distinguish them , calling the young fish of the first buttis , and of the other birt . there is no question to be made of it but that they are distinct kinds of fish. sea hare . sea hawk . hartfish . sea hermit . henfish . sea hind . hornbeak , sea ruff and reeves . sea horseman . hog or flying fish. sea kite or flying swallow . lampret or lamprel . lampreys or lamprones . limpin . ling , sea beef ; the smaller sort is called cusk . sea lanthorn . sea liver . lobster . sea lizard . sea locusts . lump , poddle , or sea owl . lanter . lux , peculiar to the river rhyne . sea lights . luna , a very small fish , but exceeding beautiful , broad bodied and blewish of colour ; when it swims , the fins make a circle like the moon . maycril . maid . manatee . m●…la , a fish like a lump of flesh , taken in the venetian sea. millers thumb , mulcet or pollard . molefish . minnow , called likewise a pink ; the same name is given to young salmon ; it is called also a witlin . monkefish . morse , river or sea horse , fresh water mullet . sea mullet , botargo or petargo is made of their spawn . muscle , divers kinds . navelfish . nunfish . needlefish . sea nettle . oyster . occulata . perch or river partridge . pollack . piper or gavefish . periwig . periwincle or sea snail or whelk . pike , or fresh-water wolf , or river wolf , luce and lucerne , which is an overgrown pike ▪ pilchard , when they are dried as red herrings they are called fumadoes . pilot fish. plaice or sea sparrow . polipe or pour-contrel . porpuise or porpiss , molebut , sea hog , sus marinus , tursion . priest fish or sea priest. prawn or crangone . punger . patella . powt , the feathered fish , or fork fish. river powt . pursefish or indian reversus , like an eel , having a skin on the hinder part of her head , like a purse , with strings , which will open and shut . parratfish . purplefish . porgee . remora , or suck stone , or stop ship. sea raven . roch or roach . rochet or rouget . ruff or pope . sea ram. salmon . sailfish . scallope or venus coccle . scate , or ray , or gristlefish ; of which divers kinds , as sharp snowted ray , rock ray , &c. shad. shallow . sharpling . spurling . sculpin . sheepshead . soles , or tonguefish , or sea capon , or sea partridge . seal , or soil , or zeal . sea calf , and ( as some will have it ) molebut . sheathfish . sea scales . sturgeon , of the roe of this fish they make caviar●… or cavialtie . shark or bunch , several kinds . smelt . snaccot . shrimp . spyfish . spitefish . sprat . spungefish . squill . squid . sunfish . starfish swordfish . tench . thornback or neptunes beard . thunnie , they cut the fish in pieces like shingles and powder it , and this they call melandria . sea toad . tortoise , torteise , tortuga , tortisse , turcle or turtle , of divers kinds . trout . turbut . sea tun. sea tree . uraniscopus . ulatife or sawfish , having a saw in his forehead three foot long , and very sharp . umber . sea urchin . sea unicorn or sea mononeros . whale , many kinds . whiting or merling , the young ones are called weerlings and m●…ps . whore. yardfish , asses prick or shamefish . the sturgeon . the sturgeon , of whose sounds is made i●…inglass , a kind of glew much used in physick : this fish is here in great plenty , and in some rivers so numerous , that it is hazardo●…s for canoes and the like small vessels to pass to and again , as in pechipscut river to the eastward . the cod. the cod , which is a staple commodity in the country . to stop fluxes of blood. in the head of this fish is found a stone , or rather a bone , which being pulveriz'd and drank in any convenient liquor , will stop womens overflowing courses notably : likewise , for the stone . there is a stone found in their bellies , in a bladder against their navel , which being pulveriz'd and drank in white-wine posset or ale , is present remedy for the stone . to heal a green cut. about their fins you may find a kind of lowse , which healeth a green cut in short time . to restore them that have melted their grease . their livers and sounds eaten , is a good medicine for to restore them that have melted their grease . the dogfish . the dogfish , a ravenous fish. for the toothach . upon whose back grows a thorn two or three inches long , that helps the tooth-ach , scarifying the gums therewith . their skins are good to cover boxes and instrument cases . the stingray . the stingray , a large fish , of a rough skin , good to cover boxes and hafts of knives , and rapier sticks . the tortous . the turtle or tortous , of which there are three kinds : 1. the land turtle ; they are found in dry sandy banks , under old houses , and never go into the water . for the ptisick , consumption , and morbus gallicus . they are good for the ptisick and consumptions , and some say the morbus gallicus . 2. the river turtle , which are venomous and stink . 3. the turtle that lives in lakes and is called in virginia a terrapine . the soile . the soile or sea calf , a creature that brings forth her young ones upon dry land , but at other times keeps in the sea preying upon fish. for scalds and burns , and for the mother . the oyl of it is much used by the ●…ndians , who eat of it with their fish , ●…nd anoint their limbs therewith , and ●…heir wounds and sores : it is very good ●…or scalds and burns ; and the fume of it , ●…eing cast upon coals , will bring women ●…ut of the mother fits. the hair upon ●…he young ones is white , and as soft as ●…ilk ; their skins , with the hair on , are good to make gloves for the winter . the sperma ceti whale . the sperma ceti whale differeth from ●…he whales that yield us whale-bones , ●…or the first hath great and long teeth , the other is nothing but bones with tassels hanging from their jaws , with which they suck in their prey . what sperma ceti is . it is not long since a sperma ceti whale or two were cast upon the shore , not far from boston in the massachusets bay , which being cut into small pieces and boiled in cauldrons , yielded plenty of oyl ; the oyl put up into hogsheads , and stow'd into cellars for some time , candies at the bottom , it may be one quarter ; then the oyl is drawn off , and the candied stuff put up into convenient vessels is sold for sperma ceti , and is right sperma ceti . for bruises and aches . the oyl that was drawn off candies again and again , if well ordered ; and is admirable for bruises and aches . what ambergreece is . now you must understand this whale feeds upon ambergreece , as is apparent , finding it in the whales maw in great quantity , but altered and excrementitious : i conceive that ambergreece is no other than a kind of mushroom growing at the bottom of some seas ; i was once shewed ( by a mariner ) a piece of ambergreece having a root to it like that of the land mushroom , which the whale breaking up , some scape his devouring paunch , and is afterwards cast upon shore . the coccle . a kind of coccle , of whose shell the indians make their beads called wompampe●…g and mohaicks , the first are white ▪ the other blew , both orient , and beautified with a purple vein . the white ●…eads are very good to stanch blood. the scarlet muscle . the scarlet muscle , at paschatawey a ●…lantation about fifty leagues by sea east●…ard from boston , in a small cove called ●…akers cove there is found this kind of muscle which hath a purple vein , which ●…eing prickt with a needle yieldeth a per●…ect purple or scarlet juice , dying linnen 〈◊〉 that no washing will wear it out , but ●…eeps its lustre many years : we mark ●…ur handkerchiefs and shirts with it . fish of greatest esteem in the west-indies . the indians of peru esteem of three ●…ishes more than any other , viz. the sea ●…orteise , the tubaron , and the manate ●…r sea cow ; but in new-england the in●…ians have in greatest request , the bass , ●…he sturgeon , the salmon , the lamprey , the ●…el , the frost-fish , the lobster and the ●…lam . fourthly , of serpents , and insects . the pond frog . the pond frog , which chirp in th●… spring like sparows , and croke lik●… toads in autumn : some of these whe●… they set upon their breech are a foot high the indians will tell you , that up in th●… country there are pond frogs as big as 〈◊〉 child of a year old . for burns , scalds , and inflammations . they are of a glistering brass colour , and very fat ▪ which is excellent for burns and scaldings , to take out the fire , and hea●… them , leaving no scar ; and is also very good to take away any inflammation . the rattle snake . the rattle snake , who poysons with a vapour that comes thorough two crooked fangs in their mouth ; the hollow of these fangs are as black as ink : the indians , when weary with travelling , will ●…ake them up with their bare hands , laying ●…old with one hand behind their head , with ●…he other taking hold of their tail , and ●…ith their teeth tear off the skin of their backs , and feed upon them alive ; which ●…hey say refresheth them . for frozen limbs , aches , and bruises . they have leafs of fat in their bellies , which is excellent to annoint frozen limbs , ●…nd for aches and bruises wondrous soveraign . their hearts swallowed fresh is a good antidote against their venome , and ●…heir liver ( the gall taken out ) bruised and applied to their bitings is a present remedy . of insects . a bug. there is a certain kind of bug like a beetle , but of a glistering brass colour , with four strong tinsel wings ; their bodies are full of corruption or white matter like a maggot ; being dead , and kept a while , they will stench odiously ; they beat the humming birds from the flowers . the wasp . the wasps in this countrey are pie●… black and white , breed in hives made lik●… a great pine apple , their entrance is a●… the lower end , the whole hive is of a●… ash colour , but of what matter its mad●… no man knows ; wax it is not , neithe●… will it melt nor fry , but will take fire suddenly like tinder : this they fasten to a bow , or build it round about a low bush , a foot from the ground . the flying gloworm . the flying gloworm , flying in dark summer nights like sparks of fire in great number ; they are common liewise in palestina . fifthly , of plants . and 1. of such plants as are common with us in england . hedghog-grass . mattweed . cats-tail . stichwort , commonly taken here by ignorant people for eyebright ; it blows in iune . blew flower-de-luce ; the roots are not knobby , but long and streight , and very white , with a multitude of strings . to provoke vomit and for bruises . it is excellent for to provoke vomiting , and for bruises on the feet or face . they flower in iune , and grow upon dry sandy hills as well as in low wet grounds . yellow bastard daffodill ; it flowereth in may , the green leaves are spotted with black spots . dogstones , a kind of satyrion , whereof there are several kinds groweth in our salt marshes . to procure love. i once took notice of a wanton womans compounding the solid roots of this plant with wine , for an amorous cup ; which wrought the desired effect . watercresses . red lillies grow all over the country innumerably amongst the small bushes , and flower in iune . wild sorrel . alders tongue comes not up till iune ; i have found it upon dry hilly grounds , in places where the water hath stood all winter , in august , and did then make oyntment of the herb new gathered ; the fairest leaves grow amongst short hawthorn bushes , that are plentifully growing in such hollow places . one blade . lilly convallie , with the yellow flowers ▪ grows upon rocky banks by the sea. water plantane , here called watersuck-leaves . for burns and scalds , and to draw ater out of swell'd legs . it is much used for burns and scalds , and to draw water out of swell'd legs . bears feed much upon this plant , so do the moose deer . sea plantane , three kinds . small-water archer . autumn bell flower . white hellibore , which is the first plant that springs up in this country , and the first that withers ; it grows in deep black mould and wet , in such abundance , that you may in a small compass gather whole cart-loads of it . wounds and aches cured by the indians . for the tooth-ach . for herpes milliares . the indians cure their wounds with it , annointing the wound first with raccoons greese , or wild-cats greese , and strewing upon it the powder of the roots ; and for aches they scarifie the grieved part , and annoint it with one of the foresaid oyls , then strew upon it the powder : the powder of the root put into a hollow tooth , is good for the tooth-ach : the root sliced thin and boyled in vineager , is very good against herpes milliaris . arsmart , both kinds . spurge time , it grows upon dry sandy sea banks , and is very like to rupter-wort , it is full of milk. rupter-wort , with the white flower . jagged rose-penny-wort . soda bariglia , or massacote , the ashes of soda , of which they make glasses . glass-wort , here called berrelia , it grows abundantly in salt marshes . st. john ' s-wort . st. peter ' s ▪ wort. speed-well chick-weed . male fluellin , or speed-well . upright peniroyal . wild-mint . cat-mint . egrimony . the lesser clot-bur . water lilly , with yellow flowers , the indians eat the roots , which are long a boiling , they tast like the liver of a sheep , the moose deer feed much upon them , at which time the indians kill them , when their heads are under water . dragons , their leaves differ from all the kinds with us , they come up in iune . violets of three kinds , the white violet which is sweet , but not so strong as our blew violets ; blew violets without sent , and a reddish violet without sent ; they do not blow till i●…ne . for swell'd legs . wood-bine , good for hot swellings of the legs , fomenting with the decoction , and applying the feces in the form of a cataplasme . salomons-seal , of which there is three kinds ; the first common in england , the second , virginia salomons-seal , and the third , differing from both , is called treacle berries , having the perfect ●…ast of treacle when they are ripe ; and will keep good along while ; certainly a very wholsome berry , and medicinable . doves-foot . herb robert. knobby cranes bill . for agues . ravens-claw , which flowers in may , and is admirable for agues . cinkfoil . tormentile . avens , with the leaf of mounta●…e-avens , the flower and root of english avens . strawberries . wild angelica , majoris and minoris . alexanders , which grow upon rocks by the sea shore . yarrow , with the white flower . columbines , of a flesh colour , growing upon rocks . oak of hierusalem . achariston is an excellent medicine for stopping of the lungs upon cold , ptisick &c. oak of cappadocia , both much of a nature , but oak of hierusalem is stronger in operation ; excellent for stuffing of the lungs upon colds , shortness of wind , and the ptisick ; maladies that the natives are often troubled with : i helped several of the indians with a drink made of two gallons of molosses wort , ( for in that part of the country where i abode , we made our beer of molosses , water , bran , chips of sassafras root , and a little wormwood , well boiled , ) into which i put of oak of hierusalem , cat mint , sowthistle , of each one handful , of enula campana root one ounce , liquorice scrap'd brused and cut in peices , one ounce , sassafras root cut into thin chips , one ounce , anny-seed and sweet fennel-seed , of each one spoonful bruised ; boil these in a close pot , upon a soft fire to the consumption of one gallon , then take it off , and strein it gently ; you may if you will boil the streined liquor with sugar to a syrup , then when it is cold , put it up into glass bottles , and take thereof three or four spoonfuls at a time , letting it run down your throat as leasurely as possibly you can ; do thus in the morning , in the afternoon , and at night going to bed . goose-grass , or clivers . fearn . brakes . wood sorrel , with the yellow flower . elm. line tree , both kinds . a way to draw out oyl of akrons , or the like , &c. maple ; of the ashes of this tree the indians make a lye , with which they force out oyl from oak akorns that is highly esteemed by the indians . dew-grass . earth-nut , which are of divers kinds , one bearing very beautiful flowers . fuss-balls , very large . mushrooms , some long and no bigger than ones finger , others jagged flat , round , none like our great mushrooms in england , of these some are of a scarlet colour , others a deep yellow , &c. blew flowered pimpernel . noble liver-wort , one sort with white flowers , the other with blew . black-berry . dew-berry . rasp-berry , here called mul-berry . goose-berries , of a deep red colour . h●… ho●…n , the haws being as big as services , and very good to eat , and not so astringent as the haws in england . ●…oad flax . pellamount , or mountain time . mouse 〈◊〉 minor. the making of oyl of akrons . to strengthe●… weak members ▪ ●…or scall'd-heads . there is oak of three kinds , white , red and black , the white is excellent to make canoes of , shallopes , ships , and other vessels for the sea , and for claw-board , and pipe-staves , the black is good to make waynscot of ; and out of the white oak acorns , ( which is the acorn bears delight to ●…eed upon ) : the natives draw an oyl , taking the rottenest maple wood , which being burnt to ashes , they make a strong lye therewith , wherein they boyl their white oak-acorns until the oyl swim on the top in great quantity ; this they fleet off , and put into bladders to annoint their naked limbs , which corrobarates them exceedingly ; they eat it likewise with their meat , it is an excellent clear and sweet oyl : of the moss that grows at the roots of the white oak the indesses make a strong decoction , with which they help their papouses or young childrens scall'd heads . iuniper , which cardanus saith is cedar in hot countries , and juniper in cold countries ▪ it is hear very dwarfish and shrubby , growing for the most part by the sea side . w●…llow . spurge lawrel , called here poyson berry , it kills the english cattle if they chance to feed upon it , especially calves . gaul , or noble mirtle . elder . dwarf elder . for a cut with a bruse . alder ; an indian bruising and cutting of his knee with a fall , used no other remedy , than alder bark chewed fasting , and laid to it , which did soon heal it . to take fire out of a burn. the decoction is also excellent to take the fire out of a burn or scalld . for wounds and cuts . for wounds and cuts make a strong decoction of bark of alder , pour of it into the wound , and drink thereof . hasel . for sore mouths , falling of the pallat. filberd , both with hairy husks upon the nuts , and setting hollow from the nut , and fill'd with a kind of water of an astringent taste ; it is very good for sore mouths , and falling of the pallat , as is the whole green nut before it comes to kernel , burnt and pulverized . the kernels are seldom without maggots in them . the figure of the walnut . walnut ; the nuts differ much from ours in europe , they being smooth , much like a nutmeg in shape , and not much bigger ; some three cornered , all of them but thinly replenished with kernels . chestnuts ; very sweet in taste , and may be ( as they usually are ) eaten raw ; the indians sell them to the english for twelve pence the bushel . beech. ash. quick-beam , or wild-ash . coals of birch pulverized and wrought with the white of an egg to a salve , is a gallant remedy for dry scurfy sores upon the shins ; and for bruised wounds and cuts . birch , white and black ; the bark of birch is used by the indians for bruised wounds and cuts , boyled very tender , and stampt betwixt two stones to a plaister , and the decoction thereof poured into the wound ; and also to fetch the fire out of burns and scalds . poplar , but differing in leaf . plumb tree , several kinds , bearing some long , round , white , yellow , red , and black plums ; all differing in their fruit from those in england . wild purcelan●… . wood-wax , wherewith they dye many pretty colours . red and black currans . for the gout , or any ach. spunck , an excrescence growing out of black birch , the indians use it for touchwood ; and therewith they help the sciatica , or gout of the hip , or any great ach , burning the patient with it in two or three places upon the thigh , and upon certain veins . 2. of such plants as are proper to the country . toripen any impostume or swelling . for sore mouths . the new-englands standing dish . indian wheat , of which there is three sorts , yellow , red , and blew ; the blew is commonly ripe before the other a month : five or six grains of indian wheat hath produced in one year 600. it is hotter than our wheat and clammy ; excellent in cataplasms to ripen any swelling or impostume . the decoction of the blew corn , is good to wash sore mouths with : it is light of digestion , and the english make a kind of loblolly of it , to eat with milk , which they call sampe ; they beat it in a morter , and sift the flower out of it ; the remainer they call homminey , which they put into a pot of two or three gallons , with water , and boyl it upon a gentle fire till it be like a hasty pudden ; they put of this into milk , and so eat it . their bread also they make of the homminey so boiled , and mix their flower with it , cast it into a deep bason in which they form the loaf , and then turn it out upon the peel , and presently put it into the oven before it spreads abroad ; the flower makes excellent puddens . bastard calamus aromaticus , agrees with the description , but is not barren ; they flower in iuly , and grow in wet places , as about the brinks of ponds . to keep the feet warm . the english make use of the leaves to to keep their feet warm . there is a little beast called a muskquash , that liveth in small houses in the ponds , like mole hills , that feed upon these plants ; their cods sent as sweet and as strong as musk , and will last along time handsomly wrap'd up in cotton wool ; they are very good to lay amongst cloaths . may is the best time to kill them , for then their cods sent strongest wild-l●…kes , which the indians use much to eat with their fish . a plant like knavers-mustard , called new-england mustard . mountain-lillies , bearing many yellow flowers , turning up their leaves like the martigon , or turks cap , spotted with small spots as deep as safforn ; they flower in iuly . one berry , or herb true love. see the figure . tobacco , there is not much of it planted in new-england ; the indians make use of a small kind with short round leaves called pooke . for burns and scalds . with a strong decoction of tobacco they cure burns and scalds , boiling it in water from a quart to a pint , then wash the sore therewith , and strew on the powder of dryed ▪ tobacco . hollow leaved lavender , is a plant that grows in salt marshes overgrown with moss , with one straight stalk about the bigness of an oat straw , better than a cubit high ; upon the top-standeth one fantastical flower , the leaves grow close from the root , in shape like a tankard , hollow , tough , and alwayes full of water , the root is made up of many small strings , growing only in the moss , and not in the earth , the whole plant comes to its perfection in august , and then it has leaves , stalks , and flowers as red as blood , excepting the flower which hath some yellow admixt . i wonder where the knowledge of this plant hath slept all this while , i. e. above forty years . for all manner of fluxes . it is excellent for all manner of fluxes . live for ever , a kind of cad weed . tree primerose , taken by the ignorant for scabious . a solar plant , as some will have it . maiden hair , or cappellus veneris verus , which ordinarily is half a yard in height . the apothecaries for shame now will substitute wall-r●…e no more for maiden hair , since it grows in abundance in new-england , from whence they may have good store . pirola , two kinds . see the figures , both of them excellent wound herbs . homer's moll●…y . lysimachus , or loose strife , it grows in dry grounds in the open sun four foot high , flowers from the middle of the plant to the top , the flowers purple , standing upon a small sheath or cod , which when it is ripe breaks and puts forth a white silken doun , the stalk is red , and as big as ones finger . marygold of peru , of which there are two kinds , one bearing black seeds , the other black and white streak'd , this beareth the fairest flowers , commonly but one upon the very top of the stalk . treacle-berries . see before salomons seal . oak of hierusalem . see before . oak of cappadocea . see before . earth-nuts , differing much from those in england , one sort of them bears a most beautiful flower . for the scurvy and dropsie . sea-tears , they grow upon the sea banks in abundance , they are good for the scurvy and dropsie , boiled and eaten as a sallade , and the broth drunk with it . indian beans , better for physick use than other beans . indian beans , falsly called french beans , are better for physick and chyrurgery than our garden beans . probatum est : squashes , but more truly squonte●… squashes , a kind of mellon , or rather gourd , for they oftentimes degenerate into gourds ; some of these are green , some yellow , some longish like a gourd , others round like an apple , all of them pleasant food boyled and buttered , and season'd with spice ; but the yellow squash called an apple squash , because like an apple , and about the bigness of a pome-water , is the best kind ; they are much eaten by the indians and the english , yet they breed the small white worms ( which physitians call ascarides , ) in the long ●…ut that vex the fundament with a perpetual itching , and a desire to go to stool . water-mellon , it is a large fruit , but nothing near so big as a pompion , colour , smoother , and of a sad grass green rounder , or more rightly sap-green ; with some yellowness admixt when ripe ; the seeds are black , the flesh or pulpe exceeding juicy . for heat and thirst in feavers . it is often given to those sick of feavers , and other hot diseases with good success . new-england daysie , or primrose , is the second kind of navel wort in iohnson upon gerard ; it flowers in may , and grows amongst moss upon hilly grounds and rocks that are shady . for burns and scalds . it is very good for burns and scalds . an achariston , or medicine deserving thanks . an indian whose thumb was swell'd , and very much inflamed , and full of pain , increasing and creeping along to the wrist , with little black spots under the thumb against the nail ; i cured it with this umbellicus veneris root and all , the yolk of an egg , and wheat flower , f. cataplasme . briony of peru , ( we call it though it grown hear ) or rather scamnony ; some take it for mech●…acan : the green juice is absolutely poyson ; yet the root when dry may safely be given to strong bodies . red and black currence . see before . wild damask roses , single , but very large and sweet , but stiptick . sweet ●…ern , the roots run one within another like a net , being very long and spreading abroad under the upper crust of the earth , sweet in taste , but withal astringent , much hunted after by our swine : the scotch-men that are in new-england have told me that it grows in scotland . for fluxes . the people boyl the tender tops in molosses beer , and in possets for fluxes , for which it is excellent . sarsaparilia , a plant not yet sufficiently known by the english : some say it is a kind of bind weed ; we have in new-england two plants , that go under the name of sarsaparilia ; the one not above a foot in height without thorns , the other having the same leaf , but is a shrub as high as a goose berry bush , and full of sharp thorns ; this i esteem as the right , by the shape and savour of the roots , but rather by the effects answerable to that we have from other parts of the world ; it groweth upon dry sandy banks by the sea side , and upon the banks of rivers , so far as the salt water flowes ; and within land up in the country , as some have reported . bill berries , two kinds , black and sky coloured , which is more frequent . to cool the heat of feavers , and quench thirst. they are very good to allay the burning heat of feavers , and hot agues , either in syrup or conserve . a most excellent summer dish . they usually eat of them put into a bason , with milk , and sweetned a little more with sugar and spice , or for cold stomachs , in sack. the indians dry them in the sun , and sell them to the english by the bushell , who make use of them instead of currence , putting of them into puddens , both boyled and baked , and into water gr●…el . knot berry , or clowde berry , seldom ripe . sumach , differing from all that ▪ i did ever see in the herbalists ; our english cattle devour it most abominably , leaving neither leaf nor branch , yet it sprou●…s again next spring . for colds . the english use to boyl it in beer , and drink it for colds ; and so do the indians , from whom the english had the medicine . wild cherry , they grow in clusters like grapes , of the same bigness , blackish , red when ripe , and of a harsh taste . for fluxes . they are also good for fluxes . transplanted and manured , they grow exceeding fair . board pine , is a very large tree two or three fadom about . for wounds . it yields a very soveraign turpentine for the curing of desperate wounds . for stabbs . the indians make use of the moss boiled in spring water , for stabbs , pouring in the liquor , and applying the boiled moss well stamp'd or beaten betwixt two stones . for burning and scalding . and for burning and scalding , they first take out the fire with a strong decoction of alder bark , then they lay upon it a playster of the bark of board pine first boyled tender , and beat to a playster betwixt two stones . to take fire out of a burn. one christopher luxe , a fisher-man ▪ having burnt his knee pan , was healed again by an indian webb , or wife , ( for so they call those women that have husbands ; ) she first made a strong decoction of alder bark , with which she took out the fire by imbrocation , or letting of it drop upon the sore , which would smoak notably with it ; then she playstered it with the bark of board pine , or hemlock tree , boyled soft and stampt betwixt two stones , till is was as thin as brown paper , and of the same colour , she annointed the playster with soyles oyl , and the sore likewise , then she laid it on warm , and sometimes she made use of the bark of the larch tree . to eat out proud flesh in a sore . and to eat out the proud flesh , they take a kind of earth nut boyled and stamped , and last of all , they apply t●… the sore the roots of water lillies boiled and stamped betwixt two stones , to a playster . for stitches . the firr tree , or pitch tree , the tar that is made of all sorts of pitch wood is an excellent thing to take away those desperate stitches of the sides , which perpetually afflicteth those poor people that are stricken with the plague of the back . note , you must make a large toast , or cake slit and dip it in the tar , and bind it warm to the side . the most common diseases in new england . the black pox , the spotted feaver , the griping of the guts , the dropsie , and the sciatica , are the killing deseases in new-england . the larch tree , which is the only tree of all the pines , that sheds his leaves before winter ; the other remaining green all the year : this is the tree from which we gather that useful purging excrense agarick . for wounds and cuts . the leaves and gum are both very good to heal wounds and cuts . for wounds with bruises . i cured once a desperate bruise with a cut upon the knee pan , with an ungent made with the leaves of the larch tree , and hogs grease , but the gum is best . spruce is a goodly tree , of which they make masts for ships , and sail yards : it is generally conceived by those that have skill in building of ships , that here is absolutely the best trees in the world , many of them being three fathom about , and of great length . an achariston for the scurvy . the tops of green spruce boughs boiled in bear , and drunk , is assuredly one of the best remedies for the scurvy , restoring the infected party in a short time ; they also make a lotion of some of the decoction , adding hony and allum . hemlock tree , a kind of spruce , the bark of this tree serves to dye tawny ; the fishers tan their sails and nets with it . to break sore or swelling . the indians break and heal their swellings and sores with it , boyling the inner bark of young hemlock very well , then knocking of it betwixt two stones to a playster , and annointing or soaking it in soyls oyl , they apply it to the sore : it will break a sore swelling speedily . one berry , herba paris , or true love. sassafras , or ague tr●…e . for heat in feavers . the chips of the root boyled in beer is excellent to allay the hot rage of feavers , being drunk . for bruises and dry blowes . the leaves of the same tree are very good made into an oyntment , for bruises and dry blows . the bark of the root we use instead of cinamon ; and it is ●…old at the barbadoes for two shillings the pound . and why may not this be the bark the jesuits powder was made of , that was so famous not long since in england , for agues ? cran berry , or bear berry , because bears use much to feed upon them , is a small trayling plant that grows in salt marshes that are over-grown with moss ; the tender branches ( which are reddish ) run out in great length , lying flat on the ground , where at distances , they take root , over-spreading sometimes half a score acres , sometimes in small patches of about a rood or the like ; the leaves are like box , but greener , thick and glisteri●…g ▪ the blossoms are very like the flowers o●… our english night shade , after which succeed the berries , hanging by long small foot stalks , no bigger than a hair ; at first they are of a pale yellow colour , afterwards red , and as big as a cherry ; some perfectly round , others oval , all of them hollow , of a sower astringent taste ; they are ripe in august and september . for the scurvy . they are excellent against the scurvy . for the heat in feavers . they are also good to allay the fervour of hot diseases . the indians and english use them much , boyling them with sugar for sauce to eat with their meat ; and it is a delicate sauce , especially for roasted mutton : some make tarts with them as with goose berries . vine , much differing in the fruit , all of them very fleshy , some reasonably pleasant ; others have a taste of gun powder , and these grow in swamps , and low wet grounds . 3. of such plants as are proper to the country , and have no name . ( 1. ) pirola , or winter green , that kind which grows with us in england is common in new-england , but there is another plant which i judge to be a kind of pirola , and proper to this country , a very beautiful plant ▪ the shape of the leaf and the just bigness of it you may see in the figure . the leaf of the plant judged to be a kind of pirola . the ground whereof is a sap green , embroydered ( as it were ) with many pale yellow ribs , the whole plant in shape is like semper vivum , but far less , being not above a handful high , with one slender stalk , adorned with small pale yellow flowers like the other pirola . it groweth not every where , but in some certain small spots overgrown with moss , close by swamps and shady ; they are green both summer and winter . for wounds . they are excellent wound herbs , but this i judge to be the better by far . probatum est . a type of plant 2. this plant was brought to me by a neighbour , who ( wandering in the woods to find out his strayed cattle , ) lost himself for two dayes , being as he ghessed eight or ten miles from the sea-side . the root was pretty thick and black , having a number of small black strings growing from ●…t , the stalks of the lea●…●…bout a handful long , the leaves were round and as big as a silver five shilling piece , of a s●…p or dark green colour , with a line or 〈◊〉 as black as jeat round the circumference , from whence came black lines or ribs at equal distance , all of them meeting in a black spot in the center . if i had staid longer in the country , i should have purposely made a journey into those parts where it was gathered , to discover if possible , the stalk and flower ; but now i shall refer it to those that are younger , and better able to undergo the pains and trouble of finding it out ; for i 〈◊〉 by the natives , that it is not common , that is , every where to be found , no more th●…n the embroydered pirola , which al●… i●…●… most elegant plant , and which ●…●…id endeavour to bring over , but it 〈◊〉 a●… 〈◊〉 . for 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 all ●…eal , o. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 another 〈◊〉 ●…rb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ours , but rather beyond it : some of ou●… english practitioners take it for vervene and use it for the same , wherein they are grosly mistaken . the leaf is like a nettle leaf , but narrower and longer ; the stalk about the bigness of a nettle stalk , champhered and hollow , and of a dusky red colour ; the flowers are blew , small , and many , growing in spoky tufts at the top , and are not hooded , but having only four round leaves , after which followeth an infinite of small longish light brown seed ; the roots are knotty and matted together with an infinite number of small white strings ; the whole plant is commonly two cubits high , bitter in taste , with a rosenie savour . ( 3. ) this plant is one of the first that springs up after white hellibore , in the like wet and black grounds , commonly by hellibore , with a sheath or hood like dragons , but the pestle is of another shape , that is , having a round purple ball on the top of it , beset ( as it were ) with burs ; the hood shoots forth immediately from the root , before any leaf appears , having a green hollow leav'd lavender . page 54. sprig growing fast by it , like the smaller horse tayl , about the latter end of april the hood and sprig wither away , and there comes forth in the room a bud , like the bud of the walnut tree , but bigger ; the top of it is of a pale green colour , covered with brown skins like an onion , white underneath the leaves , which spread in time out of the bud , grow from the root with a stalk a foot long , and are as big as the great bur dock leaves , and of the colour ; the roots are many , and of the bigness of the steel of a tobacco pipe , and very white ; the whole plant sents as strong as a fox ; it continues till august . a branch of the humming-bird tree . ( 4. ) this plant the humming bird feedeth upon , it groweth likewise in wet grounds , and is not at its full growth till iuly , and then it is two cubits high and better , the leaves are thin , and of a pale green colour , some of them as big as a nettle leaf , it spreads into many branches , knotty at the setting on , and of a purple colour , and garnished on the top with many hollow dangling flowers of a bright yellow colour , speckled with a deeper yellow as it were shadowed , the stalkes are as hollow as a kix , and so are the roots , which are transparent , very tender , and and full of a yellowish juice . for bruises and aches upon stroaks . the indians make use of 〈◊〉 for aches , being bruised between two stones , and laid tocold but made ( after the english manner ) into an unguent with hog●… grease , there is not a more soveraign remedy for bruises of what kind soever ; and for aches upon stroaks . in august , 1670 ▪ in a swamp amongst alders , i found a sort of tree sow thistle , the stalks of some two or three inches , about , as hollow as a kix and very brittle , the leaves were smooth , and in shape like souchus laevis , i. e. hares lettice , but longer , some about a foot , these grow at a distance one from another , almost to the top , where it begins to put forth flowers between the leaves and the stalk , the top of the stalk runs out into a spike , beset about with flowers like sow thistle , of a blew or azure colour : i brought home one of the plants which was between twelve and thirteen foot in length , i wondered at it the more for that so large and tall a plant should grow from so small a root , consisting of slender white strings little bigger than bents , and not many of them , and none above a finger long , spreading under the upper crust of the earth ; the whole plant is full of milk , and of a strong savour . ( 5. ) this plant i found in a gloomy dry wood under an oak , 1670. the 18th of august , afterwards i found it in open champain grounds , but yet somewhat scarce : the root is about the bigness of a french walnut , the bark thereof is the plant when it springs up first . brown , and rugged , within of a yellowish colour , from whence ariseth a slender stalk , no bigger than an oat straw , about two cubits in height , somewhat better then a handful above the root shooteth out one leaf of a grass green colour , and an inch or two above that , another leaf , and so four or five at a greater distance one from another , till they come within a handful of the top , where upon slender foot stalks grow the flowers four or five , more or fewer , clustering together in pale long green husks milk white , consisting of ten small leaves , snipt a little on the edges the figure of the plant when it is at full growth . with purple hair threads in the midst ; the whole plant is of a brakish tast : when it is at its full growth the stalks are as red as blood. ( 6. ) this plant flowers in august , and grows in wet ground ; it is about three or four foot in height , having a square slender stalk chamfered , hollow and tuff , the leaves grow at certain distances one against another , of the colour of egrimony leaves sharpe pointed , broadest in the midst about an inch and half , and three or four inches in length , snipt about the edges like a nettle leaf , at the top of the stalk for four or five inches thick , set with pale green husks , out of which the flowers grow , consisting of one leaf , shaped like the head of a serpent , opening at the top like a mouth , and hollow throughout , containing four crooked pointels , and on the top of every pointel a small glistering green button , covered with a little white woolly matter , by which they are with the pointels fastened close together and shore up the tip of the upper chap , the crooked pointels are very stiff and hard , from the bottom of the husks , wherein the flower stands , from the top of the seed vessel , shoots out a white thread which runs in at the bottom of the flower , and so out at the mouth : the whole flower is milk white , the inside of the chaps reddish , the root i did not observe . a type of plant ( 7. ) this plant i take for a varigated herb paris , true love or one berry , or rather one flower , which is milk white , and made up with four leaves , with many black threads in the middle , upon every thread grows a berry ( when the leaves of of the flower are fallen ) as big as a white pease , of a light red colour when they are ripe , and clustering together in a round form as big as a pullets egg , which at distance shews but as one berry , very pleasant in taste , and not unwholsome ; the root , leaf , and flower differ not from our english kind , and their time of blooming and ripening agree , and therefore doubtless a kind of herba paris . the small sun flower , or marygold of america . ( 8. ) this plant is taken by our simplists to be a kind of golden rod , by others for sarazens consound , i judge it to be a kind of small sun flower , or marygold of the west indies ; the root is brown and slender , a foot and half in length , running a slope under the upper face of the earth , with some strings here and there , the stalk as big as the steal of a tobacco pipe , full of pith , commonly brownish , sometimes purple , three or four foot high , the leaves grow at a distance one against another , rough , hard , green above , and gray underneath , slightly snipt and the ribs appear most on the back side of the leaf , the flower is of a bright yellow , with little yellow cups in the midst , as in the mary gold of peru , with black threads in them with yellow pointels , the flower spreads it self abroad out of a cup made up of many green beards , not unlike a thistle ; within a handful of the top of the stalk ( when the flower is fallen , growes an excrense or knob as big as a walnut , which being broken yieldeth a kind of turpentine or rather rosen . what cutchenele is . the stalk beneath and above the knob , covered with a multitude of small bugs , about the bigness of a great flea , which i presume will make good cutchenele , ordered as they should be before they come to have wings : they make a perfect scarlet colour to paint with , and durable . 4. of such plants as have sprung up since the english planted and kept cattle in new-england . couch grass . shepherds purse . dandelion . groundsel . sow thistle . wild arrach . night shade , with the white flower . nettlesstinging , which was the first plant taken notice of . mallowes . plantain , which the indians call english-mans foot , as though produced by their treading . black henbane . wormwood . sharp pointed dock . patience . bloodwort . and i suspect adders tongue . knot grass . cheek weed . compherie , with the white flower . may weed , excellent for the mother ; some of our english houswives call it iron wort , and make a good unguent for old sores . the great c●…ot bur. mullin , with the white flower . q. what became of the influence of those planets that produce and govern these planets before this time ! i have now done with such plants as grow wild in the country in great plenty , ( although i have not mentioned all ) i shall now in the fifth place give you to understand what english herbs we have growing in our gardens that prosper there as well as in their proper soil , and of such as do not , and also of such as will not grow there at all . 5. of such garden herbs ( amongst us ) as do thrive there , and of such as do not . cabbidge growes there exceeding well . lettice . sorrel . parsley . marygold . french mallowes chervel . burnet . winter savory . summer savory . time. sage . carrats . parsnips of a prodigious size . red beetes . radishes . turnips . purslain . wheat . rye . barley , which commonly degenerates into oats . oats . pease of all sorts , and the best in the world ; i never heard of , nor did see in eight years time , one worm eaten pea. garden beans . naked oats , there called silpee , an excellent grain used insteed of oat meal , they dry it in an oven , or in a pan upon the fire , then beat it small in a morter . another standing dish in new-england . and when the milk is ready to boil , they put into a pottle of milk about ten or twelve spoonfuls of this meal , so boil it leasurely , stirring of it every foot , least it burn too ; when it is almost boiled enough , they hang the kettle up higher , and let it stew only , in short ●…ime it will thicken like a custard ; they season it with a little sugar and spice , and so serve it to the table in deep basons , and it is altogether as good as a white-pot . for people weakned with long sickness . it exceedingly nourisheth and strengthens people weakned with long sickness . sometimes they make water gruel with it , and sometimes thicken their flesh broth either with this or homminey , if it be for servants . spear mint . rew , will hardly grow . fetherfew prospereth exceedingly . southern wood , is no plant for this country . nor , rosemary . nor bayes . white satten groweth pretty well , so doth lavender cotton . but lavender is not for the climate . penny royal. smalledge . ground ●…vy , or ale hoof. gilly flowers will continue two years . fennel must be taken up , and kept in a warm cellar all winter . housleek prospereth notably . holly hocks . enula c ▪ panae , in two years time the roots rot . comferie , with white flowers . coriander , and dill. and annis thrive exceedingly , but annis seed , as also the seed of fennel seldom come to maturity ; the seed of annis is commonly eaten with a fly . clary never lasts but one summer , the roots rot with the frost . sparagus thrives exceedingly , so does garden sorrel , and sweet bryer , or eglantine . bloodwort but sorrily , but patience , and english roses , very pleasantly . celandine , by the west country men called kenning wort , grows but slowly . muschata , as well as in england . dittander , or pepper wort , flourisheth notably , and so doth . tansie . musk mellons are better then our english , and. cucumbers . pompions , there be of several kinds , some proper to the country , ●…y are dryer then our english pompions , and better tasted ; you may eat them green . the ancient new-england standing dish . but the houswives manner is to slice them when ripe , and cut them into dice , and so fill a pot with them of two or three gallons , and stew them upon a gentle fire a whole day , and as they sink , they fill again with fresh pompions , not putting any liquor to them ; and when it is stew'd enough , it will look like bak'd apples ; this they dish , putting butter to it , and a little vinegar , ( with some spice , as ginger , &c. ) which makes it tart like an apple , and so serve it up to be eaten with fish or flesh : it provokes urin extreamly and is very windy . sixthly and lastly , of stones , minerals , metals and earths . as first , the emrald which grows in flat rocks , and is very good . rubies , which here are very watry . i have heard a story of an indian , that found a stone , up in the country , by a great pond as big as an egg , that in a dark night would give a light to read by ; but i take it to be but a story . diamond , which are very brittle , and therefore of little worth . crystal , called by our west country men the kenning stone ; by sebegug pond is found in considerable quantity , not far from thence is a rock of crystal called the moose rock , because in shape like a moose , and muscovy glass , both white and purple of reasonable content . black lead . bole armoniack . red and yellow oker . terra sigilla . vitriol . antimony . arsnick , too much . lead . tin. tin glass . silver . iron , in abundance , and as good bog iron as any in the world. copper . it is reported that the french have a copper mine at port royal , that yieldeth them twelve ounces of pure copper out of a pound of oar. i shall conclude this section with a strange cure effected upon a drummers wife , much afflicted with a wolf in her breast ; the poor woman lived with her husband at a town called by the indians , casco , but by the english , famouth ; where for some time she swaged the pain of her sore , by bathing it with strong malt beer , which it would suck in greedily , as if some living creature : when she could come by no more beer , ( for it was brought from boston , along the coasts by merchants , ) she made use of rhum , a strong water drawn from sugar canes , with which it was lull'd a sleep ; at last , ( to be rid of it altogether ) she put a quantity of arsnick to the rhum , and bathing of it as formerly , she utterly destroyed it , and cured her self ; but her kind husband , who sucked out the poyson as the sore was healing , lost all his teeth , but without further danger or inconvenience . an addition of some rarities overslipt . the star fish , having fine points like a star , the whole fish no bigger then the palm of a mans hand , of a tough substance like leather , and about an inch in thickness , whitish underneath , and of the colour of a cucumber above , and somewhat ruff : when it is warm in ones hand , you may perceive a stiff motion , turning down one point , and thrusting up another : it is taken to be poysonous ; they are very common , and found thrown up on the rocks by the sea side . sea bream , which are plentifully taken upon the sea coasts , their eyes are accounted rare meat , whereupon the proverbial comparison , it is worth a sea breams eye . blew fish , or horse , i did never see any of them in england ; they are as big usually as the salmon , and better meat by far : it is common in new-england and esteemed the best sort of fish next to rock cod. cat fish , having a round head , and great glaring eyes like a cat : they lye for the most part in holes of rocks , and are discovered by their eyes : it is an excelling fish. munk fish , a flat fish like scate , having a hood like a fryers cowl . clam , or clamp , a kind of shell fish , a white muscle . an acharistor , for pin and web. ] sheath fish , which are there very plentiful , a delicate fish , as good as a pr●…wa , covered with a thin shell like the sheath of a knife , and of the colour of a muscle . which shell calcin'd and pulveriz'd , is excellent to take off a pin and web , or any kind of filme growing over the eye . morse , or sea horse , having a great head , wide jaws , armed with tushes as white as ivory , of body as big as a cow , proportioned like a hog , of brownish bay , smooth skin'd and impenetrable ▪ they are frequent at the isle of sables , their teeth are worth eight groats the pound ; the best ivory being sold but for half the money . for poyson . it is very good against poyson . for the cramp . as also for the cramp , made into rings . for the piles . and a secret for the piles , if a wise man have the ordering of it . the manaty , a fish as big as a wine pipe , most excellent meat ; bred in the rivers of hispaniola in the west indies ; it hath teats , and nourisheth its young ones with milk ; it is of a green colour , and tasteth like veal . for the stone collick . there is a stone taken out of the head that is rare for the stone and collect. to provoke urine . their bones beat to a powder and drank with convenient liquors , is a gallant urin provoking medicine . for wound and bruise . an indian , whose knee was bruised with a fall , and the skin and flesh strip'd down to the middle of the calf of his leg ; cured himself with water lilly roots boyled and stamped . for swellings of the foot. an indian webb , her foot being very much swell'd and inflamed , asswaged the swelling , and took away the inflamation with our garden or english patience , the roots roasted . f. cataplas . anno 1670. iune 28. to dissolve a scirrhous tumour . an indian dissolv'd a scirrhous tumour in the arm and hip , with a fomentation of tobacco , applying afterwards the herb stamp'd betwixt two stones . a description of an indian squa . now ( gentle reader ) having trespassed upon your patience a long while in the perusing of these rude observations , i shall , to make you amends , present you by way of divertisement , or recreation , with a coppy of verses made sometime since upon the picture of a young and handsome gypsie , not improperly transferred upon the indian squa , or female indian , trick'd up in all her bravery . the men are somewhat horse fac'd , and generally faucious , i. e. without beards ; but the women many of them have very good features ; seldome without a come to me , or cos amoris , in their countenance ; all of them black eyed , having even short teeth , and very white ; their hair black , thick and long , broad breasted ; handsome streight bodies , and slender , considering their constant loose habit : their limbs cleanly , straight , and of a convenient stature , generally , as plump as partridges , and saving here and there one , of a modest deportment . their garments are a pair of sleeves of deer , or moose skin drest , and drawn with lines of several colours into asiatick works , with buskins of the same , a short mantle of trading cloath , either blew or red , fastened with a knot under the chin , and girt about the middle with a zone , wrought with white and blew beads into pretty works ; of these beads they have bracelets for their neck and arms , and links to hang in their ears , and a fair table curiously made up with beads likewise , to wear before their breast ; their hair they combe backward , and tye it up short with a border , about two handfulls broad , wrought in works as the other with their beads : but enough of this . the poem . whether white or black be best call your senses to the quest ; and your touch shall quickly tell the black in softness doth excel , and in smoothness ; but the ear , what , can that a colour hear ? no , but 't is your black ones wit that doth catch , and captive it . and if slut and fair be one , sweet and fair , there can be none : nor can ought so please the tast as what 's brown and lovely drest : and who'll say , that that is best to please ones sense , displease the rest ? maugre then all that can be sed in flattery of white and red : those flatterers themselves must say that darkness was before the day : and such perfection here appears it neither wind nor sun-shine fears . a chronological table of the most remarkable passages in that part of america , known to us by the name of new-england . anno dom. 1492. christ. columbus discovered america . anno dom. 1516. the voyage of sir thomas pert , vice admiral of england , and sir sebastian cabota to brazile , &c. anno dom. 1527. new-found-land , discovered by the english. anno dom. 1577. sir francis drake began his voyage about the world. anno dom. 1585. nova albion discovered by sir francis drake , and by him so named . anno dom. 1585. april 9. sir richards greenevile was sent by sir water rawleigh with a fleet of seven sail to virginia , and was stiled the general of virginia . anno dom. 1586. captain thomas candish , a suffolk gentleman , began his voyage round about the world , with three ships past the streights of magellan , burn'd and ransack'd in the entry of chile , peru , and new-spain , near the great island callifornia in the south sea ; and returned to plymouth with a precious booty anno dom. 1588. september the 8th ; being the third since magellan that circuited the earth . anno dom. 1588. sir walter rawleigh first discovered virginia , by him so named , in honour of our virgin queen . anno dom. 1595. sir walter rawleigh discovered guiana . anno dom. 1606. a collony sent to virginia . anno dom. 1614. bermudas planted . anno dom. 1618. the blazing star ; then plymouth plantation began in new-england . anno dom. 1628. the massachusets colony planted , and salem the first town therein built . anno dom. 1629. the first church gathered in this colony was at salem ; from which year to this present year , is 43 years . in the compass of these years , in this colony , there hath been gathered fourty churches , and 120 towns built in all the colonies of new-england . the church of christ at plymouth , was planted in new-england eight years before others . anno dom. 1630. the governour and assistants arrived with their pattent for the massachusets . anno dom. 1630. the lady arabella in new-england . anno dom. 1630. when the government was established , they planted on noddles island . anno dom. 1631. captain iohn smith governour of virginia , and admiral of new-england , dyed . anno dom. 1631. mr. mavericke minister at dorchester in new-england . anno dom. 1631. iohn winthorpe esq chosen the first time governour , he was eleven times governour ; some say nineteen times ; eleven years together ; the other years by intermission . anno dom. 1631. iohn wilson pastor of charles town . anno dom. 1631. sir r. saltingstall at water town came into new-england . anno dom. 1631. mr. rog. harlackinden was a majestrate , and a leader of their military forces . dr. wilson gave 1000 l. to new-england , with which they stored themselves with great guns . anno dom. 1633. mr. thomas hooker , mr. haynes , and mr. iohn cotton , came over together in one ship. anno dom. 1634. the country was really placed in a posture of war , to be in readiness at all times . anno dom. 1635. hugh peters went over for new-england . anno dom. 1636. connecticat colony planted . anno dom. 1637. the pequites wars , in which were slain five or six hundred indians . ministers that have come from england , chiefly in the ten first years , ninety four : of which returned twenty seven : dyed in the country thirty six : yet alive in the country thirty one. the number of ships that transported passengers to new-england in these times , was 298. supposed : men , women , and children , as near as can be ghessed 21200. anno dom. 1637. the first synod at cambridge in new-england , where the antinomian and famalistical errors were confuted ; 80 errors now amongst the massachusets . anno dom. 1638. new-haven colony began . mrs. hutchinson and her erronious companions banished the massachusets colony . a terrible earth quake throughout the country . mr. iohn harvard , the founder of harvard college ( at cambridge in new-england ) deceased , gave 700 l. to the erecting of it . anno dom. 1639. first printing at cambridge in new-england . anno dom. 1639. a very sharp winter in new-england . anno dom. 1642. harvard college founded with a publick library . ministers bred in new-england , and ( excepting about 10 , ) in harvard college 132 ; of which dyed in the country 10 ; now living 81 ; removed to england 41. anno dom. 1643. the first combination of the four united colonies , viz. plymouth , massachusets , connecticut , and new-haven . anno dom. 1646. the second synod at cambridge touching the duty and power of majestrates in matters of religion : secondly , the nature and power of synods . mr. eliot first preached to the indians in their native language . anno dom. 1647. mr. thomas hooker died. anno dom. 1648. the third synod at cambridge , publishing the platform of discipline . anno dom. 1649. mr. iohn winthorpe governour , now died. this year a strange multitude of caterpillers in new-england . thrice seven years after the planting of the english in new-england , the indians of massachusets being 30000 able men were brought to 300. anno dom. 1651. hugh peters , and mr. wells came for england . anno dom. 1652. mr. iohn cotton dyed . anno dom. 1653. the great fire in boston in new-england . mr. thomas dudley , governour of the massachusets , dyed this year . anno dom. 1654. major gibbons died in new-england . anno dom. 1655. iamaica taken by the english. anno dom. 1657. the quakers arrived in new-england , at plymouth . anno dom. 1659. mr. henry dunster the first president of harvard college now dyed . anno dom. 1661. major atherton dyed in new-england . anno dom. 1663. mr. iohn norton pastor of boston in new-england , dyed suddenly . mr. samuel sto●…e , teacher of hartford church , dyed this year . anno dom. 1664. the whole bible printed in the indian language finished . the manadaes , called new amsterdam , now called new york ; surrendred up to his majesties commissioners ( for the settling of the respective colonies in new-england , viz. sir robert carr , collonel nicols , collonel cartwright , and mr. samuel mavericke , ) in september , after thirteen dayes the fort of arania , now albania ; twelve dayes after that , the fort aw●…apha ; then de la ware castle man'd with dutch and sweeds ; the three first forts and towns being built upon the great river mohegan , otherwise called ●…udsons river . in september appeared a great comet for the space of three months . anno dom. 1665. mr. iohn indicot , governour of the massachusets dyed . a thousand foot sent this year by the french king to canada . captain davenport killed with lightning at the castle by boston in new-england , and several wounded . anno dom. 1666. the small pox at boston . seven slain by lightning , and divers burnt : this year also new-england ▪ had cast away , and taken 31 vessels , and some in 1667. anno dom. 1667. mr. iohn wilson pastor of boston dyed , aged 79 years . anno dom. 1670. at a place called kenibunck , which is in the province of meyne , a colony belonging to the heir of that honourable knight sir ferdinando gorges ; not far from the river side , a piece of clay ground was thrown up by a mineral vapour ( as we supposed ) over the tops of high oaks that grew between it and the river , into the river , stopping the course thereof , and leaving a hole two yards square , wherein were thousands of clay bullets as big as musquet bullets , and pieces of clay in shape like the barrel of a musquet . anno dom. 1671. elder peun dyed at boston . anno dom. 1672. mr. richard bellingham , governour of the massachusets in new-england . finis . books printed and sold by giles widdows at the green dragon in st. pauls church yard . folio . doctor nath. homes's works . mr. davies's rights belonging to uniformity in churches . a book of the five sences , in copper plates . quarto . mr. caryl's exposition on the 32 , 33 , and 34 chapters of the book of iob. dr. sibbs's light from heaven , discovering the fountain opened , the angels acclamatio●…s , the churches riches , the riches poverty , in four treatises . mr. barto●…s remedy for londons languishing trade . the younger brothers apology , or a fathers free power , &c. marcelia , or the treacherous friend , a tragy-comedy . written by madam boothby . large octavo . mr. stucklyes gospel glass , representing the miscarriages of english professors . mr. gales theophily . his anatomy of insidelity . his idea of iansenism both historick and d●…gmatick , in small octavo . pufendorfs elementorum iuris prudentia universalis . walker's grammar . his art of teaching . 12. and 24. frommoni●… synopsis metaphysica . hoole's greek testament . history of the bible . batavia , or the hollander displayed in brief charectars , &c. dr. collet's daily devotions , or the christians morning and evening sacrafice ; digested into prayers and meditations , with some short directions for a godly life ; and a brief account of the authors li●…e , by doctor fuller . those famous lozenges for the cure of consumptions , coughs new and old , and all other diseases incident to the lungs , are made by edmund buckworth , physitian to the queens most excellent majesty , and are sold at the green dragon in st. pauls church yard , where you may also have his famous homogenial pill . gw printer's or publisher's device the comparative anatomy of trunks together with an account of their vegetation grounded thereupon; in two parts: the former read before the royal society, feb. 25. 1674/5; the latter, june 17. 1675. the whole explicated by several figures in nineteen copper-plates; presented to the royal society in the years 1673. and 1674. by nehemiah grew, m.d. and fellow of the royal society. grew, nehemiah, 1641-1712. 1675 approx. 163 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 89 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2005-03 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a42101 wing g1947 estc r218849 99830406 99830406 34857 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a42101) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 34857) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 2091:11) the comparative anatomy of trunks together with an account of their vegetation grounded thereupon; in two parts: the former read before the royal society, feb. 25. 1674/5; the latter, june 17. 1675. the whole explicated by several figures in nineteen copper-plates; presented to the royal society in the years 1673. and 1674. by nehemiah grew, m.d. and fellow of the royal society. grew, nehemiah, 1641-1712. [26], 81, [23] p., [18] leaves of plates (folded) printed by j.m. for walter kettilby at the sign of the bishops head in s. paul's church-yard, london : 1675. with a preliminary order to print from the royal society dated: octob. 21. 1675. with errata on a4r. the figures on each plate are numbered in arabic: 1-27 (lacking no. 26). caption title on p. 39: an account of the vegetation of trunks grounded upon the foregoing anatomy. "the explication of the figures" follows p. 81 (leaves g-h⁴). copy filmed has the last five plates from the l copy spliced at end. reproduction of the originals in the harvard university library and the british library (5 plates only). created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng botany -england -early works to 1800. botany -anatomy -early works to 1800. woody plants -england -early works to 1800. plants, useful -england -early works to 1800. 2004-09 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2004-10 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2004-11 emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread 2004-11 emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-01 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion at a meeting of the council of the royal society , octob. 21. 1675. ordered , that a book intituled , the comparative anatomy of trunks , together with an account of their vegetation grounded thereupon ; in two parts : the former read before the royal society february 25. 1674 / 5 ; the latter june 17. 1675. the whole explicated by several figures in nineteen copper-plates ; presented to the royal society in the years 1673. and 1674. by dr. nehemiah grew ; be printed by the assigns of john martyn printer to the royal society for walter kettilby . brouncker p. r. s. the comparative anatomy of trunks , together with an account of their vegetation grounded thereupon ; in two parts : the former read before the royal society , feb. 25. 1674 / 5 ; the latter , june 17. 1675. the whole explicated by several figures in nineteen copper-plates ; presented to the royal society in the years 1673. and 1674. by nehemiah grew , m. d. and fellow of the royal society . london , printed by j. m. for walter kettilby at the sign of the bishops head in s. paul's church-yard . 1675. to the most august prince , charles ii. of great brittaine , france , and ireland , king , &c. may it please your majesty , having formerly dedicated two essays to the royal society , of the anatomy of plants ; and both with good acceptance : and your majesty likewise , upon your view of them , having been pleased to speak well of the same : i am now emboldened most humbly to present a third into your own royal hands . by which your majesty will find ; that there are terrae incognitae in philosophy , as well as geography : for the discovery of this part whereof , i did resolve to make an adventure . and i may , without vanity , say thus much , that it was my fortune , to be the first that ever gave a map of the country . your majesty will here see , that there are those things , which are little less admirable within a plant , than within an animal . that a plant , as well as an animal , is constituted of several organical parts ; some whereof may be called its bowels . that every plant hath bowels of divers kinds , containing divers kinds of liquors . that even a plant lives partly upon air ; for the reception whereof , it hath peculiar organs . so that a plant is , as it were , an animal in queers ; even as an animal is a plant , or rather several plants , bound up into one volume . again , that all the said organs , bowels or other parts , are as artificially made ; and as punctually , for their place and number , composed together ; as all the mathematical lines of a flower or face . that the staple of the stuff is so exquisitely fine , that no silkworm is able to draw so small a thred . so that one who walks about with the meanest stick , holds a piece of natures handicraft in his hand , which far surpasses the most elaborate woof , or needlework in the world. that by all these means , the ascent of the sap ; the distribution of the air ; the confection of several sorts of liquors , as lymphas , milks , oyls , balsoms ; with other acts of vegetation , are all contrived and brought about in a mechanical way . in sum , your majesty will find , that we are come ashore into a new world , whereof we see no end . it may be , that some will say , into another utopia . yet not i , but nature speaketh these things . t●● only true pallas , wherewith it is treasonable for the most curious handed arachne to compare . in whose name , i , the meanest of her pupils , do in all humility crave your majesties most gracious patronage . whereof i cannot doubt , whilst i consider your royal propensity in all other like cases : that you are too great to be moved by the suggestions of ignorance , or prejudice : and that you are often exercised in much higher demonstrations of those princely endowments of wisdom , justice , and goodness . all which illustrate your majesties imperial crown , and make you truly august . withal , there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some thing royal , in your majesties philosophy , as well as inclinations and power . agreeable to the principles whereof , you have been pleased to institute that society , whose business is , an unbyassed , and universal search of truth . your majesty deeming it to be as noble a design , to enlarge the territories of knowledge , as those of dominion . if i shall make any further observations of this , or other nature ; i must needs wish , still to seat my self in a clear light ; as is that of your majesties favour . you being , as it were , sol & anima hujus insularis mundi . and therefore no less to so small a part thereof , as is , your majesties most humble and most obedient servant and subject , n. grew . to the right honourable william lord viscount brouncker the president of the royal society ▪ ( together with the rest of the fellows of the said society . ) my lord , having in all humility presented the following discourses to the king , our royal patron : i next crave leave to do the like to your lordship . you being , in some sense , his majesties chancellor in these affairs ; and having highly justif●ed his choice of you , by that great prudence and integrity you have upon all occasions shewed herein . one instance whereof hath been afforded us by this present subject , sc. the anatomy of plants . which having been some years since undertook ; and since then additions made thereunto ; and both published by the advice of the royal society , and the order of their council , wherein your lordship presides : your lordship hath thought fit , notwithstanding , lately to give the same order for the publishing of a like undertaking , by another ( indeed a most accurate ) hand . as well knowing , that it would be no disadvantage to the credit of those matters , which were so new and strange , to be offered to the world from a twofold authority . for one , although he have no mind to deceive , yet may sooner be deceived , than two may be . especially living in divers countrys , and having had no correspondence . likewise , that although the same subject be prosecuted by two hands ; yet would it be still more illustrated by the various examples of both. as also , that like as in other matters , so here the defects of both the undertakers , would mutually be supplied . of these , with your lordships leave , i shall give some instances . in the third chapter of my first book i have assigned an aerial content to those i here call the air-vessels ; and in the second chapter of that book , have given a description of them . yet so far only , as the unassisted eye would discover : having resolved , for divers reasons , to reserve the microscopical part for a second attempt . but what could not be observed by the bare eye , the learned marcellus malpighius , by the help of glasses , did in his first book ( which the learned mr. oldenburge calleth his idea ) superadd , sc. their spiral texture . by which observation , i do say , in the words of the learned grotius upon the like occasion , profecisse me non diff●●eor , quin gaudeo etiam gloriórque . in like manner , such observations as signior malpighi had not inserted into his first book , were to be found in my first . as for example , a description of the florid attire , in all corymbiferous , and other similar flowers : of the acetary in the center of all sorts of pears : of the stone in all sorts of plums : of a third and inmost cover , found in almost all seeds whatsoever , and often analogous to a secundine : the prodigious swelth of the covers ( especially in stone fruits ) upon the generation of the seed , and their contraction afterwards ; after the manner of the womb in some animals : with divers others : some whereof are now to be found in signior malpighi's second book , and some are there still wanting . the same worthy person being now pleased likewise , to use the self same names which , having procured my book ( sent him by the learned mr. oldenburge ) to be translated into latine , he saw i did therein give to some of the said described parts . again to his observation of the spiral texture of the air-vessels , in my second book i have added a further description of the said vessels . once more , whereas saying little of roots , he hath applyed himself chiefly to discourse of trunks : on the contrary , in my second book , i have made it my business , to treat more largely , and to give the comparative anatomy of roots . for this amongst other reasons , that hereby the nature of both parts might be still more fully and perspicuously represented betwixt us both. upon the consideration of all which i am , my lord , very sensible , as of that great justice you have done to the subject treated of ; so honour to my self , in having assigned unto me so eminent a collegue . as to the following anatomy , i shall give your lordship the trouble of noting ; that i have varied from signior malpighi in , i think , all the examples here exhibited . as also , that some progress is here made beyond what your lordship will find in the abovesaid learned author . as for example , in a further discovery of the fabrick or structure of the lymphaeducts ; of the air-vessels ; and of the pith : and in sundry particulars more . for which reason , i thought it more proper to follow the said worthy author , in the publishing hereof , rather than to precede him : although the figures , your lordship may remember , were presented to the royal society long ago , and most of them two years since . lastly , that i have chosen to give my examples chiefly in the transverse section ; whereas those of signior malpighi , are principally in cutting by the length . which i have done chiefly for this reason , because , that as the variety of the parts ( as to size , number , and position ) in every species ; so their regularity and constancy in the individuals of each , are this way , much more clearly and certainly represented . without a distinct remark of which circumstances , the generation of the various kinds of liquors in plants , and divers other particulars , cannot possibly be understood . all which your lordship will best observe , by comparing our several figures together . and for the subsequent discourse , grounded on this anatomy ; i humbly submit the same to your lordships judgment ; which must needs be candid and benign , because it is great . i have only this to say , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . your lordship will not disapprove the enterprize , though as yet it falls short of perfection . it being the result of your lordships manifold virtues and abilities , that you know how far to encourage the meanest attempts ; as well as rightly to value , and assist the greatest performances . upon the account whereof , it is even my ambition to be , my lord , your lordships most obsequious and humble servant , n. grew . the contents . the first part . chap. 1. a description of 6. several trunks , as they appear to the naked eye , viz. of borage , p. 2. of dandelyon , p. 3. of colewort , p. 4. of holyoak , p. 5. of wild cucumer , p. 5. of endive , p. 6. chap. 2. a description of several trunks and parts of trunks , as they appear through a good microscope . first a general description of the several parts of the bark , p. 7. of the skin , p. 7 , 8. of the parenchyma , p. 8 , 9. of the vessels , p. 9 , 10. next a particular description of the barks of 8 several trunks ; sc. of holly , hazel , barberry , apple , pear , plum , elm , ash ; the vessels of all whose barks are lymphaeducts : and those of two kinds , p. 10 , 12. of 3 more , sc. wallnut , fig , and pine : the vessels of the barks of the two first being lymphaeducts and lactiferous , p. 12 , 13. of the next lymphaeducts and resiniferous , p. 13 , 14. of 3 more , sc. oak , common sumach , and common wormwood , the vessels of whose barks are of 3 kinds , p. 14 , 17. a further observation of the sap-vessels in general , p. 17 , 20. chap. 3. a description of the wood in all trunks , p. 20. in the several trunks aforesaid . as of their parenchymous part , or insertions , p. 21 , 22. of their vessels , p. 22 of the vessels originally containing sap ; being the true wood . p. 23 , 26. of their air-vessels , p. 26 , 29. a farther observation of the air-vessels in general , p. 30. chap. 4. a description of the pith in general , p. 31. in the several trunks or branches aforesaid . as of the size , p. 32. of the vessels , p. 32. of the parenchyma , and its bladders , p. 32 , 34. its apertures or ruptures , p. 34 , 35. some further observations of the pith in general . and of all the pithy and parenchymous parts of a plant , p. 35 , 38. the second part . chap. 1. of the motion of the sap in the pith , p. 41. in the wood , p. 42. in the bark , p. 43. two kinds of bleeding in plants , p. 43 , 44. the causes of both , p. 44 , 45. the cause of the ascent of the sap , p. 46 , 47. chap. 2. of the motion of the air. that it first enters the plant partly by the trunk , proved , p. 48. but chiefly by the root , p 49. the manner of its distribution thence throughout the plant , p. 50. the use of the insertions herein , p. 51. a comparison betwixt the use of the insertions , and the membranous parts of the lungs , p. 52. chap. 3. of the str●cture of the parts . the union of the bark to the body of the tree , p. 52 the cause of it , p. 53. of the various surface and falling off of the bark , p. 53. of the lessening of the pith in the elder branches . of the ruptures of the pith , p. 54. and for what ends , p. 54 , 55. how the air-vessels come to be less in the trunk of the same plant , than in the root , p. 55 , 56. and those of the first year , usually much less than those of the years following , p. 56 , 57. how the air-vessels come to be formed always late in the year , p. 57. chap. 4. of the generation of liquors . the sap nutritive by a double tincture from the lignous and parenchymous parts , p. 58. the vessels of plants of the same use as the viscera in animals , p. 59. by what means a winy sap is made , p. 59 , 61. by what means a resinous , p. 61 , 63. and how a plant comes to have oyl in all its parts , p. 61. by what means a milkie sap is made , p. 63 , 64. how the liquors of plants come to be white , p. 64. all the milkie liquors of plants more oyly proved , p. 65. what a rosin properly so called , p. 65. what a gum , p. 66. what a mucilage , p. 66. chap. 5. of the figuration of trunks . the cause of a shrub , p. 68. of a tall tree , p. 69. of a slender , and of a thick tree , p. 69. whence trunks round or angular , p. 70. chap. 6. of the motions of trunks . the cause of the ascent of trunks , p. 71. of their descent into the ground , p. 71 , 72. of their horizontal motion , p. 72. of their spiral motion , p. 73. whence solar and lunar plants distinguished , p. 73. chap. 7. of the nature of trunks as variously fitted for mechanical use . whence woods are soft , and with what difference , p. 74 , 75. whence they are fast , p. 75. fast and hard , p. 76. clevesome , p. 76. tough , p. 77. durable , p. 77. why the heart of timber most durable , and why some trees have heart and not others , p. 78. whence the toughness of flax , p. 79. what sort of plants serve for the best toe , p. 79. how all prosperous conjunctions in graffing may be known , p. 80. the use of graffing , p. 81. errata . pag. 7. line 2. for sight ; read , light . p. 9. l. 24. r. upon , or near . p. 11. l. 18. r. cutis . p. 22. l. 27. for many ; r. any . p. 28. l 1 r. but alwayes . p. 29. l. 25. r. branchiae . l. 27. r. being of ▪ p. 32. l. 17. r. lacteals . p. 39. l. ult . r. conformation . p. 42. l. 14. dele , the. p. 44. l. 15. r. not from the bark , but the air-vessels in the wood . p. 45. l. 7. r. also . p. 48. l. 8. r. reception . p. 49. l. 10. r. whereas . p. 57. l. 7. r. moister . p. 72. l. 20. r. standeth . the comparative anatomy of trunks . chap. i. to the end we may know and clearly understand , what the trunk , stalk , or branch of a plant is ; i shall , by these figures here before us , describe the several parts whereof it is compounded . and , for examples sake , i shall in the first place , describe the trunks of six several kinds of plants , as they appear to , and are observeable by the naked eye . which having done , i shall next proceed to a more particular description of divers other trunks and branches as they appear through the microscope i made use of . in both shewing , not only what their several parts are , as belonging to a branch ; but also by a comparative prospect , in what respects they are specifically distinguished one from another , in the several species of branches . let the first trunk then to be described , be that of borage : in a slice whereof cut transversly , appears , first a tough , yet fine and transparent skin . within this skin there is also a slender ring of sap-vessels : which , without being crushed in the least , do yield a lympha . next standeth the parenchyma of the bark . which is every where made up of a great number of very small bubles or vesicles . upon the inner verge of this parenchyma , standeth another ring of sap-vessels : which also yeild a lympha ; and that different , as is probable , from the lympha in the utmost ring . hitherto goes the bark . adjacent to the ring of sap-vessels , on the inner verge of the bark ; stand the air-vessels , on the outer verge of the pith. not in a ring ; but in several parcels ; some parcels in the figure of little specks ; others in little arched lines , almost like an v consonant . and being viewed in a good glass , there appears to be within the compass of every larger speck , about 20 or 30 air-vessels ; and within the smallest about 8 or 10. the pith , in a well grown stalk , is always hollow . but originally it is entire . it is wholly made up of a great number of vesiculae ; being pentangular , sexangular , and septangular . and most of them larger than those of the bark ; so as to be plainly visible to a naked eye . let the next be taraxacum , or dandelyon . in a slice whereof cut alike transversly , is seen , first a skin , then a simple , white , and close parenchyma ; made up likewise of vesiculae ; but those exceeding small . within this white and thick parenchymous ring , stand the milk-vessels , in several distinct columns , of different size ; each column being made up of 7. or 8. arched lines . betwixt these columns , run as many diametral portions , derived from the said white and thick parenchyma , into or towards the pith. next within these , stand the air-vessels . which are likewise divided , by the said diametral portions , into divers arched lines . the size of these vessels , as well as their number is less than in borage . within these stands the pith , consisting of very small bubles or vesicles , as the bark . 't is very small , the diameter hereof , being scarce one fifth of that of the pith of borage . but the bark of borage is not half so thick as this of dandelyon . a third trunk , shall be that of colewort . wherein cut in like manner as before , may be observed , first a skin . next to which , a very close and darkish parenchyma . wherewith are mixed some few sap-vessels , which give it that hew . within this stands a scalloped parenchymous ring , or a ring of many short and slender white arches . which every where meeting together , run in so many white diametral portions into the pith. next to the said white arches , and betwixt the said diametral portions stands as many small parcels of sap-vessels , like so many little half-ovals . within each of which , is included a white parenchyma . on the inner verge of the bark stands another sort of sap-vessels , in one slender and entire ring . and so far goes the bark . next within this ring stand the air-vessels , in several parcels , diametrically opposite to the said parenchymous parcels next without the sap-ring . last of all , and more within the pith , stand the same kind of sap-vessels , as those of the half-ovals . both these , by small lines , run one into another ; thus on both sides , hemming in the air-vessels , and so making altogether , so many little pyramids . let a fourth be holyoak . wherein , being cut as before , next to the skin stands the parenchyma , somewhat close ; and , in proportion thick . towards the inner verge hereof , stand one sort of sap-vessels , postur'd in short rays . these vessels yield a mucilage . and on the inner verge of the bark , stands a thin ring of other sap-vessels . next within the bark stand the air-vessels , postur'd likewise in short rays , diametrically opposite to those in the bark . in every ray , there are about 12. or 16. vessels . lastly , and more within the pith , there stand other sap-vessels , all in very thin or slender chords ; thus hemming in the several parcels of air-vessels . for a fifth , i will take that of wild cucumer . wherein first of all next to the skin , there is a ring of sap-vessels . which ring is also made up of rays , all poynting to , and most of them terminating on the skin . next of all there is a thick , and simple parenchymous ring . on the inner verge whereof , there are other sap-vessels standing in parcels , also in a ring . so far goes the bark . next within stand the air-vessels , in as many parcels contiguous to those of the sap-vessels aforesaid to which likewise are adj●●n●d as many more parcels of sap-vessel wi●●in the pith , opposite to the said sap-vessels within the bark . let the sixth be the trunk of endive . in which , next to the skin , there is , first a thick and simple parenchyma . then there is a kind of undulated ring of milk-vessels . within which stand a sort of lymphaeducts , in several parcels , some in arched half-ovals , others in short slender rays . betwixt these parcels , many of the milk-vessels likewise stand . next there is an undulated ring of other lymphaeducts , parting , as in most trunks , betwixt the bark and the pith . within which are the air-vessels . and within these more sap-vessels . both of them in small specks , answerable , or opposite to the rays in the bark . all the parts of these six trunks , may as i have now described them , be observed , without a microscope : excepting only the number of the air vessels . yet three things are necessary ; viz. a good eye a clear sight , and a rasor wherewith to cut . chap. ii. i now proceed to a more particular description of several trunks and branches , as they appear through the best microscopes . now the trunk , or branch of every tree hath three general parts to be described ; sc. the bark , the wood , and the pith. that likewise of every herhaceous vegetable , hath either the same three parts ; or els three parts analogous ; sc. the cortical , the lignous , and the pithy parts . the bark consisteth of two parts , sc. the outmost skin , and the main body . the skin is generally composed of very small vesicles or bladders , cluster'd together . that is , originally ; but as the plant grows , the the skin dries , & the said bladders do very much shrink up and disappear . amongst these bladders of the skin , there are usually intermixed a sort of lignous fibers , or vessels , which run through the length of the skin ; as in mallow , nettle , borage , thistle , and most plants . which is not only argued from the toughness of the skin by means of the said vessels ; but in some plants may be plainly seen , as in teas●le . whether they are air-vessels , or sap-vessels , is dubious . for on the one hand , because they emitt no sap , or bleed not , 't is propable that they are air-vessels . on the other hand , they may be sap-vessels , notwithstanding . because the non-emission of sap is not an infallible and concluding argument of an air-vessel . for there are some plants which bleed not . which yet are furnished with sap-vessels , as certainly as any others which bleed . the skin of the trunk is sometimes visibly porous . but no where more , than in the better sort of walking canes ; where the pores are so big , as to be visible even to the naked eye ; like to those upon the ends of our fingers . see fig. 7. the main body of the bark consisteth likewise of two parts , sc. parenchyma , and vessels . the parenchyma is made up of an innumerable company of small bladders clustered together . differing in nothing from those aforesaid in the skin ; saving that they are much larger ; and generally rounder . this parenchyma of the bark is the same as to its substance , both in the root and trunk . yet as to the texture of its parts , in the one , and in the other , there is this observeable difference , viz. that in the bark of the root cut transversly , the said parenchyma is usually more or less , disposed into diametral rays ; running through the bark , after the same manner , as do the hour lines through the margin of the dial-plat of a clock or watch. whereas here in the bark of the trunk , the said parenchyma is rarely thus disposed into diametral rays : nor when it is , are those rays continued to the circumference of the bark ; as in the bark of the root they frequently are . what is further observeable in the texture of the parenchyma , i shall shew in the description of the pith. the vessels of the bark , are as i shall also shew , diversifyed many ways . but there are some things , wherein in all sorts of plants , they agree . first , in standing , most numerously , or near , the inner margin of the bark . secondly , in being always , and only sap-vessels . i have viewed so many , that at least , i can securely affirm thus much , that if there be any heteroclital plants , wherein they are found otherwise , there is not one in five hundred . thirdly , in being always conjugated or braced together in the form of net-work : although the number and distances of the braces , are very different : as i have already shewed by divers figures in my anatomy of roots . the properties , whereby the said vessels of the bark are specificated and distinguished one from an other , both in the same plant , and in the several species of plants are very many . which properties are not accidental , but such as shew the constant and universal design of nature . all which shall be demonstrated by several figures , representing so many quarters of the slices of so many kinds of branches cut transversly . first then , for the eight first quarters , the vessels of the bark are only of two kinds . and those likewise only lymphaeducts . yet in all the eight , they are in respect both of their proportion , and position , very different . so in hazel and ash they are but few . in holly and barberry more . in apple , pear , plum , elm , still more numerous . and of those three fruits , in an apple , or plum , more than in a pear . again , as their proportion , so likewise their position is divers . for in holly , the inner vessels next to the wood stand in rays , yet so thick together , as to make one entire ring . in hazel , they stand more in oblong parcels . in barberry they stand likewise in parcels , but they are so many half-ovals . the utmost lymphaeducts of all three , make three rings . again , in apple , pear , and plum , the inmost lymphaeducts are radiated . the utmost are neither radiated , nor make an entire ring ; but stand in peripherial parcels . much after the same manner they also stand in elm. in ash , the said vessels make two rings , but neither of them radiated : the inmost ring consisting of arched parcels , and the utmost of round ones . and whereas in all the foregoing , the inmost are still contiguous to the wood ; and the utmost more or less , distant from the cuts : here , on the contrary , the inmost are distant from the wood , and the utmost contiguous to the cutis . all the said vessels in the barks of the said eight branches , though i call them lymphaeducts ; because i observe not any of them to emitt any liquour , but what is clear , & less oyly : yet are they not one , but two distinct kinds of lymphaeducts . which is evident , as from some other reasons , so from hence ; in that their positions are altogether heterogeneous : yet in both constant , regular and uniform . i say , there can be no reason given , why the self same kind or species of vessels , should have a different , yea a contrary position , and that contrariety not accidental , but regular and constant . of the three next quarters sc. the ninth , tenth , and eleventh , the vessels of the bark are different in number , position , size , and kind . in pine , which is the eleventh , they are fewer . in wallnut , the ninth , more . in fig , the tenth , most numerous . so for their position . in pine , the inmost make a radiated ring . the utmost stand stragling up and down , without any certain order . in wallnut the inmost make also a radiated ring ; the utmost make a doudle ring ; not radiated , but of round parcels . in fig , the inmost make also a radiated ring . but the utmost make a double and sometimes treble ring , not of radiated , nor round , but arched parcels . thirdly , they are also different in kind . those i think , of the two former , wallnut and fig , are thus different : those certainly , of the fig , are so ; being lymphaeducts and lacteals . the lymphaeducts make the inmost radiated ring . the utmost , which make the other rings in arched parcels , are the lactifers . that they are distinct kinds of vessels , is evident from two reasons . first , from their position in the bark , which is altogether unlike , as hath been said . secondly , from the most apparent diversity of the liquours or saps which they contain , and which upon cutting the branch transversly , do distinctly bleed from them . which is one way , whereby we do distinguish the vessels of animals themselves . as in the liver , it were hard to say , which is a blood-vessels , and which is a bile-vessel , where they are very small , if it were not for the contents of both . those in the bark of pine , are likewise of two kinds . the inmost are lymphaeducts , as in the two former . the utmost are not milk-vessels , but gum-vessels , or resiniferous . out of these vessels , all the clear turpentine , that drops from the tree , doth issue . besides the difference of their position , and of the liquor which they contain , and bleed ; there is yet a third , and that is , their size . most of them being of so wide a bore , as to be apparent to a naked eye . whereas that of the lymphaeducts , can hardly be discovered by the best microscope . the same resiniferous vessels of pine , are likewise , by their size , remarkably different from the milk vessels of fig. for those of fig , are , in comparison , exceeding small ; every arch , not beeing a single vessel , but a parcel or cluster of vessels ; whereof an hundred or two hundred may make up one arched parcel . whereas one single gum vessel in pine , is sometimes as big as two whole arched clusters , that is , as two or three hundred of the milk vessels in a fig tree . and the said gum-vessels , or turpentine-vessels of pine , being compared with the lymphaeducts of the same tree , one gum-vessel , by a moderate estimate , may be reckoned three or four hundred times wider than a lymphaeduct . the like prodigious difference in the size of the several kinds of vessels of many other vegetables may be observed . the three next quarters of branches , are of oak , common sumack , and common wormwood . in the bark-vessels whereof , there is yet a farther variety observeable . for in all or in most of the above named , there are only two kinds of vessels in the bark . but in each of these , there are three kinds . and first , in that of oak there are two kinds of lymphaeducts , and one of a sort of resiniserous . the inmost lymphaeducts make a radiated ring , contiguous to the wood. the utmost lymphaeducts make also a ring , but not radiated . those which are a sort of rosin-vessels , stand in round parcels ; the greater parcels betwixt the two rings of lymphaeducts , and the lesser betwixt the utmost ring and the skin . that these are different vessels from both the other , is evident from the difference of their position , as aforesaid . and that they are a sort of resinous , is argued hence ; in that , not only galls are very full of rosin , but that the bark of oak it self is also resinous . for the conveyance of whose resinous parts , it is most unlikely that any other vessels should subserve , but a peculiar kind ; which are therefore properly called resiniferous . the next is a branch of common sumach . in the bark whereof , there are likewise three kinds of vessels . first of all , there is a thick radiated ring of lymphaeducts ; standing on the inner margin of the bark , contiguous with the wood. these vessels exhibit their lympha very apparently . a second kind of lymphaeducts are situate towards the outer margin of the bark , and are composed into distinct arched parcels , all running in a ring . betwixt the two kinds of lymphaeducts stand the milk-vessels . every single milk-vessel being empaled or hemmed in with an arch of lymphaeducts . these milk-vessels are extraordinary large , almost as the gum-vessels of pine ; so as easily to be observed without a microscope ; and without difficulty to admit a virginal wyer ; being two or three hundred times as big as a lymphaeduct . the last , is a branch of common wormwood . in the bark whereof , there are likewise three kinds of vessels . first of all , there is a thin radiated ring of lymphaeducts contiguous with the wood or on the inner margin of the bark . but the ring is not entire , but made up of several parcels ; which are intercepted by as many parenchymous insertions . a second sort of lymphaeducts , or some other sap-vessels , are situate about the middle of the bark : and are composed into arched parcels , which likewise stand all even in a ring . beyond these arches , and towards the outer margin of the bark , stand a third sort of vessels , somewhat analagous to the milk-vessels in sumach . yet different from them , in some part , both as to their situation size and content . for in sumach , the milk-vessels stand within the arched lymphaeducts : whereas these in wormwod , stand without them . likewise being the vessels of an herb , they are far less ▪ sc. about the compass or width of a spangle . their content , is not a milk , but a perfect turpentine , or a liquid and most oleous gum . or which , for its pleasant aromatickness , may be called a balsom . for it perfecty giveth whatever is in the smell and taste of wormwood : being the essence of the whole plant , which nature treasureth up in these vessels . there are divers other , both herbs and trees , that in the like vessels , contain a turpentine or aromatical balsom ; as angelica , enula campanae , and others : the vessels being so very large , that they may be easily traced with a knife . whether in some plants , there are not more , i cannot say ; though we may not have much reason to doubt of it . because we see , there is so great a variety in the viscera of animals . for what the viscera are in animals ; the vessels themselves are in plants . concerning the sap-vessels , i have one observation further to subjoyn , sc as to the texture or formation of the said vessels . i have already said , and shewed , in my former books of plants , that the lignous parts of all vessels are tubulary . that is , that the sap is conveyed , by the length of a plant , through an innumerable company of small tubes , pipes , or vessels . the question may be yet further put . if the stringy parts of the bark are made of tubes , what are these tubes themselves made up of ? i answer , that not only these tubes or sap-vessels , are organical themselves , but their very sides also , are composed of other parts , which are organical , sc. of lignous fibers : which fibers standing close or contiguous in a round , make one tubulary body , which i call the sap-vessel of a plant. and it is most probable , that these fibers themselves , are also tubulary . that is , that a sap-vessel is a small tube , made up or composed of other yet much smaller tubes , set round together in a cylindrical figure . as if we should imagine a company of straws , which are so many small pipes , to be joined and set round together , so as to make another greater pipe , answerable to a hollow cane . the cane , i say , is as the sap-vessels ; and the straws , as the fibers whereof it is composed . by which also appears , the prodigious smallness of these fibers . for a small sap vessel may , by an indifferent account , be reckoned fifty times smaller than a horse hair . allowing therefore but twenty of the aforesaid fibers to one vessel ; that is to say , ten to compose its sides , and ten more to fill its concave ; then one of the said fibers , must be a thousand times smaller than a horse hair . whether the fibers are not made up of other fibers , he only , that made them knows . the first notice i took of these fibers , and of the sap-vessels their being composed hereof , was in a very white and clear peice of ash , torn , with some care , by the length of the tree , and objected to a proper light. they are also sometimes discernable in some other clear woods , as in very white fir , &c. divers considerations have confirmed me in the truth hereof . whereof , at present , i will mention these two . first , that herein the analogy betwixt the vessels of an animal and a plant , is very clear and proper . for as the sanguineous vessels in an animal are composed of a number of fibers , set round in a tubulary figure together : so are these sap vessels of a plant. secondly , in that herein , there is a more genuine respondence betwixt these , and the other vessels of a plant it self ; sc. the air-vessels ; which are made up of a certain number of round fibers , standing collaterally , or side to side , as i have also observed in my anatomy of roots . so that it is the less strange , that the sap vessels should be made up of fibers , since the air-vessels are so likewise . only with this difference , that whereas in the air vessels , the fibers are postured spirally , and so more horizontally or by the bredth of the trunk : here in the sap-vessels , they stand and are continued in strait lines , by the length . and thus far of the bark . chap. iii. the next general part of a branch is the wood ; which lyeth betwixt the bark and pith. and this likewise evermore consisteth of two general parts , sc. of a parenchymous part , and of vessels . the parenchymous part of the wood though much diversifyed , yet in the trunks of all trees whatsoever hath this property , to be disposed into many diametral rays , or insertions , running betwixt so many portions of vessels , from the bark to the pith : as in any of the quarters here before us may appear . but these insertions are much diversified according to the several species of plants . so in barberry , ash , pine , wormwood , they are less numerous . in elm , wallnut , fig , sumach , they are more . and in holly , pear , plum , apple , oak , hazel , are most numerous . the same insertions , in barberry , wormwood , and in oak many of them are very thick . in pine , fig , ash , of a middle size . in pear , holly , and most of them in oak , are exceeding small . again , in barberry , elm , ash , sumach , fig , they are of an equal size . in holly , hazel , pear , plum , oak , they are very unequal : some of those in holly being four or five times thicker than the rest ; in plum six or seven times ; and in oak ten times at least . they have yet one more diversity , which is , that in divers of the said branches , they run not only through the wood ; but also shoot out beyond it , into some part of the bark , as in elm , sumach , wormwood , &c. whereas in pine , and some of the rest they either keep not distinct from the other parts of the parenchyma of the bark ; or are so small , as not to be distinguished there from . the texture likewise of these insertions is somewhat various . for in wormwood , and most plants they are manifestly composed of small bubles or bladders : differing in nothing from those of the bark or pith , saving in their being much less ; especially in the branches of trees . but in herbs they are much larger which leads to the better observation of them in trees likewise . but in many trees , as apple , pear , plum , pine , &c. they are either quite lost , or so squeezed and pressed together by the hard wood standing on both sides , as to be undiscernable . so that the difference betwixt a bladder in the pith , and one of these in the insertions , is only this , that the one is as a purse expanded , and the other as the same purse contracted , and drawn up together with the s●rings . t●● vessels of the wood , have likewise much 〈◊〉 . yet in the branches of all tree● ▪ they agree thus far ; viz. to be of two general kinds ; that is to say , sap-vessels and air-vessels : whereas it is proper to the bark to have only sap-vessels . likewise betwixt the sap-vessels , or lignous vessels of the bark and of the wood , there is this difference ; that those of the bark , upon cutting the branch transversly , do all of them immediately visibly bleed . but these of the wood do not , many of them , sometimes ; and most of them never . these sap-vessels of the wood have likewise some visible variety . those much less than have the air-vessels , as shall be shewed . as for the reason why i call them sap-vessels , it is to be understood ; that every year there grows a new ring of sap-vessels on the inner margin of the bark . which ring hardening by degrees , at the latter end of the year , is turned into a dry and hard ring of perfect wood. so that every year , the bark of the tree is divided into two parts , and distributed two contrary ways . the outer part falleth off towards the skin ; and at length becomes the skin it self . in like manner , as the cuticula in animals , is but the efflorescence of the cutis . i say , that the elder skin of a tree , is is not originally made a skin ; but was once , some of the midle part of the bark it self , which is annually cast off , and dryed into a skin : even as the very skin of an adder , doth upon the gradual generation of a new one underneath , in time , become a slough . the inmost portion of the bark , is annually distributed and added to the wood : the parenchymous part thereof making a new addition to the insertions within the wood ; and the vessels , a new addition to the lignous pieces betwixt which the insertions stand . so that a ring of sap-vessels in the bark this year , will be a ring of wood the next : and so another ring of sap-vessels and or wood successively from year to year . so the quarter for an apple branch , sheweth one of three years growth ; that of barbery , of two ; that of sumach , of one only ; that of elm , of five . whereby two things may be the better noted . first the difference betwixt the degrees of the annual growths of several trees : three years growth in an oak , being as thick as five in an elm ; as , by comparing the seventh and twelfth quarters together , is seen . secondly , the difference betwixt the annual growths of the same tree ; being not of a constant proportion , but varying in thickness , as it should seem , according to the season of the year : whereby it may appear , what season , or kind of year , doth most of all favour , the latitudinal growth , or the thickening of any tree . there is likewise some further variety in these old sap-vessels , whereof the true wood consists ; represented in wallnut , fig , and oak . wherein , a certain smaller number of them stand in a contrary position , to that of the rest ; viz. either in small and white rings , as in oak ; or else in divers white and crooked parcels , as in wallnut and fig. for it seemeth , that , at least , in many trees , some portion of all the kinds of vessels in the bark , are not only annually distributed to the wood , but do likewise therein retain the same , or very like position , which they originally had in the bark . so that as all those bigger and darker portions of the wood , were originally , nothing else but the radiated lymphaeducts of the bark : so the little white circles , or parcels of circles , in the same wood ▪ were originally another sort o● sap-vessels in the bark ; sc. those which have a circular position therein . lastly , as the said older sap-vessels , are varied by their quantity and position ; so likewise by their size ▪ for ●n oak , and most hard woods , they are extraordinary small , just discoverable by a good microscope . in wallnut , fig , hazel , they are somewhat more patent . but in fir , and some other woods of that kind , they are remarkably wider , than in most other woods . i have seen them in pine and fir , ten or fifteen times as big as they are in oak , and are in some sort represented by the smaller black spots which stand in rays in the eleventh quarter . so that a piece of fir-wood , especially the whiter sort , looks through a microscope , just like the lattice of a window ; or like the perforated wood , out of which button ▪ moulds have been cut . of the branches of fir , pine , and others of the same kindred , it is also to be noted ; that , amongst the said lymphaeducts , whereof chiefly the wood consists ; there are scattered up and down some few gum , or turpentine-vessels ; represented by the larger black spots in the eleventh quarter . which vessels are eadem numero , the self same , which did once appertain to the bark ; and do even here also in the wood , contain and yield a liquid turpentine . only being pinched up by the wood , they are become much smaller pipes . the air-vessels , with the older sap-vessels , and parenchymous insertions , altogether make up that , which is commonly called the wood of a tree . the air-vessels i so call , not in that they never contain any liquor ; but , because all the principal time of the growth of a plant , when the vessels of the bark are filled with liquor , these are filled only with a vapour or vegetable air. in almost all vegetables , not one in divers hundreds excepted , this is proper to these air-vessels ; to have a much more ample bore or cavity , than any of the sap-vessels in the wood. in the wood , i say ; for in the bark , there are many sap vessels bigger than the bigest air-vessels that are . the varieties hereof are very many ; in respect both of their number , size , and position ; being the same , in no two species's of plants whatsoever . frst in respect of their number . so in hazle , apple , pear , they are very numerous ; but in different degrees : and are represented in the same figures , by all the black spots in the wood. in holly , plum , barberry somewhat numerous . in oak , ash , wallnut fewer . in pine , and others of that kindred , very few ; sc. fewer than in any other kind whatsoever . secondly , in respect of their size ; which from the first or greatest , to the least , may be computed easily to about twenty degrees . thus many of those in elm , ash , wallnut , fig , oak , are very large . in barberry and plum , not so large . in hazle , sumach , smaller . in holly , pear of a still smaller size . so that many of those in elm , or oak , are twenty times bigger , than those in holly or pear . and as they have a different size in divers kinds of plants ; so likewise , according to the place where they stand , in the self same . so in holly , hazle , apple , their size is equaller throughout the bredth of the tree . but in barberry , elm , oak , ash , their size in each is very different ; not fortuitously alw●ys much after the same manner . for in all the named branches , the air-vessels that stand in the inner margin of each annual ring , are all vastly bigger , than any of those that stand in the outer part of the ring . thirdly these air-vessels are also different in their situation . so in apple , wallnut , fig , they are spread all abroad , in every annual ring ; not being posited in any one 〈◊〉 line . in others , they keep more w●thin the compass of some line or lines ; 〈◊〉 diametral , or peripherial . so in holly they are radiated , or run in even diametral lines betwixt the pith and the bark . so also are some of them in hazle ; and some few in wallnut . whether they stand irregularly , or are radiated , it is to be noted , that nature for the most part , so disposeth of them , that many of them may still stand very near the insertions . so in apple , she will rather decline making an even line ; or in holly , will rather break that line into parcels , than that the air-vessels shall stand remote from the insertions . to what end she doth this , shall be said hereafter . again , in ash , the air-vessels are none of them radiated , but most of them stand in circles on the inner margin of every annual ring . which circle is sometimes very thick , as in ash and barberry . in others but thin , the vessels standing for the most part single throughout the circles ; as in elm. sometimes again , they both make a circle , and are spread abroad ; as in pear and plum. those likewise which are spread abroad , are sometimes regularly posited . so in barberry , besides those larger , that make the circle , there are other smaller ones , that stand , in oblique lines , athwart one another ; almost like the bend in an escutcheon . in oak , they make rather certain columns , in the posture of the bar. and in elm , they make , as it were , many cross bars , in the posture of the fess. this great difference in the size and position of the air-vessels , in the same individual plant , is one ground , for which i think it probable , that there are divers kinds of air-vessels , as well as of sap-vessels . even as in animals there are divers kinds of organs for spiration , and the separation of air : fishes having their bronchiae ; land animals their lungs ; and those in frogs , &c. of a somewhat peculiar kind . the texture of these vessels , and the various ways whereby they may best be observed i have already shewed , in my anatomy of roots . yet for our clearer understanding the texture of the said vessels , i will a little further illustrate the same by this similitude . i would resemble it thus , as if a ribband should be wound spirally , and edg , to edg , round about a stick ; and so the stick being drawn out , the ribband should be left , in the figure of a tube , answerable to an air-vessel . a ribband , i say ; for that which upon the unroveing of the vessel , seems to be a plate ; is really natural ribband : being not one intire piece , ( nor therefore always of the same bredth ) but consisting of a certain number of round fibers , standing collaterally , as the threds do in an artificial ribband . and are also , much after the same manner , by other cross and smaller fibers , stitched close up together ; as is most apparent in the large and elder air-vessels of pine , oak , and many other plants . what these cross fibers are , will better be understood when we come to the texture of the pith. chap. iv. the third general part of a branch , is the pith. which though it have a different name from the parenchyma in the bark , and the insertions in the wood ; yet as to its substance , it is the very same with them both . whereof there is a double evidence , sc. the sameness of their texture , and their contin●ity . their texture shall be shewed presently . as to their continuity , it is to be noted , that as the skin is continuous with the parenchyma of the bark ; and this parenchyma likewise , with the insertions in the wood ; so these insertions again , running through the wood , are also continuous with the pith. so that the skin , parenchyma , insertions , and pith , are all one entire piece of work ; being only filled up diversly , with the vessels . the size of the pith is various , being not the same in any two branches here represented . in wormwood , sumach , fig , barberry , 't is very large ; sc. betwixt 5 , and 7. inches diameter , as it appears through the microscope . in pine , ash , holly , wallnut , not so large ; from 3. inches diameter to 4. in oak , apple , pear , hazel , lesser , scarce from 2. to 3. in damascene , not above an inch and half . and in elm ▪ scarce an inch diameter . note also , that of all plants , herbs , and shrubs , have generally the largest piths , in proportion with the other parts of the same branch , as in sumach , fig , barberry is manifest . the pith for the most part , if not always , in the branch , as well as root , is compounded of two parts , sc. a parenchyma , and sap-vessels . the vessels are here usually postured so , as to make a ring on the margin of the pith. where they are more numerous , or large , they are more evident ; as in wallnut , fig pine , and others . they are also of divers kinds answerable to those in the bark ; as in wallnut lymphaeducts , in fig lactents , in pine rosinous . the parenchyma of the pith is composed of bladders . which are the very same with those in the bark , and in the insertions within the wood. only these in the pith , are of the largest size ; those in the bark , of a lesser ; and those of the insertions least of all : for which reason they are less obvious than in the pith. the bladders of the pith , though always comparatively great , yet are of very different sizes . being easily distinguished , even as to their horizontal area , to twenty degrees . those of fig , barberry , and some others , are large . and of many plants , as of thistle , borage , and others , three times as big again ; appearing in the microscope , like to the largest cells of an honey-comb . these of plum , wormwood , sumach , less . of elm , apple , pear , lesser , of holly and oak , still less . so that the bladders of the pith in borage or common thistle , are of that size , as to contain , within the compass only of their horizontal area , about twenty bladders of the pith of oak . wherefore one whole bladder in thistle , is , at least an hundred times bigger , then another in oak . of the size of these bladders of the pith , 't is also to be noted , that it doth not at all follow the size of the pith it self ; but is still varyed , according as nature designeth the pith for various use . thus whereas the pith of sumach is larger than that of barberry ; it might be thought , that the bladders , whereof it is composed , should be likewise larger ; yet are they three times as small again . so the pith of plum , is far less than that of pear ; yet the bladders 4. or 5. times as big . so the pith of hazel is almost three times as little again , as that of holly ; yet the bladders in hazel , are ten times bigger , than in holly . the shape of the bladders hath also some variety . for although , for the most part , they are more round ; yet oftentimes they are angular : as in reed-grass , a water-plant ; where they are cubical ; and in borage , thistle , and many others , where they are pentangular , sexangular and septangular . of the texture of the bladders , 't is also to be noted , that many times , the sides of the greater bladders are composed of lesser ; as is often seen in those of borage and some other plants . in the same manner , as the sap-vessels , are but greater fibers made up of lesser . the pith , though always originally composed of bladders , and so one entire piece ; yet in process , as the plant grows up , it hath divers openings or ruptures made in it : oftentimes very regularly , and always for good use , and with constancy observed in the same species of plants . in wallnut it shrinketh up into transverse films or membranes ; as likewise in spanish-broom . sometimes the membranes reach not from side to side , but about half way , running one against another by a reciprocal indenture : somewhat after the manner of the valvulae conniventes in the smaller gutts . sometimes bored with divers caverns by the length : sometimes with one great one throughout the stalk ; and sometimes reaching from knot to knot ; by which it is divided into several stories : and divers other ways . i shall conclude this discourse with a further illustration of the texture of the pith , and of the whole plant , as consequent thereupon . i say therefore , ( and have given some account hereof in my anatomy of roots ) that as the vessels of a plant , sc. the air-vessels and sap-vessels , are made up of fibers ; according to what i have in this discourse above said ; so the parenchyma of a plant , or the bladders whereof the parenchyma consists , are likewise made up of fibers . which is true also of the parenchyma of the bark . and also of the insertions in the wood. yea , and of the fruit , and all other parenchymous parts of a plant. i say , that the very pulp of an apple , pear , cucumber , plum , or any other fruit , is nothing els but a ball of small transparent threds or fibers , all wrapped and wreathed up ( though in a divers manner ) close together . and even all those parts of a vegetable , which are neither formed into visible tubes , nor into bladders , are yet made up of fibers . which though it be difficult to observe in any of those parts which are closer wrought ; yet in the pith , especially of some plants , which consisteth of more open work , it is more visible ; and so introduceth the observation hereof , in all other parenchymous parts . whence it follows , that the whole substance , or all the parts of a vegetable , so far as organical , they are also fibrous . of all which fibers , those of the vessels , run up by the length of the plant : these of the pith , and other parenchymous parts , run cross by the bredth or horizontally . by which means , the said parenchymous fibers , in fetching their horizontal circles , they first of all weave , and make up the bladders of the pith in open-work . and the same fibers being continued ; they next weave and make up the insertions in close work . amongst which insertions the vessels standing , many of the said fibers wrap themselves also about them ; thus tying many of them together ; and making those several conjugations and braces , of the vessels which i have formerly described . and as some of these parenchymous fibers wrap about the vessels ; so also about the very fibers , whereof the vessels are , as is above said , composed . by which means it is , that all the said fibers of the vessels are tacked or stitched up close together into one coherent piece . much after the same manner , as the perpendicular splinters or twigs of a basket , are , by those that run in and out horizontally . and the same parenchymous fibers , being still further produced into the bark ; they there compose the same work over again : only not so open as in the pith. so that the most unfeigned and proper resemblance we can make of the whole body of a plant , is , to a piece of fine bone-lace , at such time , as the women are working it upon the cushion . for all the parenchymous parts , as the pith , insertions , and parenchyma of the bark , are nothing els but lace-work ; the fibers of the pith running horizontally as do the threds in the lace : and bounding the several bladders of the pith and bark ; as the threds do the several holes of the lace : and making up the insertions without bladders , or very small ones , as the same threds likewise do the close parts of the lace ; which they call the cloath-work . and lastly , the vessels , standing perpendicularly , run cross to the horizontal fibers ; even as in the lace , the pins do to the threds . and this is the true texture of a plant : and the general composure , not only of a branch , but of all the other parts , from the seed to the seed . see the figure representing the stalk of thistle . an account of the vegetation of trunks grounded upon the foregoing anatomy . having already given the anatomy of trunks , i shall next proceed to see , what use may be made thereof ; and principally , to explicate the manner of their vegetation . in doing which , that former method , which i used in shewing the manner of the growth of roots , i shall not exactly follow . for so , the general parts of the root and trunk being the same , and consequently the nutrition and confirmation of the organical parts of both , being effected in the same way ; i should hereby be obliged to the repetition of many things already said : which would be nauseous and unprofitable unto those , who have been pleased to peruse them . the explication therefore of all those things that more especially belong to the trunk , or are more apparent therein , and not spoken of , or not so fully in my former books , will be my present task . the chief heads whereof , shall be these seven following . viz. first , the motion and course of the sap. secondly , the motion and course of the air. thirdly , the structure of the parts . fourthly , the generation of liquours . fifthly , the figuration of trunks . sixthly , the motion of trunks . seventhly , and lastly the na●●re of trunks as variously fitted for mechanical use . chap. i. first , as to the course of the sap , there are three parts by which it moveth ; sc. the pith , the wood , and the bark . first the pith ; by which the sap moveth the first year , and only the first year . or , it is proprium quarto modo , to the pith of every annual growth , and to the pith of such a growth only , to be succulent . that is , whether of a sprout from a seed , or of a sucker from a root , or of a cyon from a branch ; the pith is always found the first year full of sap. but the second year , the same individual pith , always becomes dry , and so it continues ever after . one cause whereof is , that the sap-vessels in the bark , being the first year adjacent to the pith , they do all that time transfuse part of their sap into it , and so keep it always succulent . but the same sap vessels the year following , are turned into wood ; and the vessels which now carry the sap stand beyond them , in the bark . so that the sap being now more remote from the pith , and intercepted by the new wood , it cannot be transfused with that sufficient force and plenty as before into the pith ; which therefore from the first year always continues dry . the second part by which the sap moves sub forma liquoris , is the wood. which yet is not in all plants , but only in some , and visibly in few ; as in the vine : in which , i say , the sap doth visibly ascend by the wood. and this it doth not only the first year , but every year , so long as the vine continues to grow . but although this ascent by the wood be every year , yet is it only in the spring , for about the space of a month ; sc. in march , and april . there are many other trees , besides the vine , wherein at the same time of the year , ( and perhaps in all the other trees a little before or after ) wherein , i say , the sap ascendeth , though not so copiously , yet chiefly , by the wood. for taking a branch of two or three years old , suppose of sallow , and having first cut it transversly , if the bark be then in the same manner crushed somewhat hard with the back of the knife , near the newly cut end ; the sap will very plainly rise up out of the utmost ring of wood. and if it be crushed in the same manner , about an inch lower it will ascend out of every ring of wood to the center . yet at the same time , which is to be noted , there ariseth no sap at all out of the bark . which sheweth the error of that so common opinion , that the sap always riseth betwixt the wood and the bark . for in the beginning of spring , it riseth , neither betwixt the wood and bark , nor in the bark ; but only in the wood. the third part by which the sap ascends is the bark , as may be observed in almost any branch , cut cross in the late spring and summer ; either as the sap issueth spontaneously , or upon crushing as aforesaid . so that when the sap ceaseth to ascend , sub forma liquoris , by the wood , then it begins to ascend by the bark . besides the difference of time , the organical parts likewise , by which these two saps ascend , are divers . for in the bark , it ascendeth visibly only by the sap-vessels . whereas in the wood , it ascendeth only by the air-vessels . that is to say those vessels in the wood , which in the beginning of spring do often times carry liquor : when the tree begins to thrive , and many new parts to be formed and fed , are filled only with air ; sc. a vegetable air. the said vessels in the wood have likewise a quite different structure ; being composed of spiral , but those in the bark of rectilenear fibers ; as we have lately shewed . in which vessels of the bark all the specifical liquors of every tree are chiefly contained . from what hath been said , we may understand , what is meant by bleeding of plants . if we take it generally , it properly enough expresses the eruption of the sap out of any vessels ; and so , almost all plants in summer time , do bleed : that is , from vessels either in the bark or verge of the pith : the saps they bleed , having either a sower , sweet , hot , bitter , or other tast . at which time , the vessels also , in the bark of a vine branch , do bleed a sower sap . but that which is vulgarly called bleeding , as in a vine , is quite another thing ; both as to the liquor which issueth , and the place where it issues : that is to say , it is neither a sweet nor sower , but tastless sap ; issuing not from the air-vessels in the bark . so that there is as much difference betwixt bleeding in a vine , or the rising of the sap in any other tree , in march , and in july ; as there is betwixt salivation and an haemorrhage ; or betwixt the course of the chyle in the lactiferous vessels , and the circulation of the blood in the arteries and veins . now the cause whence it comes to pass , that the early spring sap of a vine , and other trees , ascendeth by the wood , is in that the young sap-vessels of the bark , by which the sap ascendeth all the summer , are as yet but begun to be formed . so that the sap having not yet these vessels to receive it , it therefore runs up the air-vessels in the wood. but so soon as the said vessels in the bark begin considerably to encrease , the sap quitting the air-vessels , betakes it self to these , as its most proper receptacles . the cause else , why the vessels of almost all plants , upon cutting , do yield sap , or bleed ; is the pression which the parenchyma makes upon them . for the pith and other parenchymous parts of a plant , have upon the reception of liquor , a conatus to dilate themselves : as is manifest from sponges , which are a substance of the same nature , and have a somewhat like structure : as also from cork , which is but the parenchyma of a plant. i say therefore , that the parenchyma being fill'd and swell'd with sap hath thereby a continual conatus to dilate it self ; and in the same degree , to crush together or contract the vessels which it surroundeth . and the said vessels being cut , their actual contraction , and the eruption of the sap , do both immediately follow . it may also be noted , that the trunk or branch of any plant being cut , it always bleeds at both ends , upward and downwards , alike freely . which , as well as divers other experiments , plainly shews , that in the sap-vessels of a plant there are no valves . from what we have now above , and elsewhere formerly said , we may also understand the manner of the ascent of the sap. as to which i say first , that considering to what height and plenty , the sap sometimes ascends ; it is not intelligible , how it should thus ascend , by virtue of any one part of a plant alone ; that is neither by virtue of the parenchyma , nor by virtue of the vessels alone . nor by the parenchyma alone . for this , as it hath the nature of a sponge or filtre , to suck up the sap ; so likewise , to suck it up but to such an height , as perhaps about an inch , or two and no more . nor by the vessels , alone for the same reason . for although we see , that small glass pipes immersed in water , will give it an ascent for some inches ; yet there is a certain period , according to the bore of the pipe , beyond which it will not rise . we must therefore join both the vessels and the parenchyma together in the service ; which we may conceive performed by them in this manner following . let ab be the vessel of a plant. let gh be the fibers whereof it is composed . let cedf be a number of vesiculae of the parenchyma , wherewith it is surrounded . i say then , that the sap , in the pipe ba would of it self rise but a few inches , as suppose from d to l. but being surrounded by the vesiculae dp the said vesiculae being swelled with sap , press upon the said pipe ba . which being pervious by its fibers gh the vesiculae at the same time filtre or transfuse part of their sap thereinto ; which will therefore be forced to rise higher therein . and the said pipe or vessel being all along surrounded by the like vesiculae , the sap therein is still forced higher and higher . wherefore the vesiculae of the parenchyma , are as so many cisterns of liquor , which being , throughout the length of the pipe , contiguous to it , afford it every where a continual supply of sap. so that by the supply and pressure of the cisterns or vesiculae fd the sap riseth to l ; by those at ql it rises to m ; by those at nm , it rises to i ; by those at oi , it rises to k ; by those at pk , it rises to e ; and so to the top of the tree . and thus far of the motion of the sap. chap. ii. the next enquiry to be made , is into the motion and course of the air. where this question will first of all be asked ; sc. which way the air first enters the plant ; whether at the trunk , leaves , and other parts above ground ; or at the root ? i answer , that it enters in part at them all . for the inception , as well as extramission whereof , the pores are so very large , in the trunks of some plants , as in the better sort of thick walking canes , that they are visible , to a good eye , without a glass , but with a glass the cane seems , as if it were stuck top full of holes with great pins : being so large , as very well to resemble these pores of the skin in the ends of the fingers and ball of the hand . in the leaves of pine , they are likewise , through a glass , a very elegant show ; standing all , most exactly , in rank and file , throughout the length of the leaves . the figure whereof shall be given hereafter , when i come to the anatomy of the leaf . but although the air enters , in part , at the trunk and other parts , especially in some plants ; yet it s chief entrance , is at the root . even as some parts of air , may continually pass into the body and blood , by the habit , or pores of the skin ; but chiefly , at the mouth . and what the mouth is , to an animal ; that the root is to a plant. again , if the chief entrance of the air , was at the trunk ; then , before it could be mixed with the sap in the root , it must descend ; and so move in a contrary course to the sap throughout the plant. as by its reception at the root , and so its ascent from thence , it hath a more natural and easy motion of ascent : for that the sap of the same plant should continually ascend , and the air descend , would be somewhat strange . the same is further argued from the fewness and smallness of diametral portions in the trunk , in comparison with those in the root : which nature hath plainly there designed , for the separation of the air from the sap , as they are both together received into the root . so that the reception and course of the air , is made on this manner following . the air being a springy body , it insinuates into all the pores and cranies of the earth ; and so is perfectly mixed with the soyl . whereupon , as the sap enters the root , more or less air still intrudes it self together with it . the liquid portion of the sap swells and fills up the succulent parts of the bark . the airy part is , as was said , separated from the liquid into the diametral portions . by which it is conveyed from the bark , and so into the air-vessels ; betwixt which vessels , the said diametral portions run from the bark towards the center of the root . the air thus received into the air-vessels , and the reception thereof , by the same means , continued ; it is by them advanced into the trunk . in which advance , it is again , more or less , disbursed into all the parts of the trunk , as it goes . partly inwards to the pith. from whence the pith is always at length filled with air. partly into the insertions ; by which it is conveyed outward into the bark . wherein , it is in part transfused through the sap ; and so the rest , with part of the sap , remitted in perspirations back again into the air. so that , whereas the diametral portions in the root , do serve to convey the air from the sap into the air-vessels : on the contrary the insertions here in the trunk serve to convey the air from the air-vessels into the sap. wherefore , as the air-vessels advance the air ; or the airy part of the sap , and so convey it by the length of the trunk ; so the insertions filter it , and convey it by the bredth . and that the insertions have this office of subservience to both kinds of vessels ; doth yet further appear , if we consider , that the air-vessels are always so postured , as to touch upon the said insertions , or at least to stand very near them . for either they are large , and so do frequently touch upon them on both sides ; as in elm , ash , wallnut &c. or if they are small ; then they either run along in even lines collateral with the said insertions , as in holly : or at least , are reciprocally , some on one side , and some on another , inclined to them ; as in apple . by all which means , the air is more readily conveyed from the vessels into the insertions . again , a further evidence hereof is that generally , the bigger and the more numerous the air-vessels are ; the bigger , or at least , the more numerous also are the insertions : especially if the comparison be made ( as in all other cases it ought to be , as well as here ) betwixt the several species of the same kind . so corin , which hath small air-vessels , hath also very small insertions . but the vine hath both very large : and so for others . wherefore , the insertions minister betwixt the air-vessels and the succiferous ; in the same manner , as the vesiculae of the lungs , do betwixt the bronchiae and the arteries . that is to say , as in an animal , the bronchiae deposite the air into the vesiculae of the lungs ; which administer it to the arteries : so in a plant , the air-vessels deposit the air into the insertions , that is into the vesiculae of the insertions ; by which it is gradually filtred off into the bark and sap-vessels . chap. iii. a third enquiry , is into the generation and structure of parts . the manner whereof i have already endeavoured to explicate from the anatomy of the root , throughout all particulars . some whereof i shall yet further clear . as first the union of the bark to the body of the tree . contrary to the common opinion , that they are not continuous ; but that the bark only surrounds the body , as a scabbard doth the sword , or a glove the hand . as also seemeth to be proved , by the easy sliping of the bark of willow , and most other trees , when full of sap , from the wood. but notwithstanding , this , they are as truly continuous , as the skin of the body is with the flesh : sc. by means of the parenchyma , which is one entire body , running from the bark into the wood , and so uniting both together . now the reason why the bark nevertheless slips so easily from the wood , is plain , viz. because most of the young vessels and parenchymous parts , are there every year successively formed ; that is , betwixt the wood and bark : where the said parts newly formed , are as tender , as the tenderest vessels in animals . and we may imagine , how easy it were at once to tear or break a thousand vessels or fibers of an embrio , of a womb or egg. the same vessels of the bark are always braced , and gradually fall off together with the parenchyma into the utmost rind . hence it is , that the barks of many trees are as it were , latticed with several cracks or fissures , of divers sizes , in the figure of rhombs : the said fissures representing the position and tract of the vessels in their braces . hence also it is , that the bark of some trees , as of corin , cherry , &c. falleth off in rings , sc. because the sap-vessels are posited in the same manner in the bark . the sap vessels , as they are generated at the inner verge of the bark : solikewise , in a small quantity , at the utmost verge of the pith. hence it is , that is , by the annual accretion of these vessels , that the pith is sometimes less in the trunk , than in the branches ; and less in the elder branches , than in the younger ; and sometimes 't is almost wholly filled up . sometimes also it breaks and shrinks up , thus making the trunk a pipe. the cause whereof , is either the largness of its pores , or the thinness of the sides of the said pores ; upon both which accounts , the pith doth more easily tear , and upon tearing shrink up , and so become hollow : as in cichory , lampsana , sonchus , teasel , brownwort , and others ; wherein the pores of the pith are large , and the sides of the pores thin . whereas , upon contrary accounts the piths of most trees , remain perpetually entire . the reason why plants are made thus to become hollow , is partly , for the ripening of the fruit or seed ; which is the better effected by a more plentiful supply of air ●●●tinually received into their hollow trunks . by means of which air , part of the sap , is dryed up , and the remaining part of it made warmer , and so sooner matured . partly , for the better determining the due age of the plant. hence it is , that the greater part of annual trunks , are hollow : the air contained in that hollow , drying up the sap , and shrinking up the sap-vessels so far , as to hinder the free motion of the sap therein ; from whence the plant must needs perish . so that as the content of the air-vessels , is a kind of vegetable air , whose office is to attenuate , and ferment rhe juyces of plants : so the content of these cavities , is a more natural air , designed chiefly , so soon as it is convenient , to dry them up . sometimes , though the pith break , yet not into one pipe , but many cross membranes , as in wallnut and spanish-broom . because here the dilatation of the branch , and of the pith therein , being much less , in proportion , than its growth in length ; the pith therefore , being stretched most by its length , will soonest tear the same way and consequently shrink up into so many membranes by the bredth of the trunk . again , as to the air-vessels divers questions may be asked . as how it comes to pass , that they are generally less in the trunk of the same plant , than in the root ? the cause whereof is , that here in the trunk , they are more under the power of the air ; both that which entereth in at the trunk , and that which of its own nature ascendeth up into it from the root . for the air , as we have elsewhere said , is the mould of the air-vessels , to the crooked particles whereof the saline , and other principles concurring to their generation , do conform . to which they do best , the smaller they are : the fibers of the larger air-vessels making greater circles , and so coming nearer to a right line , answerable to the figure of the particles ; not of the aerial but of the saline principle . wherefore as the air-vessels may be observed still to be dilated or widened towards the lower parts of the root ; the aerial principle being there less predominant , and the saline more : so towards the upper part of the trunck , to be contracted or grow smaller ; the aerial prniciple being here more predominant , and the saline less . for the same cause , it may be observed , that the air-vessels of the several years succeeding the second year , are near of one size : but those of the second year , are usually much larger than those of the first , viz. as being under a less power of the air. for the first year , the pith being full of liquor , the air-vessels themselves , are the only repositories of the air. whereas after the first year , the pith becoming dry , or another great repository for the air ; the air-vessels , are henceforth filled with a moisture and more vapourous and saline air , and so made to grow wider . for the same cause it is , that the disparity betwixt the air-vessels of the first and succeeding years , is not , where the pith is small , so visible . because being never capable of containing many airy parts of the sap , the air-vessels themselves continue still the chief receptacles of the air , and so to be still more equally sized : as in hazel , elm , &c. is seen . hence the very size of the pith , hath much influence upon the air-vessels , and the manner of nutrition , and the generation of liquors in plants . lastly , for the above said cause , the time when the vessels begin every year to be formed or to appear , is always later ; at least , with respect to the season of the tree . so that whereas the sap-vessels begin to be formed in spring : these , not till the latter end of summer , or there about ; at least not till about that time to appear . that is , when the sap begins to decrease , and to grow more airy ; and so more fit matter for the generation of the said air-vessels . chap. iv. upon the structure and formation of the parts , dependeth the generation of liquors , as was lately intimated . the manner whereof i have formerly shewed , in discoursing of the root . yet some things i shall here further explicate . and first , what we have formerly asserted sc. that the concurrence of two specifically distinct liquors , is as necessary to nutrition in plants , as in animals . which appears , as from divers other considerations , so from the very structure of a plant : where in all the organical parts , that is the parenchyma and the vessels , are every where mixed together per minima , that is , per minimas partes organicas , or fiber with fiber of several kinds . so that every small part of a tree or of the bark of a tree , is as i may say , a sort of linsy woolsey . so that there is not the least part of the sap , which is not impregnate with divers essential tinctures , as it is continually filtred from the fibers of one kind , to those of another ; standing every where twisted and stitched up together for the same purpose . from the special nature and structure of the parts , the liquors of plants are likewise specified . the vessels being the chief viscera of a plant. for all liquors in a plant , are certainly made by that plant. and since the plant hath no viscera ( so called ) i would then know , what its several liquors are made by ? if in the parenchyma , surely by that parenchyma . if in the vessels , by the vessels . and if of divers kinds , by divers kinds of vessels . so that what the viscera are in animals , the vessels themselves are in plants . that is to say , as the viscera of an animal , are but vessels conglomerated : so the vessels of a plant , are viscera drawn out at length . again , as the specifying of the sap dependeth chiefly on the special nature of the parts : so partly upon the structure of the whole . whereby every part is still better accommodated with its own juyce . thus the air-vessels are necessary , not only and barely for a supply of air ; but also by their number , size , and position to adjust the quantity of that air , to the government of nutrition , and the generation of the specificall liquors of every plant. which is evident from hence , in that they do not follow the size of the plant ; but are great and many , in some small plants ; and small and few , in some others that are large . so vines , and corn , as we have formerly observed , have proportionably a great number of air-vessels , and those very large . by which means the sap is attenuated and less oylie and more copiously impregnated with a subtle , volatile and winy spirit . for the same reason canes , which yield that sweet juyce , whereof sugar is made , and which also aboundeth with a volatile and inflameable spirit : these , i say , obtain the like over proportion of air-vessels , to what we see in most plants . hence also it is , that none of the said plants have any considerable bark ; that so the attenuating and subtilizing air , may have a more easy and plentiful admission at the trunk also . for which reason likewise the pores of the skin of some canes are , as hath been observed , remarkably wide . hence also it is observable , that of the same species or kindred , those plants which have the most , and especially the largest air-vessels ; have also the greatest abundance either of a sweet , or of a winy liquor . so in apple , they are larger than in crab ; in warden , larger than in quince ; and in pear tre , larger than in warden . so also in corin , larger then in goosbery ; and in vine , larger than in corin : and so in others . and as the air-vessels , by their multitude and largeness , are accommodated to the better making of a winy sap : so by their fewness and smallness , of an oylie . as is remarkably seen in fir , and other resiniferous trees : these having , if not the smallest , yet the fewest air-vessels of all other trees . if it be asked , how a plant comes to have any oyl at all in any part ? since we see , that the sap by which the root is fed , seemeth to be nothing else but water : and that many plants which yield a great deal of stillatitious oyl , as mint , rue , and others , will yet grow in water : i say , if it be enquired how this water , is made wine , or oyl ? i answer , that there is no such matter . but that the oyl , and all other vegetable principles are actually existent in , and mixed per minima , though in an extraordinary small proportion with the water . even as we see the distilled waters of anise seeds , penyroyal , and the like , to be impregnated with their own oyls , which give the tast and smell to such waters . wherefore as a certain quantity of any salt may be dissolved in water ; beyond which , it will not mix therewith , but remains under its own form : so is there a certain proportion of oyl , though far less , which may also be perfectly mixed with water ; and is certainly so , more or less , with all the water in the world . but if that proportion , or degree of impregnation be once exceeded ; the particles of oyl do then , and not till then , gather into a body , and appear under their own form . i say therefore , that all kinds of vegetable principles , are either in or together with the water , with less difference first received into a plant. but when they are once therein ; they are then separated , that is to say , filtred , some from others , in very different proportions and conjunctions by the several parts ; the watery by one part , the airy by another , the oily by another , and so the rest : and so every part is the receptacle of a liquor , become peculiar , not by any transformation , but only the percolation of parts out of the common mass or stock of sap. and so all those parts of the sap. which are superfluous to any kind of plant , are at the same time , discharged back by perspirations , into the air. and hence , that nature , in the various percolations and separations of the sap , may still the better answer her end ; hence , i say it is , that she carefully seeth , not only to the special nature of the organs , by which she doth her work ; but likewise to their very position . thus it is observable , that whereas the lymphaeducts , which carry a more watery liquor , are still placed on the inner verge of the bark , next to the air-vessels : the lactiferous and resiniferous vessels of plants , to whose oylie liquor a mixture of much air is incongruous ; do usually stand , neither on the inner , nor the outer verge of the bark ; but in the midle . by which means , they are at the greatest distance , and so most secure from the air ; either that which enters the bark , at the circumference ; or from the wood and pith. and because the resinous liquors of plants are more oylie than their milky ; their security therefore , from the approach of the air , is yet further contrived . in that in pine , and other resinous trees , the diametral portions are never found ; at least not visible : which yet in other trees , are conspicuous ; being those parts , whose office it is , to introduce the air from the wood into the bark . again , the milky liquors of plants being thinner than the resinous , and having a considerable quantity of water mixed with their oyl ; hence it is , that in milky plants , as in rhus , there are a greater number of lymphaeducts ; and those standing nearer to the milky vessels , than they do in pine , and the like , to the resinous . by which means they are better fitted to affuse their aqueous parts more plentifully to the said milky liquor . from the mixture of watery parts with the oylie , it comes to pass , that whereas all lympha's , mucilages , and rosins are transparent ; the aquae-oleous liquors of plants are milky or white , or otherwise opacous . for the same thing is the cause of the whiteness of vegetable , as of animalmilk : that is to say , a more copious mixture of watery and oylie parts per minima , or into one body . for even the serous and oylie parts of animal milk , when throughly separated one from the other , they both become very transparent . so the stillatitious oyl of anise seeds , is most transparent and limpid , even as water it self : yet there is a known sort of white anise-seed water , as it is commonly called : that is to say , wherein the oyl , in distillation , ariseth and is mixed more plentifully with the water . and the water , wherein the stillatitious oyl of any vegetable is dissolved becomes a perfect white milk ; as in this honourable and learned presence , i have formerly had occasion to demonstrate . and that the milky liquors of all vetables whatsoever , are likewise more oylie than their lympha's , is most certain . for all those gums , which dissolve in oyl or water as galbanum , and the like , are originally the milky juyces of plants . and if you take the milk of any plant , as for instance , the milk of common sumach , or of any tast , bitter , astringent , hot , cold , or any other whatsoever ; and having well dryed it , and then fired it at a candle ; it will thereupon burn with a very bright and durable flame , even like that of tar or turpentine it self . from what hath been said , we may likewise gather the most genuine import of the word gum , and the distinction thereof both from a rosin and a mucilage . first a rosin , is originally a turpentine , or acido-oleous liquor , having an exceeding small quantity of watery parts mixed therewith ; and which , for that reason , will not be dissolved therein , but only in oyl . of this kind are mastick , benzoine , taccamahacca , and divers others , commonly , in our bills to apothecaries , called gums . yet , in strict speaking they are all so many rosins . secondly a gum , and every oylie gum , is originally a milky liquor , having a greater quantity of water mixed with its oylie parts ; and which , for that reason , will be made to dissolve either in water or oyl . of this kind are sagapen , opopanax , ammoniac , and others . the third sort of gum , is that which is unoylie , and which therefore dissolveth only in water , as gum-arabick , the gum of cherry-tree , and others such like . this gum , though commonly so called , yet is properly but a dryed mucilage : being originally nothing else but the mucilaginous lympha issuing from the vessels of the tree . in like manner , as it doth from cumfry , mallow , and divers other plants : and even from the common cucumer . the vessels whereof , upon cutting cross , yield a lympha , which is plainly mucilaginous , and which being well dryed , at length becomes a kind of gum , or rather a hardened mucilage . in like manner , the gums of plum-tree , cherry-tree , and the like , are nothing else but dryed mucilages . or , if we will take the word in its widest sense , then all gums are originally , either a turpentine , or a milk , or a mucilage . i haue made many other observations of the tasts , smells , and colours of plants , and of their contents , since those i last published : and that both for the finding out the true causes of their generation , and also the applying of them unto medical use . as also to mechanical ; and particularly the making all sorts of paints , or tinctures out of the several parts of plants , for drawing in water-colours . in the choice whereof there is much difference to be made . for there are many plants whose colours are very clear and radiant , in the plants themselves ; yet when they come to be used , will not hold , but change and and grow foul . but these things , because they belong more properly to the flower , and other parts of plants , i therefore omit , till if god give me life and health , i come hereafter to speak of those parts . and that i might the more fully inform my self and others in these matters ; it may be thought requisite , that all kind of exotick parts of plants , as well as those growing amongst us , should likewise be examined . for the procuring whereof , both from the east and west indies , i have already bespoke the care of some persons . to whom i have likewise given direction , how to preserve them in such sort , as that i may have them fresh , as if they were newly taken from the plant or tree . and thus far of the generation of liquors . chap. v. the fifth head , shall be , of the figuration of trunks . which also , as well as the making of liquors dependeth upon the structure of the parts . as first , almost all shrubs ( caeteris paribus ) have a greater number of air-vessels ; and those of a smaller size ; and consequently much spread abroad , as most easily yielding to the magnetick power of the air , according as we have more fully demonstrated , in speaking of the vegetation of roots : as in elder , hazel , fig , sumach , and the like . by which spreading , the said air-vessels do sooner , and more easily strike into the bark , and so produce collateral buds and branches , and that upon the first rising of the body from the root : that is , the plant becomes a shrub . but if the said air-vessels are very large , they will not yield so easily to shoot out collaterally ; and so the trunk grows up taller and more entire : as in oak , wallnut , elm , &c. wherein they are exceeding large , is seen . hence also the vine , if it be but supported , will grow to a prodigious height . and hops and bryony , are some of the tallest , amongst all annual growths : the air-vessels of all which are very large . whereas borage , and other like plants , although the pores of their parenchyma , are vastly wide , and filled with sap ; yet because their air-vessels are small , they are therefore but dwarf plants . wherefore the tallness or advancement of a plant or tree , dependeth not upon the plenty of sap , how great soever , but on the largness of the air-vessels . again , as a plant or tree grows either shruby , or tall , according to the size of the said vessels : so from their position , doth it grow slender or thick . so where they keep more within the compass of a ring , as in elm , and ash , the tree in proportion , usually grows taller and less thick . but where the said vessels are spread more abroad , and especially are postured in rays , as they are in oak the tree grows very thick . because the said vessels thus standing all along nearer to the insertions , there is a more ready and copious passage of the air out of the one into the other ; and so the diametral growth of the wood is more promoted . lastly , from the same general cause it is , that the trunks of vegetables are either round or angular . those of all trees are round . because the bark , being here thicker , and the air-vessels bound up with a greater quantity of wood ; the air hath not sufficient power to move them , and the bark with them , into those various positions or figurations , as the trunks of plants yield to . yet the cause of the various shapes of the trunks is not the air alone ; but partly the principles of the plants themselves , in conjunction therewith : according to the predominion whereof , as chiefly of some certain kind of salt ( as i may possibly hereafter more particularly explicate ) the trunk is square , triangular , pentangular , or otherwise figured . and thus much in generall of the figuration of trunks . chap. vi. the motions also of trunks are various . principally four ; sc. ascending , descending , horizontal , and spiral . the cause of the ascent of a plant , is a certain magnetick correspondence betwixt the air and the air-vessels of a plant , the motion and tendency whereof the whole plant follows . this i have asserted , and i think , clearly demonstrated in my first and second books of the anatomy of plants . i will here add this plain experiment . take a box of moulds , with a hole bored in the bottom , wide enough to admit the stalk of a plant , and set it upon stilts half a yard or more above ground . then lodge in the mould some plant , for example a bean , in such sort , that the root of the bean standing in the moulds may point upwards , the stalk towards the ground . as the plant grows , it will follow , that at length the stalk will rise upward , and the root on the contrary arch it self downward . which evidently shews , that it is not sufficient that the root hath earth to shoot into , or that its motion was only an appetite of being therein lodged , which way soever that be : but that its nature is , though within the earth already , yet to change its position , and to move downwards . and so likewise of the trunk , though already in the free air above ground , yet now to make a new motion upwards . but although the natural motion of the trunk be to ascend ; yet is it forced oftentimes to descend . for the trunk-roots growing out of some plants near the ground , and striking thereinto , do like so many ropes , pluck the trunk annually lower and lower into the ground together with them ; as may be seen in scrophularia , jacobaea , and many other plants . if these trunk-roots break out only about the bottom of the trunk , as in the aforesaid plants , then the trunk gradually descends into the earth , and is turned into a root . but if it be very slender , and the trunk-roots break forth all along it , then it creeps horizontally ; the said roots tethering it , as it trails along , to the ground ; as in strawberry , cinquefoyl , mint , scordium , &c. as to their spiral motion , it is to be noted ; that the wood of all convoivula's or winders , standing more close and round together in or near the center , thereby making a round , and slender trunk . to the end , it may be more tractable , to the power of the external motor , what ever that be : and also more secure from breaking by its winding motion . wherefore , convovula's do not wind by any peculiar nature or genius , which other trunks have not ; but because their parts are disposed so , as to render them sequaceous to the external motor . even as the claspers of a vine , having the like structure , have also a motion of convolution : whereas the branches themselves upon a contrary account , move in a strait line . the convolution of trunks , is made not one , but divers ways ; some moving by south from east to west ; and others from west to east . wherefore it seemeth , that as the efficient cause of convolution , is not within the plant , but external : so also , that it is not one , but that there are two great efficients of this motion ; s● . the sun and the moon . some winding together with the sun , in its diurnal motion , by south from east to west . and others winding with the moon , in its monthly motion , from west to east . this possibly , may also be one sensible way of distinguishing betwixt solar , and lunar plants . thus far , in general , of the motions of trunks . chap. vii . the last thing i purposed to speak of , is those several qualities of trunks , or of timber , by which they are fitted for mechanical use . as hardness , softness , fastness , clevesomeness , toughness , brittleness , durableness ; of any of the same qualities compounded . the visible causes whereof are observable partly in the structure of the several parts ; sc. the insertions , sap-vessels , and air-vessels ; as to the number , size , or position of any of them . and partly in the nature of the parts ; i mean such as is manifest to sense . according to our clear and distinct observing of all which causes , we may understand , wherefore any wood is made use of for this or that purpose . and also , wherein fitly to apply it to further use . in order to which , a compleat history of the mechanical uses of vegetables would very much conduce . i shall for the present give some instances . as first , some woods are soft , as deal and sallow . yet from different causes . deal , from the great porosity of the wood it self , or the large pores amongst the sap-vessels . but sallow , not from the porosity of the true wood , but the great number of air-vessels spread all over it . for the same cause , though they are both soft , yet will not serve for the same purposes ; sallow being well wrought upon , which way soever you cut it : but deal , especially the white deal , if it be cut cross , it tears , and will never polish or work smooth . again , in sallow , by the equall spreading of the air-vessels , the softness is equal or alike in all parts . for which cause it maketh an excellent coal for painters scribets . because it doth not only make a light , but every where a certain stroak , and so doth not disturb the even motion of the hand . for the same cause , shoomakers also make use of it for their carving-boards . because being every where equally soft , it turns not the edg of their knives . which deal would presently do ; because though very soft in some places , yet in others 't is hard ; that is to say , on the inner verge of every annual ring of wood , where the old sap-vessels grow much more compact and close together . again , some woods are soft , but not fast ; others are both , as linn : its softness , depending on the numerousness and equal spreading of the air-vessels : its fastness , on the closeness of the true wood , and the shortness , smallness and frequency of the insertions . for which cause , it is of excellent use for many purposes ; and particularly , for small sculpture : such as may sometimes be seen for the frames of looking glasses , or of smaller pictures in water-colours . some woods , again , are fast and hard , as elm. its hardness depending upon the closeness of the true wood. its fastness partly upon the same cause , partly on the smallness of the insertions , partly on the fewness of the air-vessels in proportion with the wood , and partly the thwart and cross position of many of them . hence it is , that elm , of all others , is the most cross-grain'd timber ; that is , cleaveth so unevenly , to and fro , according to the cross position of the said vessels . hence also it cleaveth the most difficultly . even then , when it is without any knots . for which reason it is always used , as best , for the hub of a great wheel . as also for water-pipes , and for pumps . not because it is the most durable wood ; but because it will not splitt or crack either in the working , or afterwards . for the very same reason , it is used for coffins ; that is , because it will not splitt in working : not because it will endure longest under ground ; for pales are always made of oak . so also the ladles and soles of a mill-wheel are made of elm ; as also the keel of a boat , sc. least they should splitt : but the other parts are made of oak . on the contrary as elm , of all woods , is one of the fastest ; so of all hard woods , oak is the most cleavesome , or splitteth the most easily . the cause whereof is , partly the largeness of the insertions , and partly the diametral or radiated position of most of the air-vessels : upon both which accounts , whereever a crack is begun 't is easily continued throughout the diameter of the trunk . again , some woods are hard , fast , and tough . so is ash , and especially beech-hard and fast , from some of the same causes , as elm. tough not from the structure , but from the nature of the parts ; viz as being a less oylie wood , and so not brittle . wherefore london-cars have the rings of their wheels of beech ; because it tears more difficultly than even ash it self . whence also for large screws , there is no wood like it . but for small screws , of about an inch diameter , birch is the best ; as being , though not so hard , yet more tough . the more brittle a wood is , 't is likewise usually the most durable . so oak , which is not a tough , but very brittle wood , is almost as durable as any . whereas beech , birch , and the like , although very tough ; yet for duration , are of no service ; for there are no woods will rot sooner : and therefore , though strong enough , yet unfit to make any standing parts of building or of furniture ; especially in wet and moist places . because , being as is said , unoylie woods , they are apter to imbibe the moisture even of a dank air ; by which moisture , they either rot or breed worms , which destroy them . hence it is , that what we call the heart of timber , as it is more brittle , so also more durable ; sc. because more oylie . so that which is called the sap of oak , is much more tough than the heart ; although the heart be more durable . that is to say , the older the wood is , the watery parts are the more evaporated , the oylie still remaining , as a kind of tincture in the wood. even as we see , that the older seeds of the same kind , are more oylie than those that are green and young . so that the oylie or rosinous parts of the sap , are a kind of embalming to the heart , or older part of a tree , securing it from the destructive impressions of the air. for the same cause it is , that oak , yew , cocus , guajacum , &c. which are oylie woods , have always much heart : whereas birch , alder , beech , maple , which are very unoylie , have never any heart . from hence likewise we may understand the cause of the toughness of flax : what we call flax , being only the sap-vessels of the bark . and generally , the bark of any tree , as of willow ( whereof are usually made a sort of ropes ) is very tough . the vessels being here younger , and less oylie than in the wood. so likewise hemp , is nothing else but the sap-vessels of the bark of the plant so called . and scotch-cloath , is only the housewifry of the same parts of the bark of nettle . whence it is very probable , that there are many other plants , as well as the above named , whereof might be made good toe . and of some , especially in some respects , better than of flax it self . because that even hemp , although it will not make so fine a staple , as flax ( for all our fine hollands are made of flax ) yet flax , which is but of the same fineness as hemp , will never , by all the art yet known , be made so white as hemp is made . the qualities therefore of the best toe , that can be in nature , are that the staple be long , small , tough , and white . so that if in the bark of any plant , we can find these qualities to excell , we may be sure it will be of better use , in some respects , for the making of cloath than flax it self . i will conclude with one instance more , & that is as to grafting . the good and happy success whereof , doth certainly depend upon the suitableness or respondence betwixt the several parts of the stock and cyon ; as the bark , wood , and pith : and that both as to the number , size , and position of the said parts , and of their several pores or vessels : according to the degrees whereof , the conjunction ( caeteris paribus ) will be more or less prosperous . so that of all such conjunctions as are found to be apt and taking , and which some have learned not without long practice and experience ; another , only by comparing the branches of trees together , may with little trouble , and in much less time , inform himself . by the same means , some conjunctions which seem to be strange , as quince and pear , white-thorn and medlar , &c. do yet , by the respondence of their parts , as well as by experience , appear to be good . and there is no doubt , but that many conjunctions not yet tryed , or not known to have been so , may upon the same ground , be tryed with good success . the chief use of grafting and inoculation , is that they accelerate the growth of good fruit . the cause whereof , is the knot , which is always made in the conjunction . by means whereof all the sap is strained , and so ascendeth up into the graff or bud , purer and in less quantity ; and is therefore better and sooner concocted . hence , the smaller the fruit of any tree , though it be not the best , yet the sap being there in less quantity , is the sooner ripe . on the contrary , where the sap ascendeth too freely , it doth not only retard the growth of the fruit , but produceth barrenness ; as is seen in those luxuriant branches , where it runs all up to leaves . hence also vines , by bleeding , become more fruitful : that is , by the effusion of part of the sap , there is a more easy melioration of that which remains . even as phlebotomy doth oftentimes produce a more healthful and better habit of our own bodies . to conclude , the lessening the quantity , and thereby the melioration of the ascending sap , by knots , is natures own contrivance ; as is seen in sugar cane , corn , and other plants . the explication of the figures . the trunks of several plants , as they appear to the naked eye , upon a transverse section , represented by the six first figures . fig. 1. representeth the trunk of borage . aaa . the skin . ccc . the bark . the black line betwixt ccc . ooo . representeth a ring of sap-vessels on the inner verge of the bark . ce . one of the larger parcels of air-vessels , adjacent to the said ring of sap-vessels . co . some of the lesser parcels . oeo . the pith wherein the visiculae are vesible to a naked eye . t. the hollow of the pith. fig. 2. representeth the trunk of taraxacum , or dandelyon . aaa . the skin . ccc . the outer part of the bark , without any vessels . in the inner part of the bark , stand the sap-vessels , in several small rings from eee . to the thick ring next to u ▪ the thick ring consisteth of air-vessels . u. the pith. eucu . the diametral portions of the bark , running betwixt all the vessels into the pith. fig. 3. representeth the trunk of colewort . aaa . the skin . ccc . the outer part of the bark , having only a very few sap-vessels . the white arched or escalloped ring , is simply parenchymous : from whence many small diametral portions run into the pith. the black ring betwixt cecece . consisteth of sap-vessels , and is the true inner edge of the bark . all the little black half ovals without the said ring , and their to contiguous , are another kind of sap-vessels . all the half ovals and wedged parcels within the said ring , and thereto contiguous , are more sap-vessels of the same kind . the white spots within the several parcels of sap-vessels in the bark are parenchymous . the other white spots within the black ring of sap-vessels , and thereto adjacent , are air-vessels . eee . the pith. fig. 4. representeth the trunk of holy-oak . aaa . the skin . ccc . the outer and larger part of the bark , without any vessels . the ring betwixt cecece . consisteth of sap-vessels , and maketh the inner verge of the bark . the short rays without the said ring , and thereto adjacent , but not contiguous , are other sap-vessels , containing a mucilage . the short rays within the said ring , and in like manner adjacent thereto , are the air-vessels . the crooked lines or chords e. hemming in the said air-vessels are more sap-vessel● ▪ eee . the pith. t. the hollow of the pith. fig. 5. representeth the trunk of wild cucumer . aaa . the skin . acacac . a radiated ring of sap-vessels adjacent to the skin . ccc . the middle part of the bark without any vessels . the ring of black spots betwixt cecece . are other sap-vessels standing in the inner verge of the bark . the ring of white spots betwixt cecece . are the air vessels . the black spots within the pith , and contiguous to the air vessels are other sap-vessels , answerable to those in the inner verge of the bark . eee . the pith. fig. 6. representeth the trunk of endive . aaa . the skin . ccc . the outer part of the bark without any vessels , or simply parenchymous . cecece . a thick , black , and undulated ring of lymphaeducts standing in the inner verge of the bark . the black rays and half ovals without the said ring , are other lymphaeducts . the white rays , and the white undulated ring adjacent to ccc . consist of milk-vessels . the short rays within the black undulated ring and thereto adjacent , are air-vessels . the black specks adjacent to eee . are more sap-vessels . eee . the pith. t. the hollow of the pith. all the figures following are microscopical . fig. 7. a small part of the skin of the better sort of walking cane , as it appears through a good microscope ; the black spots representing the ample pores therein . fig. 8. representeth a quarter of a slice of a branch of holly of three years growth , cut transversly . abcd. the bark . ab . the skin of the bark . qqq . the outer parenchyma of the bark ; wherein the vesiculae are extraordinary small . dopc. a ring of sap-vessels in the inner verge of the bark . hi . divers round parcels of sap vessels of another kind . dcfe. the wood. dk , km , me. the several annu 〈◊〉 or growths of wood. ssss . the true wood ; being originally the sap-vessels of the bark . xxxx . the air-vessels , postur'd some in entire , others in broken rays . oo. the larger insertions running through the several annual rings from the pith into the bark . op . the smaller insertions . efg . the pith wherein the vesiculae are exceeding small . fig. 9. representeth a quarter of a slice of a branch of hazel of 3 years growth , cut transversly . abcd. the bark . qq . the parenchyma : wherein the vesiculae are larger than those in the bark of holly . hi . a ring of sap-vessels . dqc. divers parcels of sap-vessels of another kind . dcfe. the wood. dl , kn , mf . the several annual growths or rings of wood. sss . the true wood. xxx . the air-vessels , being most of them very small , and postured in columns and rays . oo. the larger insertions running through the several annual rings from the pith into the bark . op . the smaller insertions . efg . the pith : wherein the vesiculae are much larger , than in the pith of holly . fig. 10. representeth a quarter of a slice of a branch of barbery tree of 2 years growth , cut transversly . abcd. the bark . ab . the skin . nmnm . the parenchyma of the bark . dc . a ring of sap-vessels , consisting of large half oval parcels . mo. one of the said parcels . hi . an entire ring of sap-vessels of another kind . dcfe. the wood. dl , kf . the several rings or annual growths of wood. sss . the true wood. opop . one kind of air-vessels , small , and of various position . pqpq . the other kind of air-vessels , larger and postured in clusters more even within a ring . mtmtmt . large insertions running through the 2 annual rings from the pith into the bark . efg . the pith which is very large . ttt . a ring of sap-vessels , in the utmost verge of the pith. fig. 11. representeth a quarter of a slice of a branch of apple tree of 3 years growth , cut transversly . abcd. the bark . pp . the parenchyma . hi . one kind of sap-vessels , standing as it were in a ring , the utmost in larger oblong parcels , and more distant ; the inmost in lesser parcels , almost half oval , and closer together . doc. a thick radiated ring of sap-vessels of another kind . dcfe. the wood. dl , kn , mf . the several annual rings of wood. sss . the true wood. xt , tv , vw . the air-vessels , being small , numerous , and spread abroad throughout the wood , without any certain posture . oo. many small insertions running through the several annual rings from the pith into the bark . efg . the pith. wyz. the several insertions arched together in the utmost verge of the pith , in the like manner as in barberry , &c. fig. 12. representeth a quarter of a slice of a branch of pear tree of 3 years growth , cut transversly . abcd. the bark . rq . the outer and more simple parenchyma , composed of very small vesiculae . hi . one sort of sap vessels distributed through the said parenchyma in divers oblong parcels . whereof , those toward the inner verge of the bark are rounder and more numerous . dopc. a ring of sap-vessels of another , viz. the general kind . dcfe. the wood. dl , kn , mf . the several annual rings of wood. tttt . the true wood. ststst . the air-vessels standing partly irregularly , and partly in rays . kl . a ring of air-vessels a little larger than the rest . ooo . the larger insertions running through the several annual rings from the pith into the bark . opp. the smaller insertions . efg . the pith. fig. 13. representeth a quarter of a slice of a branch of plum-tree of 5 years growth , cut transversly . abcd. the bark . vw . the outer and more laxe and simple parenchyma . hi . one sort of sap-vessels , postured in small oblong parcels . sss . the same vessels more numerous , and in smaller parcels , making a kind of ring . dtc . a ring of sap-vessels of another , viz. the more general kind . dcfe. the wood. dl , ln , &c. the several annual rings of wood. xxx . the true wood. xyxy. the air-vessels . kl , mn , op , &c. so many rings of air-vessels , ( on the inner edge of every ring of wood ) much larger than the rest . sss . the great insertions running through the several rings of wood from the pith into the bark . stt. the small insertions . efg . the pith. fig. 14. representeth a quarter of a slice of a branch of elme of 4 years growth and half cut transversly . aadd . the bark . aa . the skin of the bark . tttt . the parenchyma of the bark . wherein the vesiculae are so exceeding small , as difficultly to be discerned by the microscope . the black parcels are one kind of sap-vessels . ssd. a ring of sap-vessels of another kind . the white diametral lines , are parenchymous parts continuous with the insertions sg dg . ddge . the wood. dk , km , mo , &c. the several annual rings of wood. ssss . the true wood , being originally the sap-vessels of the bark . kk , mm , &c. the great air-vessels postured chiefly in rings , on the inner verge of every annual growth of wood . km , mo , &c. the small air-vessels postured chiefly in cross-barrs . sgdg . or the small white lines are the insertions running through the several annual rings from the pith into the bark . egs. the pith. fig. 15. representeth a quarter of a slice of a branch of ash of 3 years growth , cut transversly . abcd. the bark . ab . the skin . ahb . a ring of sap-vessels consisting of many round parcels , contiguous to the skin . hi . the simple parenchyma . hoc . a ring of another sort of sap-vessels , consisting of many arched parcels , all standing off from the woo. dcfe. the wood. dl , kn , mf . the 3 annual rings of wood. sss . the true wood. stst . the air-vessels . kl , mn , ef. the large air-vessels on the inner verge of every annual ring . pq . the small air-vessels spread abroad each ring . ooo . the insertions running through the several rings from the pith into the bark . efg . the pith. eee . the vesicles whereof the pith consists . fig. 16. representeth a quarter of a slice of a branch of wallnut-tree of 4 years growth , cut transversly . abcd. the bark . rr. the parenchyma . qq . the common sap-vessels making a ring on the inner verge of the bark . hi . other sap-vessels peculiar to the species , postured in rings , made up of round parcels . dcfe. the wood. dl , kn , &c. the several annual rings of wood. ddd . the true wood ; or the old sap vessels , originally on the inner verge of the bark . qcqd . other old sap-vessels which seem to be originally those in the middle of the bark . dclk . the air vessels spread all abroad the whole ring of wood . ec . a conjugation of several air-vessels , standing in an even line close together . qqq . the insertions , running through the several rings of wood , from the pith into the bark . efg . the pith. ef. a ring of sap-vessels on the verge of the pith. fig. 17. representeth a quarter of a slice of a branch of fig-tree of the second years growth , cut transversly . abcd. the bark . lm . the outer laxer and more simple parenchyma ; wherein the vesiculae are somewhat large , yet much lesser than in the pith . dkc . one sort ( viz. the common sort ) of sap vessels , being lymphaeducts . hi . another sort of vessels , viz. the lactiferous , postured in several arched parcels . nt . the insertions running in diametral portions , near halfway through the bark . dcfe. the wood. ttt . the true wood . tvtv . the air-vessels . ststs . viz. the whiter parts , which were originally the milk vessels in the bark . kkk . the insertions running through the wood from the pith , as far as the milk-vessels in the bark . efg . the pith : wherein the vesiculae are large . ef. a ring of sap-vessels chiefly lactiferous , postured in round parcels on the edge of the pith . fig. 18. representeth a quarter of a slice of a branch of pine-tree of the second years growth , cut transversly . abcd. the bark . ab . the skin ; which is very thick . mn . the outer and laxer parenchyma ; wherein the vesiculae are of a mean size . dlc . the inner part of the parenchyma filled up with a thick ring of sap-vessels , sc. lymphaeducts . hi . the ample resiniferous or turpentine-vessels , spread abroad the middle of the bark . dcfe. the wood. xx. the ample pores of the true wood . ss . some small gum-vessels . the air-vessels are scarcely visible . ll. the insertions . efg . the pith ; wherein the vesicles are somewhat large . vv. some gum-vessels on the edge thereof . fig. 19. representeth a quarter of a slice of a branch of oak of 3 years growth , cut transversly . abcd. the bark . ab . the skin . xyxy. the parenchyma . dqrc . the common lymphaeducts . hi . a ring of another sort of lymphaeducts . klai . a third sort of vessels , sc. resiniferous , postured in several round parcels . dcfe. the wood. dn , mp , of . the several annual rings of wood. zzzz . the true wood. st , vw . some of the vessels originally of the bark , postured in undulated rings . mn , op , ef. the larger air vessels , on the inner verge of every annual ring . rzrz . the small air-vessels postured in columns . qqq . the great insertions running through the several annual rings of wood , from the pith into the bark . qrr. the small insertions . efg . the pith : wherein the vesiculae are exceeding small . fig. 20. representeth a quarter of a slice of common sumach of the first years growth , cut transversly . abcd. the bark . ab . the skin . aa . the hairs ; some whereof are sharp , others knobbed at their ends . klcd . a very thick radiated ring of lymphaeducts . kl . a ring of ample milk-vessels . v. one of the said milk-vessels . tr . a close parenchyma encompassing every milk-vessel . hi . a ring of a third sort of sap-vessels , consisting of arched parcels hemming in the lacteals . tt . one of the said parcels , consisting of some hundreds of vessels . tw . a laxer parenchyma . xx. another ring of sap-vessels , which seem to be of a fourth kind . dcfe. the wood. xx . the true wood. xy . the air-vessels . mmm . the insertions . most whereof run through the wood , and halfway through the bark , viz. as far as the lacteals . efg . the pith. yy . a ring of sap-vessels on the edge of the pith. fig. 21. representeth a quarter of a slice of a branch of common wormwood , cut transversly . abcd. the bark . mn . the parenchyma . dc . the common lymphaeducts , consisting of several large parcels , standing in a ring . v. one of the said parcels . kl . another sort of lymphaeducts , standing in as many parcels as the former , all of them arched . r. one of the said arched parcels . hi . the resiniferous , or gum vessels . t. one of the said vessels . dcfe. the wood. x. the true wood. xy . the air-vessels . ym mm. the insertions running through the wood , and half through the bark . where , as well as in the pith , they are enarched ; thus hemming in both the kinds of lymphaeducts . efg . the pith. zz . some few gum-vessels on the edge of the pith. fig. 22. representeth part of the bark of a lactiferous plant , pared by the length , and therein the milk-vessels laid bare . aa . the outer surface of the bark . bbbb . the parenchyma . cc. a milk-vessel cloven down the middle . dd . another , with a small part thereof cloven off . ee . another , which is entire . ff . the places where the said milk-vessels are braced together . gg . the terms of 2 other milk-vessels , where , by reason of their more oblique process , they are cut off . fig. 23. representeth a piece of wood , consisting of vessels , which were originally the lymphaeducts of the bark . ccc . some of the said lymphaeducts , composed of many small lignous fibers ( that is to say of other exquisitely small vessels ) standing together so , as to make a hollow cylinder ; that is , a lymphaeduct . eee . other of the same lymphaeducts , wherein is shewed the knitting of the said lignous fibers together by parenchymous fibers ▪ which run horizontally . aa . one of the same vessels shewed torn off towards the end from e to a , whereby the several fibers , and their connexion , do better appear . nb. that for your more distinct and perspicuous engravement , the said vessels are here represented more ample than they shew even through the microscope . which is done in no other figure besides . fig. 24. representeth a parcel of air-vessels . aa . a conjugation of two air-vessels . cc. a conjugation of three air-vessels , of several sizes . bbb . the places where the said vessels are braced . tt . the spiral , and almost horizontal continuation of the fibers whereof the said vessels do chiefly , but not wholly consist . tb . the perpendicular continuation of exceeding small parenchymous fibers , by which the aforesaid spiral ones are mutually knit together , into a firm and coherent vessel . ee . the said spiral fibers unroaved or drawn out in a couple of vessels . fig. 25. representeth the westage of the parenchyma ( or of the insertions ) and vessels . aa . several portions of the true wood , consisting of lignous fibers , running perpendicularly or by the length of the tree . bb . the insertions ; consisting of parenchymous fibers , running horizontally , or by the diameter of the tree . cece . other portions of the true wood ; wherein is shewed the intermixture of the lignous and parenchymous parts ; not only portion with portion , as in a b ; but even fiber with fiber . ce . the process of the lignous fibers . cc. the process of the parenchymous . fig. 26. representeth a quarter of a slice of the stalk of the lesser common thistle cut transversly . abcd the bark . ab the skin . hi . the parenchyma . ahb . a sort of lymphaeducts contiguous to the skin . ee . one parcel of the said lymphaeducts . dc . a ring of other lymphaeducts , consisting likewise of several parcels , standing on the inner verge of the bark . aa . one of the said parcels . hc . a ring of milk-vessels , consisting of several arched parcels , adjacent to the foresaid lymphaeducts . cc. one of the said parcels . dcfe. the wood , divided into several portions . aatt . one of the said portions . vvv . the true wood ; throughout which the air-vessels , represented by the larger white rings , are distributed . efg . the pith , consisting of very large , and angular bladders : the sides whereof are composed of fibers stitched together , and running chiefly horizontally ; winding in a circular manner , out of one bladder into another ; and so mutually intersecting the several arches of their whole circumference . tt . one of the said bladders , or rather one half , the other being cut off . the horizontal fibers whereof , not being single , but so many threds ; there being several fibers in one thred . ss . one single fiber . ef. other vessels , both lymphaeducts , and lactiferous , within the wood , or on the verge of the pith. tt . the lymphaeducts . ss . the lactiferous vessels . stac . the insertions running betwixt the several portions of wood , from the pith into the bark . finis . fig. boruge 1 dandelyon 2 colew●●rt 3 holycak 4 wild cu●umer 5 endive 6 7 fig. 8. holly . branch . fig. 9. hazel . branch . ●ig ▪ 10 ▪ barberry . branch . fig. 11. apple . tree ▪ branch . fig. 12. pear . tree . branch . fig. 13. plum. tree branch . fig. 14. elm branch . fig. 15. ash. tree branch . fig ▪ 16 wallnut . tree . branch . fig. 17. figg tree . branch . fig. 18. pine tree . branch . fig. 19 oak tree branch . fig. 20. sumach . fig. 21. the stalk of y e comon wormwood . fig. 22 the. milk. vessils . fig. 23. the. lymphaeducts . fig. 22 the. milk. vessils . fig. 23. the. lymphaeducts . fig. 24. the aer vessels . fig 25 the wef●age of y e parenchyma ( or of y e in sections ) & vessels . fig : 27 fig. 20. sumach . fig. 21. the stalk of y e comōn wormwood . fig 22 the. milk. vessils . fig. ●● the. lymphaedu●●● . fig. 24 the aer vessels . fig 25 the wef●age of y e parenchyma ( or of y e in sections ) & vessels . fig : 27. anatomia sambuci, or, the anatomy of the elder cutting out of it plain, approved, and specific remedies for most and chiefest maladies : confirmed and cleared by reason, experience, and history / collected in latine by dr. martin blochwich ... blochwitz, martin. 1677 approx. 227 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 128 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a28386) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 46874) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1436:4) anatomia sambuci, or, the anatomy of the elder cutting out of it plain, approved, and specific remedies for most and chiefest maladies : confirmed and cleared by reason, experience, and history / collected in latine by dr. martin blochwich ... blochwitz, martin. [19], 230 p. printed for h. brome ... and tho. sawbridge ..., london : 1677. includes index. reproduction of the original in the harvard university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng medicine -early works to 1800. botany, medical. 2006-04 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2006-05 apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images 2007-03 robyn anspach sampled and proofread 2007-03 robyn anspach text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion 61 the anatomie of the elder , cutting out of it plain , approved , and specific remedies for most chiefest maladies , by dr. martin , blockwich , recommended by the royal society ; octavo . london , 1677 anatomia sambuci or the anatomy of the elder : cutting out of it plain , approved , and specifick remedies for most and chiefest maladies ; confirmed and cleared by reason , experience , and history . collected in latine by dr. martin blochwich , physician ordinary of oshatin . translated for the benefit of all , and recommended by the royal society . nullum numen abest , si ●it prudentia — london , printed for h. brome , at the gun at the west end of st. pauls ; and tho. sawbridge , at the three flowers de luce in little britain , 1677 ▪ the printer to the reader . the ornaments of nature are so many and marvellous , that they not only submit the mind of man in a devote honour to that being that preserveth this variety in so sweet a consort ; but force also our thoughts to pursue the inquest of the several ties and dependencies of this beautiful proportion , that at last we may come to the knowledge of things in their causes and connexion . this pythagoras most properly termed philosophy . and indeed nature hath not been in this , neither in any other of her works , empty : but hath bestowed on us largely all means fit for the accomplishment of our wishes . amongst which experience and reason deservedly challenge precedency : experience , being beholding to chance and imitation , is pleased to impart her observations to reason ; who not being discourteous , doth assist her with her own principles , and so mustereth in the fields of learning noble squadrons of conclusions against their common enemy ignorance . this is vigorously illustrated by the relation of famous galen ; a viper by chance being stifled in wine , and a leprous person drinking it , was cured . a philosopher hearing it , used the same means , and was rid of the same malady . chance in the one , and imitation in the other , asserted the experience : which reason now in others makes plausible use of . from this base is the noble frame of medicine raised to so great a magnificence : for the ancients , being by event or advice delivered from their sickness , hung up votive tables in the chapels of their gods , drawn with the lineaments of their disease and remedy . out of these approved , yet scattered , records did the divine hippocrates gather those theorems , which all posterity adore and embrace as the highest masterpiece of this skill . and our author seems in this his treatise of the elder to tread the foot-steps of that more than mortal old man : for here , as in a curious landskip , he hath clearly and methodically represented to your view the experiments and vertues of this humble shrub ; whether by chance discovered to the commons , or by improvement to the rational . in whose ragged cote are contained , i dare aver , rarer and safer medicines , than the rob'd indies enrich us with ; and though they seem but homely , and the products of peasants ; yet are more safe and effectual for our bodies and diseases , than the most renowned exoticks : for nature , with a plentiful horn , hath provided each climate proper medicines . this being considered by the ingenious , it will not only inforce upon them a grateful remembrance of the author for collecting , but of the translator also for imparting his experiments to us in our mother tongue . for my own part , though i might put in for my share , if not of thanks , yet of acceptance , for this bill of revival , if i may so term it , which brings you at present a new sight of that translation , which , with many other things of great value , seem'd lately buried in the rubbish of our cities ruines , i shall content my self with performance of a work conducing to the service of my countrymen : and hope that this second apparence of so useful a piece will be no less acceptable to them , than the first . i am sure it cannot be less useful , if the frequent and urgent enquiries with which the book was demanded , when out of print , deceive me not , but without peradventure , the great experience which hath lately justified the vertues of the elder tree ( such , i dare say , as hath far exceeded the knowledge of elder times ) will make for me with them that know , as many do , that from its berries is drawn a spirit of such use and request in some parts of the land , that not only shops , but private houses also , are thought ill furnished without it . i will not therefore by a tedeous preface detain you any longer from the benefit of this excellent discourse , of which it is not the least commendation , that it can sufficiently commend it self . novemb. 1. 1669. for his honoured friend , alexander pennicuik of new-hall , sometime chirurgion to general bannier , and late chirurgion general to the auxiliary schotch army . sir , the ornaments of nature are so many and marvellous , that they not only submit the mind of man in a devote honor to that being that preserveth this variety , in so sweet consort ; but force also our thoughts to pursue the inquest of the several ties & dependencies of this beautiful proportion , that at last we may come to the knowledge of things in their causes and connexion . this pythagoras most properly termed philosophy . and indeed nature hath not been in this , neither in any other of her works empty ; but hath bestowed on us largely all means fit for the accomplishment of our wishes . amongst which experience and reason deservedly challenge precedency : experience being beholding to chance & imitation , is pleased to impart her observations to reason ; who not being discourtious , doth assist her with her own principles ; and so mustereth in the fields of learning noble squadrons of conclusions , against their common enemy , ignorance . this is vigorously illustrated by the relation of famous galen ; a viper by chance being stifled in wine , and a leprous person drinking it , was cured . a philosopher hearing it , used the same means , and was rid of the same malady . chance in the one , and imitation in the other , asserted the experience : which reason now in others makes plausible use of . from this base is the noble frame of medicine raised to so great a magnificence : for the ancients being by event or advice delivered from their sickness ; hung up votive tables in the chapels of their gods , drawn with the liniaments of their disease and remedy . out of these approved , yet scattered records , did the divine hippocrates gather those theorems , which all posterity adore and imbrace as the highest master-piece of this skill . and our author seems in this his treatise of the elder to tread the foot-steps of that more then mortal old man : for here , as in a curious land-skip , he hath clearly and methodically represented to your view , the experiments and vertues of this humble shrub ; whether by chance discovered to the commons , or by improvement to the rational . in whose ragged coat are contained , i dare averr , rarer and safer medicines , then the rob'd indies enrich us with ; and though they seem but homely ; and the products of pesants ; yet are more safe and effectual for out bodies and diseases , then the most renowned exoticks : for nature with a plentiful horn hath provided each climate proper medicines . this being considered by the ingenious , it will not only press upon them a thankful remembrance of the author for gathering ; but of you also for procuring the translation of these experiments . this translation owes you its life , and lies prostrate at your feet , to be exposed , or cherished . if it please you , 't is all the translator desires ; if not , 't is all he could do in these rough and rugged hils , where even the common elements are barbarous . but he knows you are ready to entertain any foundling of his , though full of deformities , thereby to encourage him for better births : wherefore he beseecheth ; you will take this paper-indeavor , as a fragment of the great duty he owes you , till he be able in more worthy expressions , to declare himself , sir , your sincere clyent , c. de iryngio . at the camp in athol , june 30. 1651 , the index of the anatomy of the elder . sect. i. of the names , kinds , form , place , & qualities of the elder , page 1 sect. ii. of the medicines made of the elder , 10 chap. 1. of the medicines of the berries , 11 1. the rhob , tincture , extract . ib. 2. the wines 13 3. spirits and waters 14 4. syrups and trageas 16 5. the oyle pressed from the stones , ib. chap. 2. of the medicines of the flowers . 1. conserves p. 18 2. syrups and honey ib. 3. water and spirits 19 4. vinegar and oxymel 21 5. wines 22 6. oyles by infusion , distillation 23 chap. 3. of the medicine of the buds 26 1. powders ib. 2. conserves ib. 3. syrups 27 chap. 4. of the leaves , middle-bark , roots , jews-ears , &c. 28 1. waters ib. 2. syrups 29 3. oyles and liniaments ib. chap. 5. of the salt and its spirit 32 sect. iii. shewing the practice and use of the elder medicaments 35 chap. 1. of the cephalalgia page 36 2. of ravings and wakings 38 3. hypocondriack melancholy 40 4. of the epilepsie 45 5. of the apoplexie and palsie 56 6. of catharres 61 7. of the toothach 63 8. the diseases of the eyes 66 9. the dregs of ears and hearing 70 10. of the nose and smelling ib. 11. of the face and head 74 12. of the mouth and throat 76 13. of dispnea and astmate 79 14. of the host and hoarsnesse 82 15. of the plurisie and pthisis 85 16. of the diseases of the dugs 89 17. of swouning and faintnesse 91 18 of feavers , and 1. of intermitting 93 2. of continued and burning 104 19. of the pest , and pestilential feavers 106 20. of the small-pox and measles 118 21. of the diseases of the stomach 120 22. of the diseases of the intestines of the collick 125 worms 128 leienterie and coeliack fluxes 130 dyssentery 131 constipation of the belly 135 hemorrhoides 136 23 of the obstructions of the mesentery , liver , lien , from whence proceed both the jaundies and scurvie 138 24. of the hydropsie 144 1. ascites ib. 2. anasarca 158 3. tympany 161 25. of the stone in the reins ; of the dysury , and iscury 163 26. of the diseases of the matrix 170 retention of flowers ib. fluxion 173 suffocation of the matrix 174 27. of arthritical diseases 183 28. of the scab , and its kinds 192 29. of the erysipelas , or rose 201 30. of inflammations , oedemas , and schirrous tumors 208 31. of wounds , ulcers , and contusions 211 32. of burning and congelation 219 33. of poyson outwardly and inwardly 224 medicines set down in the practice . 1. an amulet epileptick . sect. 3. cap. 4. for the rose 29 2. a balsam vulnerary 31 3. a bath for the scab 28 4. a cataplasm for a spreading herpes . ib. 5. a decoction for host and hearsnesse 14 6. a decoction against philtres , and other poyson 33 7. the experiment of countess emylia 24 8. extract granor. actes , quer. 26 lithontribon 25 antilemick 19 9. lac aureum 29 10. a liquor of snails and elder-kernels , which is anodine 27 11. oyle topick in the plague 19 12. oyle of elder-sugar 13 13. misture uterine 26 14. powder traumattick 31 15. polychrestick of the buds 3 16. rob antimelick of the elder 19 17. a specifick in the rose the spirits of the elder . 24 18. apoplectick 5 19. bezoartick 19 29. epileptick 4 21. hysterick 26 22. lythonthriptick 25 23. pneumatick 13 24. stomachick 21 25. the syrup acetous of the elder 19 26. sugar candid of the elder 14 27. tragea granorum actes 22 28. trochiscation of elder-stones 3 29. a water anodine , &c. 27 30. a water-purge of the berries 24 31. the wine of the berries of quercetan ib. mundus regitur opinionibus . of the anatomy of the elder or boor tree . sect . 1. of the name , kinds , form , place , and quality of the elder tree . seeing the elder is a tree most known even to the rudest of the commons , it seems a matter not worth the pains to describe it in many words ; nevertheless , lest in this respect our treatise should seem lame , some things are to be prefaced out of the ancient and modern botanicks . i. the name . 't is called by dioscorides , and other greeks , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , because it is a lover of brinks , and shadowy banks , as is thought by pena and lobel , in their advers . of plants , p. 434. which name theophrastus paracelsus hath retain'd , in whose , and the modern chymist-writing , you will find frequent mention of granorum actes , and of medicines prepared of them . 't is called of the latins , sambucus , or by others , chiefly of q. serenus , as witnesseth hugh frida , val. l. 2. de tuend . san . c. 26. sabucus , from the likeness the musical instrument called sabuc , or sambuck , hath with its hollow and pith-emptied rods ; pena and lob , in the place before cited . whence till this day 't is called by the spaniards , sabuco , or sabugo ; by the germans , holunder ; or by contraction , holder , albeit there be some which imagine 't is from the many vertues thereof called holder , as it were deduced from hulder , or hulderich ; but in this we will not contend with any . the italian names it sambuco ; the french , susier , suyn , and susau ; the bohemians , bez ; the english , the elder tree ; the scots , boor tree , or bore tree ; the low dutch , ulier . see tabernomontanus herbal , part . 3. sect . 1. c. 62. ii. the kinds . matthiolus and others speak of four kinds thereof : the domestick , the mountain , the water elder , and the little elder or danwort ; whereof the first and last are most commended in medicine by physicians , who herein follow dioscord . viz. the elder tree , properly so called , and the ebulus called the less , dwarf , or low elder . but because both these kinds , as we will hear anon out of dioscorides , differ little , or not at all , one from the other in vertue , i will describe here the domestik , or elder tree , properly so called , by which you may easily judge what is to be thought of the ebulus . iii. the form. the elder tree in figure is like the ash , sendeth forth long , small , reed-like branches , covered with an outward bark of an ash colour ; the next rine to it is green , and that is yellow and succulent which next clotheth the wood ; within which is contained a white and fungous pith ; the leaves are like those of the walnut tree , but less , growing by intervals by threes , fours , yea if you look to both the sides of the branch , by fives and sevens , incompassing it together ; of an heavy smell , lightly cut in edges . in the tops of the branches and twigs there springeth sweet and crisped umbels , swelling with white , sweet smelling flowers ( in june befor st. johns eve ) which by their fall give place to a many branched grape , first green , then ruddy , lastly of a black , dark , purple colour , succulent and tumid , with its winish liquor . of all the wild plants 't is first covered with leaves , and last unclothed of them . we omit other descriptions , this being full . iv. the place . the place of its nativity is every where , and scarce can you find any place where any other tree or shrub enmantle themselves in their green garments , which the bountiful enricher of nature hath envyed this treeling . but it most delighteth in hedges , orchards , and other shadowy places , or on the moist brinks of rivulets and ditches , unto which places 't is thrust by the gardeners , lest by its luxury and importunate encrease , whereby yearly it doth spread and enlarge it self , it should possess the place of more honourable , as they conceive , and of more pretious plants . v. the qualities and vertues . the qualities in general are described by galen , lib. 6. simpl. medic. facul . sect . that it hath the force of desiccating , conglutinating , and digesting moderately ; which word for word is repeated by the galenick physician paulus of aegian , lib. 7. medic. ● . 3. dioscorides ? who , as galen witnesseth , hath of all others written most accurately , most truly , and most learnedly of plants ) did long agoe in more proper colours limn them in his fourth book , and 175 chapter , of the matter of medicine . these are his words . the faculty and use of both ( he meaneth the elder and ebulus ) is the same in exiccating , and drawing water from the belly : they are indeed troublesom to the stomach , nevertheless their leaves being boyled as pot-hearbs , will purge bile and pituite : their tender stalks being boyled in pot or pan effect the same . the root being boyled in wine and given in meat , helpeth the hydroped ; yea it helpeth those that are bitten of a viper , drunk after the same manner . being boyl'd with water for bathing , it softneth and openeth the vulva , and corrects what enormities are there abouts . the berries thereof drunk with wine work the same effect . anointed on the hair , they make them black . the recent and tender leaves mitigate inflammations , being with polent anointed thereon . their anointing helps burning and the bitings of mad dogs . they conglutinate profound and fustulous ulcers , and helps the guttish , being together with the fat of a bull or hee goat anointed . these vertues so nobilitate the elder , that if after ages had not found out any , yet they are enough to commend it to us . but as in all other things ( as seneca witnesseth , quest . natur. l. 7. c. 31. ) nature doth not at once discover her mysteries , neither are her secrets promiscously laid open to all , being withdrawn and shut in her inmost cabinets , out of which , some in this age , some in another , is received and unfolded . even so here , one day hath taught another . and the later physicians with more intent thoughts , falling into the contemplation both of other herbs , and of the elder , they have tryed it in many affections to be most wholsom ; so that not undeservedly they esteem it a panacaea , or all-heal : for what is given to others apart , experience proves together to be in the elder . that i may say nothing of its wondrous and hid operations in expugning epilepsies , plague , erysipelasses , and other malign affections , which shall be spoken of afterwards : it hath a wonderfull force in purging out of the body all hurtfull , bilous , pituitous , and especially serous humors , from which bud such troops of sicknesses , as is to be seen in that famous and learned treatise of the ingenious piso de serosa colluvie . besides 't is anodyne , and by rarifying the skin , and digesting the humors and vapours , it lulleth the pain , it provokes urine , sweat , expelleth the stone , provoketh the stopt flowers , and doth other rarities , according to the parts and preparation thereof . that not without cause , what the more sober and learned chymists have attributed to their manifold medicinal mercury , antimony , vitriol , we may admit , admire , and acknowledge in our elder , though i willingly confess with some difference ; yea , we are more to admire this , seeing what is got in that triad of minerals , is got with such sweat and pains , by those indefatigasearchers of the many works and windings of nature ; but we attain our desire in this with light and little labour . sect . 2. of the receipts of medicaments drawn out of the elder . before we come to the diseases cured by the elder , 't is worth our labour first to explain the medicaments , which out of each part thereof , ought , and can be prepared , lest in divers affections the same with a great deal of loathing and labour be repeated , we will here set down the more curious and common , beginning with the berries , as the best and last product of that simple . capi . of the medicaments from the berries . 1. of the rob , tincture , extarct , or essence , take the ripe berries of the elder picked from their stalks , press the juice out of them , which being strained is to be thickned on a soft and clear fire . some in time of their inspissating add a little sugar , that the pallat may rellish it the better ; and this is called the rob of elder berries with sugar . of the rob , or inspissat juice of the berries without sugar , the tincture and extract is prepared after this manner . take a pound of this rob , put it in a long and capacious glass , called by the chymists a cucurbite , put thereon the spirit of wine , or the proper spirits of the elder , described in this chapter , so that it be a handful high above it . the glass being well closed , that the spirit may not exhale ; digest it in balneo four or five days , shaking the glass twice a day : after that strain the whole matter contained in the cucurbit , through gray paper . take the strained liquor ( which is obscurely reddish , and is called of some , the tincture of the elder or granorum actes , and may be kept without further distillation to good purpose ) put it in a glass cucurbit , and having put on the alembick , distil it on a slow balnean heat , till the menstruum , or that spirit , drop by drop separate , and the extract of the berries remain in the bottom like hony . if the menstruum be not totally extracted , that which remains in the cucurbit is called by the modern chymists , the liquid extract of granorum actes . you shall find another extract taken out of quercetan in the third section , and 26 chapter . ii. wines . take the elder berries cleaned of their stalks , beat them in a stone mortar , or earthen vessel , with a wooden pestle , till all the kernels be well bruised ; with this succulent matter fill the 8 , 10 , or 12 part of a little barrel , as you will have it of more or less efficacy , fill up the rest with must , or new wine , that they may work together . some boyle equal parts of this succulent matter and must together , till the consumption of a third part of the whole , on a slow fire ; then straining it through a thin linnen cloth , they put it ( as is said ) in a greater quantity into a barrel , put must thereon , and so suffer them to work . quercetans receipt thereof is set down in seat . 3. cap. 24. this is an excellent way . r. of elder berries well dried in an oven , lib. 1. cinnamon , the strongest and sharpest , unc . 3. caryophill . aromatic . ounc . 1. and an half . being all grosly pulverised , sow them loosly in a knot ; put them in a vessel that holds twelve english quarts , or thereabouts , fill up the rest with the best and most fragrant white wine , and place it a fortnight or above in a wine cellar ; which is to be used in time of repast , for t is an excellent stomachical drink , most delicious in colour , taste , and smell . iii. the spirit and water . take the ripe berries , express the juice , at least break them together , and let them stand in a wood vessel till they begin to ferment ; and that they may work the sooner , some add a little of the yiest of beer or wine : some add none , but keep the same process . d. finck . keeps in the extracting of the spirit of black sweet cherries , enchiridii , c. 6. after the fermentation let them be distilled in a vesica , and rectified acording to art. the rectification is best accomplished first in a vesica , and then in balneo ; where in place of a concurbit use a long-necked viol , then the most spiritous part will de abstracted , the phlegm beating again the sides of the viol will again fall down . others prepare it thus ; take the ripe berries of the elder dryed in the weak heat of an oven , being pulverised grosly with a third part of barley meal with them ; being well mixed , put them in an oken barrel , and put boyling water on them , in which some hops have been before macerated ; stop the vessel close , and suffer them to ferment some four or five days : to hasten the fermentation and digestion add some dreggs of wine or beer , ( as we have said before ) distill and rectifie it . but the first way is preferred deservedly by most , as more simple and pure : the purging water , as it is extracted by quercetan and others , out of the berries , is set down sect . 3. c. 24. iv. the syrup and tragea . the syrup is thus prepared : take of the juice extracted from the new gathered ripe berries , and clarified , lib. 1. sugar clarified , lib. 1. boyl it a little on a soft fire in a double vessel , or in bal. mar. to the consistency of a liquid syrup . you shall find the tragea granorum actes , or the tragea of the bore-tree-berries set down in the 22 cap. of the third sect . v. oyle drawn out of the stones or kernels . take the grains , or stones of these berries left in the cloth after the juice is strained from them , wash them well , and dry them in the aire , bedew them with odoriferous white-wine , and then in a press strongly squeeze out the oyle of them , as you do out of the seeds of the flaxes or line , rocked poppy or henbane , and such like ; that being purified by residency , keep it for your use in a glass ; for 't is an excellent vomitive , and a good balsam in externals . the dose to take it inwardly , is a drachme , or a drachme and a half in hot ale , or some other convenient liquor . this oyl may be more hematick and cathartick , if instead of the wine , the kernels be bedewed with malago , wherein crocus metallorum hath been infused , and then oyl expressed out of them ; which in the same dose will be much more effectual . cap. ii. of the medicines made of the flowers of the elder . 1. conserves . take the fresh flowers , pull them in little pieces , and to each ounce of them add two ounces of the whitest sugar , incorporate them well together in a marble morter with a woodden pestle : expose it afterward in a glass , or earthen vessel to the sun for some dayes ; it being thus prepared , reserve it for your use . ii. the syrup and honey . take of the recent flowers lib. 1. let them macerate 12 hours in lib. 6. of warm fountain water ; having exprest and strained the liquor , put in again recent flowers , yea do it the third time . add four ounces of the whitest sugar to each five ounces of the liquor that is last strained , boyle them up to a syrup according to art . but if in place of the sugar you add the same quantity of honey , and boyle it to a fitting consistence , you have mel sambucinum , which is commended by some . iii. the water and spirits . there is sundry wayes of distilling waters from herbs and flowers set downe by wecker , euonimus , quercetan , and others ; this is the easiest . takes as many of the flowers of the elder as you list , put a sufficient quantity of warm water thereon , let them marcerate a night , and then distill them per vesicam . that which distilleth first is excellent , the next is worse , beware then thou urge them not too much ; poure the water on fresh flowers , distil them the second time ; yea reiterate it the third time ; so you shall have water fit for the uses set down afterward in the practice ; for that which is extant in the apothecaries shops , is nothing but meer phlegm , not worthy the name of distilled water . no wonder then the sick so seldom find the wished and expected fruits therof . if from a part of this water in a long necked viol , in a soft balnean heat , you extract the more spirituous part , in quantity about the twelfth part thereof , you will have a most fragrant and penetrating spirit . or prepare the spirit as quercetan hath set down in lib. 1. pharm . dogm . restitut . cap. 7. and d. sennertus way , inst. med. lib. 5. part . 3. sect . 3. cap. 5. is it not much different . the cake which remains in the vesica after the distillation of the water , called of the chymists caput mortuum , is not to be thrown away , but to be reserved for the uses set down in the practice . iv. the vinegar and oximel . pour upon the fresh , or half withered flowers of the elder , the vinegar of white wine ; let them stand in a close stopped glass vessel in the sun , or some other hot place ; that the vinegar more exactly may draw out the vertue of the flowers , let the flowers remain in the vinegar , till it have drawn out fully all the vertue from them , which you may easily know by its fragrant smell , and golden colour . after strain the vinegar , and reserve it for your use . an excellent and red vinegar may be prepared of the flowers and juice of the branches , which is frequent in france , as lobell and pena witness in their advers . stirpium nov . p. 434. take instead of the juice of the branches , the berries of the elder dryed in the slow heat of an oven or furnace ; and upon them put the vinegar of the flowers , well purified by straining and subsidency ; which being impregnant with the shining transparent purple , i pour it off , and put on new still , so long as they are able to give it a purple tincture . the sowre syrup of the elder is described sect . 3. c. 19. the oximel of the elder , which quercetan . in pharm . dogm . restit . lib. 1. c. 10. mentioneth , is thus prepared . take of honey scummed well lib. 1. of elder vinegar lib. 5. of simple water , or water of elder flowers lib. 1. being mixt , put them in a cucurbit , and let them be boyled in balneo to a fit consistence . you may use here the simple vinegar , either of the flowers , or that which is by the infusion of the berries of a purple die , as it shall please the phancy of the physician or his patient . v. winf . take of the umbels of the elder dryed in the shadow , as much as you will ; which being pulled in little pieces , put them in a knot of fine thin linnen , with some little clean white stones ( to make the knot sink ) throw it into a vessel full of must ; let the wine work . some bid take a pound of the flowers , rightly dried and picked off their stalks , to 60 congions or 70 gallons of wine , and promise after the working of the wine it shall be of an excellent muscadel taste and smell . mark , that whatsoever apples or fruits are covered and wrapped in the flowres of the elder tree , shall acquire a taste and smell much like muscadel pears . vi. the oyle . 1. take as much as you will of the fresh flowers beaten , put them in a vessel of glass , pour on them a sufficient quantity of clear sallet oyle , macerate them in the sun , or some other hot place for 15 dayes ; then decoct it in a double vessel ; strain the flowers , cast them away ; put in fresh ones ; proceed as you did before , reiterate your practice the third time , and having strained it , keep it in a convenient vessel . mark , that those gross dregs of the flowers , and of all other things that are macerate in oyle , and strained from it , is called of the physicians , stymma , which take notice of now , that you may remember it when 't is mentioned hereafter . 2. the following oyl of the flowers is commended of many . take a cucurbite or glass of middle capacity ; fill a third part thereof with elder flowers gathered in a clear pure day ; put so much malvatick wine thereon , that the third part at least of the glass may remain empty ; having stopped the mouth well , expose it to the sun a fortnight : then putting the whole matter in a glaspot on a slow fire of charcole , heat it a little ; then strain it with great force into another clean vessel , above which within a little while you shall see a yellowish oyl to swim , which by a funnel or separatory , you are to separate from the rest of the liquor according to art . the liquor that remaineth will serve for the maceration of fresh flowers , which you are to reiterate sometimes , and in divers vessels , seeing at one time you will get but little oyl . 3. the oyl is prepared by distillation , after the manner sennerte and others prepare the oyl of roman cammomile flowers , and of other sweet smelling flowers ; thus , take the flowers of the elder dryed betwixt two linen cloaths in the aire , being pulled in little pieces , put them in an earthen vessel , or large cncurbite ; to every pound of flowers add an ounce and half of common salt , and having a span high covered them with warm water , leave them in digestion ten dais , or more , after distill them in vesica ; and according to art separate the oyl from the water . cap. iii. of the medicines of the buds or breakin gs of the elder . i. the powder . take as much as you will of the buds , or first breakin gs forth of the leaf of the elder ; being dryed in the shadow , pulverise them : either keep this powder by it self , or mix it with equal parts of sugar . the many medicinal powder of the buds is described sect . 3. cap. 3. ii. the conserve . take the fresh tender buds smally cut , lib. 5. of the purest sugar , lib. 1. upon a slow charcole fire , mix them well together with a stone pestle , and expose them in an earthen pan eight days to the suns rayes . iii. the syrup . take of the juice prest out of these first buds and breaking of the bore-tree out of the tree and ground , and by subsidency purified from the dregs lib. 11. of fine white sugar lib. 1. s . or q. s . let them be concocted with a slow balneal fire to the consistency of a syrup ; which being aromatised with half an ounce of choice cinnamon , and two drachmes of cloves , is to be reserved in a glass vessel . cap. iv. of the medicines taken from the leaves , middle bark , roots , pith , and spunge . i. the water . take the fresh leaves of the elder , and they being grosly beat or cut , fill the half of a vesica with them , and put a sufficient quantity of warm water on them ; macerate them therein for a night , and distill them ; put the distill'd water on fresh leaves , distill them again . after the same manner , of the green and succulent bark water is prepared . there are some that of the succulent roots , pith , and spunges by themselves , or mixed together , doe distill waters , which they much commend in hydropsies , which first are to be well shred and macerated a night inconvenient liquor , that their vertues may be more easily drawn out of them . ii. the syrup . as of the juice of the buds , so from the juice of the middle bark , or roots , a syrup may be prepared for the nicer sort , if a sufficient quantity of suger be put to the juice , well clarified , and on a soft fire boyled to a syrup ; and after the same manner aromatised . these syrups indeed are esteemed less efficacious then the crude juices , seeing in their boyling they lose something of their cathartick faculty , which fernele observed . nevertheless they are more safe , and less noysom to the stomach , and the rest of the intrals . therefore their dose is according to their strength to be augmented . iii. oyles and liniments . 1. an useful oyl is prepared of the middle bark , macerated in old clear let oyl , and expressed , as was spoken in the flowers . 2. of the bark and leaves prepare them thus ; take of the middle bark and leaves , equal parts , fry them in may butter and linsed oyl , or in any one of these , with a soft fire ; when they are a while fryed , press out the leaves and bark ; put in fresh leaves and bark again , fry them , and express ; do so the third time . 3. the liniment or unguent which is set down in matthiol . super diosc . l. 4. c. 168. take of the green bark of the elder which is next the outward ash coloured rine , being of an hearb colour , lib. 1. of oyl washed off in the water of elder flowers lib. 2. let them warm a while together , then strain and press them ; to this add of new well smelling wax , of the juice of the twigs of the elder ounce 4. then suffer them again to boil till the juice be consumed . take it then from the fire , stirr and mix all together ; and at last add of liquid varnish ounc . 2. of white frankincence beat to dust , ounc . 4. likewise add two whites of eggs , first well beat ; mix all diligently , and keep it in a clean vessel . 4. another liniment wich the most happy plater . used to prepare . take of the middle bark of the elder one ounce and half ; of the juice of its more tender leaves one drachme , linsed oyl washed in the water of elder flowers two ounces ; of barrowgrease so washed onu . 1. of good yellow wax one ounce and half , of frankincence one ounce , boyl them in the water of the flowers of the elder , in a closed pot and when they ; are cold , gather and keep the oyntment that swims above . of all these we will speak in burning , and other external affects . the rest of the medicines that are prepared of the parts of the elder , are copiously set down in the places that handle the diseases to which they are appropriate , and there they are to be found . cap. v. of the salt and its spirit . i. the salt . salt is prepared not only of the flowers and leaves after the distillation of waters , and expression of juice ; but of the bark and whole tree for all are to be dryed , burned in a clear and open fire , reduced to ashes ; of these ashes make a lie with pure and clean water , still pouring on firesh water , till all the saltishnes be extracted ; boyle the lie , being filtrate , in an earthen vessel on a soft fire , till the water exhale , and the salt be left ; which by a reiterate solution , filtration , and coagulaion , is to be purified . the most gallantway of purifying such like salts , by the means of the spirit or oyl of common salt , is set down in the 19 chapter of finckius enchirid. hermet . some praise this process , r. of the burned ashes of elder and sulphure , equal parts , being mixt , calcine them with a reverberatory fire , or in a potters furnace ; after extract a lie with the water of the flowers of the elder ; which being filtrate and boyled to a half on a slow fire , is to be placed in a celler , that the salt may run in christals . ii. the spirit of the salt of the elder . r. of the salt of the elder , lib. 1. of common bole lib. 3. being well powdered and mixt together , put them in well luted retort , fit to it an ample recipient , and having closed the commissures , add fier by degrees . first there shall still a waterish liquor , then the spirits shall follow ; augment the fire , and keep it in the same degree , lest the spirits remit , so long till no more spirits flow , and the recipient become clear ; the vessel being cold , and the clay that luted them together being with a wet cloth for an hour together softened , that the recipient may be separate without breaking the glasses , you shall find the spirit of the elders salt , which is separate from its phlegme by distilling in balneo . the lute , for arming your glasses , and luting them to their recipients , is set down by begwine , l. c. 6. tyrocin . chym. by libavius l. 1. epist . 24. epist . chymicarum , and others . others use other ways of distilling the spirits of vegetable salts , which the famous senart . mentions by the by , instit . medic. pag. 1215. but we may use all things we use in distilling the spirit of common salt : of which see sennert . and begwine , l. 2. c. 6. tyros . chymio . and others . sect . iii. shewing the practice of the elder , and medicines belonging thereto . vve have considered already the nature and qualities of the elder , and in a most short and clear way set down its medicines . it remains we briefly shew the practice thereof , and how 't is a safe medicine for most diseases that follow our frailty ; and of other preparations specifick to each part . we begin with the affections of the head . cap. i. of cephalalgia . in mitigating the pain of the head , and removing the distempers thereof in women , we use happily the cake of the flowers of the elder , left in the vesica after the distillation of the water ; it must not be burned ; which being dedewed with the vinegar of the flowers we apply it to the head , and with the besprinkling of frech vineger , renew it . it rarifieth the skin , and by digesting the vapors . dispels them . some use rose cakes bedewed with the vinegar of the elder , which where the heat is more vehement , the brain more sensible , and more offended with the piercing smell is far better . or , r. take of recent elder leaves two handfuls . of rose and water lillie flowers , of each one handfull . being shorne and pounded , poure on them a like quantity of elder vinegar , and the water distilled out of the flowers , press out strongly the juice ; mix with it expressed two whites of eggs well beat ; in which dip a double linen cloth , and apply it to the head oft in the day . the water of the flowers mixt with the white of an egg and a littile vinegar , is most comfortable in any cephalalgia ; chiefly in a feaverish , being applyed to the brows , temples , and crown of the head . the vinegar by it self is fitly used in the pain that proceeds or follows drunkenness . or draw out with the vinegar and distilled water of the flowers , from the kernels of the peach and bitter almond , amilky emulsion , wherein dip a linnen cloth , and apply it oft to the brows and crown of the patient . pliny saith , that the juice of the elder helps the collections of the brain , and especailly mitigateth the tunicle wherein it is next inwrapt . this decoction is excellent to dispel the vapours of the brain , and make one sleep soundly , if the legs and arms be soundly rubbed therewith when you go to sleep . take six umbels of the elder flowers when they are full , of anise umbles , of roman camomile flowers one handful , six poppy-heads with their seed ; being put together , beat them in rain water : if the evil hath its fewel from the stomach , matrix , or other parts , they are first to be remedied after that manner as is declared , particularly in each part . 't is enough here to have touched this topick . cap. ii. of raving and wakings . the same things are profitable here , that are set down in the remedy of the cephalalgie ; seeing it oft these riseth to forerun or accompany maladies , adding ever to these some grainsof opium , or a little of the seed of white poppy , to mitigate and allay the furious and fiery spirits . for example , take of the best water of elder flowers 4 dr . of water lillie and rosewater of each 2 drach . of thebaick opium half a scrup . of elder vinegar to dissolve the opium 6 scrup . mix them for an epithenie , wherein a double or treble linnen cloth being wet , is to be applyed warm to the brows and crown of the head . or in place of the opium , an ounce of the seeds of white poppy ; and by baking according to art , make an emulsion , unto which you may fitly add the white of an egg well beaten . if the belly be bound , dissolve of the syrup or juice of the berries , and also of the infusion of the flowers of the elder , ounc . 3 , or 4. in the water of the flowers , and give it when the patient is dry like a julip ; for it will not only open the belly , but sweetly quiet the spirits . when in anno 1626. the plague was raging in haina , and many of the infected were troubled with head aches , ravings , and wakings ; a worthy man told me , he found no readier help to dissipate those venomous vapours , and bring sleep in his own and others bodies ; then after the giving of several medicines , to bind their heads about with the flowers of the elder . cap. iii. of melancholy , and chiefly hypocondriack and flatulent . in hypocondriack melancholy 't is profitable first of all , if the diseased be prone to vomit , to provoke it by the oyl of the infusion of the flowers and bark of the elder ; lest by preparing and purging medicines , those crude and excrementitious humors , which oft are gathered in the stomach be carried to the more principal parts of the body , and augment the obstructions . or give of the syrup made of the sap of the buds and berries an ounce , br . 1. s. with some grains of the extract of scammonie , and 3 guts of the oyl of elder flowers distilled , in the distilled water of the flowers thereof . or use the clyster that is described in the 22 cap. following . after this , the wine which is drawn out of the berries and flowers , is not of meanest worth , for it opens obstructions , cuts gross humors , and by little and little thrusts them to the dore moreover it refresheth the vital and animal spirits . drink a cup full thereof each morning for a month , taking before a spoonful or two of fresh broth , or a saft egg . that it may work more safely , you may each week mix with the use of these , once or twice , the manyfold working powder of the buds of the elder ; wich is thus prepared ; take of elder buds dried in the shade , half an ounce . of elder kernels trochiscated , of sennie leaves , of christallised elder salt , of each three drachmes , of the extract of scammonie , two drachmes , of galengale , of macer , of each half a drachme , being all subtilly pulverised , distill upon them . of the oyl of cloves , of fennicle , of each six drops , of cinnomon , of carvi , of each three drops . let them be mixt exactly in a marble morter for a powder , whose dose is from a scruple to a drachme . the trochiscation , or preparation of the seeds or kernels of elder is thus ; take one ounce of the lesser esula , prepared as is known in infusion in vinegar , and grosly pulverised . infund it in the spanish wine of peter simons , lib. 5. let them macerate 8 days in the sun , or in winter in the chimny corner , the mouth of the glass being well stopped ; after strain them through gray paper , and purifie them . take the clean arillas of the elder berries , dry them , pulverise them , and with a sufficient quantity of the infusion of esula , make them in paste ; dry it ; being dryed , bedew them with the same infusion , and again work it into paste ; of which from your trochisces ; dry them , and keep them for your use . and because those excrementitious humours lurking about the stomach , and vicine places , and much troubling both the physician and patient , in all hypocondriack diseases , are more easily evacuate by vomit then purge , you may use commodiously the oyl of the kernels of the elder , prepar'd by bedewing them with the infusion of antimony , as as hath been shewn in the second section ; a little after drinking warm water , vomit is pvovoked ; and that obstructions may be sooner dissolv'd , and the matter drawn out of the meseraick veins into the intestines ; besides these internal things , use this fotus . take of the bar ; of elder roots , ounce 1. s . of well dried elder flowers , m. 3. make a decoction in equal parts of wine and water ; and that it may penetrate the more , add as much as you think fit of the vinegar of the elder ; in which fomentation dip a sponge , and therewith foment the whole belly , but chiefly the left hypochondre . see the other hereafter in the 23 chapter of the misenteries obstruction . for the altering of the bloud and spirrits in the true , and in the hypocondriac melancholy ; after generals , the syrup of the juice of the berres , and infusion of the flowers of elder , is praised ; of each of which , in the morning fasting , every day , let the patient take oun . 1. in the water of the flowers of burrage . you are likewise to take a care that the belly be kept open ; which is to be done by the syrup and the clyster mentioned in the 2 cap. in the paroxisme of your hypocondriac melancholy give a spoonful of the spirit of the flowers of elder in a draught of malmsey , for it dissipateth the ascending vapours , and strengtheneth the spirits . cap. iv. of the epilepsie . as this is a grievous , and a disease much to be lamented ; so i may say , it expects its most specifick cure , almost from the elder . the cure of children . to infants new-born , before you give them any thing to swallow , you may give them with great profit . a spoonful of the syrup of the infusion of the flowers , or juice of the elder-berries , to evacuate that putrid , yellowish , and sometime blackish water gathered in the stomach , and parts about , while the infant is in the mothers belly . for these syrups do not only change and evacuate , but they also preserve from , and resist malignity . macerate a handful of elder flowers well dried in the wine , which the best sort use to wash their new-born babes in ; for it consumes the humors gathered about the joynts , and comforts the members . this is also commended , take of the powder of the simple buds 1 drach . of the whitest sugarcandie 1 drach . of the berries of herb paris number 6. pulverise them most subtilly , of which give half a scruple for 9 days together , in the water of elder flowers , or any other convenient liquor you please . in the paroxisme , the least spoonfull of the spirit of the flowers given with three or five of the seeds of peony excorticat , is praised . or , of peony excorticat 2 drach . of the best water of elder-flowers one ounce and a half , of linden flower-water half an ounce . make an emulsion according to art , which being edulcerate rotalis manus christi perlatis , give it by spoonfuls . let the nurse sometimes take the conserves , syrup , or water of elder flowers , or having taken the spirit , juice , or extract of the berries , let her provoke smell , that thereby her milk being clear of the sharper and more malignant serosities , may be the more wholsom . i knew an infant , which being taken sometime with epileptick fits , each day , with a great deal of crying , and pain of belly , did dung a yellowish greenish matter ; whom neither clysters , nor cleansing linctussies did any good . i counselled his mother , seeing i saw her milk more serous and thin , that she should twice or thrice a week take the rhob , or juice of the elder-berries , mixt with burn'd harts-horns ; and drink a draught of the water of the flowers above it , and provoke her self to sweat in her bed , or couch : which being done , not only the epileptick fits , but also those painfull wringings of the childs belly did cease ; and by little and little , the excrements came to their natural form . the cure of those that are come to age . in those that are come to age 't is first necessary above all things , to purge the body well . in the spring time macerate the bark of the roots of elder in the whey of cows milk , which being dulcerat with sugar , let him each morning take a hearty draught thereof . or , take the polichrestick powder of the buds two scruples , or one drachme . of recent rob of the elder , well thickned with good sugar , as much as will make a bole . or take the prescribed bole ; dissolve it in the whey of milk , add thereto the syrup made of juice of the buds and berries , ounce i. mix it ; prepare a draught : but if the patient be prone to vomit , give him the oyl expressed out of the kernels . the spirit of the flowers and berries of the elder in , and out of the paroxysm , is of great power ; but it may be made more efficacious thus : r. take of the middle bark of the elder , of the roots of poeonie , of each six drachms , of dried elder leaves and buds , of lynden-tree flowers , of each one handful . of rew-seed two drach . of the berries of herb paris , numb . 20. of jews-ears , numb . 6. this being cut and pounded , put as much of the spirit of the elder thereon , as will be a hand broad high above them , and in a hot place , and well stopped vessel , macerate them eight daies ; distil them in glass vessels in b. m. till they be dry ; mix with them the distilled spirits , the salt drawn out of its dregs , and keep it for the anti-epileptick spirit of the elder . whereof give a whole , or half spoonful to the epileptick in the time of his paroxisme ; afterwards using it every quarter of the moon , to dissipate the epileptick corruption by sweating ; or insensible transpiration ▪ and to guard the brain . with this same , in the time of the fit , rub the nostrils , gums , and pallat , adding thereto a grain or two of castor . herein likewise excels the tincture and extract of granorum actes ; the preparation and using of which is set down in the 31 chapter out of quercetan . or , take of granorum actes scrup . 1. of the berries of herb paris , pulverised , half a scrup . mix them , and form pils thereof , numb . 15. or being dissolved in the anti epileptick spirit of the eldergive them in the paroxisme . mark by the way , that the berries of herb paris , called by some bear or wolf grapes , is held by some matrons , as a great secret against the epilepsie : and they give them ever in an unequal number , as 3 , 5 , 7 or 9 , in the water of linden tree flowers or of the roots of squamaria ; which i my self have found effectual in some children . seeing these berries are mixt with some antidotes , especially with the saxonian , and half a drachm of the seeds of these berries , as matthiolus relates , being given , avail much against long sickness , and witchcraft , it should not seem strange to any man , that they much help in the epilepsie , if they consider seriously the maligne nature of the epileptick vapor , and its enmity with the brain . some affirm , that the water of the flowers drawn up into the nose prevails much against the epilepsie and vertigo . in the same affects the eyes and face are to be washed oft with this water . anoint gently , in the fit it self , the contracted members , with the oyl of the flowers of the first description , that thereby the acrimony of the humors and vapors may be mitigate , that the matter may be dissipate , and the nerves comforted . the oyl of the second and third description , or the distilled oyl , is much commended ; if the palmes of the hands , and soles of the feet , if the temples of the head and nape of the neck be anointed therewith . amulets . there is likewise set down a singular amulet , made of the elder growing on a sallow . if in the month of october , a little before the full moon , you pluck a twig of the elder , and cut the cane that is betwixt two of its knees , or knots in nine pieces ; and these pieces being bound in a piece of linnen , be in a thred so hung about the neck , that they touch the spoon of the heart , or the sword-form'd cartilage ; and that they may stay more firmly in that place , they are to be bound thereon with a linnen or silken roller wrapt about the body , till the thred break of it self . the thred being broken , and the roller removed , the amulet is not at all to be touched with bare hands , but it ought to be taken hold on by some instrument , and buried in a place that no body may touch it . petraeus nosilog . harmon . l. 1. dissert . 6. finkius ench. harm . c. 5. the cause of which is not absolutely hid , seeing the elder and its grains help this disease . these are the words of petraeus in the mentioned place . there are some that ascribe the same effect to the bore tree , growing on the tylia or linden tree , seeing both by a peculiar property are anti-epileptick ; some hang a cross made of the elder and sallow , mutually in wrapping one another about the childrens neck , petr. loco allegat . albeit there be some that deny all specifick operation to amulets of the elder growing on the sallow and linden tree , and to all other amulets . nevertheless their reasons are not of such weight , that they satisfie the mind of a desirous learner ; 't is not impossible that so little a piece of the elder bound to the skin should break the force of so stubborn a disease : for though it do not draw out sensibly the vitious humors , yet it may act against the morbifick cause , and rout it some other way , by alluring , and some other way expugning those vitious humors , and that malignant miamse , most noisom to the brain , it having in little bulk great force ; which being or removed , 't is likely the epilepsie will cease , though the humors remain ; if they be not altogther corrupt : which humors are to be purged , according to the diversities of constitutions , before you use such amulets . read sennert . l. de cons . & dissen . gal & . chymic . whereas they object , that in all these amulets do not hold : this will not prove that they are not indewed with an anti-epileptick faculty ; otherwise many famous medicaments should be called in question , seeing many times they are disappointed of their actings in some subjects ; because it may be they are not used in fit quantity , time , or after due prepration , or some other errours are committed , which may hinder the best , and most approved medicine to take effect ; neither is it in the power alwaies of the physician or medicine , that the diseased should be releived : some times the evil excels the cunningest art . cap. v. of the apoplexie and palsie . as preservative a against the apoplexie and palsie , the salt of the elder is much commended , if it be mixt with a third part of the volatile salt of amber ( which volatile salt useth to stick to the neck of the retort , in the distillation of the oyl of amber ) and given in the time of the new moon , or full moon , in a convenient liquor , in the weight of a scruple , or half a drachme . the salt of the elder must be first excellently crystallized in the water of sage , as you know . amwald desires that three parts of the extract of black hellebore be mixed with the rob of elder ; which he commends as a gallant specifick against the apoplexie , and all noysom affections of the brain . the receit is set down in his treatise , panacea amwaldina , fol. 23. pulvis tureonum polychrestus , doth not only purge the stomach and nearest vessel , but likewise the brain from its gross , pituite , and serous humors , whereof give a drachme thereof when it is needful in form of a pill . oxymel samb . is likewise useful in these cold distempers of the brain ; whereof give oft in the water of sage , a little masted before purging , at least two or three ounces for the cutting and preparing that gross matter . the spirit likewise distilled from the berries is excellent , if once a week , or at least each quarter of the moon , a spoonful thereof mixt with crums of wheat bread , and a little sugar , for it consumes the phlegmatick humors , and drieth and comforteth the brain , and 't is taken in place of a simple anti-epileptick , as we have said in the former chapter , or. you may prepare it new thus , only for this affection , in what quantity you please , thus ; take of sage , marjoram , ivy arthritica , of each two drachmes . of couslip flowers , conval lilly flowers , of each one drach . and an half . of rochet seed , two drachmes . which , all being cut , and grosly pulverised , are to be macerated in a sufficient quantity of the spirit of elder , and after eight daies to be distillid in b. m. till they be dry ; for the apoplectick spirit of the elder ; in a part of which castoreum may be dissolved , and oft times transcolate ; of which mixture a spoonful , chiefly in the time of the paroxisme , should be instilled , as the cause is of exigency , and with the same rub the pallat , nostrills , crown of the head , and nuke of the neck . two or three drops of the oyl of the second or third description , or distilled , being instilled in the ear , or anoynted on the pallat , after the manner the spirit is thought to help the rest . mark , that those things we have now commended , have chief place in that apoplexie that proceeds from pituite or other gross humors , and is familiar to old men ; but that which proceeds from depression of the scul , or inflammation of the brain , is to be cured by other medicines , that is not our part here to handle . of the palsie . but if the apoplexie end in a palsie of the sides , or other members , as it useth , having observed those universals , for the provision of whole body and brain , 't is necessary oft in the week to provoke sweat . half an ounce of the apoplectick spirit of the elder is useful here ; also two drachms of the rob of the berries in sage water . or , of the extract of the rohob of the elder , drach . 5. and an half . antimony diaphoretick , most white , half a drachm . of which every morning give to the paralitick , they being exactly mixt , 1 drachm in 2 or 3 ounces of the decoction of the root of the great burdock , and command him , that being well lapped in his bed , he swet for half an hour ; and that he may sweat more freely and fully you may mix with the potion half an ounce of the apoplectick spirit of the elder . topicks . the enervat , or hanging members are twice a day to be rubbed , first with hard sharp clothes ; afterward with the spirit drawn out of the berries , and inebriate with the essence of cephalick herbs . so those gross and viscid humors that trouble the nerves , and compresse them , and stop the passage of the animal spirits , will be attenuate , and dissipate , and the stupified spirits will be raised and allured . nevertheless , lest by these hot , and much drying spirits , the matter it self and nevres should be hardned , you are to mix with the oyl of the infusion of the flowers of the elder a third of the oyl drawn from the kernels of its berries , and this will attemperate the too too much exsiccating heat , and nevertheless digest and consume the matter . in this case likewise , the decoction of the root of the elder and ebulus in simple water is much praised . and seeing oft times the palsie of the tongue , and difficulty of speaking remains , the tongue is oft times to be rub'd , and humectated with a sponge , dipped in the apoplectick spirit of the elder . cap. vi. of catarrhs . in this the wine prepared of the flowers and berries , is much commended , because it excellently purgeth the body of that serous inundation , of which , after you have taken a little broth , drink a cupfull in the morning . the simple powder of the buds of the elder , taking a scruple thereof in a soft egg , or in some syrup , or in a spoonful of the oximel of the elder in the spring , or harvest , for 14 daies each morning , and fasting two hours at least after it , doth mightily consume the catarrhous matter . or instead of the powder use the conserve of the buds , mixt with the third part of the conserve of the flowers ; the dose ounc . s. if the body stand in need of greater evacuation , exhibit once or twice the polichrestick powder of the buds . the salt of the elder by it self , or mixt with the third part of the volatile salt of ambre , dose scrup . 1. is esteemed likewise the spirit of the elders salt , taking weekly six drops thereof , or more in broth made of flesh . also , a spoonful or two of the spirit of the berries and flowers , taken with crums of bread and sugar . concerning other things , especially sweetning , which is sometimes conducible to consume the matter in this disease , read the precedent chapter . cap. vii . of the toothach . seing this disease oft flowes from defluxions , those things are to be first used that are set down in the former chapter . topicks . we will onely prescribe here topicks made of the elder . raymund minder , in his military medicine , cap. 10. commends much the decoction of the roots in wine and vinegar , used to gargarise with , and protests that no one medicine sooner easeth this great pain . for example , take of the roots of elder cut in slices , two ounces and an half . of elder , or simple vinegar , of white wine , of each six ounces . boyl them for a water to wash the mouth , which is oft to be spit out , and renewed . or , take of the middle elder bark , of elder flowers , of each an handfull , of jews ears one . boyl them likewise in a sufficient quantity of vinegar and wine , and use it . where there is a suspicion of worms in the hollow tooth , the hollowness is to be filled with the spongiola of the elder ; at last it is to be held hard betwixt the teeth : likewise the vapor of the former decoction may be received through a funnel at the mouth . they make tooth-pickers , and spoons of elder , to which they attribute much in preserving from this pain . the common people take these tooth-pickers , being bloudy with pricking and picking the tooth , and glew them to the trunk of an elder , which is irradiated with the morning sun beams ; they pull away the bark , and cover the place with rosin of the pine : and thus they cure all tooth-aches . 't is not apparent by what vertue this is done ; when , may be , that is attributed to the incision , which ought to be attributed to the blooding , or time of continuance , wherein most diseases are eased . but we leave every man to his judgement , scal. exerc. 183. sect . 11. if from a defluction , the gums and cheeks do swel , anoynt them with the oyl of the infusion of the flowers of the elder , and put the dregs or crassament of them to it , for they will digest and resolve it . cap. viii . of the affects of the eyes . platerus tom. 2. praxeos . hath observed , that chirurgeons used to apply to sore eyes a pill of the elder , macerated in common , or rose water , or other convenient , to mitigate the pain . the water of the flowers of the elder , mixt with a like proportion of rose water , wounderfully mitigateth ophthalmike pains , and strengtheneth the sight ; into which sometimes prepared tutty in a knot is to be put , to ease the itch , and a spunge of the elder , macerated in pennyroyal water , to be applyed to the nuke or hollow of the neck . this following liquor anointed on the eyelids with a feather is profitable . r. elder flowers gathered in the month of june , before the rising of the sun , and picked from their stalks as much as you will ; beat them in a marble morter ; and in a glass well stopped , expose them for a month to the rayes of the sun ; them let then be involv'd in a leavened rie loaf , and baked with other bread in an oven ; which being taken out and opened , you shall find an oleaginous liquor , which you must carefully preserve in another glass for your use . the tender and recent leaves , with polent or barly meal , applyed to inflammations , doth mitigate them , by dissolving and digesting , as was taught before by dioscorides ; which may be used externally in ophthalmies , general medicines being premised . or rather use this cataplasme , which did much help in a more vehement tumor of the eyelids , whereby the whole eye was hid . make of the mucilage of the seed of psyllium , and linseed , extracted by the best water of elder flowers , of each six drachmes , add of elder oyl half an ounce , and as much meal of the flowers as will suffice . make thereof a cataplasm . the little spunge of the elder macerate well in the best water of the flowers til they swell great , do wipe away gallantly the dirt and matter in those blemishes , and in all other wounds and ulcers of the eyes , immediately laying thereon a tender and recent elder leaf . they say that the ashes thereof blown in the eye , hath consumed a beginning panincle . cap. ix . of the diseases of the ears and hearing . foments of the decoction of elder , and camomile flowers , mitigates the pain of the ears . the oyl of the infusion of the flowers may be with profit anointed ; or adding the meal of the flowers , make thereof a cataplasm , which is to be applied hot to the whole region of the ears . the difficulty of hearing , through gross humors and vapors that possess the auditory organs , is greatly helped after you have used universals , and the polychrestick buds of the elder , by the vapor of the decoction of the roots and leaves of the elder , made in a fit lixive , in the which lixive , if you add origanum , the ears are to be oft washed , and still well dried . the same vapor takes away the tingling , whistling , and other sounds of the ear , which are also remedied by a drop or two of the oyl of the flowers of the second or third description , being put on a bombaceous tent , thrust in the ears , for it consumes and dissipates the flatuosities , from which these arise . some who suspect the unctuosity of the oyl , use after the same manner the spirit of the flowers and berries ; chiefly the apoplectick , which by its penetrating force doth discuss them egregiously . the juice prest out of the recent leaves , with a little wine , and instilled in the ears , doth cleanse the filth of the exulcerate ears , and kill the worms . it doth likewise cleanse and consolidate wounds and ulcers ; of which in his proper chapter . cap. x. of the defects of the nose , and smelling . the best water of the flowers of the elder , oft drawn up in the nose , doth help the smelling , that is diminished by some great sickness . in the exulceration of the nose by a salt defluxion , the water of the flowers and bark are profitable , seeing they deterge , dry , and conglut inate . in a greater exulceration , where the flesh is too proud , the spirit of the salt is needful , which being mixt with the rest , it consumes the proud flesh , and hindreth further putresaction . see the chapter of curing ulcers . gabel rover doth commend the spunges that grow on the stock of the elder , being dryed , pulverised , and given in a fit liquor , for staying the hemorage of the nose . tragea granorum actes , which is described in the cure of the dyscentery , is good in this case . the dose half a drachme , or two scruples , in a spoonful or two of quercetans corralline syrup , or in the styptick red wine , or in the distilled water of the sperm of frogs , shepherds purse , or purslain , &c. or make a powder of the equal parts of tragea , and the little sponges , which is both to be taken in the mentioned liquors , and lightly and easily to blown into the nostrils . cap. xi . of the blemishes of face and head. if you wash the face oft with the distilled water of the leaves and flowers of the elder , it cleanseth and drieth up all pimples and pustles of the face . dispensatories affirm , that the oyl of the infusion of the flowers mundifieth and makes clear the skin . in lentiginibus , commonly called freckles , by signature , a decoction of the flowers in water is commended ; for the flowers of the elder are spotted , oswald croll . de signaturis . dioscorides teacheth , that the juice anointed , makes the hair black . this will be a profitable experiment to those that endeavour to make their red hair black ; albeit the colour be more comely in many , than ill favoured . what we must allow to those old ruffins that are ashamed of their white locks , galen hath taught hath taught us , l. 1. de compos . medicament . secund . loc. c. 3. and this transcursorily occasioned by dioscorides his words . take elder roots cut very small , adding a little of the seed of staphis agriae made in a lixive , wherein wash the head that is full of scales & lice . the same decoction heals the tineam or favum in children , if it be over strong and painful , dilute it with the decoction of the flowers and leaves . the pain is likewise mitigated by the anointing of the oyl of the infusion of the flowers , if after washing it be anointed . the oyl expressed out of the berries and kernels , and mixt by stirring , with a third part of turpentine , and anointed , doth cure by drying and cleansing , all ulcers of the head , the whole elder leaf after being applyed . oleum saccharo sambucinum is likewise commodious . cap. xii . of the diseases of the mouth and throat . the common women , so soon as they suspect any disease in the throte of their young ones , they steep the sponge of the elder in their drink , and when it is sweld , they therewith carefully wipe away all the filth of the pallat , gums , and tongue . the expressed juice of the leaves mixt with simple or elder honey , doth absterge and exsiccate egregiously all the ulcers of the gums and throat : if therewith they be anointed by a pencil , or if it be disolved in the water of the leaves and bark , and gargarised therewith . you shall add more vertue thereto in deterging , in purifying , if you mix a little of the salt of the elder therewith , or dissolve the said juice in a weaker lixive , and use it as a gargarisme . if the ulcers be more malignant , and the product of the great pox , 't is necessary that twice or thrice a day you rub them with a sponge or pencil dipped in the spirit of elder berries , wherein a little of the flowers of sulphur hath been dissolv'd , and immediatly after wash them with the decoction of the leaves , and besprinkling them with the small flower of the elder pith . the tonsils being tumefied by a thin and saltish defluxion , let them be gargarised with water , or decoction of elder flowers , wherein a little elder-hony hath been mixed ; for licking the rhob of the elder , inspissated with sugar , is commodious ; which is our womens common and used medicine ▪ you may use the syrup of the juice of the berries , or infusion of the flowers , or the hony of either . outwardly anoint them with the oyl of elder flowers infusion , which doth resolve it . in the squinancy , having first used universals , to the foresaid gargarism add some leaves of self-heal , with one or two of the sponges of the elder , called by many jews ear , which is a sure experiment . lob. in advers . novis stirp . p. 434. the linctus must be the former , only add some pulverised jews ears ; or make this eclegme ; take jews-ears two or three , let them sharpen an hour or two in a sufficient quantity of the water of elder flowers ; then let them boyle lightly , and them in a marble mortar , and put them through a setace ; add unto this musilage as much as is needful of the syrup of the juice of the flowers and sugar , as will make a linctus , which you may oft use ; besides , it opens the belly . outwardly apply an anadyne cataplasm , which doth digest and resolve , made of elder leaves , and reddish stalks , pounded and boyled in the oyl of the infusion of elder flowers , to the consistency of a pulticle . the acetoses syrup of the elder , dissolved in the decoction of barley , and given as a julap when 't is necessary , tempereth the heat of the blood and whole body . see afterward the cure of the continued fevers . in spitting of blood tragea granorum actes is profitable ; whereof we have made mention in the tenth chapter , which being taken in some convenient syrup , is to be used for a linctus . cap. xiii . of dyspnei and asthma . that those things may be remov'd in these diseases , and expectorat , which are gathered through the proper imbecility of the lungs , use the water of the flowers , in which a third part of elder oximel is dissolved , and as julap twice a day drink two or three ounces thereof , it cuts the gross matter , and facilitateth the expectoration thereof . the same oximel thickned with sugar-candy , and taken off a liquorice-stick like a linctus , and swallowed leasurely , worketh well in expectoration . the syrup of the flowers of the juice of the berries and buds , &c. are wholsome taken after the same manner . the bark of the elder entreth that famous oximel , helleborat of gesner . the spirit of the berries in a great dispnoea is profitable , half a spoonful , or a spoonful thereof taken with sugar . use this following asmalick , or pneumatick spirit , if you please . take of the middle elder bark liquorish , well shaven , six drachms . of the roots of allacompaine , of florentine ireos , of each two drachms . of the whole herb erysimum , two handful . of fennel-seed half an ounce . being cut , and shaked together , infuse them in a sufficient quantity of the spirit of granorum actes , in which let them stand seven days , every day twice stirring all together ; afterward let them be distilled in bal. mar. for the pneumatick spirit of the elder , which in time of necessity is to be taken either by it self , or dulcerat with a little sugar , or the syrup of violets . or with the same with canary-sugar , or of madara , prepare the oyl of the elder-sugar as followeth . take of this pneumatick spirit rectified , as much as you will , mix with it half the quantity of sugar ; fire the spirit with a wax-candle , or light paper , stir it hither and thither with a knife , till all turn to a thick and oily liquor , and the flame cease of it self . use it as an eclegme with a stick of liquorice by it self ; or mix with an equal part of elder oximel , it mightily moves expectoration , &c. 't is profitable to anoint the breast in the greatest difficulty of breathing with the oyl of elder-flowers of the first description ; you may mix therewith some drops of the oyl of the flowers of the third description . in suffocating catars , besides these abundantly declared , it availeth much , if in the time of the fit , you put a sponge dipped in elder-vinegar to the nose , and therewith wet the crown of the head . cap. xiv . of hoasting and hoarsness . vvomen with great success , give to their coughing unquiet children , the recent rob of the elder , which is more liquid . in older , the linctus of the oyl of elder-sugar is profitable . in that wild cough , where corrupt matter is exercat , and more corruption feared , this is much praised . take of the elder-leaves recent , or dried in the shadow , m. i. boil them in a quart of fountain , or clear river water , to the consumption of a third part ; the strained drink is to be sweetned with sugar-candy , or scummed hony , of which every day , morning and evening , drink a warm draught . the same is commended in hoarsness proceeding from a catar , that fils the inequalities of the wind-pipe , or arteriae asperae . or where more detersion in necessary for the same effect , there is a fit lixive prepared of the ashes of the leaves with the water of the flowers , which being sweetned with sugar or hony , is to be oft taken by spoonfuls in the day . this , if any thing , will take away hoarsness , & is a great secret amongst women , as the giving their own proper urine to the diseased to drink , which is loathsom to many . to make a clear voice , this is a secret of alexis . take of elder-flowers dried in the sun , and pulverised , of which drink a little every morning in white wine fasting . the cough and hoarsness proceeding from heat in feavers , is excellently remedied by a linctus of the syrup made of the juice of elder-berries , with equal parts of the syrup of violets . if you list , and have leasure , you may make elder-sugar in imitation of violet-sugar-candy , cinnamon , or rose-sugar ; of which in these pectoral diseases , hold some still to be dissolved in your mouth , that by little and little it may descend into asperae arteriae , or wind-pipe . 't is thus made . take of the best canary-sugar lib. 6. let it melt and boil in the fragrant water of the flowers , till it acquire a fit thickness , for making up tablets : then infuse the fresh juice pressed from the berries , well purified , or the frequent infusion of the flowers , as vou please to have the colour , lib. 2. on a soft fire boil them to the consistency of a syrup , then in a glass , or earthen pot , put sticks in order , two fingers broad asunder , and pour the liquor hot thereon , and in a warmed shop , the vessel being bound up in a thick cotton cloth , leave it there to congeal . see more of this in the famous botanicks pena and lobel p. 20. advers . nov. stirpium & cas . bauhine , lib. i. c. 19. de comp . medicam . cap. xv. of the pleurisie and phthisis , in a bastard pleurisie 't is a very safe and us'd medicine , if there be no fever , to provoke sweat , by taking the rhobob granorum actes in the water of elder-flowers , or cardui benedicti , seeing it ariseth from the serous and flatulent humors that fall betwixt the pleura , and intercost all muscles , &c. in a true pleurisie , where there is a continual fever adjoyn'd , proceed more warily : for after the use of universals , the rob , water , and spirit of elder-flowers are not to be much feared here , seeing with success we use hotter sudorificks of the blessed and milky thistles of the simple and composed spirit of vitriol , &c. for many expert men acknowledge a malignity in these humors , which paracelsus likeneth to auripigmentel poyson which doth corrode the life like a fire . diosc . lib. 5. c. 121. pectorals . for the expectoration of the matter in the lungs , use them that are weak , as the syrup of the flowers and berries inspissat with sugar , or elder candied-sugar , likewise the water of the flowers inspissat , & supped down , you may mix with these some of the tragea gran. actes for the spitting of blood . topicks . externally anoint with the oyl of the infusion of the flowers with the fat of a capon , or saltless may-butter , or foment oft the side with linnen dipt in the water or decoction of the flowers and leaves of the elder ; for by ratifying the skin and parts , they digest & resolve those sharp vapors and humors : or take elder-leaves and flowers camomile , of each an handful ; make a decoction in milde beer , which put in a cows-bladder , and after the opening of a vein , being oft in the day applyed warm , it did wonderfully ease a smith in my country , whose wife i counselled to do so . of the phthisis . in preserving and curing the phthisis , besides other things , the decoction for the wild cough , being taken by spoonfuls , and by little & little swallowed , is used with success , seeing it proceeds from the ulcer of the lungs , which requires detersion , exsiccation , and consolidation ; and the leaves and flowers of the elder mixed with a little sugar or honey , work these effects ; they think to satisfy all the indications by this decoction . but i had rather in this case , instead of simple sugar & hony , use tabled sugar-roset , or honyroset strained , and mix a scruple , or half a drachm of this following powder , chiefly were much arterious blood with the spittle is cast up . take of tragea gran. actes drach . 1. of jews ears dryed in a furnace . oculorum cancri praep . an . drach . and half , saffron oriental , scrup . 1. sugari rosat . tabled , drach . 2. being all pulverised well , mix them together exactly ; in the mean time you are to have an eye to the prime cause of this ulcer , whose knowledge is to be found elsewhere . george amwald in his panacea , p. 29. commends the unction of the oyl of elder-flowers in a phthisis . cap. xvi . of the affections of the duggs . seeing the duggs of women oft-times , by reason of the sudden and abundant affluxion of blood , for the generating of milk , chiefly after their delivery , use to be inflamed ; or as the blood is of thinner consistence , and hotter , use to have an erysipelas , or rose ; the following receipts may safely and securely be applyed . in inflammations , the caput mortuum , or the cake of the flowers of the elder with the red vinegar thereof , in one erysipelas , let it be bedewed with the distilled water of the leaves and flowers of the elder , and so applied warm : for it digests and resolves that which hath flowed in , and is compacted , and doth moderately by reason of the vinegar repel the inflammation , & extinguish the heat of the blood . anoint he hardened kernels of the dugs with the oyl of the infusion of elder-flowers , and put the leaves of the elder thereupon . for the exulcerat , the lac aureum , or golden-milk is most fitting , being made of the common or elder lixive , and the oyl of the infused flowers and bark , mixed by hard shaking and stirring together ; in which linnen being dipt , and wrung afterward , is to be applied warm to the ulcers : 't is also profitable , for the more hasty and happy perfecting of the cure , to blow on it the powder of elder-leaves . so the ulcer , whatever it be , shall be cleansed , dryed and dighted ; view these in their proper places . i knew a woman , whereof i made mention in the fourth chapter ; which oft being taken with the rose in her paps , who having taken the rob of the elder , and provoked sweat moderately in her bed , useth to apply no other medicine to the diseased part , but a knot of red fine linnen , wherein elder-flowers are sewed so ingeniously to avoid all the exulceration which would have ensued . cap. xvii . of swouning and faintness . the vinegar of elder-flowers , imbib'd in a sponge , recovers those , as it were , from death , that are subject to swounings and faintings upon every the lightest cause or occasion ; for it excellently refresheth the spirits ; for which physicians highly prize it , being mixt with other cordial epithemes . in this alone dip linnen cloths , and apply them to the pulses of the temples of the wrists , & near the ankles . or make this epitheme , where-with the face and the palms of the hands are to be washed . take of the water of the flowers of the elder , 3 ounces . of incarnation roses , 2 ounces . of the vinegar of elder-flowers , half an ounce . the vinegar of red berries , two dra . mix them . tragea granorrum actes made after this manner , is much commended . take of the tragea of the grains of the elder . of choice cinnamon , of each one drach . of cloves , galangale , of the flowers of the elder without the stalks , of of each one scruple . of sugar rosat , of anthosat tablets , of each two drachms and an half . make all into a fine powder , of which give to the diseased half a drachm in wine , or some other convenient liquor . how women that faint by reason of the matrical diseases , are to be helped by the medicines of elder , i have set down in the 26 chap. cap. xviii . of fevers in general . and 1. of intermitting fevers . the common people , as soon as they find the first touch of a fever , they take the rob of the elder in the vinegar , spirit , or water of the flowers thereof ; and so in their beds , being well covered with cloths , dispose themselves for sweating , which the physicians do not disapprove , seeing experience proves , that fevers by these are many times prevented and dissipated . this seems to be the most probable reason thereof , that that putrid filthiness is by this means discussed without delay , and the body rarified ; which , if it had been left longer in the body , without doubt would have daily encreased the corruption , & given vigor to the fever ; as is learnedly discoursed by the famous sennert . in his treatise of fevers . but have a care that this be only done in the beginnings of fevers , and in such bodies as are not full of the rubbish of corrupt humors , otherwise 't is more safe and sound to open the parts and passages of the whole body by emetick and cathartick medicines . emeticks and catharticks . the purified oyl expressed out of the kernels of the berries , is commended in strong and lusty bodies , 1 dra . or a drac . and half thereof , being taken in the broth of flesh ; for it gently moveth vomit , and loosneth the belly , not without a singular good temper of the body . for the same use , the juice expressed out of the bark of the roots , are commended , being taken in the same , or a greater quantity . bernhard gordon in his treatise of preserving mans life , biddeth us take so much , as the half of an egg shell will contain . concerning the wine made of the infusion of the bark of elder roots , which provoketh vomit , and emptieth the belly of corrupt humors , read the 28 chapter . the oyl made of the infus'd flowers and bark of the elder , being drank from one ounce to three , provoketh vomit , and purgeth the belly ; the same alone , or in a decoction , may be given in a clyster . the polych●est powder of elder buds , doth not only purge both the biles , but also phlegm and serous humors ; whereof drink in hot and tertian feavers , in whey ; but in cold and quartanes ; in wine a scruple , or a drachm or 4 scrules , as the strength of the diseased will admit . or let pils of tragachanth be fomented with this , or some syrup or musilage , so that above them the mentioned liquor be drank . in young ones , the syrup of the juice of the berries , of the buds or bark , &c. suffice . the commons praise this , take a cup full of goats milk whey , which holds about four ounces , macerate therein half an ounce of the middle bark of the elder dried in the shadow ; being strongly prest out , drink it warm in the morning , in which a few things are to be observed : that the commons are fully perswaded , and call experience to witness , that if those middle barks be pulled downward from the tree , it emptieth the body of evil humors by purge ; if they be pulled upward , it worketh by vomit . the truth of which , as i dare not call in question seeing i know the same thing is asserted of assarum by some physicians ; if notwithstanding it be free for me to give my opinion without prejudice to others , and the truth , i believe we ought rather to ascribe the effect to the constitution and peculiar property of the receivers , or to the nature of present humor . i will say nothing now of the imagination , whereby the receivers perswade themselves , the medicine will work downward or upward , which they endevour to help by sundry waies , by motion , compression of the belly , suppositors , thrusting their fingers in their throats , and so forth . nevertheless i will not deny that the bark , and whole elder also , hath divers vertues in purging the noxious matter , by divers places ; nevertheless i doubt that these are rather to be ascribed to the divers pulling it off the tree , then to these causes mentioned , and other more weighty , which i leave to the serious consideration of the learned , and proceed . that the stalks and leaves of the hearbs , being boyled , doth purge phlegm , is manifest out of dioscorides ; to which nevertheless the sprigs or sprouts are preferred , if in the spring time , in which they are to be found , they be macerated a little in hot water , and prepared with oyl and vinegar , and be eaten sparingly before supper , in place of a sallet ; for they gently loose the belly , unlock the obstructions of the mesentery , and being frequently eaten , deliver and preserve from contumacious feavers . instead of these the conserve of buds , mixed with the conserve of the flowers , is profitable ; of which take daily an ounce , half an hour before supper , in the water of the bark . cutting medicines . in such feavers , which are lengthened from the cramming of the meseraick veins , and from the grosness and toughness of the humor , oxymel sambucinum , dissolved in the distilled water of the flowers , or barly water ; and daily on the intermitting daies drank an hour or two before supper is commended . the crystallized salt of the elder , taken from half a scruple to a whole is profitable ; also six drops of the , spirit of the same , taken in the broth or flesh ; for all these do powerfully open obstructions and cut asunder the grosness and toughness of the humor , they cleanse the bowels and vessels , and both by urine and sweat dissipate the feverish matter . see more in the 23 chapter . before the fit. internal medicaments . those which are used before the fit are of two sorts ; for some of them move vomit and the belly , others provoke sweat . when in time of the fit the matter tendeth upward , which is known by the sudden straitness of the brest , by the stretching of the hypocondriac , by nauciousness and propensity to vomit , give him a spoonful or drachm and a half of the oyl pressed out of the berries kernels in warm ale , and by putting your finger in his throat hasten the vomit . joseph quercetan in his 1 book , and 8 chapter of dogmatick pharmacy , asserteth that this following decoction is excellent in intermitting fevers , quotidan and quartan . take elder-roots and bark , of each ounce 1. of asarium drachms 3. of good cinnamon drachm 1 and an half , boyl them in milk . this decoction at one and the same time moves vomit and sedge . let it be taken at the beginning of the fit , and reiterate if it be needful . if the body be evacuate , and nature encline to sweating , before the fit use these following . the rob of elder in greatness of a walnut , being mixed with half a drachm of the powder of the blessed thistle , and swallowed and drinking vinegar above it , and afterwards , two hours before the fit , provoking sweat in bed , is an usual medicine . or make this mixture ; take half a drachm of the extract of the rob of the elder , and half a scruple of the salt of the elder ; mix them , and form of them with the powder of hearts-horn , pills ; which are to be taken in a spoonful of the syrup of the berries : two hours before the fit give the half thereof to the younger and weaker complexions . in fevers less hot , especially quartans , two or three spoonfuls of the spirit of the elder-berries , given before the fit , is commended . there are some which dissolve this following powder in it before , and they cannot praise enough this medicine in more obstinate quartans , especially if the day before the fit the stomach , and other vessels nutritive , be well purged by the oyl pressed out of the stones of the elder-berries . take of hearts-horn prepared , without burning of the finest antimony diaphoretick , of each half a scruple ; let them be exactly powdered . neither is the heat of this spirit here to be feared , seeing in the same fevers , galen , and other famous physicians , prescribe theriack , methridate , myrrh , the spirit of wine , the water of zedoary ; for a hard knot must have a hard wedg : and experience proves , that these medicines , being administred before the fit , do not only stop the fierceness of the fit , but likewise quite overthrow the fever ; which before would neither yield to preparing nor purging medicines ; the reason is , because the feverish matter at that time is more moveable , and being prepared by nature it self , more easily followeth the course of the medicine . externals or topicks . this topick is commended to be applied to the pulses . of elder & lavender leaves , of each half an handful , of salt half as much . they being pounded well , incorporate them with the oyl of elder , that they may become a paste ; whereof apply one half to the wrist of the right hand , and the other to the wrist of the left , and bind them with a rowler wet in elder-vinegar . foelix plater , in the second part of his practice , hath this , take of elder , rue , marigolds , and nettle-leaves ana m. 1. let them be pounded with salt and vinegar , and let them be applyed . a double linnen cloth dipt in the spirit of granorum actes is applyed with a great deal of comfort to the belly , chiefly to the stomach before the fit , in a quartan ; for seeing the fuel of the evil is setled in these places , if it be not altogether routed by the application of this epitheme , yet it will be much weakned . to take away the shaking , and mitigate the chilness , the back-bone is to be rubb'd with the same spirit being hot . 2. of continual and burning fevers . in continual and hot tertian and burning fevers , where the heat is more intense , and great drought tormenteth the patient , make this julap . r. of fountain or river-water , lib. 3. of elder-vinegar ounces 3. of the finest sugar ounces 2. let them boyl together a little in a fit vessel ; unto which , being warm , add one drachm of cinnamon in powder ; let them cool of themselves in a close vessel , and strain them through hyppocrates sleeve for a julap . of which give the patient oft in the day , it extinguisheth the feverish heat , cuts the gross and tough matter , cleanseth the thin and bilous , unlocks obstructions , it purgeth humors that offend through their convenient places , and by its acceptable acidity it sharpneth the appetite , and refresheth the strength . this same is performed by the acetory syrup of the elder , described in the next chapter , which is to be dissolved in barley-water , till it come to the consistency of a julap . for example , take the sharp elder-syrup ounc . 3. simple barley-water lib. 1. mixed , or oximel of the elder ounc . 2. clear fountain-water lib. mix them , give four ounces or more of this , and such like , at each time ; otherwise if you give less , and only once or twice a day , they rather encrease than diminish heat . p. egineta lib. 2. cap. 36. for as charcole in a smiths forge , being besprinkled with water , burneth more ardently ; so the feverish heat is rather kindled than quenched by drinking sparingly . that you may extinguish the intemperate heat , and refresh the vanquisht strength , instead of an epithem apply to the pulses the vinegar of elder-flowers mixed with rose-water , and imbibed by double or treble linnen cloths . to loose without danger in these fevers the bound belly , the syrup of the juice of the berries is convenient , of which dissolve two or three ounces in the water of elder-flowers ; use it instead of a julap , and drink it , for it gently looseth the belly , and evacuateth the feverish matter . cap. xix . of the pest and pestilential fevers . in curing and preserving from the plague , great is the use of the elder . a little sponge being wet in vinegar of the elder , and carried in a hollow globe made of juniper-wood , and smell it , it mightily strengtheneth the spirits against the impression of the infectious contagion . red hot bricks , being besprinkled with this vinegar , and a vapor raised , it doth dissipate the contagious virulency , so that it cannot insinuate it self in mens houses and cloths . by what means it may be indued with an antilemick force more efficacious , shall appear by what i will now say . rob of the elder and the extract prepared of it , here are excellent : the first whereof is named by many . the country-mans theriack , of which each week to swallow the bigness of a walnut , and drink above it its proper vinegar , and so to sweat in bed , is a commonly received preservative . this may be fitly used by those who are infected with the plague , especially if you mix with it some of the anti-pestilential powders ; or at least drink above it three or four spoonfuls of antilemick vinegar of the elder . the same rob chiefly it that is most recent , being spread more thickly on a shive of bread , and eaten an hour or two before your meat , loosneth the belly ; in whose place you may give a spoonful or two of the syrup of the juice of the berries . it is enough to swallow sometimes in a morning before you go out the greatness of a pease of the extract . rohob , and the extract antilemick of the elder . r. roots of tormentillae , buterdock , of pimpanels , of angelica , leaves of scordium , berries of juniper , of each half an ounce . macerate the roots 24 hours in elder vinegar , afterwards dry them at leasure , and being powdered by themselves , add the leaves of scordium , and berries of juniper , likewise in powder ; mix them all together , and with the vinegar that remained besprinkle them , and work them most exactly with a pound of rob sambuci , in form of an opiat : of which give to the infected person two drachms in a convenient liquor , to provoke sweat , and thrust out the poyson from his heart . of which also besprinkled with the spirit of elder , you may prepare the extract that is set down in the second section and first chapter of this book . the dose given to the infected is one scruple or drachm in convenient liquor . the spirit of the elder by it self is here very powerful , both in preserving , a few drops thereof being taken with a little white bread in a morning , and likewise in the beginning of the disease , a spoonful or two being taken thereof before the feverish heat be powerful . but that spirit is far more noble , which is drawn off by an alimbeck in the preparation of the antilemick extract ; seeing from the volatile essence of those bezoartick simples it hath carried much with it . or at least infufe those simples in the spirit of the elder ; & being macerated therein for a few days , let it be strained , for the antilimbeck spirit of the elder , whose vertues in curing and preserving cannot be praised enough . by the same alexitaries , and chiefly by the roots of angelica and juniper-berries , if the red elder-vinegar of my description be impregnat with them , it becomes antilemick elder-vinegar ; which is not only a vehicle to other alexipharmacal medicaments , but moreover it may be taken by it self , when the intense heat and fever will not admit of the spirit , or other more hot medicines . some drops of the spirit of elder-salt given in the broth of flesh is a preservative . neither is it unwholsom , if once or twice a week in the morning , an hour or two before dinner , a cup full of the wine prepar'd of the berries be taken but remember to take before it a little broth ; for it loosneth the belly , hindreth putrefaction , and by reason of the bezoartick vertue of the berries , it preserveth the body from contagion . at supper drink a cup full of the wine prepared of the dried berries , which strengtheneth the stomach . a special topick oyl . some greatly commend in the pleague this oyl . take the flowers of the elder , fill therewith a cucurbit , or a more ample glass , to the middle ; strew upon them marsh mallows , and tops of hypericon , of each so much as only the fourth part of the glass shall remain empty ; powre thereon so much sweet clear oyl-olive as will cover the flowers ; close exactly the mouth of the glass sigillo hermetico , or lute it ; and through all summer or for three months set it in the sun , that the heat of the sun may draw the vertues out of the flowers into the oyl ; then having strongly pressed the flowers , strain the oyl , and being purified by setling , reserve it in a well closed vessel ; unto each ounce of which , before you use it , add a scruple of sal nitre . some prepare it suddenly thus , they take the oyl of infused elder-flowers , as much as is necessary , in it they immerge the flowers of the marsh mallows and hypericon , and boil them together in bal. mar. for some hours ; afterwards they express strongly the flowers , and strain it ; in the strained oyl they immerge recent flowers , boil them , press them , and strain them ; and afterward add nitre . the way of using it is this ; the whole body of the infected person within 24 hours is to be anointed with this oyl warm , and being wrapt in warm sheets , he is to be laid in a warmed bed to sweat ; for they affirm that it is proved , that by this only remedy many have safely escaped the fierceness of this poison : which unction , as it is not disapproved , seeing it openeth the pores of the skin , and by them draws out and dissipates the pestilential infection and malignity , and by consequence is used commodiously , not only in the plague and pestilential fevers , but also in other malignant and chiefly spotted fevers : so we are to be very wary , lest in this sharp and dangerous disease , we neglect to use the internal bezoarticks & alexiterix already mentioned ; but rather ought to join them with these , that with united forces both ways , internally and externally , they may vanquish the malignity . it seems this hath come from the egyptians , of whom alpinus in his 4 book and 15 chapter relates , that they use this medicine in pestilential fevers , in which the spots are either begun to appear , with great profit , at least once a day using this hot linament , after which , without delay , they cover the feverish with many cloths , endeavouring to draw the poisonous humor from the bowels to the skin . comforting and altering medicines . lest the diseased in sweating altogether faints , we ought to hold often to his nose a sponge dipt in the antilemick vinegar of the elder ; for this vinegar doth powerfully dissipate these narcotick vapours , and recreate the strength . it is likewise to be applyed to the temples with linnen cloths . to ease the heat and thirst you are oft times to give to the diseased , in and after his sweat , some spoonfuls of the julap which is set down in the cure of burning fevers ; or prepare this acetous syrup of the elder , which in provoking sweat , in resisting putrefaction and contagion , in strengthening the heart and other intrails , is far more excellent than the common acetous syrup , by reason of the alexiterous vertue of the elder . take clear fountain-water lib. 3. white sugar lib. 2. and an half . boyl them on a clear fire of charcole , till the half be consumed , scumming them well in time of boiling : after add sharp elder-vinegar lib. 1. and an half , boil them again on the consistence of a syrup : you may , to procure a more sweet smell , in a knot of fine linnen infuse in it an ounce of cinamon grosly powdered , and sometimes wring it . the syrup being cold , let it be kept in a galli-pot ; of which give oft some spoonfuls by it self , or dissolve it in the distilled water of burrage , sweet roses , elder , scabious , or such like . the cure of the buboes and carbuncles . apply to buboes pestilential , and carbuncles , a plaster made of the meal of elder-flowers and hony , which is excellent in ripening these tumors . or take of the oyl more special , which just now was set down , of crude hony , of each half an ounce ; of salt ammoniac drach . 1. of the meal of the flowers and leaves of the elder , of each as much as sufficeth , let them all be exactly wrought , till they become like a plaster . some apply the feces of the flowers macerated in oyl , and press it out , which they call stymma . some rost onions under the ashes , and pound them , and mix them with the rob of the elder , and apply them as a cataplasm to the risings of the skin . amongst other vesiccatories , which is applied happily to these contumacious lumps , the famous sennert . recites these following . take of mustard-seed , of middle elder-bark , equal parts , pound them with vinegar in form of a cataplasm which is to be spread on a white linnen cloath . or , take of the leaves of the elder , of burrage , of mustard-seed , of rancide nut-kernels , equal parts . let them be pounded and applied , having first anointed the place round about with theriack . the apostume being open , and become an ulcer , a linament made of hony and the juice of elder-leaves is to be applied ; which every day , twice a day , being put in with lint tents , it dighteth away the quittous , and mundifies the ulcer : the oyl pressed out of the berries kernels , and mixt with the third and fourth part of turpentine oyl , is much praised . see the rest in the cure of ulcers . cap. xx. of the small pox and measles . seeing these spots and pushes depend upon that putred and malign humor , which nature , troubled with it , doth expel to the skin and external parts ; it is commodious to commit the whole business to nature , if she work righly and effectually . but seeing , before they break out , a fever doth possess those tender bodies , which is unknown whether it be a token of the pox and meazles , or of pituite putrefying in the stomach , or neighbouring parts : it is commodious to give to infants a spoonful or two of the infused flowers : for if it be the pox , it causeth them to strike out ; if it be putred pituit in the stomach , it gently purgeth it . if it be to one of riper age , give him one or more ounces , adding according to his strength , yea on the first day , & before nature go about to expel the pox , of the polichrestick powder of the elder-buds , a scruple or half a drachm , whereby nature being disburdened of the sinck of the first region , more happily and easily may expel the rest , which is mixed with the mass of blood . after this , the water of the elder-flowers given in spoonfuls is good : for it strengeheneth the heart , and thrusteth forth that putred and malign humor , both in children and in those that are older ; it may be sweetned with syrup of the berries . which , if they come forth more slowly or sparingly , besides internals , we must use unctions ; of whose matter and manner we have spoken in the former chapter . alpinus testifies , that the egyptians have none more excellent and familiar in all their pox and malignant spots than these . and our women would do well to follow their foot-steps , forsaking old wives fables , which oft times bring not so much help as hazard . nevertheless we are to have a care , that a little after we wipe the whole body with soft and warm linnen cloths , in a warm place , free of all cold . to quench thirst where the feverish heat is more vehement , and the strength more vanquisht , use those julaps we have mentioned in the cure of fevers . but if you perceive by the continued host , that the pox hath seized on the lungs , abstain from these sharp things , and instead of them , use the syrup of the flowers or of the juice of elder-berries , being thickned with sugar , for a linctus : the distilled water of the flowers of the elder , sweetned with the same syrups , is to be used for a julap to strengthen the intestines , and prevent a flux ; mix with it tragea granorum actes . cap. xxi . of the diseases of the stomach . a weak , cold stomach , and of hard digestion , is helped by the spirit of granorum actes , which doth greatly strengthen the same , consumes corrupt phlegm , and helps concoction : being taken with a little fine white bread and sugar , in quantity a spoonful or two . the stomatical spirit of the elder . is more efficacious , and is this : take of our acorous roots and ginger , of each half an ounce . of mynt crisped , one handful . of fennel-seeds and anise-seeds , of each two drachms . being cut and pounded , pour upon them the spirit of the grains of the berries of the elder , that it may be four fingers deep above them . let them infuse twelve or fourteen days , every day stirring them about . afterward strain or distil from them the stomatical spirit , whose uses are many : for it is not only to be taken inwardly , as we have said ; but likewise externally to be applied to the cold and weak stomach with linnen ; for it helps difficulty of concoction , stops vomit , and mitigateth all pains and sobbings , which proceed from a cold temper or windy humor . if there be nauceousness or vomit , with oppressing of the heart , and difficulty of breathing ; it is suspicious that these effects proceed from tough phlegm , or some other putred humor gathered there ; then give two ounces of the oil of infused flowers , or bark of the elder , with black water ; and by thrusting the finger in the throat provoke vomit ; or give a drachm of the oil drawn out of the berries and kernels in a draught of warm ale , & hasten vomit . by which means any thing that 's trouble to the stomach will be cast up , which being done , give a spoonful of the stomatical elder-spirit or simple , well sweetned with sugar , and imbibed in the heart of the rie-bread for strengthening the stomach . that wine which is prepared of the dried berries , as we appointed , is altogether stomatical , and greatly helpeth the weak and windy stomach ; whereof you must drink oft , chiefly in time of supper a cup full or two . neither is it to be objected that dioscorides says , that elder is hurtful to the stomach , seeing he speaks there of the crude and unprepared , which we acknowledge is hurtful to the stomach , as some preparations thereof likewise are ; but experience it self doth attest , that this wine , and other medicines thereof , have great vertue in corroborating and comforting the stomach . the spirit of elder-salt , taken in six grains or more , weekly in flesh-broth , doth cleanse the stomach , and stir up appetite . in the burning of the stomach and cardialgia , proceeding from hot bilous humors , which hath flowed into it from other parts , or hath been ingendred and corrupted there , if it be needful , you may give a vomit of the oyl pressed out of the kernels . the acetous syrup of the elder described in the 19 chapter , is profitable ; whereof give an ounce for a dose , dissolved in two or three ounces of barley-water . or make this powder : take of tragea granorum actes , ounces 2. oculi cancrorum prepared dr . 1. sugar rosat . intablets . sugar perlat . half an ounce , mix them . of which give a drachm in two spoonfuls of the syrup , which we now commended . cap. xxii . of the diseases of the intestines . 1. of the colick . because , besides a bare distemper , a pituitous humor , a vitrious or flatulent useth oft to be the cause of the colick ; therefore their encrease are to be cut off . wine prepared of the berries or flowers work this effect leasurely : likewise the water of the bark and roots , mixt with a third part of the syrup of the juice of the buds and infusion of the flowers ; which wonderfully mitigate pain ; whereof take oft an hour before meat , for preserving you four ounces . or where nature is more strong , give a half or whole drachm of the polychrestick powder of the buds in the syrup of the flowers made thin with wine . to dissipate wind , mitigate pain , and loosen the bound belly , use this clyster . take of elder-leaves two handfuls . of elder-flowers and cammomile-roman-flowers , of each an handful . of the stones of elder-berries dryed drach . 2. being cut and pounded boil them in pure wine , or wine of the elder , till the colature come into eight ounces ; add , the oyl of the infused flowers three ounces . of elder-hony two ounces . the yeolk of one egg ; mix them , and make a clyster , apply it hot . the spirit of the berries is of great vertue here , because it dissipateth not only in the stomach , but in the intestines also , all mescusness of pituite and other viscid humors . by its great diaphoretick vertue , it dissipateth all thin and serous humors in the intestines ; it warmeth by its penetrating heat the intrails , made cold by drink , air , &c. and so taken , both inwardly , and anointed , it stilleth the huge pains that arise thence . i know a church-man , who by this spirit in a short time dissipateth the collick , which is familiar to him , and upon the least occasion bred . in place of this use the spirit of the flowers well purified from its phlegm , &c. the distilled oyl of elder-flowers imbibed in silk , and applied to the navel with a ventose , is a most gentle paregorick . whereof also give four drops in a spoonful of the spirit of flowers or berries . the spirit of elder-salt , given in the water of the flowers , or in broth in the quantity of six , or seven , or eight drops , by his cleansing and dissipating vertue , preserving from the collick : but if you perceive by the thirst intense heat , and constitution of the patient , that these pains arise from the abundance of hot and sharp boylous humors , or some other hot cause ; you are to use these things which i have set down in the former chapter , in the heat of the stomach ; unto which add the syrup of elder-flowers , which is either to be taken alone , or made thin with the best stilled water of elder-flowers . ii. of worms . the chrystaline salt of the elder preserveth and freeth from worms : it robs them of their nourishment , kills them , and purgeth them out . the dose is , from half a scruple to half a drach or two scrup . for those of riper years , which are troubled with worms , you are to prepare in the spring-time a dish made of elder-buds , delivered from their bitter naucious taste , by the effusion of boyling water , with oyl , salt , and vinegar , which is to be used as a sallet before supper : for the oyl closeth the breathing places of the worms , and maketh the belly slippery : salt and vinegar cleanse , cut , and kill the worms . the elder-buds do loosen the belly , purge the worms and thrust forth their fuel . that this sallet may be more pleasant , you may add some tender leaves of sorrel , which likewise resist worms . at other times the powder of the buds taken in the morning for a few days , a scruple at once in broth , is commendable . give to more delicate persons frequently a spoonful of the syrup of the juice of the buds ; with which mix half a scruple of prepared hearts-horn . some press out the juice of the recent leaves , and mix it with honey , or honey-roset , and give it sometimes before other meat , and by this means kill and purge out worms . where the stomach and intestines are furred and filled with a greater quantity of tenacious putrid pituit mucilage ; give twice or thrice the polichrestick powder of the buds in their syrup . 3. of lienterick and celiaick fluxes . albeit at the first sight the elder seem not fit for fluxes ; notwithstanding in lienteries & celiaick fluxes , where the meat and drink are either in that form in which they were received , or else half concocted , and not much altered , voided out of the body sooner than was fitting , by reason of the weakness of the retentive faculty of the stomach and intestines , proceeding for the most part from a cold and humid distemper , the spirit of granorum actes , both simple and stomatical , is used with a great deal of profit . therefore a spoonful or two of it is oft to be given with rie or wheat-bread ; or being imbibed in a double linnen cloth applyed to the stomach or abdomen . moreover , tragea granorum actes , & the cordial powder prepared of it , is profitable ; whereof give twice a day , viz. morning and evening before meat , a drachm in three or four spoonfuls of generous wine . for drink in time of meat you may use wine prepared of elder-berries dried , cinnamon and cloves . 4. of the dissentery . in the dissentery , which is a bloudy and painful emptying of the belly . oswald crollius , from their signiture , commends the elder-berries ; of which the chymists , but chiefly quercetan , in lib. 1. cap. 2. of his dogmatick pharmacy , describes this tageam , communicated to him by d. vvolfius , professor in the university of marpurg , so often mentioned and commended by me in this treatise . press the juice out of the elder-berries when they are ripe , which is in autumn ; of which juice and rye-flower make paste , work it well , and thereof make little cakes , which in a oven are to be baked to the hardness of bisket , that they may be reduced to a subtile powder ; which powder is again to be imbibed in the juice and made in paste , baked and pulverised as before . and this is to be done the third time . at last , all being done , reduce it again to a subtile powder , it will keep long , and is a hid specifick against a dissentery . take a drachm of this , and as much of the powder of a nutmeg , incorporate them well with a soft rosted egg , and sup it up . this is called tragea granorum actes , that is , a powder of the grains of elder . and thus far quercetan . others prepare it thus : take rie-bread hot out of the oven , moisten it with the juice of elder-berries , and bake it again in the oven ; being dry again , moysten it with the juice of elder-berries , and do so four or five times ; then reduce this bread into powder , whereof take a drachm alone or a half , with as much nutmeg-powder . of which see the famous sennert . in the 10 chapter of the treatise of the dissentery . but a care must be taken that the belly be not over soon stopped , but place must be left for the evacuating of sharp humors , lest that befal which hapned to the maid mentioned by the learned fernel . in lib. 6. cap. 9. pathol. therefore to purge the sharp humors , and mitigate the cruel pain , give two or three days before you use the astrictive , in the morning , one ounce or one ounce and half of the syrup of elder-flowers , prepared by three infusions in three ounces of barley-water , or in the water of elder-flowers . you may with profit add to this one scruple or half a drachm of white mechoacan subtilly pulverised ; for it gently purgeth and bindeth the belly . after three days are past , and we have used all necessary evacuations , & clangings , and pain for the most part is ceased , then we may more safely use our tragea ; for it doth not only restrain the belly ; but together with this gives a contrary motion to these sharp and salt humors , by little and little disposing them for sweat , if it be taken twice a day , morning and evening , mixt after this manner , yet with a fasting stomach . r. tragea gran. actes , drach . 1. the spirit of the flowers of the elder gutt . 35. they being well wrought together in a marble mortar , pour on it by little and little ; the water of tormentil-roots an ounce and half . the syrup of the juice of plantain half an ounce . mix them and use them hot , they will dissipate the malignity by sweating and evaporation , and will bind the belly by stopping the flux of the humor . the same things may be used in a diarrhoea or white flux . 5. of constipation or boundness . the leaves of the elder are commended to those that are in health to open their womb , by egineta , and hippocrates in his second book of diet. this same is performed by the distilled water of the leaves and bark , with which a third part of the syrup made of the infused flowers , or of the juice of the berries or buds , is to be mixed with it , to make them of a more pleasant taste . the same syrups being taken alone loosneth the belly ; or drink a draught of wine at your breakfast , or in the morning , having taken a little broth ; or take a drachm of the powder of the buds in plum-broth or a soft rosted egg : or use in the place of this the conserve of the buds . the recent rob of the elder spread thick upon a slice of bread , and eaten before other dishes , is our wives domestick medicine , which they use likewise in their infants and children whose bellies are stopt longer than ordinary ; for this juice is most pleasant and familiar to children , chiefly if in time of thickning of it you do add a little sugar , as hath been told . vi. of hemmorhoides . there is nothing more excellent to ease the pain of the hemmorhoides than a stove or fomentation made of the flowers of elder and verbasie or hony-suckle in water or milk : for in a short time it easeth the greatest pain . i experimented this first in a countrey miller , then in a city baker : which both did wonder at the sudden ease , and have great quantity of the flowers in readiness beside them , to use when necessity shall require . the anointing with the oyl of the infused flowers , mixed with a third part of unguent populeon , is anodine . or take of the infusion of elder-flowers , half an ounce . of elder-kernels and yeolks of eggs , of each two drachms . of white wax enough making , according to art an unguent . to stay the hemmorhoides in a night a singular cataplasm is made of elder-leaves boiled in water , to the consistency of a poultice , and mixed with oyl-olive spread on a scarlet cloath , and apply it warm to the hemmorhoides : being oft renewed through the whole night , the patient lying on his face , is commended by alexis in his secrets . by what means their flux is to be stopt is set down in the stopping of the hemmorhoides in the nose , and monthly terms , and in stopping the blood in wounds . mark , that for the falling of the anus , amongst other things , the outmost bark of the elder is commended by mindererus , cap. 7. m.m. cap. xxiii . of the obstructions of the mesentery , liver , milt ; from whence proceed both the jaundies and scurvy . to hinder and cure the obstructions , drink in the morning and the beginning of the repast , a cup full of the wine of elder-berries , for some days and weeks ; for it cutteth the thick , tartarous , serous and bilous matter , it cleanseth , evacuateth , and by opening obstructions and purifying the blood , gives the body a more fresh colour ; especially if once at least of the week you mix with it a half or whole drachm , according to the parties strength , of the polychrestick powder of the buds . in these diseases this following powder is commended . take of the elder-buds dried in the shade drach . 2. of crystalline elder-salt scrup . 8. of wormwood scrup . 4. make of all a subtile powder , and give a scruple , or half a drachm thereof in broth in the morning for many days , commanding him to fast four hours , and use moderate exercise . those that are not pleased with the powder may form it into pils , with the rob or juice of the berries , & drink broth above it . a lixive made of elder-ashes , prepared with wine or the water of the flowers , powerfully unlocks obstructions , and attenuateth and changeth bilous and tartarous humors . whence it is a profitable medicine in the jaundies , some spoonfuls thereof being taken morning and evening , dulcerat with sugar , hony , or elder-hony . oximel sambucinum taken in an ounce and half weight dissolved in the water or flowers of the bark is more meek and pleasant . or where the heat is greater , and a fever joyned , an ounce and a half of the acetous syrup of the elder , dissolved and given at one dose . some commend four or six drops of the oyl of the flowers of the second description in a spoonful of the spirit or best water of the flowers ; give it twice a week , and command moderate exercise . in this case the spirit alone , the rob and its extract are safe medicines . for whilst the sink of the belly is emptied by the polychrestick powder of the buds , they provoke sweat by their penetrating vertues , they unlock the obstructions and crammings of the mesentery , liver , milt , and gall ; and cut and prepare the thickness of humors . the yellow middle bark is commended by his signature for the yellow jaundies ; by crollius de signaturis rerum . 't is therefore to be macerated in wine with two or three jews ears ; of which strained , drink a sound draught morning & evening . or you must use the distilled water thereof ; or the syrup made of its juice : for besides that they open the belly and evacuate hurtful humors , the medicines prepared of this bark , have great vertue to open all obstructions . six drops of the spirit of elder-salt taken in broth , is commended . in the scurvy , having premised these purging and cutting medicines , the greatest hope of health and helps is placed in evacuating the serosities by sweating : whence plater affirms the rob of elder-berries or walwort to be very convenient , adding to three ounces of these one ounce of the syrup of popie . the dose drachms 2. the extracts of these are more convenient and penetrating , of which give one scruple , or one drachm , in a spoonful of the spirit of elder-flowers , or of carduus benedictus , or of scurvigrass ; and then let him provoke sweat in his bed , or in a dry bath . topicks . externally anoint frequently the hypocondriacks , where those bowels are placed , with the oyl of the infused flowers ; which the ordinary and us'd dispensatories affirm to cure the jaundies , and help the stopt liver . in a hard and scyrous milt boyl the leaves of elder in wine and oyl , to the consistence of a poultice , which are to be put through a searse or setace , then mix therewith as much of the meal made of the flowers of elder and cammomile as will suffice ; then apply it hot like a cataplasm . this cere-cloth , or serat , is commended for mollifying and digesting scyrous tumors . first , boil twice or thrice recent elder-leaves in the oyl of the infusion of elder-flowers , still pressing the leaves well , before you put in new ones . then , take of the oyl so prepared ounc . 3. of the powder of tender elder-leaves one ounce and half . of turpentine and yellow wax , enough . of which apply every day to the place affected some of this spread on a piece of leather , cut like a cowes tongue , and covered with a fine linnen cloth . the scorbutick persons , amongst other symptoms which i have neither time nor place to mention , are troubled with a pain in the soals of their feet and tops of their fingers , which the famous sennert . affirms to be cured by this : take of elder-flowers two handfuls , boil them in wine , adding two drachms of sope spread on a cloth , and applied to the diseased part . cap. xxiv . of the hydropsie , and its kinds . 1. of ascites . seeing this depends of serous humors , fallen into the abdomen ; and seeing the vertue of the elder is to exsiccate and draw water from the belly by the consent of dioscorides and all physicians ; there is no man that doth not perceive that the elder is of great vertue in this disease . purging medicines . first then boil in wine , in a close vessel , those middle barks of the elder , with one or two jews-ears ; sweeten the decoction ; and for some days give it to the diseased party morning and evening to drink . some praise this ; take of the middle bark subtilly grated , as much as you will , boiled in a sufficient quantity of goats-milk , that being put through a searse , it may acquire the consistence of a syrup or honey ; of which give an ounce , or an ounce and a half , for certain days in white wine . the water of the succulent middle-bark , distilled in the spring-time , and given with a third part of the syrup made of the juice of the buds , or roots , is used in two or three ounces weight . quercetan in the first book and seventh chapter of his dogmatick pharmacy commends this purging water of the berries ; take the seeds or berries of the elder and ebulus , perfectly ripe , which is in autumn ; out of these with a press draw out the wine or juice , shaking out the inmost kernels , and mixing them with the rest , distil them . this water , which is cohobat thus upon the dregs , hath a notable efficacy in purging , & chiefly of serous humors ; let it be aromatized with cinnamon , coriander prepared with the juice of lemmons , and such like ; it may be given to hydropick persons from one ounce to two . thus far quercetan . for example , r. of the water preserved ounces two , syrup or juice of the berries and buds , of each one ounce and half mixed . of this composed water you may see more in the cited place of quercetan . of the wines we have often made mention before , chiefly in the second section ; nevertheless we will set down this of quercetans , in his first book and ninth chapter , because it differs little from others ; the seeds are to be prest , and the juice drawn out , which being mixed with a double quantity of the must of the best white wine , is to be put in a hogshead of convenient bigness , till it be fully digested and fermented . note , that it is better if it be done in a close hogshead , that is , if the hogshead be not altogether full ; but at least the third part be left empty , and be well closed that nothing do exhale . which being done , and the fermentation being in a moneths time finished , the hogshead is to be opened , and to be filled up to the brim with wine , wrought after that manner with the juice of berries in another hogshead . this wine doth purge all serous humors , and much helpeth hydropick persons ; the dose is a cup , less or smaller as the strength of the person is . dioscorides writeth , that the root being boiled in wine , and given to hydropick persons in their meat , doth help them . whose juice being pressed out , doth purge upward and downward like antimony , as mindererus witnesseth in his military medicine , cap. 6. so that we are to use it warily , and only so much in quantity as the half of a walnut-shell will hold , as he honestly informs . he commends there likewise a sallet made of the buds , oyl , salt , and vinegar , which we have set down in the cure of the intestine diseases . forestus lib. 19. observat . 44. affirms , that by long experience he had learned , that the leaves of elder being put in hydrogogick decoctions , do excellently purge water , chiefly in the hydropsie . the same forestus in the same book and 87 observ . hath this , the bark of the root of the elder reduced in a succus , the dose is two ounces , in fragrant wine . benedic . veronensis writes , that some give four drachms of the juice of the bark of elder-roots . others give for 9 days together the juice of elder-bark-roots in a pretty quantity , or an ounce in the waning of the moon , and so cure hydropick persons : for it bravely purgeth water , as the middle bark of the elder doth likewise . nicholas at one time gives six ounces of the decoction of middle elder-bark : the same man giveth two or three drachms of the juice of the elder , and of the juice of ebulus four drachms to an ounce . some give the juice of the middle-bark of the elder with oximel . thus far forestus . and this i have set down , that all may know there was great difference of the dose amongst the ancients . nevertheless let him observe faithfully mindererus his dose , till he know the vertues exactly of each . muller in his medicinal mysteries saith , this is the perfect cure of the hydropsie ; r. of the juice of the recent roots of the white lilly , and of the juice of the green middle-bark of the elder , of each one spoonful . take it in common water or thin oximel ever after three or four days : this purgeth the belly strongly . for the tumors that are left about the knees , feet , &c. lay to them the leaves of the great bur-docks , for they draw out the water . the polychrestick powder of the buds in a drachm , given in white wine sweetned with oximel of the elder , or syrup of the juice of the berries is commended in this disease . or , take of the polychrestick powder of the buds four scruples . of gum of peru of galingale , of each half a scruple . make an exact mixt powder , it is to be given in what liquor you please , at two times to a patient that is not yet weak ; for it powerfully evacuateth serous humors . if the form of powder displease you , work it with the syrup of hony of elder in form of pills , or with the rob of elder in form of a bole. hydroticks or sudorificks . if by these catharticks the body be emptied well enough , then you may safely proceed to sudorificks & diureticks : for if we proceed otherwise , the whole stream will be devolved on the reins and ureters , whereby the gathering together thereof grievous symptoms will arise . the rob of the elder and its extract are sudorificks . the first whereof given in two drachms weight is commended by the augustans for this purpose . the second is to be in as many scruples , dissolved in the water and vinegar of elder-flowers for one dose . or where the liver is more cold , and the urine less red , give a spoonful or two of the spirit of the berries or tincture of the elder , made thin with the water of the flowers , and sweetned with the syrup of the juice of the berries . then in bed or in a dry bath provoke sweat . the spirit of the flowers is more gentle , nevertheless it excellently provoketh sweat , and dryeth strongly the water of the hydropick person , especially if it be well rectified . diureticks , and which move urine . besides those rehearsed , these that follow are diureticks . the salt of the elder with a third or equal part of the salt of wormwood . the dose from a scruple to half a drachm . the spirit distilled from the salt powerfully moveth urine , and drieth moisture ; six drops thereof are to be given in broth some days . where the bowels are more hot , and the urine more red , which is oft-times a deadly token in hydropick persons , instead of these give three or four ounces of the acetous syrup of the elder dissolved in the water of the flowers and leaves , of each half a pound ; whereof four or five ounces are to be drank before meat twice a day morning and evening . the poor mans euporist , viz. a lixive prepared of elder and juniper-ashes , with one part of white wine , and three parts of simple water , or the distilled water of elder-flowers ; whereof give a cup full twice a day to the patient fasting , and command moderate exercise for half an hour or longer , if it be possible ; add to it a sufficient quantity of sugar and cinnamon , to make it smell and taste more sweetly . the experiment of emylia , countess of isinburg . and seeing we have made mention here of diureticks , i will not pass by this receipt of the countess , by which alone she cured many poor people of the hydropsie ; in which , albeit much is to be attributed to the potion it self , nevertheless i ascribe the chief effects of this happy medicine to the wine prepared of the elder-flowers and sponges , which the hydropick use in time of their cure ; therefore i have set down the whole course of the cure , as it is faithfully communicated to all the true sons of this noble art , by the famous finck , in the 26 chapter of his enchirid. take of the old acorns unshelled , of the old roots of parsley , of white oculi cancrorum , of each two scruples and an half . of sugar , of cinnamon , of each one drachm . all are to be subtily pulverised and searced . before the diseased person altogether lye down , first let him moisten three shives of wheat-bread in strong wine ; may be it would not be beside the purpose , if before in that wine he had macerated some elder-flowers ; then presently let him sprinkle upon these shives 4 scruples down weight of that powder , and at night before he go to bed , let him eat it , and go to bed and sleep above them . secondly , on the day next following , early in the morning , let him eat as many shives of bread so prepared , and fast one or two hours after . thirdly , on the same day at night let him eat the same preparation , eating and drinking nothing above it , and so go to sleep . in the mean time this diet is to be observed ; let the diseased person abstain from fish , swines-flesh , herbs , cheese , cold water , thin and superfluous drink : let him use wine prepared after this manner , which i esteem to be the chief part of the cure . take of the whole dried umbels of elder-flowers , three , of jews-ears exsiccate in a dry air , two , of white wine two quarts ; or for the use of a middle-child , one quart . let them stand all night in infusion , and the patient may drink thereof at his pleasure ; but let him abstain from all other drink till the tumor be evanished . mark , if the patient by this cure find not an evident alteration , & abating of the tumor , he may after a fortnight renew the cure ; and without doubt , by divine assistance , he shall recover his former health . topicks . apply outwardly to the tumified parts a cataplasm of the juice of the elder incorporate with goates-dung , which hath an eminent vertue in digesting those salt & waterish humors . or anoint the tumified parts with the oyl of the bark and leaves , prescribed before in the second place ; unto which add this same dung to give it consistence . the tincture drawn out of the rob and juice of the berries doth excellently discuss and dry , if it be rubb'd on the belly and legs . or , take a sufficient quantity of the leaves and bark , boil them in a common lixive , wherewith foment the belly and tumified parts twice a day . the vapour of which decoction , held under the hydropick legs , draweth the serosity from thence , and discusseth it by sweat ; it must be poured on hot bricks in a close vessel , that the vapour may come to the heat . others bid the feet and legs only to be bathed in a decoction of the leaves , wherein a handful or two of common salt hath been dissolved . note , that the pith of the elder being pressed with the finger , doth pit , as hydropick feet do ; therefore the juice of the elder , and the distilled water of jews-ears , are profitable . crollius de signaturis rerum , hither you may transfer the example of the hydropick and gravelly clown , as it is set down in the chapter concerning the stone , who was cured by the use of the pith of the elder . 2. of anasarca or leucophlegmatia . in anasarca or leucophlegmatia , having prescribed lighter purges , you are immediately to proceed to sudorificks and cutting medicines , which we have set down , made of the juice , extract , and spirit of the berries , and so forth . for by these the serosity that resides in the musculous flesh , and swels the members , are discussed ; and the desired heat is restored to the cold and weak members , and the intrals appointed for nutrition are opened and strengthened . the wine of the flowers of the elder is excellent for ordinary drink . by which alone'tis manifest , that some after long fevers , and other chronical diseases , becoming leucophlegmatick did in an instant untumifie : wherefore may be that experiment of emylio the countess were more fit to be used in this than in the ascites . note , there was a certain citizen of haina , who for two years being vexed with a continual falling again into fevers , and after that became leucophlegmatick through his whole body , by my advice he was cured by these following ; first , i desired him to use wine wherein the elder-bark and flowers , and the tops of wormwood in equal parts were infused , thereby to open the obstructions of the meseraick vessels , & to purge the serous & pituitous inundations of the first region . of which every morning , after he had taken a little broth , he was to take a good draught . from which time , after the belly had for a few days answered the medicine , i desir'd him to swallow a pretty spoonful of elder-rob , mixt with hearts-horn ; and having drank vinegar of the elder , mixed with wine , go to sweat in bed ; which being done twice or thrice , his whole body did detumifie ; a more lively colour , and laudable appetite did return ; neither to this day hath appeared any residity of fevers . while i was writing these things , a grave matron told me this history ; she was almost threescore years old , being troubled for some weeks with a white flux of the belly , she fell into an hydropsy , so that her belly & flesh wonderfully swelling , her strength marvellously decayed ; her daughters being amazed and doubtful of their mothers health , they went to a physician their kinsman , then famous in this country , they earnestly desired his counsel & help ; who , albeit he was terrifi'd by her weakness proceding from her age & sickness , to use any cure ; yet nevertheless through their intreaty he appointed some comfortablethings amongst which he chiefly commended the conserve of elder-flowers , and commanded each morning half an ounce should be given her thereof , by which alone , through divine assistance , she was in a short time recovered , and lived till she was fourscore years old , to the great wonder of all those that saw and heard it . 3. of a timpany . seeing of this disease the belly is so swelled of flatuosities , that it sounds like a drum , if it be beat on ; and that these flatuosities do proceed from no other cause than from a weak stomach ; the stomach is to be strengthened , and the flatuosities discussed . these indications , a purge being premised , if needful , are well satisfied by the spirit of granorum actes simple and stomatical , commended much before for a weak stomach , seeing it not only strengtheneth , but likewise by his subtile faculty penetrateth the most subtile passages of the body , and discusseth all flatuosities ; chiefly if the dose of the carminant-seeds , of anise and fennel-seeds , be augmented : give every day a spoonful , and anoynt the belly with the same . or , take of the spirit of the stomatical granorum actes , two ounces , of the elder-flowers , one ounce and an half , of white sugar candy pulverised , one ounce : mix them . the dose , one or two spoonfuls . benedict victor favorin . in 25 cap. of his empyricks hath these : i saw a wonderful effect in curing the flatulent hydropsie ; every morning in the dawning this drink was given to the patient , take of the water of the roots of danewort , two ounces . of the elder , four ounces , mix them . continue without interruption this drink for thirty days , and a wonderful effect will follow . but i would ever add some of the syrup of the berries or flowers , seeing the distilled water given alone much troubleth the fasting stomach . cap. xxv . of the stone . in the stone of the bladder a laxative of the elder locusts , which is most useful in this and other diseases , because it only helps nature naturally to go to stool , petraeus nosolog . harm . diss . 40. thes . 53. the wine made of the flowers and berries help greatly here ; for first they disburden the stomach and intestines of that serous and mucid humor , whereby pure chyle , and less impregnant with those tartarous tinctures is brought to the liver . whence it is that the serous comes not so impure & muddy to the urinal passages . and besides , if any slip be committed here , and the tartarous humor be gathered together in these vessels , this wine changeth them , and with the urine thrusts them out of the body : drink it fasting in the morning , the dose a cup full , having supt a little broth before it . an anodyne and emollient clyster may be made of the decoction of the flowers and leaves of the elder ; unto every eight ounces of the strained decoction , add three or four ounces of the oil of infused elder-flowers ; if we will change more , pour this decoction through the ashes of elder-leaves a little , and mix with it , besides the oyl , two ounces of elder-hony . the pith being cut and swallowed , is commonly much praised for moving urine , and purging those dregs . and i know a man , who being troubled with the ascites and stone , by the perswasion of a country-woman , used only this pith ; having avoided these dregs , and much serousness daily by his urine , was cured of his nephritick pains and hydropsie . there are some that cutting it in thin shaves , infused it in the spirit of the berries ; and after a fortnight , press the pith strongly and strain the spirits , and give a spoonful of the colature , which they commend much . the lithonthryptick elder-spirit . take two ounces of the elder-pith cut as is said : put thereon as much of the spirit of the berries well rectified as will cover it . let them stand seven days in a hot place , in vessels well closed , that nothing evaporate . after pressing the pith , strain hard the spirit a few times : put into the colature some bruised juniper-berries , viz. two ounces . leave it likewise for two days in infusion , in a hot place , in a close vessel : afterward press it again , & strain it . again infuse as much juniper-berries into the colature , and leave it for three days in the infusion , and again press it , and strain it , and purifie it from all the feculent grounds , as much as you are able . and so you have the stone-break spirit of the elder indued with the essence of elder-pith , and juniper-berries ; which you are to keep in a stopt close glass , whose use is excellent in breaking and expelling the stone , especially if it be used as followeth . first , the nefritick person is to purge his belly with polychrestick powder of the buds , or with the clyster prescribed a little before ; and having anoynted his loynes with elder-oyle , he must go into a 〈◊〉 made of pease-straw and mallows ▪ the flowers of elder and cammomile ; afterward let him drink a spoonfull of this spirit in white-wine , and stay in the bath till he avoid the stone . and to avoid swouning , let him hold to his nose a sponge dipt in elder-vinegar , and let him moisten his pulses with this same vinegar , or some cordial epithem . this medicine hath its original from the experiments set down in the dutch matthiolus , and is called a wonderfull medicine by muller in his mysteries medicinal . nevertheless this is to be preferred to that in respect of the vertues it hath from the pith , or spirit of the elder , to break the stone . a stonebreak essence , or extract . he that pleaseth may prepare an excellent essence , or extract , against stony & tartarous diseases , as followeth : take of the pith of the elder one ounce , of the dryed berries of the elder , of recent juniper-berries , of each an ounce and half ; of liquorice mundified , six drachmes . the pith and liquorice are to be cut in small pieces , and the berries grosly powdered ; being mixed , let them be infused in a sufficient quantity of elder spirit ; and let them stand in a hot place for a fortnight together , stirring each day the glass , and stopping the mouth thereof well ; that time being ended , put them in a linnen bag , and in a press press them strongly ; put the strained liquor in a cucurbit , and putting to the alimbeck thereof , distil that spirit in balneo , till that which remains in the bottom become as thick as hony , having mixed before with it two drachms of the magisterie or salt ocular . cancror . being mixed , keep them in a glass vessel : whereof give from a scruple to a drachm dissolved in a spoonful of that spirit that was distilled from them , and in the water of linaria distilled with rhenish wine ; observing those things which were prescribed before in the administration of the stonebreak spirit of the elder . the salt of the elder is commendable in salt & tartarous diseases , given alone or mixed with the former extract in a convenient liquor , 8 or 6 grains of the spirit of salt doth cleanse these tartarous muddinesses . dysuria and ischuria . in the difficulty of making water , and in the not making water at all , these medicines are excellent ; seeing these symptomes arise from a muddy and mucid humor , or from a glewish toughness that obstructeth the urinal passages . but chiefly the stonebreak extract of the elder is good in this case ; whereof give a scruple in the water of the flowers of vinaria , and the diseased is to be fomented about the secrets with the decoction of the radish and vinaria . pliny saith , that the stones being drank in two ounces weight move urine . cap. xxvi . of the affections of the womb. to mollifie and open the secrets of a woman , and cure the diseases about them , it is affirmed by dioscorides to be done by incession , made of the roots of elder boyled in water . 1. of the stopping of the monethly terms . many medicines made of the elder are to be used in the defect of the monethly termes ; which for the most part proceeds from a gross bloud , or tough humor , closing or obstructing the orifices of the histerick veins . first then you are to use things which open the belly , and disburthen it of that putrid filth ; give them therefore to drink the wine of the berries , which looseneth the belly , and maketh thin the bloud and grosse humors . the distilled water of the middle-bark , mixt with the purging water of the berries , prepared as quercetan directs , serves for both ends : the dose is three ounces , with one ounce of the syrup of the berries , bark , or buds . which if you desire to be more cathartick , add to it half a drachm , or as much as sufficeth , of the polychrestick powder of the buds . the elder-rob , with the powder of the white dittany , or of pimpinel , is the womens medicine . gabel shover hath this : take of ripe elder-berries , of rosemary , of each one handful , of pimpinel-roots , half an ounce , boyled in a quart of strong old wine ; whereof drink a good draught warm each morning for three days , before the time of their courses , and let them fast two houres after . the spirit of the berries is likewise usefull , which by its subtility passes through the whole body , and through the least vessels thereof , cutting and attenuating the grosness of the humors ; it may be taken the same time before the courses use to flow : the dose is a pretty spoonfull in wine , or some distilled water ; in place of the simple spirit , you may take the hysterick described hereafter in the same quantity and manner ; for his vertue is great , in moving the courses . the oyle of the second description is commendable , if two or four drops thereof be added to these spirits . in the scyrrous disposition of the matrix , where the cram'd humor is hardened into a scyrrous , closing the orifice of the veins , and stopping the courses , besides these medicines you must make incessions of the leaves and root of the elder boyled in water , as dioscorides commands . let there likewise be an oyntment made of the oyle of the infused flowers and leaves , mixed with the fat of a hen . this same fat dissolved in the decoction of the roots and leaves is to be injected into the womb . 2. of the flowing of the courses . tragea granorum actes excelleth in stopping these ; whereof give half a drachm , and as much nutmeg in a soft egg , or red wind , singed by the quenching of red hot gold in it . take of tragea granorum actes half an ounce . of nutmegs , a little roasted , of the roots of tormentil , of red coral prepared with rosewater , of each two scruples . of sugar-rosat in tablets , six drachmes . let them be mixed for a tragea ; whereof take morning and evening two drachmes for a dose in the former liquors . if the bloud be too serous and fluid ; that serousness is either to be purged gently by the belly , or by weak hydroticks by sweating ; whereof we have spoken largely in another place . gabel shover hath this ; give to the woman in the morning three spoonfuls of the best water of elder-flowers , and command her to fast three hours after . 3. of the suffocation of the matrix . seeing this most perillous disease dependeth from a malignant and cold air , exhaled from the womb and uterine vessels to the midriff , heart , and brains , the womb is to be purged of all malignant and putrid humors , and the strength is to be corroborated . apply here those things which were set down in the stopping of the courses ; both because these used not to be the least and seldomest cause of these malignant vapors ; and likewise because the medicaments purge and dissipate these uterine filths gathered upon whatsoever occasion . a half or whole spoonful of the spirit of the flowers or berries of the elder , greatly availeth here , both out , and in time of the fit , for both powerfully discuss these cold and poysonous vapors , evacuate out of the utrenal sink , and vindicate the more nobler intrals from their infection , and restore freer breathing . gabel shover taketh a handful of jews-ears , and infuseth them in a quart of the spirit of wine ; of the which he giveth the diseased a full draught in time of her fit . the antiepileptick elder-spirit , if it be used instead of the juniper , is good ; and with it anoynt the belly below the navel toward the secrets . or prepare for this , and such diseases , this that follows . the histerick spirit of the elder . take of the middle bark of the elder , one ounce , of the roots of white dittany , of round birthwort , of each three drachmes . of the dried leaves of the elder , one handfull . of red artimesia . or mugwort , of prrsley , of each half an handfull . of the flowres of white lillies , two drachmes . of clean jews-ears , three in number . being cut , infuse them in a competent quantity of elder-sprit , that it may be a hand-breadth above them . let them stand in infusion for ten daies ; & every day stirr them twice ; afterwaad distill them in balneo , foa the histerick spirit ; of which give a half , or whole spoonfull in time of the fit , and with the same anoynt the lower belly , by rubbing it in , as hath been prescribed . not only in the suffocation of the matrix , which by excellency is called the histerick passion ; but also it is excellent for the stopped flowers , and other cold and moist diseases of the womb . it helpeth likewise to expel the dead child & secondines , if after universals , and topicks , a spoonfull thereof be given in white wine , or some distilled water , three or four drops of the oyle of the flowers of the second description , being mixt therewith . extractum granorum actes hystericum . of the ripe grains of the elder dried in the shadow , quercetan forms an extract , which is a specifick histerick , and is called of the chymists , extractum granorum actes . it is thus prepared : gather a great quantity of the grains of the elder well dried in the shadow ; & having thrown all the rest of the berry away , reserve the grains only ; with which fill a long-necked great cucurbit to the middle ; put upon it the strong spirit of wine , made acid with the acid liquor either of vitriol or sulphure , that it may be three or four fingers broad above the matter ; the vessel being closed , that nothing may breath out : digest it for five or six days in b.m. till the spirit of the wine receive the tincture of a ruby , which you shall separate by inclination , having a care that none of the dregs or troubled matter go with it . of which tincture not having separated its menstruum , that is , the aqua vitae , which without any corruption or alteration will be kept long ; unto which you may add a little sugar , if you will make it have a more pleasant taste ; you may give a half or whole silver spoonful to women troubled with the suffocation of the matrix , shall be unexpectedly , and as it were miraculously weakened , and restored to their perfect health . again , if you will separate from it the aqua vitae by an alimbeck in balneo vaporoso , till the extract remain in the bottom of a most excellent red colour , whereof give a scruple for a dose in its own proper distilled water , or in other convenient waters , or in white wine , and it will become red . thus far quercetan . the uterine mixture which i used to prepare is this ; first i take the berries of the elder dried in a flow heat of the bake-house ; of mugwort and of castoreum as much as i please ; i put upon each of them by themselves in a viol some of the rectified spirits of the elder , and draw out the essence according to art ; and i purifie each one of them by themselves , and keep them in glasses . afterwards , take of the essence of elder-berries six ounces . of balm-mint three ounces . of castor , of the spirit of vitriol well rectified , of each one ounce . being mixed , i put them in a glass of a narrow throat , and i digest them for ten days in a warm balneo , that they may be well united ; and if any dregs be in them , they may go to the bottom ; from which i separate that which is clear , i strain it , and keep it in a well-stopped glass . the dose is a little spoonful alone , and dissolved in some appropriate water ; but if the body be full of ill humors , i first purge it with the polychrestick powder of elder-buds . in place of appendix i thought fit to joyn hereto the medicines made of the elder long ago , commended and commanded by our great chieftain and master hippocrates , in uterine affections . in the hydropsie of the matrix , he commendeth the fruit of the elder , given fasting in wine , lib. 1. de morb . mulier . he saith , this purgeth things to be purged in child-bed ; boil the leaves of the elder , and give the water thereof to drink , ibidem . if the womb be inflamed in child-birth , let her sup hot the tender leaves of the elder lightly boiled with the grossest part of recent wheat-meal , ibid. in the same place he commands us to put into the secrets a long piece of elder-pith , the tenderer part being shaven . in ulcers of the womb pound linseed and elder-berries together , mix hony with them , and make a plaster , and use it , ibid. or the leaves of the elder , and of the lentisk , being boiled in water and strained , are to be injected warm , lib. de natur . mulier . the same things being likewise pounded with muss , may be outwardly applied , ibid. in a filthy ulceration of the matrix , boyl the berries of the elder and lawrel , in equal potions in wine , afterward inject that wine , lib. 1. d. m. m. or take the berries of the elder , anice , franckincense , myrrh , wines , and inject their juices , ibid. whereby the courses are likewise provoked , ibid. to expel the secondine , first apply a foment made of the decoction of elder-leaves , and then that which is made of cantharides , ibid. in very great fluxes of the courses apply a cataplasm made of elder and mirtle-leaves , lib. 2. m. m. or boil in water the leaves of elder and lentisk , and with the colature warm wash the matrix , ibid. in the strangulation of the matrix , r. three half quarts of oyl , and a handful of elder-leaves ; boil this , and make a fomentation therewith , or with hot shels put in it , make a stove , placing the woman in a chair , and covering her with cloths . or boil the leaves of elder and mirtle , and in the strained water boil barley-chaff , and make a stove ; if she can endure the heat thereof , ibid. if the pain be vehement after her purging boil in black wine the lawrel and elder-berries , and wash it therewith , ibid. or boil the elder in water , and having strained the water , put to it sweet wine , and wash therewith . of which , and many others , you may view hippocrates in those books and places mentioned . cap. xxvii . of the arthritick disease . how stiff this disease is , and how miserably it tormenteth the patient , is known even to children ; notwithstanding it expects ease , if not full cure ; which sometimes is done by the medicines of our elder . and seeing nothing is more able to preserve than that great encrease of serous humors being hindred , & those that are sprung be evacuated : seeing from these , if not only , yet most commonly , arthritick pains have their beginning ; as experience can testifie . these medicines therefore that follow are convenient . viz. the wine of the berries , of which he is to drink a cup full oft in the week , in the morning or in the beginning of dinner : but that is of most force , which we have set down in the 24 chapter out of quercetan . the water distilled out of the succulent bark in the autumn , or spring , is oft to be drank . let it be sweetned with the third part of the syrup of the berries or buds ; the dose is four ounces . that it may purge more forcibly , mix therewith a half or whole drachm , according to the patients strength , of the polychrestick powder of the buds . vomits are good to preserve from this disease , if it be provoked once a moneth by those that are used to it . in cure of the arthritick , chiefly of the sciatick or gout , seeing vomit doth revel , and derive by the upper parts , it performs more than any downward purge . therefore you are to reiterate it two days and more , if the evil persevere . the oyl pressed out of the kernels of the berries , and half a drachm thereof taken in the broth of ale , doth excel in this disease . the oyl of the infused flowers or bark is good ; the dose is one or two ounces in warm water . you shall repress the arthritick assaults , if you once or twice in the moneth sweat , having first purged the body : for the serous matter gathered in the body is easily discussed by sweat ; and as soon as natural or artificial sweat appears , there is great hopes of safety . see hildanus , centor 5. observ . 3. give then of the rob of the elder two drachms with a scruple of harts-horn prepared ; or half a drachm or two scruples of the extract granorum actes ; or one spoonful or two of the spirit of the berries or flowers . this is uporist of some , the roots of the elder or walnut , half an ounce . of the pulverised kernels , drachm 1. let them macerate for a night in white wine , whose colature being a little sweetened with sugar , is to be given in the morning in bed , to provoke sweat . if it be given a little before the fit , it disappoints it . in the spring-time the buds prepared with oyl , vinegar and salt ; and frequently being eaten before supper , being mixed with other sallets , is commendable ; for they gently purge the belly and purifie the blood from serosity . the powder of the buds dried in the shadow , is good for preventing of gouts and all arthritick diseases ; whereof take in the spring-time or harvest , for a whole month together in the morning , half a scruple in a soft egg with a little salt . or take the conserve of the buds alone , or mixed with the conserve of the flowers in equal parts . the dose is the bigness of a walnut or chesnut , morning and evening before meat . drink above it some of the water of the flowers , sweetned with a little of the juice of the berries . topicks . a linnen cloth dipt in the distilled water of the leaves and flowers of the elder , and applied warm , wonderfully asswages the pain , unlocks the pores , digests the matter , and strengthens the nervous parts . that it may more penetrate , and where the colour and heat is greater you may add in equal quantity elder-vinegar . where the matter is colder , and the pain longer , you may dip the same clothes in such a liquor as this , and apply them hot . take of the spirit of elder-berries , three ounces . the spirit of the flowers , drach . 2. of opium of thebes , scruples two , mix them . by its narcotick vertue it mitigateth the pains , and discusseth the more stubborn matter , and refresheth the members . the goutish anodine water . quercetan in the first book and seventh chapter sets down this podagrick water ; take of the green leaves and flowers of elder , of each lib. 1. more or less , as you please , to make it greater or less quantity ; pound them , and macerate them well in b. m. then distill them in a glass , or copper vessel , till they be dry ; with this water forment the pained place twice a day ; yea you may use it constantly in that gout , which proceeds from hot humors . so far he . the oyle , wherein the roots of the elder or ebulus , and the leaves or fine extract from them , hath been boyled , chiefly the oyle of the dwarf-elder-seed , from which the seeds of the greater differ little , is much praised here . it is prepared thus ; beat the ripe and clean seeds in a paste , boyle it in water , and gather the scum thereof , put it in a long glass , in a warm place for three or four daies , till the oyle , which is greenish , go to the bottom ; the same oyle pressed out of the seeds is most powerfull . these are the words of plater , in the second part of his practice . or , take oyle of infused elder-flowers , ounces two ; and of it pressed out of the kernels , half an ounce . being mixt , apply them warm to the grieved place . dioscorides affirms , that the recent leaves applyed , with the fat of a goat or bull , doth help the goutish . i know a man , that whensoever he is troubled with the gout useth only this unction ; he taketh new cream of milk , and he mixeth with it the powder made into fine meal , of the and leaves of the elder , till it acquire the consistence of a poultice , or cataplasme , which being spread on a linnen cloth , he applyeth it hot to the diseased part ; and from this easie and simple medicine he exspects , and experiences with happy successe , great ease . gabel shover , amongst others , hath this ; take the water of the elder , and the spirit of wine , of each ounces 2 ; mix them , and apply clothes moystened therein : some take two ounces of elder-water , and one of aqua vite , and mix them . the same man much commendeth in pains of the joynts , and other cold defluctions , from which the resolution and palsie of the joynts do proceed , this : take a good quantity of elder-pith , a quarter of a pint of rhenish-wine , and as much of your own urine , being mixed , boyle them in a new pot , till half be consumed . then anoynt the grieved place with the spirit of wine , and rub it well in . afterward apply a woollen-cloth hot , dipt in the former decoction . and when it is dry , dipt it and apply it again . and this is to be done before you go to bed . some praise this that follows , in arthritick diseases , chiefly which are hot . a mucilaginous andonyne liquor . r. of quick snails , newly taken whole out of their shelly cottages ; of elder-berries dried in the oven , and pulverized ; and of common salt , of each as much as you will ; put it in the straining bag called hippocrates sleeve , making one row upon another so oft as you please ; so that the first be of the snails , the next of the salt , and the last of the berries , continning so till the bag be full ; hang it up in a cellar , and gather diligently the glutinous liquor that distils out of it by little and little , even to the mucilage ; and being put in a stopt glass , expose it four days to the sun ; and therewith anoynt gently the grieved part . cap. xxviii . of the scab , psora , itch , herpes , and other cutaneous diseases . t is a golden saying of our divine master , aphorism 21. sect. 1. that we carefully observe the motion of nature and its course , and with our medicines assist it as much as we are able . seeing in most of these out-breakings in the skin nature doth thrust the hurtful matter from the principal parts to the more ignoble and less principal , viz. the cutaneous , it seemeth best here to use sudorificks , and those that expel to the circumference of the body . because many times a great heap of putrid humors are seated about the stomach , mesentery , liver , and melt ; that sink , as far as is possible , is to be emptied by emetick and cathartick medicines , lest omitting and neglecting this evacuation , the putrid and salt humors , by the unseasonable use of sudorificks , being drawn out of the jacks of the first region , be thrust into the greater and nobler veins , and so raise more dangerous damages . purges and vomits . in delicate bodies and children , the water distilled from the succulent bark , by two cohobies , and sweetned with a little syrup of the juice of the berries , doth work this effect , being given in a few spoonfuls . also the syrup of the berries juice , being given alone , from an ounce to an ounce and half . in those of riper age , give the purging water made according to quercetans descripton , from two ounces to three , with an ounce of the syrup of the buds or bark . or use twice or thrice the polychrestick powder of the buds in whey . or incorporate it with the conserve of the flowers for a bole ; or reduce it into the form of a pill , with the syrup of them , or such like ; for it is a good medicine to purge the body from salt and feculent humors . or take a cupful of whey , macerate in that , half or a whole ounce of the middle bark of the elder ; the colature being strained in the morning , let it be drank warm . the wine of the infusion of the bark and root of the elder , subtilly grated , is good to provoke vomit , and empty the belly of evil humors ; it doth this when they have infused together for a night . these are the words of vigo in his chirurg . part . 1. lib. 7. or take a drachm of the oyle pressed out of the berries kernels , more or less , according to the strength of the patient ; give it in a cup of luke-warm ale. it were likewise profitable for the scabby , if they made a sallet of those young buds , who in the beginning of the spring , together with those out-breakings and pustles of the skin , by the singular favour of nature , as contemperanious , doe bud forth ; being first macerated a little in hot water , with oyle , salt , and vinegar ; and sometimes eaten , it purgeth the belly , and freeth the bloud from salt and serous humors . sudorificks . these things being premised , that which remains yet in the skin , or mass of blood , is to be emptied by sudorificks . the water of elder-flowers and the clearer spirit of them may be given even to children . for to make it of a more pleasant taste sweeten them with a little syrup of the infusion of the flowers . these medicines following agree to those that come to years . take of the rob of the elder two drachms . of harts-horn burn'd and prepared one scruple . of the water of elder-flowers three ounces . of oximel of the elder half an ounce . mix them , & make a draught of them . or , take of the extract of elder-berries two scruples , of elder-salt half a scruple , of the water distilled from its flowers two ounces , of the vinegar of the flowers half an ounce . mix them for a draught . after taking of these sweat is to be provoked in bath or bed. the conserve of elder-flowers with the conserve of cicory-flowers is commodious to change , alter , and strengthen the intrals or inward parts . or make this julap , which you must use every day an hour or two before supper ; or after you come from bath or sweating , drink four ounces thereof . take of the conserve of elder-flowers , of burrage , of cicory , of each half an ounce . dissolve them on a soft fire in a quart of elder-flowers water ; to the strained colature add of the sharp elder-syrup two ounces , mix them . topicks . in a more universal , filthy , and continuing scab , tetter or psora , &c. prepare this sort of bath . take of recent elder-leaves , ten handfuls , six whole umbels of the flowers , of quick-sulphure , two ounces , of crude-allum , one ounce . boyle it in a sufficient quantity of rainwater , unto which afterward add a sixth part of the lixive . let the diseased every day sit once in a bath , to provoke sweat , not neglecting in the mean time the former internals . or where only the hands or feet are scabby , the same decoction ; but in less quantity is to be prepared ; wherein daily the feet and hands are to be washed ; yet nevertheless you may add other things , as the roots of sorrel , and alacampain . after the bath , the exulcerate and clift places are to be anoynted , to mitigate their pain , with the oyle of the infufed flowers ; to which you may give a more drying and healing vertue to the leaves of the elder , subtilly pulverised till it come to the consistence of a liniament . or , use the liniament of matthiolus , or plater . or this : take of the oyle of the infused flowers and bark of the elder , of each 3 drachms , of washed ceruse , one drachm , or four scruples , of wax , enough . make thereof a liniament . those black , round , and about very red pustles , which break forth frequently in the feet , chiefly of women , are oft to be washed with the water of the leaves , and mitigated with the foresaid unctions . mark , there was a bakers wife in heyna , which could not go out of dores by reason of the abundance of those pustles , and was greatly disquieted by their heat , having premised what was fitting , she used for a topick milk , wherein the flowers were macerated , in which , clothes being dipped , were applyed warm with great ease . where the heat and redness is more intense , instead of simple milk , take sowre or butter-milk . only sweating by taking the rob of the elder sometimes doth cure the simple herpes by the abstersive and siccative quality . in this the oyl pressed out of the kernels of the berries reduced in form of a liniament with sugar of saturn , is much praised by some : if it be anointed on the pustles , after they are opened with a needle , and cleansed from the matter , putting thereon a green leaf of the elder , or one dried in the shadow . in an eating herpes , having purged , sweat , and breathed a vein , this cataplasm is commended , wherewith she-montebanks have gained largely . pound in an earthen vessel , with a woodden pestle , the green leaves of the elder , adding to them in the time of pounding a little elder-vinegar , after that manner that women make sawces of the watercress , sorril , and such like : mix with this pounded and succulent matter one part of the ashes of elder-leaves , and two parts of the powder of the leaves , that it may become like a paste or thick cataplasm . add to it , that it may stick the better , a little turpentine dissolved with the yeolk of an egg ; apply it twice a day to the ulcerous places , being first wiped with clean linnen . neither is this a mere new invention , for john de vigo in the first part an 7th . book of his chirurg . saith , that elder-leaves pounded with hellebore and oximel scillitick , doth cure ringworms , itches , and scabs . cap. xix . of the erysipelas or rose . it is usual as soon as the rose invadeth , to take those medicines whereby nature is helped to thrust the matter from the inward to the outward parts : for which end the rob with the water-vinegar of the elder-flowers are applyed ; for learned physitians do acknowledg that this matter wanteth not its own malignity . wierus useth this potion : of the water of elder-flowers , three ounces , of parsley-seed , half a drachm , of t. sigillata , half a scruple . mix them . there are some , that in all erisipelas , even in that which followeth oft-times the scurvie , doe swallow this bole , and drink the water of elder-flowers above it , to discuss the malignity by sweating . take of the rob of the elder , two drachmes , of mineral bezoartick six grains , mix them . or , take of the extract of elder-rob , two scruples , of sulphurat nitrate antimony , half a scruple , mix them . but if the belly be bound , give the syrup made of the berries juice , which looseneth the belly , and resisteth malignancy . in more strong bodies , and where evil humors stick in the first passages , you may give a half , or whole drachm , according to the patients strength , of the polychrestick powder of the buds . to temper the heat of the bloud in the intrails , these things are set down in the cure of the hot feavers . topicks . the topicks here should not be cooling , repelling , or fat , which obstruct the pores of the skin , lest that sharp and malignant matter be thrust to more noble parts , or closed up in the diseased ; whence oft times the part hath been gangrenat : for which cause the common people by all means avoid moystening of the part , & when any evil here ariseth , ascribed it to it , though not rightly ; for all moystening is not to be avoided , but only that which is made of restringent , repellent , & things that obstruct the pores ; but those which unlock the pores and digest the humors and consume them . though they be liquid , they are so far from hurting that they greatly help . john de vigo testifieth , that the elder hath the vertue of resolving , drying and opening , by reason of the subtilty of its parts : wherefore these following made of it may be safely used . shave the bark from the trunk , and apply it every day three times round about the part diseased of the rose . or , r. of white sope ounce 1. dissolve it in lib. 3. of the water of the flowers of the elder , apply it warm to the diseased part , and when it drieth renew it . some dry them before , and apply them dry , that they may satisfie the peoples desire , that much fear moysture in this disease . this is commended : take of the water of elder-flowers five ounces . of theriack of andromache one drachm . mix them . dip linnen cloths in it , and wring them in your hand , and apply them warm to the place , and when they are dry dip them in the liquor and apply them . or , r. the dried berries of the elder ounce 1. the flowers of the same m. 1. having pounded , cut them , boil them in lib. 2. of the simple-water , to the consumption of the third part . add to the colature ounces 3. of a thin lixive ; mix them : dip a linnen cloth in them , being warm , wring it a little and apply it to the part , as hath been shewn . taberna montanus saith , he hath tryed , that the rose being anointed with the rob of the elder doth ease and discuss it . lac aureum , which is prepared of the lixive and oyl of the elder well stirred together , till it acquire a milky colour , is commended much ; chiefly here when the rose enclines to ulceration and gangrenates : for by its drying and cleansing vertue , it hindereth further putrifaction and corruption ; and by mixing the oyle , it mitigateth the pain , and cureth the ulcer ; apply it hot . those that avoid all moysture , let them use clothes dipt oft in these liquors , and dryed ; or which is common , sprinkle upon the diseased part , small bran , mixt with the like quantity of the powder of elder-flowers . specificks . to prevent this disease , many wonderfully praise this following ; r. of new elder-flowers , or in defect thereof , of those well dryed , m. 1. of milk of a red cow , or at least with red spots ; boyle them in a close vessel , and upon a slow fire . let him drink once , twice , or thrice , when the moon waineth ; or if they will , through every month in the year , of this colature in the morning ; and they shall be afterward free of this disease . see dr : sennert . de febrib . lib. 2. cap. 16. neither is this medicine destitute of reason ; for it is probable that the fluxibility and accrimony of the bloud , being taken away by this medicine , nature is less afterward pricked by it ; yea those malignant impressions stampt on the liver & reins , defiling the bloud by their contagion , are altogether wiped off , by the frequent use of this specifick medicine . an amulet made of the elder , on which the sun never shined , if the piece betwixt the two knots be hung about the patients neck , is much commended ; some cut it in little pieces , and sew it in a knot in piece of a mans shirt , which seems superstitious . i learned the certainty of this experiment first from a friend in lipsick ; who no sooner err'd in diet , but he was seized on by this disease ; yet after he used this amulet , he protested he was free ; yea that a woman to whom he lent it , was likewise delivered from this disease . notwithstanding i leave the whole matter to other mens judgments , who may easily try it , seeing there is so many secret works in nature , whose operation is evident ; yet their causes are hid in such deeps of obscurity , that they cannot be searched out by the sharpest sight of mens reason . cap. xxx . of inflammations , oedema's , and schirrouses . 1. of inflammation . dioscorides writeth , that the green and tender leaves , being applyed with polent , mitigate inflammations . the cakes of the flowers and leaves left after distillation , if it be wet with the oyl of infused flowers , is applyed fitly to an inflammation . or , r. of elder-leaves m. 3. of barley polent m. 1. boiled in simple water , to the consistency of a poultice : being put through a serce , add of the oyl of infused elder-flowers ounces two ; of the meal of the leaves and flowers of the elder , of each enough . make a cataplasm , for it digesteth , resolveth , and if the inflammation apostemat ripeneth , the aposteme being opened , cure it as an ulcer . of which afterwards . 2. of an oedema . it s known by the cure of the ascites how the elder helpeth oedematous tumors , chiefly in the feet . see there the fomentation for the feet made of the decoction of the leaves in a lixive . but seeing these fomentations are tedious , it is enough to carry the green and dry leaves of the elder in the stockings . a great lawyer was delivered by the use of this simple medicine , which he oft applied , at the desire of a worshipful knight of misnea . 3. of a schirrus . the cure of a schirrus is known by cure of the obstruction of a schirrus melt . there are some that say the leaves only of the elder doth mollifie and discuss schirrus tumors by signature ; because it groweth in dark and shadowy places : for which reason in the 23 chapter , we set down a splenetick searcloth of them : which may be fitly applyed here , the tumors being anoynted with this following . take of the oyle of elder-flowers , ounce 1. of amonick dissolved in elder-vinegar , drachms 2. boyle it on a soft fire , to the consumption of the watrishness . add white-wax ; and according to art , make an oyntment . cap. xxxi . of wounds , ulcers , and contusions . no man that ponders well the rehearsed words of dioscorides and galen , will deny the elders vertue to be great in these diseases ; especially in wounds and ulcers . the cure of wounds . the common people keep as a great secret in curing wounds , the leaves of the elder , which they have gathered the last day of april ; which , to disappoint the charms of witches , they had affixed to their dores and windows ; but seeing the elder-leaves of themselves are found efficacious enough to heal wounds , this superstitious opinion of the people is to be laughed at . a vulnerary balsam . to cure wounds safely and suddenly , take the green and tender elder leaves ; stamp them ; and having put a little wine on them , wring out the juice strongly . take of this juice , being purified , as much as you will , add thereto in equal quantity , the oyle of the infused flowers ; boyle it on a clear fire , still stirring it with a spatula , till the wateriness be consumed ; afterwards take of oyle so prepared , four or five ounces , of it pressed out of the berries kernels , two ounces , of clear venice-turpentine , three ounces , of verdigrease , three drachms . being well mixed together on a slow fire with a spattle , let them stand eight days in the sun , or some other hot place , that the dregs may go to the bottom ; from which separate the pure balsam ; which is to be applyed hot to the wound with lintcotton , and the wound to be bound up with linnen clothes ; it doth imitate the vertue of the most precious balsams ; half an ounce of the sugar of the elder may be added . a plaster of the balsam . if you mollifie wax with a sufficient quantity of this balsam , and apply it according to art , it cureth wounds suddenly . to stop a great hemmorage . tragea granorum actes being mixed with an equal part of jews-ears , is commended in stopping of bloud . or make this powder ; take of tragea granorum actes , of dryed jews-ears , of each three drachmes , of the white of an egg dryed in the sun , two drachmes , of the pith of the elder , of the purest gum-tragant , of each one drachm . pulverise subtilly every one by it self , and afterwards mix them exactly . the use . the bloud being drank up of a sponge , and the wound being dryed as much as is possible , put therein a sufficient quantity of the powder ; if it succeed not at first , dry the wound again with the sponge , and put in the powder , and keep it in with torne pieces of cloath put thereafter . the puncture of nerves . in the puncture and wounds of nerves , the learned surgeon de vigo in his seventh book , together with daily experience doth attest , that the oyle of the infused flowers is much praised . the oyle of the flowers of the second description ; and the balsam , or plaister made of the balsam , being put thereon , worketh effectually . the cure of ulcers . dioscorides hath taught us , that the leaves of elder do cure deep , perverse , and fistulous ulcers . an uporist . apply then here either the juice alone , put in , being nevertheless wrung out with a little wine or urine ; and afterward lay upon it the pounded leaves like a plaster ; which is a country-remedy . or make this liniament ; take of elder vulnerary balsam , one drachm , of the leaves of the elder subtilly pulverised , one drachm . of verdegrease , two scruples , of elder-salt , one scruple . mix all together exactly for a liniament ; of which daily you are to put some in with tents in impure and fistulous ulcers , and a convenient plaster above it . injections and washings of deep and putrid ulcers , when need requireth , are to be made of the leave sand bark ; which do excellently cleanse and hinder corruption . apply them before you make a new binding , that the filth cleansed , and washed by the former medicine , may be together with them washed out . in those ulcers which cast out that icor , which paracelsus calls synovia ; the vulnerary balsam chiefly availeth , being hot put in ; seeing it drieth moderately , and keepeth the substance of the wounded part temperate . you may sprinkle afterwards above it the powder of the dried pith and jews-ears , which are much praised by many . gabel shover hath this r. of elder-pith drachms two , of orenge-pills scruple half ; mix them for a powder , which are either to be sprinkled in , or to be taken with a fasting stomach in a morning . the same man taketh as many elder-flowers as is needful ; he fryeth them in butter and applyeth them twice or thrice . or , instead of a vulnerary potion in these and other ulcers over-flowed ; he giveth daily a drachm , or a drachm and half of following powder in warm buttered ale. take of elder pith three ounces , of dryed jews-ears , of prepared oculi cancrorum ; of each two ounces , of orenge-pills , of citron pills , of nutmegs , of each one scruple . make a subtil powder of all . in dilating of wounds and ulcers , and in keeping issues open , the pith of the elder is convenient : for while that sponge-like substance drinks in the humors , it is dilated , and so distendeth the lips of the wounds and ulcers . the cure of contusions and bruises . in contused parts , the juice of elder-leaves , pressed out with wine , and anoynt on the place , or linnen dipt therein and applyed , doth discuss the black bloud , and strengthens the part . or take of the meal of elder-flowers , ounces two ; of camomile and wormwood-flowers , of each half an ounce ; mix them with elder-oyle , and work them together , that they may become like a cataplasm ; which is to be applyeddaily to the contused part . to take away the marks and impressions , anoynt them with oyle of infused flowers . in intertrigoes , when the flesh , and not the skin , is infected , the unction of plater or matthiolus his liniament , besprinkling it with the subtile powder of elder-leaves , is profitable . or make this magisterial powder , which with great commodity is sprinkled on the emunctories of new-born babes , viz. behind their ears , in their armpits and groines : take of elder-leaves half an ounce , of the flowers of the same , of red-roses , of each two drach . mix them for a powder , which being sprinkled , consumeth the moysture , and drieth the place . cap. xxxii . of burning and congelation . topicks . dioscorides , saith , that the green and tender leaves , being applyed with pollent , helpeth burning . these following are commended by authors : first , the oyle of infused flowers and bark : secondly , the oyle of the leaves and bark fryed in butter and oyle ; thirdly , the two liniaments of matthiolus and plater ; the receits of which are set down in the second section in the second and fourth chapters . the uses . a member being burned with fire , gun powder , boyling water , &c. is to be easily anoynted with these warm , and afterwards to be wrapt in soft and warm linnen : for each one of them hath the vertue of rarifying the skin , of drawing out hot vapors , mitigating pain , digesting and drying of serosity , and of curing the raised blabs in ulcers , and in restoring the diseased place , as much as is possible , to its wonted beauty . if the burning pierce more deep , so that the blabs being broken , and the skar taken a way , it degenerateth into an ulcer ; besides these oyles and oyntments , you must sprinkle easily and lightly every day , the powder of the leaves and pith ; which doth excellently dry , and , by cleansing moderately , doth fill ulcers with flesh . in this case oyles are more profitable then liniaments , as will be easily found by any that use them . this following unguent , as a singular experiment , is commended in all kinds of burning by the famous don●relius , for easing pain , or quenching the force of the heat , and soon and safely curing the ulcers ; also it is happily applyed to herpes miliaris , and other out-breakings , which come from yellow bile , or salt humors . take of the middle-bark of the lynden-tree , of the elder , of each one handful , of linseed half an ounce . the barks are to be cut in small pieces , & infused together with the seed in a sufficient quantity of the water of elder-flowers , for the space of three hours warm ; then add half an ounce of sheeps dung ; mix them , and boyle them in a double vessel in may-butter unsalted , washed oft in fountain water , and at last in the water of elder-flowers , till the humidity be perfectly consumed . strain them : and add of yellow wax , as much as sufficeth ; mix them : and according to art make an oyntment . they are donerelius his words . if the ulcer become more sordid , use the things in the precedent chapter . lac aureum drank up in linnen clothes , and applyed , is profitable , of which we have spoken in the cure of erysipelas . internals . when many parts , or those situated next the nobler parts , are burned , and then the unnaturel heat spreadeth it self over the whole body , you are to use those things set down in the cure of the hot feaver . or make this julap : take of the water of elder-flowers , half a pound ▪ of the acetous syrup of the elder , two ounces , of hearts-horn burned and preparred , two scruples . mix them for two doses : for it cooleth the heatned spirits , it extinguisheth the thirst , dissipateth the empereum , and roborateth the strength . the cure of congelation or brosting . apply to the frosted parts , the middle bark of the elder , or linnen moystned in their decoction . when they clif ; the powder of elder-bark , pith , and flowers , reduced to a liniamenth with the oyle of infused flowers , in commended , the parts therewith being anoynted daily . apply upon it linnen moystned in the golden milk of the elder , for it drieth and hindreth a gangreene . see more in the cure of ulcers . cap. xxxiii . of poysons . inflicted outwardly , or taken into the body . in the stinging of venemous beasts , the green leaves of the elder being applyed , are praised , because they draw out the poyson , and dry the wound . dioscorides especially commends the same pounded leaves applyed to the bite of a mad dog . george amwald in his panacea bids us dissolve rob of the elder in vinegar and wine , and rub therewith the stung or bitten place , and wash it therewith . in the stinging of wasps and bees anoint the place with the oyle of the infused flowers ▪ or with that which is prest out of the kernels of the berries , and put a leaf thereon ; it mitigateth the pain , and in a short time causeth the tumor to fall and evanish . to stop the poyson of the vipers bitings , besides these topicks , dioscorides bids us boyle the roots of elder in wine , and drink the colature . he attributeth the same vertue to the berry drank in wine . 't is better to use the wine of the berries , to take two drachmes of the rob ; or as many scruples of the extract in the water of elder-flowers , and provoke sweat . in philtrums , or those potions wicked whores use to give for love , or in other poysons taken inwardly nothing is better , then upon the suspition immediately to cast all up by vomit , that is in the stomach . give two ounces or three of the oyle of the infused flowers or bark of the elder in warm ale , and accelerate vomit . or , take an indifferent spoonful of the oyle pressed out of the kernels ; give it in warme ale : for by this means all venom that is in the stomach , is happily excluded , and the corrosive acrimony of the poyson is qualified ; use it again , if it be needful . which being done , provoke sweat , that that which sticketh in the veins ( for the more maligne the humor is , the more it penetrateth , and like ferment , infecteth the whole bloud ) must be evacuated by sweat . those things which were brought for the plague , are profitable here : rob simple , and antilemick , their extracts , &c. of which give as much as is convenient to the age and strength of the patient , dissolved in the distilled water of elder-flowers , of other convenient liquor . and seeing seldom the force of the poyson is daunted by once or twice ; but rather under the subtile shew of a servant , as being overcome , and obeying natures command , by secret mines lurketh and worketh to overthrow the strength of nature , and overcome it by little and little . therefore the use of these alexitericks is not to be intermitted but to be continued , till all the poyson and maligne impressions that remain be extirpate out of the body . this mixture is profitable . take of the conserve of elder-flowers , of the flowers of burrage , as much as you will ; mix them . give half an ounce thereof daily , an hour or two before dinner . drink a spoonful of the juice of the berries above it . give two drachmes every week of the rob of the elder , in the water of elder-flowers , and provoke sweat in bed , or bath . after the sweat , the heat to be tempered with a spoonful or two of the sowre syrup of the elder . this experiment is praised by many ; take of the middle elder-bark , subtilly shaven , and dry it lightly in the shadow , a little more then a handful ; put on it three quarters of a pound of goats milk , boyle it on a soft fire till the half be consumed ; of whose colature drink morning and evening . they say that this doth absolutely out-rout all poyson given by whores and knaves , though it were given three years before . if it do not succeed at first , the patient is to use it often ; and by divine assistance he shall obtain the wished event . the conclusion . these things , courteous and kind reader , i thought fit to set down of the elder , and the use thereof , and medicines . those dishes which may be prepared of the flowers and berries , at that time , when they are to be had in great abundance green : for the preventing of many diseases ; seeing they are well known to cooks by daily experience . to what diseases they agree , is known by what is said . if there occur any thing here which doth not please you , it is your part favourably to construct it , and to withhold the censure , till you try all things more exactly in the infallible ballance of reason and experience . i leave , for praise ▪ nor crave ; for praise enough i have ; if not contemned by thee , courteous reader , i be . if those things that are omitted , obscure , or not rightly delivered , be by thy more pollisht judgment added , illustrated and corrected , thou shalt deserve infinite favours from me , and all those honorers of medicine and nature : for nothing can be more happy then to know much ; and we are to learn , that we way know . neither at any time was there any of such qualified reason , but things , age , and use will afford-him some new objects , some new observations : so that what thou thoughtst thou knewst , thou unknowst ; and despisest that upon thy tryal , which thou didst most trust . for there was never any thing more unrighteous then an unjust man , which holds and believes nothing right , but what he fathers . farewel , and what ere thou art , favour these endeavors ; and together with me in this wonderful and unexhaustible variety of things , devoutly admire , and piously worship , the unsearchable depths of divine wisdom and goodness . finis . an idea of a phytological history propounded together with a continuation of the anatomy of vegetables, particularly prosecuted upon roots : and an account of the vegetation of roots grounded chiefly thereupon / by nehemiah grew ... grew, nehemiah, 1641-1712. 1673 approx. 243 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 123 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a42106) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 105413) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 1093:21) an idea of a phytological history propounded together with a continuation of the anatomy of vegetables, particularly prosecuted upon roots : and an account of the vegetation of roots grounded chiefly thereupon / by nehemiah grew ... grew, nehemiah, 1641-1712. [22], 144, [32] p., [7] leaves of folded plates : ill. printed by j.m. for richard chiswell ..., london : 1673. reproduction of original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng roots (botany) -anatomy. botany -pre-linnean works. 2004-09 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2004-10 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2004-11 emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread 2004-11 emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-01 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an idea of a phytological history propounded . together with a continuation of the anatomy of vegetables , particularly prosecuted upon roots . and an account of the vegetation of roots grounded chiefly thereupon . by nehemiah grew m. d. and fellow of the royal society . london , printed by j.m. for richard chiswell at the rose and crown in st. pauls church-yard , 1673. to the right honourable william lord viscount brovncker the president , and to the rest of the fellows of the royal society . right honourable and most illustrious , if the dedication of books were not in use , yet here i think i might have been a precedent . the promotion of phytological science is one part of your work ; and 't is you have called me to the management of this part , for some time have intrusted me herein , and by your most benign and candid acceptance of what i have performed thus far , have encouraged me hereunto : i therefore present but your own into your hands . the great honour and advantage of your fellowship , i first obtained by mediation of the late most reverend bishop of chester ; whom i cannot name without saying thus much of him , that he was a person of that eminent and happy worth , which as it was too good to fear envy , so is it too great to need an elogie . with him it was you were pleased to approve of me for that vndertaking which i have here begun . had i consulted my own abilities altogether , i should scarcely have ventured upon it ; seeing very little for which i could think well of my self , saving that i had learned upon good grounds , to think of you with greatest honour . but i also considered , that to insist hereon too much , might be a reflection upon your judgments , who had thought fit to make choice of me . and , that you were not more the patrons of wit , than of industry , and of all who shall endeavour to find out , or to confirm the truth of things . withal , i looked upon nature as a treasure so infinitely full , that as all men together cannot exhaust it ; so no man , but may find out somewhat therein , if he be resolved to try. in compliance therefore with your commands , i have hereunto devoted my self . these adding force to my own desires of being somewhat instrumental to the improvement of medicinal and and other wholesom knowledge : if peradventure , as we increase herein , we may become better and more happy . as to which improvement , though i could not hope , yet i would not despair . i have already prepared the soil , and made some plantation ; what remaineth behind , and the vintage of the whole , will depend much upon the continued influence of your beams : for how unpromising soever the stock may be , yet the fruit cannot but be somewhat matured upon which you are pleas'd to shine . i am also confident , that the same nobility and goodness which accept the endeavours , will likewise pardon the faults , of your most humbly and most sincerely devoted servant nehemiah grew . the preface . having divers years since directed my thoughts towards the anatomy of vegetables ; what observations i had from time to time occasionally made , i published some time since . in making whereof , i proceeded from the seed sown , throughout all the parts , to the seed again . subjoyning to the anatomy of every part , my thoughts of their oeconomical uses thence deduced . hitherto i had examined the parts chiefly by the bare eye : some few observations excepted , which were made by the microscope . and this i did , to the intent i might make proof , both for my self and others , how far it is possible to go with the eye , without the help of glasses : purposing afterward to make the utmost use of those also . immediately after the publication of these , a discourse from the learned malpighius ( to whose most ingenious and accurate industry the world is much beholden ) was presented to the royal society upon the same subject , decemb. 7. 1671. and dated at bononia , novemb. 1. 1671. by whose suffrage i was glad to see the truth of my observations all along confirmed ; his very little differing from mine , though he hath every where made use of the microscope . as for the air-vessels , ( which he calls the fistulae spirales ) although i have long since taken notice of them , as those which , being much larger than the rest , are more easily discoverable ; yet the manner of their spiral conformation ( not observable but by a microscope ) i first learned from him , who hath given a very elegant description of them . he communicates not many of his thoughts of the oeconomical use of the parts . and some things observable of the parts of the flower , fruit , and seed , not there found , he may possibly reserve by him amongst others . i could heartily wish he would have published his discourse , but that he is unwilling to , before it be furnished with figures : for which reason i thought good to give this account of it . presently after the impression of my first endeavours , i resolved upon a further prosecution of them . the series of my thoughts and observations following thereupon , i have distributed into three parts , and in obedience to the command of the royal society have now made publick . which i have the more willingly done , that others may hence take occasion the better to consider , what they have to do as well as i. for we may as well commit the government of the world , as the management of philosophy to any one : and much better , since things are far more numerous than men , and no less various and out of sight . for the first , it is as comprehensive as i could at present make it . i doubt not , but that further means and inquiries may be suggested ; and perhaps no way better than in the prosecution of these : the generation of experiments being like that of discourse , where one thing introduceth an hundred more which otherwise would never have been thought of . the second is the prosecution of what i had before begun , and purpose to continue , both of the root , and all the other parts . for this i apologize not ; for what i here represent , are neither words , nor probable things ; but both the real and the visible works of god. as to the last , i only desire it may be remembred , that while i speak of natural causes , and particularly of those of vegetation , i intend only the material ones , which ( whatever others , besides the first , be assigned ) we must allow to be so qualified as to become instrumental thereto ; unless it be denied that there is such a thing as a material cause . if it be asked why i insist so much on these , whilst i am silent of the existence , nature , and energy of the anima vegetalis , the vis formatrix , the vis motiva , or other immaterial one ? to this , because i am willing to suppose the question soberly propounded , i answer ; that it is not for that i have had no thoughts hereof ; but because i do not find they do so well answer the scope whereto i am more obliged : for the investigation of the nature of any other secondary causes , than such as are material , cannot be so useful to one that is considering the nature of a disease , or compounding or applying a remedy thereunto . and if any of the principles or discourses of cartesius , gassendus , or others about material causes , may , upon a right judgment made , be found culpable , i am not about to answer for them . the contents . the first part . unto what degree the knowledge of vegetables is arrived , pag. 1. wherein defective , 2. why concluded to be so , 2 , 3. yet capable of improvement , 3. and worthy of it , 4. divers instances given wherein ; first of the organical parts , as to their external accidents and oeconomical vses , 4 , 5 , 6. then of their contents , qualities , and powers , 7. and an improvement of this part will further that of divers other parts of knowledge , whereof instances are given , 8 , 9. in order whereto , five general means are propounded . the first , a particular and comparative survey of whatever is of more external consideration about vegetables , 10 , 11. instanced as to their figures , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14. proportions , 14 , 15. seasons , 15 , 16. places , 16. motions , 17. the second , a like survey of the organical parts by anatomy , as that which is very necessary , 17 , 18 , 19. in what manner to be prosecuted , both without and with the microscope , 19 , 20. what thereupon to be observed , 20 , 21 , 22. and what from observation made probably attainable , 22. the third , a like survey of the contents of vegetables ; their several kinds , 23. of all which , their receptacles , 24. motions , 24. qualities , 25. consistence , ibid. colours , smells , and tastes , 26. where also the same qualities are to be inquired into as generally belonging to vegetables , ibid. as their colours , 27. odours , 27 , 28. tastes , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31. also their faculties , 31 , 32 , 33. all these to be further examined by con●usion , agitation , frigifaction , agitation , infusion , digestion , decoction , destillation , arefaction , assation , vstion , calcination , 34 to 39. by composition with other bodies , 39. and by compounding the experiment it self , 40. what hence attainable , 40 , 41. the fourth , a like survey of the principles , as well as of the contents , of the organical parts , 41 , 42 , 43 whence will be attainable a further knowledge of the modes of vegetation , 43 , 44. of the qualities of vegetables , 44 , 45. and of their powers , 45 , 46 , 47. the fifth , a like survey of those bodies either from which these principles are derived , or wherewith they have any communion ; which are four in general , scil . earth , and all solid receptacles , 47 , 48. water , and all liquid receptacles , 48 , 49 , 50. air , 50. and sun , 51. a sixth general inquiry omitted , 51. the conclusion , 52 , 53. the second part . chap. i. of the figures of roots in general , 54 , 55 , 56. of their motions , 56 to 59. that of descent proper to very many other kinds besides the bulbous , 57. demonstrated , 58. the immediate cause hereof , ibid. what hence resolvable , 59. and of their ages , 59. how bulbous roots are perennial , 60. how other descending roots . and what thence resolvable , ibid. chap. ii. of the skin . it s external accidents ; and original , 61. compounding parts . whereof the one parenchymous , consisting of bubles , 62. the other lignous , consisting of tubulary vessels , 62 , 63. chap. iii. of the bark . it s original ; and external accidents , 64. compounding parts . whereof the one parenchymous , compared with a sponge , 65. the bubles hereof observed by a microscope , 65 , 66. their sizes , positions , content , 66 , 67. the diametral portions of this parenchymous part , 67. their various extension , original , distance , continuation , 67 , 68. their number , size , bubles , 68. content , 69. the other part lignous , consisting of succiferous vessels , 69 , 70. the braces of these vessels , 70 , 71. the vessels conjugated into threds , 71. but no where inosculated , ibid. nor ramified , but distinct as the fibres of a nerve , ibid. their kinds , denominated from their contents ; as lymphaeducts , 72. lacteals , &c. 73. whence their content of a white or other like colour , 73 , 74. of divers kinds in the same root often , if not always , 74. their different number , 75. size or capacity , 75. their various situation , 76 , 77 , 78. chap. iv. of that portion of the root next within the bark . it s compounding parts , 79. the one parenchymous ; its original , 79. position or configuration , 79 , 80. texture , 80. the other part lignous . vsually compounded of two kinds of vessels . the one succiferous , either at present , or originally such , 81. the other air-vessels . both of them as to their braces , conjugations , configurations agreeing in general with those of the bark , ibid. their braces how different , 82. the structure of the bark , and more visibly of this portion of the root compared with that of a muscle , ibid. the various position of the succiferous vessels herein , 83. of the air-vessels , 83 , 84 , the various number and size of the air-vessels , 84 , 85. compared to nerves , 86. the spiral position of the parts whereof the said air-vessels are composed , ibid. what further observable of these spiral parts , 87 , 88. what that wool is whi●h appeareth upon breaking the leaves and other parts of many plants , ibid. the contents of these vessels , 88 , 89. chap. v. of the pith. not common to all roots , nor in some to all parts , 89. it s various size , 90. and shape , ibid. succiferous vessels sometimes and in different manner mixed with the pith , 90. the original of the pith , 91. the pith of the same substantial nature with the parenchymous part of the bark , and of the same texture , scil . composed into bubles , 91 , 92. the various size , position , and shape of the bubles , 92. the pith à r●●e mirabile , the sides of all the bubles being made up of interwoven threds , 92 , 93. and these threds of most extreme small fibres , 93 , 94. the situation or continuation of the threds , 94 , 95. the texture of all the other parenchymous parts of the root ( or of a plant ) likewise fibrous , 95. how these fibres subservient to the making the braces and threds or conjugations of the vessels , ibid. out of these the secondary air-vessels probably formed , 96. what hence inferrible of the parts both of plants and animals , ibid. the contents of the pith , 97. the third part . all true philosophy necessarily asserteth a god , 98 , 99. and secureth our veneration of him , 99. and of his laws , 100. and of his mysteries , 100 , 101. and of providence , 101 , 102. nature being one universal monarchy , 102 , 103. visible , as in all other particular oeconomies , so no less in that of vegetables , 103. if we consider . how the soil is prepared , by rain , sun , wind , air , and their several successions , 104 , 105 , 106. the vse of the parenchyma of the bark , 106. the principles of the sap herein why less discernable , 107. the vses of the skin , 107 , 108. a further vse of the parenchyma of the bark , 108. one vse of the bubles , ibid. the principles of the sap how , and of what kind adherent to the fibres of the bubles , 109. with the principles of these fibres how the sap tinctured , ibid. the principles of the sap how , and of what kind agglutinated to the succiferous vessels , 109 , 110. the sap how refundent from the same vessels , 110. how agglutinated to the parenchymous fibres , ibid. to the air-vessels , 111. how and of what kind trajected into their concaves , ibid. the vse of the braces , 111 , 112. of the diametral portions , 112 , 113. the vses of the pith , 113. the organical parts why void of taste , smell , and colour , 114. whence the succiferous vessels tough , 114 , 115. and the parenchymous parts friable , 115. how the succiferous vessels grow in length , cylindrical , and hollow , 116. the lactiferous , how and why wider , 117. how the air-vessels are formed ; grow wider as they grow older , and as they stand deeper in the root , 118. how the parenchymous parts become fibrous , and the fibres disposed into bubles , 119. how all stitched up together , 120. the situation of the air-vessels whence , 120. and of the succiferous , 120 , 121. the motion of the air-vessels towards the circumference of the root whence , 121. and whence various , 121 , 122. whence many of the succiferous left behind the air-vessels in the pith , 122 , 123. whence the eruption of strings , the leaves , and trunk , 123. how roots variously sized , 123 , 124. how variously shaped , as slender or thick 124. and how the pith made as the root thickneth , 124 , 125. whence the root long , 125. whence less or more stringie , or ramified , 126. and how strings and branches made , ibid. whence root-buds , 126 , 127. how diversly situated , 127. whence the root cylindrical or pyramidal , 127 , 128. how roots variously moved , as in a level , 128. or perpendicularly , ibid. how they grow deep , 129. or shallow , ibid. how they descend , ibid. descend and ascend sometimes together , 130. how variously aged ; perennial , ibid. biennial , or thereabout , 131. annual , 131 , 132. the contents of vegetables whence various , 132. the content of the parenchymous fibres how made , 132 , 133. whence the diametral portions filled with air , 133. whence the pith , ibid. the content of the lymphaeducts how made , 134. of the lactiferous vessels , ibid. and of the aerial , 134 , 135. the content of a vine , corn , &c. whence so little oleous , of others more , 135 , 136. some observations of the odours of vegetables , 136 , 137. of their colours , 137 to 140. and of their tastes , 140 to 144. an idea of a phytological history propounded . the first part . if we take account of the degrees whereunto the knowledge of vegetables is advanced , it appeareth , that their descriptions , places , and seasons are with good preciseness and curiosity set before us . likewise , that we are informed of the natures and infallible faculties of many of them . whereunto so many as have assisted , have much obliged their posterity . by due reflection upon what they have performed , it also appears , what they have lest imperfect , and what undone . for the vertues of many vetegables are with much uncertainty , and too promiscuously ascribed to them . and of the vertues of many they are altogether silent . and although , for the finding out and just appropriation of them , they have left us some rules , yet not all . the descriptions likewise of many are yet to be perfected ; as also their draughts , especially as to their roots . and their proper ranks and affinities much undermined . but for the reason of vegetation , and the causes of all those infinite varieties therein observable ( i mean so far as matter , and the various affections hereof are instrumental thereto ) almost all men have seemed to be unconcerned . that nothing hereof remaineth further to be known , is a thought not well calculated . for if we consider how long and gradual a journey the knowledge of nature is , and how short a time we have to proceed therein ; as on the one hand , we shall conclude it our ease and profit to see how far others have gone before us : so shall we beware on the other , that we conceive not unduly of nature , whilst we have a just value for those who were but her disciples and instructed by her . their time and abilities both being short to her , which as she was first designed by divine wisdom , so may her vast dimensions best be judged of , in being compared therewith . it will therefore be our prudence , not to insist upon the invidious question , which of her scholars have taken the fairest measure of her ; but to be well satisfied , that as yet she hath not be circumscribed by any . nor doth it more behove us to consider how much of the nature of vegetation may lie before us yet unknown , than to believe a great part thereof to be knowable : not concluding from the acknowledged , much less supposed insuccessfulness of any mens undertakings ; but from what may be accounted possible as to the nature of things themselves ; and from divine providence , by infinite ways conducting to the knowledge of them . neither can we determine how great a part this may be ; because it is impossible to measure what we see not . and since we are most likely to under-measure , we shall hereby but intrench our endeavours , which we are not wont to carry beyond the idea which we have of our work. and how far soever this kind of knowledge may be attainable , its being so far also worthy our attainment will be granted . for beholding the many and elegant varieties wherewith a field or garden is adorned , who would not say , that it were exceeding pleasant to know what we see ; and not more delightful to one who has eyes , to discern that all is very fine ; than to another who hath reason , to understand how . this surely were for a man to take a true inventory of his goods , and his best way to put a price upon them . yea it seems , that this were not only to be partaker of divine bounty ; but also , in some degree , to be copartner in the secrets of divine art. that which were very desirable , unless we should think it impertinent for us to design the knowing of that , which god hath once thought fit to do . if for these and other reasons an inquiry into the nature of vegetation may be of good import ; it will be requisite to see first of all what may offer it self to be inquired of , or to understand what our scope is ; that so doing , we may take our aim the better in making , and having made , in applying our observations thereunto . amongst other inquiries therefore , such as these deserve to be proposed . first , by what means it is that a plant , or any part of it , comes to grow ; a seed to put forth a root and trunk ; and this , all the other parts to the seed again ; and all these being formed , by continual nutrition still to be increased . how the aliment by which a plant is fed , is duly prepared in its several parts ; which way it is conveyed unto them ; and in what manner it is assimilated to their respective natures in them all . whence this growth and augmentation is not made of one , but many differing degrees , unto both extremes of small and great ; whether the comparison be made betwixt several plants , or the several parts of one . how not only their sizes , but also their shapes are so exceed●ng various ; as of roots , in being th●●k or slend●r , short or long , entire or part●d , stringed or ramified , and the like ; of trunks , some being more entire , others branched , others shrub'd ; of leaves , which are long or round , even edg'd or escallop'd , and many other ways diff●rent , yet always flat ; and so f●r the other parts . then to inquire , what should be the reason of their various motions , that the root should d●scend ; that its descent should somet●mes be perpendicular , sometimes more level ; that the trunk doth ascend ; and that the ascent thereof , as to the space of time wherein it is made , is of different measures ; and of divers other motions , as they are observable in the roots , trunks , and other parts of vegetables . whence again , these motions have their different and stated terms ; that plants have their set and peculiar seasons for their spring or birth , for their full growth , and for their teeming , and the like . further , what may be the causes as of the seasons of their growth , so of the periods of their lives ; some being annual , others biennial , others perennial ; some perennial both as to their roots and trunks ; and some as to their roots only . then , as they pass through these several seasons of their lives , in what manner their convenient feeding , housing , cloathing , or protection otherwise , is contrived ; wherein in this kind and harmonious oeconomy , one part may be officious to another for the preservation of the health and life of the whole . and lastly , what care is taken , not only for themselves , but for their posterity ; in what manner the seed is prepared , formed , and fitted for propagation : and this being of so great concernment , how sometimes the other parts also , as roots in putting forth trunks , trunks in putting forth roots , yea in turning oftentimes into roots themselves ; whereof i shall in the following discourse give some instances : with other heads of inquiry of th●s kind . nor are the natures , faculties , and contents of vegetables less various , or a particular inspection hereinto of less concernment . for since all , or most , seem to grow in the same manner , with one sun , one rain , indifferently well upon one soil , and to outward appearance to have the same common parts ; it may be asked , how it comes to pass , that their liquors , or other contained parts are of such different kinds , one being watry , another winy , a third oily , a fourth milky , and the like . how also there is such a variety in their sensible qualities , as their colours , tastes , and smells ; what those materials are , which are necessary to the being of these qualities ; and those formalities wherein their essence doth consist ; as what it is that makes a plant or flower to be white or red ; fragrant or fetid ; bitter or sweet ; or to be of any other colour , smell , or taste . in like manner their faculties and powers , what that is or those things are by which they are constituted , as whence one becomes purgative , another vomitory , a third diaphoretick , &c. these , i say , with many other particular inquiries depending hereupon , as they cannot but much oblige the reason of man to be obsequious to them ; so by bringing in at least some satisfaction with no less reward it . especially if it be withal considered , that besides our satisfaction as to the nature of vegetation , some further light to divers other parts of knowledge may likewise hence arise . for since the present design will ingage us to an accurate and multifarious observation of vegetables ; we may hereby be enabled to range and sort them with more certainty , according to the degrees of their affinity . and all exoticks , plants or parts of plants , may probably be reduced to some such domesticks , unto which they may bear the best resemblance . again , it may frequently conduct our minds to the consideration of the state of animals ; as whether there are not divers material agreements betwixt them both , and what they are . wherein also they may considerably differ , and what those things are which are more essential to their distinguishment . and besides , not only to compare what is already known of both , but also by what may be observed in the one , to suggest and facilitate the finding out of what may yet be unobserved in the other so also the consideration of the colours , smells , and tastes of vegetables , may conduce to the knowledge of the same q●alities in general ; or of what it is that constitutes them such in any other body : not as they are actually received by sense ; but so far as such materials or external circumstances are requisite to their becoming the adequate objects thereof . it may lead us also to inquire into further ways of cultivation , with respect to the whole plant , or to the flower , fruit , or other part : to amend them as to their sizes , colours , tastes , fruitfulness , or otherwise : to think of other ways of propagation , or to apply those already known to other vegetables than hath been used . likewise the knowledge of their mechanical uses may hereby be enlarged ; both as to the reason of their use , in such particular trades and manufactures , already known ; and the discovery of other uses yet unknown . as also their alimental , with respect both to meats and drinks ; the preparation of some , and the finding out of others . but especially their medicinal ; some vegetables which have hitherto been neglected , may be applied to use ; the preverted uses of some , and the confused uses of others may be rectified . what may best correct their malignancies , or inforce their vertues ; when needful to add the preparations of art to that of nature ; how to enlarge those of art , and rectifie those which are indeed inartificial , may hereby be better conjectured . the knowledge of all which , that we may know how far it is accessible , and what probable approaches may be made towards it ; those several means i have thought of , and suppose necessary thereunto are next to be proposed . reflecting then upon the present design , and seeing this to lie wide ; we shall in the first place conclude the means attending thereon should do so likewise . wherefore although some may present themselves unto us as more promising ; yet let us suppose what others also were they hereunto engaged , each according to his sense and genius , would possibly make choice of . believing , that although considering men may vary in the approval of their own sense and notion ; yet not always meerly , because it is their own , but because each may probably see somewhat more in his own , than others do . wherefore it will be our surest logick to conclude , not because no mean may be approved by all , that all should be rejected ; but rather because each may be approved by some , that therefore all be made choice of . and first of all , whatever is of more external consideration , as the figures , proportions , motions , seasons , situations of vegetables , and of their several parts , should be observed . in doing which , a particular survey of all their varieties should be taken . and then a comparison made betwixt these and the several plants or parts of plants whereof they are the properties . to the end we may , if possible , be thereby conducted to find out what other sensible , or more recluse property any of them may agree together in . for it is not more certain , that the three angles of every rectilinear triangle , because all ways equal to two right angles , are therefore , if put together , always the same : than that one property agreeing to divers vegetables , should have one cause : for although the scope and end may vary , yet the cause , as it is the cause of that property , must be one : and consequently must also import some identity in the nature of all those vegetables wherein it acts . wherefore by thus comparing of them , we shall be able more exactly to state the orders and degrees of their affinities , better to understand both the causes and ends of their varieties , and more probably to conjecture of their natures and vertues . first then the various figures of their several parts should be observed ; and that with respect both to the forms , and the positions by which their roots , trunks , branches , leaves , flowers , fruits , and seeds may vary or agree ; and those several lines by which both the said varieties are draw . in which of these parts the agreement chiefly lies ; this being both more observable , and material in some of them , less in the root , more in the flower or seed . and in how many of these parts together , whether one , more , or all . by both which the orders and degrees of affinity may be accounted , either as to what we strictly call kindred , or else analogy . thus all strawberries are ' akin together in the first degree , with cinquefoyl in the second , with tormentil in the third , and with avens , &c. in others more remote . so agrimony hath alike analogy unto strawberry , as goats-rue hath to claver ; and strawberry the like unto the rasp , as goosberry to the vine , or burnet to the rose . so all pulse are not only of kin in their several degrees to one another ; but likewise to almost all kinds of trefoyls , as melilot , foenugreek , and the common clavers themselves ; as by comparing not only their leaves , but flowers , seeds , and cods together may be evident . for the several parts of the flower of a trefoyl are so many more flowers , containing so many cods of small seeds , all in shape agreeable to the flowers , cods , and seeds of pulse . from hence likewise the natures of vegetables may be conjectured . for in looking upon divers plants , though of different names and kinds ; yet if some affinity may be found betwixt them , then the nature of any one of them being well known , we have thence ground of conjecture as to the nature of all the rest . so that as every plant may have somewhat of nature individual to it self ; so as far as it obtaineth any visible communities with other plants , so far may it partake of common nature with those also . thus the wild and garden cucumers have this difference , that the one purgeth strongly , the other not at all ; yet in being diuretick , they both agree . the natures of umbelliferous plants we know are various ; yet 't is most probable that they all agree in this one , scil . in being carminative . the several sorts both of corn and grass are all ' akin ; there is no doubt therefore but that the seeds of grass themselves ( of rye and oats it is tryed ) if it were worth the while to order them , as barley , would yield an inflammable spirit . so likewise the several kinds of pulse , as is said : for which reason i question not , but that in some cases wherein ciches are esteemed a good medicine , a decoction of the better sort of pease , especially that we call sugar-pease , may go beyond them . as doth also the flower of beans that of the seeds of foenugreek , even there where they are accounted excellent . so tulips , lillies , crocuses , jacynths , and onions themselves , with many others in their several degrees , are all allied . if therefore crocuses , onions , lillies agree in one or more faculties , then why may not all the rest ? as in being anodyne ; or in some other common nature , whereby in their vegetation , their parts are governed and over-ruled to one common or analogous form . the proportions likewise amongst the several parts of vegetables , for the same reasons , deserve to be observed ; the comparison being made both betwixt the parts of several plants , and the several parts of one . and here again , either betwixt any two of the parts , or any one of them , and the whole besides , or all the rest put together . so some larger seeds , produce a small root ; as those of cucumer : and others smaller , produce one very great ; as those of briony . some plants , as the melon , though themselves but very slender , yet have a vast and bulky fruit ; others again , as thistles , and many yet more substantial , have no other fruit besides their seed . so the seeds of all pulse , and especially the garden bean , though very large , yet produce but a small plant : but those of foxglove , mullen , burdock , sun-flower , &c. being themselves much less , do yet produce a far greater . and especially those seeds which are inclosed in the thicker sort of cover , ( analogous to that i have elsewhere called the secondine ) as that of peony ; whose seed so called , is only the nest wherein the true and real seed is lodged , no bigger than a little pins head : which is also observable of the seeds of divers other plants . these and the like proportions , as they lie betwixt the several parts , should be noted : and to what plants or parts especially , any of them may agree : comparing also in what other kind of properties an agreement betwixt the said parts may be found : that so doing , we may , if possible , amongst all their individual natures , be instructed to single out those common ones , which are concomitant to such agreeing properties . the several seasons also of plants and of their parts should be considered . observing at what particular times of the year any of them chiefly spring , early or late . the times wherein they germinate ; whether for some space only , or all the year long . wherein they spring after sowing ; or flower after springing , sooner or flower . which flower the first year , or not till the second . which before the leaves , or afterwards . the maturation of the fruit or seed , how long after the flower , and the like . all or some of which varieties being laid together , we may probably conjecture the causes thereof ; and the natures of the plants in which they are seen ; scil . as such a degree of heat may be necessary for the fermentation , or the better distribution of the sap of such a plant , or the impregnation of the air to be mixed therewith , or the due disposing of the soil to render the most convenient aliment thereunto . the proper places also of plants , or such wherein they have from their seeds or other way of propagation , a spontaneous growth , should be considered . and that as to the climate , whether in one colder , temperate , or more hot . the region , continent , or island . the seat , as sea or land , watry , boggy , or dry ; hills , plains , or vallies ; open , in woods , or under hedges , and the like . from whence in like manner as from their seasons , their particular natures may be directed unto : in that so far as we may conjecture the nature of such an air , soil , or seat , we may also of such a plant to which they are congenial . so likewise , those many varieties observable in the motions of plants and of their parts , both kinds and degrees ; ascending , descending , and collateral ; rectilinear , and spiral motions , should be noted ; to what plants they agree , and wherein any of them may be analogous to those of animals . and in a word , any other forensick properties of plants . and then to compare them all together , both being necessary . for thoughts cannot work upon nothing , no more than hands ; he that will build an house , must provide materials . and on the contrary , the materials will never become an house , unless by certain rules he joyn them all together . so it is not simply the knowledge of many things , but a multifarious copulation of them in the mind , that becomes prolifick of further knowledge . and thus much for the first general mean. the next which i propose , and that a most necessary one , is anatomy . for when upon the dissection of vegetables , we see so great a difference in them , that not only their outward figures , but also their inward structure is so elegant , and in all so various , it must needs lead us thus to think , that these inward varieties were either to no end ; or if they were , we must assign to what . to imagine the first , were exceeding vain ; as if nature , the handmaid of divine wisdom , should with her fine needle and thred , stitch up so many several pieces , of so difficult , and yet so groundless a work. but if for some end , then either only to be looked upon , or some other besides . if for this only , then this must be such as in respect whereof , her work is at no time , nor in any degree frustrate ; the contrary thereunto is most manifest . for although men do every where with frequent pleasure behold the outward elegancies of plants ; yet the inward ones , which generally are as precise and various as the outward , we see how usual it is for the beholding of these to be omitted by them . and besides , when we have observed natures work as well as we can , it may be no impediment to our best endeavours to believe , that somewhat of it will still remain behind unseen . so that if to be seen , were the only end of it , it must needs be wholly frustrate , as to the greater number of men , and in some part as to all . wherefore we must suppose some other ends of the said varieties , which should have their effect , and so these not be in vain , whether men beheld them , or not ; which are therefore such as have respect to vegetation : that the corn might grow so , and the flower so , whether or no men had a mind , leisure , or ability to understand how . if then the anatomy of vegetables be so useful a mean , we ought not to streighten it , but to force this as well as the rest to its utmost extent . and therefore first of all , to go through all the parts , with equal care examining the root , trunk , branch , leaf , flower , fruit , and seed . then to repeat or retrograde the dissection from part to part : in that although the best method of delivery , for clear discourse , can be but one , according to that of nature , from the seed forward to the seed : yet can it not but be useful for that of dissection to proceed to and fro ; somewhat or other being more visible in each several part , from whence still an item may be taken for the ushering in the observation of it in the other . to examine again , not only all the parts , but kinds of vegetables , and comparatively to observe divers of the same size , shape , motion , age , sap , quality , power , or any other way the same , which may also agree in some one or more particulars as to their interior structure : and to make this comparison throughout all their parts and properties . to observe them likewise in several seasons of the year , and in several ages of the vegetables , and of its parts ; in both which div●rs of them may be noted to change not only their dimensions , but their natures also ; as vessels do into ligaments , and cartilages into ●ones sometimes in animals . and to do all this by several ways of section , oblique , perpendicular , and transverse ; all three being requisite , if not to observe , yet the better to comprehend some things . and it will be convenient sometimes to break , tear , or otherwise divide without a section . together with the knife it will be necessary to joyn the microscope , and to examine all the parts , and every way , in the use of that . as also , that both immediate and microscopical inspections be compared ; since it is certain , that some things may be demonstrated by reason and the eye conjunct , without the glass , which cannot be discovered by it ; or else the discovery is so dark , as which alone may not be safely depend●d on . by these several ways of inspection it will be r●quisite to observe their compounding parts , as simply consider●d and as variously proportioned , and disposed . as simply considered , to note their number , what , and whether the same in all : their kinds , wherein different in the same , or divers vegetables : original , in part , or in whole : structure , as to their contexture and their cavities ; their contexture , within themselves severally , and as joyned together : their cavities , as to their size , shape , and number ; in which a great variety will be found . next their positions one amongst another , which are also various ; as anterior , posterior , collateral , surrounding , mediate , immediate , near , remote ; both as they respect the several parts , and the several po●tions of one : and all these , as few or more , these or others of them may be diversly compounded together . and then the proportions they bear one to another , whether as to ●inority , equality , or ex●es● ; each pa●t compared with each , and that as to the several degrees appearing in the said proportions ; the vari●ties whereof may be exceeding num●rous . for if we should suppose but four consid●rable parts generally constitutive of a vegetable , these four produce a variety four ways ; first , when one is unequal , and then it produceth only four varieties ; and those two ways , scil . when one is greater , and the other three equal and less ; or when one is less , and the other three equal and greater . secondly , when two be unequal , and then they produce six varieties . thirdly , when three be unequal , which produceth twelve varieties . or lastly , when all four be unequal , which produceth twenty four : which general varieties may be further multiplied by their several degrees . from all which we may come to know , what the communities of vegetables are , as belonging to all ; what their distinctions to such a kind ; their properties , to such a species ; and their peculiarities to such particular ones . and as in metaphysical or other contemplative matters , when we have a distinct knowledge of the communities and differences of things , we may then be 〈◊〉 to give their true definitions : so may we 〈◊〉 ●ble possibly hereto do likewise ; not only to know that every plant inwardly 〈…〉 another , but also wherein ; so ●s not more surely to define by the outward figure , than by the inward structure , what that is , or those things are , whereby any plant or sort of plants may be distinguished from all others . and having obtained a knowledge of the communities and differences amongst the parts of vegetables , it may conduct us through a series of more facile and probable conclusions of the ways of their causality , as to the communities and differences of vegetation . and thus much for the second general mean. having thus far examined the organical and containing parts of vegetables ; it will be requisite more designedly to observe those also which are fluid , or any others contained in them : and that for our better understanding both of the nature of vegetation , and of the said contained parts . and to make inquiry , first of their kinds , as spirits ; both such as agree in general in being vinous , and those that are special to particular plants . airs and vapours ; for the existence whereof in all vegetables there are certain arguments . and for the difference of their natures , as they are existent in several parts , there are probable ones . lymphas or clear saps ; milks , oyls , gums , sugars , salts , or other concrete and fixed parts . where by salts i mean not such as are separated by calcination , but are distinctly existent in plants in their natural estate , and in some of them , as in the roots of iris , are discoverable , even without the help of a microscope . to which may be added such mucilages , which though not so properly contained within the parts , yet are found lying over them ; as over the first spring-leaves of all kinds of docks , betwixt the leaves and the veil wherein they are involved . of all these should be observed , first their receptacles , some of them being proper to one , others common to two or more of them : since it is certain , that some of them do transmigrate from one into another receptacle , or that the same receptacle is filled with bodies of a quite different nature , at the different seasons of the year , and ages of the vegetable . and it is also very probable , that two of some of them may sometimes be contained in one receptacle at the same time ; as in animals , the lympha in the d. thoracicus , and that and the chyle in the sanguineous vessels . then their motions ; both natural , and such as may be effected by art : and those either by descent or ascent . and in ascending , through what different chanels or parts of the trunk ; since it is certain , that there is a variety both in respect of the season and of vegetables . where it will fall in to observe the tapping of trees : as also their bleeding : to what trees it is proper to bleed : in those to which it is , with what difference of celerity : and when their peculiar season : for none will bleed at all times ; neither will all bleed at the same . and then their collateral motion , together with the mode of their transition from one organical part to another . next their quantities , either of one ; as the comparison is made betwixt several plants , or betwixt the parts of the same : so the true seed of all plants containeth more oyl in proportion than any of the rest . or else of divers as coexistent and bearing such a proportion one to another in the same part : of most of which it may be known by their respective receptacles . yet the computation must not be made from the number of the said receptacles simply , but as that is in conjunction with their capacity , and as their capacity is proportioned to their surrounding sides ; the sides of those of the least capacity being usually as thick as those of the greatest : so that suppose ten lesser , to lye within the compass of one greater ; the content of these altogether would scarce be equal to half the content of that one . also their consistence ; scil . of so many of them as are discriminable by touch ; in being soft or hard , thin or thick , mucilaginous , gummous , glutinous , friable , &c. and these in their several degrees , in which there is a variety , as in the milks of some plants , which are more dilute than that of others : in their lympha's or clear saps , that of most being thin , of cumfry and some others mucilaginous . and by this to be compared in the same manner as by their quantity . likewise their colours , smells , and tastes : the general and particular kinds of all which should be noted . and to what contained parts , and in what variety , they appertain . so the milks of some are paler , as in burdock ; of others whiter , as in scorzonera ; citrine , in angelica ; yellow , in lovage . in some plants odorous , as in umbelliferous ; in others not , as in cichoraceous : and in most bitter , but with many diversities . and most mucilages have little either colour , taste , or smell , and the like . here also the same qualities are to be inquired into , as in general speaking they are said to be belonging to a vegetable : since it is more than probable , that all colours ●●●●●●pting white , which is sometimes com●●● both to containing and contained 〈◊〉 all odours and tastes which are more 〈◊〉 , and without a resolution of 〈…〉 principles , perceptible in a vege●●ble●●re not ascribable to the organical o● 〈◊〉 parts , but only to those contained in 〈◊〉 ; as from divers reasons hereafter may 〈◊〉 . and first th●● 〈◊〉 ; where , with respect to several 〈…〉 parts , they are more changeable , 〈◊〉 in flowers ; or constant , as green in le●●es . which , with respect to several ages of one part , are more fading , as green in fruits ; or durable , as yellow in flowers . in wha● parts more single , as always in the seed ; or more compounded , as in the flower ; and in what plants more especially , as in pancy . which proper to plants that have such a taste or smell , as both in white flowers are usually less strong . to plants that flower in such a season , as a yellow flower , i think chiefly to spring-plants . and to plants that are natural to such a soil or seat , as to water-plants more usually a white flower . what , amongst all colours , more common to plants , as green ; or more rare , as black . and what all these varieties of colours are upon cultivation , but chiefly in their natural soil . to observe also with their superficial colours , those within : so the roots of docks are yellow , of bistort red , of avens purple , but of most white . where the inward and superficial colours agree , as in the leaves ; or vary , as in the other parts frequently . and in what manner they are situated ; some universally spreading , others running only along with the vessels , as in the leaves of red dock , and the flowers of wood-sorrel . next their odours ; what may be their principal seat ; whether one or divers seats in the same plant. what the chief matter out of which they are continually bred . what similitude betwixt the smells of divers vegetables , as betwixt baume and a limon , the green leaves of meadow-sweet and the green pills of walnuts . or betwixt those of plants and animals , as the smell of green and well-grown carduus is like to that rank scent ab axillis nonnullorum spiranti . which have a more sensible smell , as most have ; and which have less , as corn. where the green leaf is the most fragrant part , as in musk-cranesbill ; where the flower , as in roses ; the root , as in sweet calamus . where all the parts have some odour , where some , or one only ; as in scurvy-grass only the flowers ; and in arum the pestil only , for neither the leaf nor root hath any smell , but this is strong enough , not much unlike to humane excrements . but especially their tastes , which it much importeth us more precisely to distinguish ; first by their general kinds ; for the number even of these may be computed greater than usually it is . i remember not that heat and acritude , with respect to taste , are distinguished ; yet arum root is very pungent without any proper heat , and cloves are very hot without any proper pungency . so the white roots of yarrow have a taste hardly any other way perceptible , than by causing a gentle glowing and continuing warmth upon the tongue . also their respondencies one to another ; as that of zedoary , and of the lesser cardamoms is somewhat like to camphire . likewise their degrees ; in which there is a great latitude , and may be extended from one to ten , or with easie distinction from one to five ; so the root of sorrel is bitter in the first , of dock in the second , of dog-rose in the third , of dandelyon in the fourth , of gentian in the fifth : observing them not only as they vary in several kinds , but the several species of one , as in cichory , hawk-weed , dandelyon . and then their compositions ; for tastes are as truly conjunct in one part , as colours : by which the latitude is still greater ; in that all kinds of tastes , in all their degrees , and in differing numbers may be variously compounded together : for the most part two , as in the leaves of sharp-pointed dock , astringent and sowre ; in sorrel roots astringent and bitter ; and in aloes bitter and sweet , the one in the fifth , the other in the first degree , as upon an unprejudiced tryal may be perceived : and yet more evidently in the gall of any land-animal . sometimes three , as in agrimony bitter , rough , and sowrish ; and in agarick bitter , rough , and sweet . and sometimes perhaps more : the sensible distinctions of all which may lye almost as wide as of plants themselves . wherefore although it were great rashness to take away the distinctions of hot , cold , moist , dry , thin , gross , and other qualities , in their several degrees , which the ancients have affixed to particular plants ; yet since they have done it to many of them with much uncertainty , and that withal they are more properly the effects and operations of plants than their qualities ; practical observation may therefore approve it useful , to add these sensible ones of various tastes , precisely distinguishing their conjugations and degrees . lastly , their several varieties , and mutuations with respect to the subject wherein they reside , should also be noted . as , of all tastes found in plants , bitter and sowre are most common ; sweet and salt most rare . how they vary with the age of the plant or part , as the roots of radishes , growing up to seed , lose their strength ; so most fruits are first sowre , then sweet . what proper to the several parts of any one plant ; so the leaves of wormwood are extraordinary bitter , the root scarcely so at all , of an hot , but quite different taste . what more common or rare to any part ; so no root , that i ever tasted , is sowre . and how they alternate in several plants ; as the root of stock gillow-flower is biting , not the leaves ; on the contrary , the leaves of the smaller arsmart are biting , but not the root , and the like . to which we may add the difference of time wherein the tastes of plants are perceived ; as those of arum and rape-crowfoot are both biting ; but that of the first as it is slowly perceived , so it continues long ; that of the other quickly comes and quickly goes . amongst the other adjuncts of the contained parts , though not of these only , the faculties of vegetables are to be reputed : for so the rosin of jalap , which is purgative , is as truly contained in the organical parts of that root , as blood is in veins . it will be requisite therefore to make particular observation of these also . and first , what faculties chiefly may reside in vegetables above others : so there is none of known use in salivation , except by holding in the mouth : although we may ask , why some amongst them may not ( being taken inwardly ) have a power to evacuate by this , as well as other violent ways ? where more universally spread over all the parts of a vegetable , as in asarum . where belonging chiefly or wholly to any particular parts or part ; as chiefly to the root of rhubarb ; and only to the true and proper seed of barbado nuts . whether such faculties may be proper to such parts especially . what conjunction they may have with tastes , or other qualities ; so such as are purging and vomitory , though some of them have a strong taste , yet the greater part , and of those many of the stronger sort , have no taste , or not much ; as senna , jalap , scammony , hellebore , asarum , and others . so also those that are more sensibly tasted , are , i think for the most part , more or less bitter ; either simply , as colocynthis ; or bitter and astringent , as rhubarb ; or bitter and sweet , as aloe ; or bitter , astringent , and sweet , as agarick . few are hot , as iris. or simply sweet , as manna . and though some may be subacid that are mollifying or lenitive , yet no proper purge or vomit is sowre . how likewise their faculties and qualities may vary their degrees either differently or together ; so aloe and colocynthis are both bitter in the highest degree ; yet aloe , which is also sweet , purgeth more moderately ; colocynthis , which is only bitter , most violently . how far the faculties of vegetables , as well as their qualities , may be compounded , where , and which chiefly ; as astrictive and purgative in rhabarb . w●●re this question may be put , whether divers other and yet more extreme faculties , 〈◊〉 well as these of astrictive and purgative , may not somewh●●e or other be also sound , or made , to meet : whereby the same plant , or preparation of it , may be most potent , and yet most innocent ; the malignity thereof exerting its power , and the vertue its soveraignty at the same time . and lastly , what affinity there may be betwixt them , as most plants that are strong purgative● , and especially vomitories , i think are also sternutatory , as white hellebore , jalap , tabacco : and on the contrary , such as are sternutatory , are some of the most proper and most potent medicines for the head , brain , and g●nus nervosum , taken inwardly , and the like . and thus far a particular observation of the qualities and faculties of the contents of vegetables may proceed , as they are existent in their natural estate . from which , although some probable conjectures may be made of their material and formal essences , and of the causes of their determinate varieties , or the modes of vegetation necessary thereunto : yet will our conceptions hereof be more facile , clear , and comprehensive , if by all other ways of observation they be likewise examin●d , according as experiment may be applicable to any of them . as by contusion ; so some plants give their smell not without rubbing , or not so well ; as the green leaves of stramonium , scurvygrass , and many more : others lose it by rubbing , as the flowers of violets , carnations , borage , &c. others yield it both ways , as rosemary , &c. so some apples mend their taste by scoaping , and pears by rowling , especially that called the rowling pear . by agitation ; which doth that sometimes by force , which digestion doth by heat : so any cold oyl and a syrup being in a due manner agitated together , of two fluid bodies will become one consistent , as is known . by frigifaction ; how far the juyces of vegetables , either without or within them , may be any of them , or some more than others , subject to cold : and thereby to be deprived of their motion or natural consistence , or may suffer alteration in their colour , taste , or smell . by infusion ; where i mean infusion only in simple water ; and so to observe , which of them may be dissolved herein , and how far ; for some may be wholly , some but in part , others not at all ; or very little ; which is proper to some milks as well as gums . so what different colours , smells , or tastes they hereupon yield ; which are found various , and in some very unexpected ; as the green leaves of bawm being duly infused in plain water , without any other body added , tincture it with a pure and deep red , near that of claret wine , as i have often tryed . by digestion with fermentation ; either of the entire vegetables , or of the juyces or other contents ; and these by themselves or with simple water . and hereby to note what difference may be in the strength , celerity , or continuance of the fermentation . likewise how their qualities may thereby be altered ; as the smell of violet-flowers , from a most excellent fragrancy , may by digestion be reduced to an odious and abominable stink , like that of the black mud of gutters , as i have tryed more than once . by digestion with calefaction ; so the colour of the juyce of limons from transparency ( if that be a colour ) may be turned to a perfect red . whence it is that many are deceived in the preparation called the tincture of corals ; supposing the corals to give the menstruum its colour ; whereas the menstruum will obtain it only by digestion without any corals mixed with it . by decoction ; either of vegetables themselves , or of their liquors ; and to observe what alterations follow . so turpentine boiled becometh friable ; sugar bitter and of a brown red . turneps lose their biting taste , onions their picquancy ; yet neither of them convey those self same qualities to the water . the same may be observed in the decoction of sweet fennel-seeds , aniseeds , and others , losing much of their tastes themselves , and yet conveying very little of them to the liquors wherein they are boiled , the greater portion of their volatile parts , and their vertue and taste therewith , flying away : whereof therefore it is much better to make an emulsion , than to decoct them , or to make an emulsion from them with their own decoction , especially if the medicine be intended to be carminative , as i have frequently observed . the decoction should also be carried on throughout all degrees to that of an extract ; by which the qualities thereof sometimes are much altered ; as in that of the green leaves of violets , which from a kind of yellow , deepens at last into a dark colour as black as pitch , and that without the least empyreuma . by distillations ; both with the 〈◊〉 still , alembick , chappel , or open 〈◊〉 and to note what vegetables thus give the● smell or taste , and in what degrees of strength either under or over their natural ones ; as mint , pennyroyal , and the like , which are aromatick and hot , give their tastes perfect : but wormwood , which is aromatick and bitter , gives it but by halfs , only as aromatick , little as bitter . and carduus , though also so exceeding bitter , yet not being aromatick , scarce yieldeth any taste at all . also what vegetables yield oyl most plentifully ; and what difference may be in those oyls as to their colour , weight , or otherwise , as that of cloves is sometimes red , of cinnamon lympid , both ponderous . so to distill juices , gums , or other contents with an hot fire , and to see what bodies they yield , and of what qualities ; as turpentine is known to yield besides its oyl a subacid water , vinegar an eager spirit , as that part may be called , which chymists are wont to call the phlegm . by arefaction ; so milks which are liquid and white in their natural estate , in standing grow gummous , yellow , and otherwise different , so doth that of scorzonera ; and that of fenil into a balsamical , but limpid oyl . so the roots of arum upon drying lose much of the strength of their taste ; but the contrary may be noted of many other roots , which upon drying increase it . some being cut and laid by , change their natural colours into red , purple , yellow , green , or white ; as liquorish into white in some places , and peony into red ; and sometimes into two , as patience , into yellow and red . by assation ; thus apples by roasting eat more sowre . the root of horse radish toasted tasteth like a turnep . potatoes , onions , and many other roots and parts have their tastes either altered or refracted ; which chiefly and in what manner should be observed . there is one alteration as remarkable as commonly known , and is that which followeth upon roasting or baking in one kind of the waldensian pears , which for a walden we corruptly call a warden . by ustion ; wherein some vegetables lose their smell , as roses ; others keep it , as rosemary ; and others mend it , as lignum aloes . to note not only the alteration of their qualities , but what they yield ; as turpentine , which in distillation yieldeth oyl and water both lympid , upon ustion sheweth nothing but a black soot . so benzonie by distillation oyl , by ustion white flowers , as is known . by calcination ; and here to obs●rve wherein the caput mortuum of one 〈◊〉 differ from or agree in nature with that of another ; and also to compare these with those of animal bodies . as also in their quantiti●s . and to compare them with what they yield by distillation and ustion as to both . thus far they have been tryed simply or by themselves . they should also be examined . by composition ; not only with water , as in simple infusions , &c. but with any other bodies which may have a power of acting upon them , or upon which these may have a power to act . and so to make infusions , destillations , decoctions , digestions in divers kinds of liquors , as vinegar , urine , spirit of h. h. wine , blood , milk , or others . so in infusions some red colours are heightned by acids , blews turned purple . so fetid spirits may doubtless be rendred much more grateful by being rectified once or twice with fresh aromaticks . to observe also what follows upon mixing the liquors or other parts of plants toget●er ; as oyl of turpentine by digestion with a lixivial salt extracteth thence a red tincture . or with salts , earths , metals , or any other bodies , as the juyce of the green leaves of rose , raspberry , primrose , and divers other plants ( i think principally such as are astringent ) expressed upon steel , as it drieth , becometh of a purple colour . lastly , by compounding the experiment it self , or joyning two or more of them upon the same matter : as fermentation and destillation , as is used for some waters . infusion and fermentation , as in making of beer . fermentation and coction , or rather assation , as in making of bread. arefaction and destillation , as may be tryed upon some herbs , and with what difference from what may be noted upon their being distilled moist . having proceeded thus far by all the above particular ways of observation ; a comparative prospect must be taken of them : by which at last the communities and differences of the contents of vegetables may be discerned ; the manner of their causation and original partly be judged of ; and wherein it is that the essence of their several natures and qualities doth consist , in some measure comprehended . and consequently both from the knowledge of their particular natures , and the analogy found betwixt them , we may be able better to conjecture and try what any of them are or may be good for . for certainly , we shall then know more readily to apply things unto , and more fitly to prepare them for their proper uses , when we first know what they are . notwithstanding , since the faculties of plants do often lie more recluse ; it is best therefore not wholly to acquiesce in such conjectures as their tastes or other properties may suggest ; but to subjoyn experiment . in making which , and in passing a judgment thereon , many cautions , both in respect of the plant whereof , and the subject whereupon it is made , are requisite to be attended . which yet , in regard they result not so directly from the matter at present in hand , i shall not therefore here insist upon . and thus much for the third general mean. together with the contents of the organical parts of vegetables , it will be requisite to examine their principles also , or the bodies which are not so properly contained in the said organical parts , as immediately concurrent and essential to their being . and of these we are to observe , first their number ; whether well reducible to five , six , seven , or more , or fewer : and the special differences observable under any one general ; since there are many bodies of very different natures confounded under one name . next their conjugation ; which they are that either under or over those observable in animal or other bodies , are here joyned together in a vegetable ; how far common to the organical parts of divers vegetables ; or to the several organical parts of one ; or how far different in them . likewise their proportions ; which stand in the greatest , which in the least , or in the meaner quantities , and in what degrees ; both in divers vegetables , and in the several organical parts of one . and then the concentration and union of them altogether ; as to the degrees of their closeness or laxity ; or the manner of their implication and coherency ; or as to their location , one being more central , another more exposed and rampant over the rest ; or otherwise different . to examine these principles by their colour , taste , smell , consistence , fixedness , volatily , weight , figures , or other accidents . and to these purposes , to go through the fore-mentioned ways of experiment , as ustion , calcination , destillation , &c. as any of them may appear applicable hereunto . and to make experiment not only upon the several organical parts distinctly , but also upon the principles themselves whereinto they are resolved , as by mixing them with one another , or with other bodies , or otherwise . i know it will be difficult to make observations of this kind upon ●he organical parts of vegetables severally . yet i have thought of some ways whereby true and undeceivable ones may be made upon some of them ; and probably on the rest also : which yet , in regard i have not made much tryal of them , i shall not now mention . the prosecution of what is here propounded will be requisite , to a fuller and clearer view , of the modes of vegetation , of the sensible natures of vegetables , and of their more recluse faculties and powers . first , of the modes of vegetation . for suppose we were speaking of a root ; from a due consideration of the properties of any part or parts thereof ; 't is true , that the real and genuine causes may be rendred of divers other dependent properties as spoken generally of the whole root . but it will be asked again , what may be the causes of those first and independent ones ? which if we will seek , we must do it by inquiring also , what are the principles of those parts ? for it is necessary that the principles whereof a body doth consist should be , if not all of them the active , yet the capacitating causes , or such as are called causae sine qua non of its be●oming and ●eing , in all re●pects both as to subst●nce and accidents , what it is : otherwise , their existence in that body were altogether superfluous , since it might have been without them : which if so , it might then have been made of any other ; there being no necessity of putting any difference , if neither those whereof it is made are thought necessary to its being . wherefore if we will allow a body , and so the organical parts of a vegetable to have principles ; we must also allow these principles their necessary use , and that the shapes , or other properties of the said parts are as much dependent upon the nature of these , as is the roundness of a drop of ink upon the fluidity of water ingredient to it . again , the principles of the organical parts being known , we may from thence obtain a further knowledge of the natures and causation or original of their contents ; s●nce ●hese are not only included in the said ●●●anical parts , but also created by them : 〈…〉 needs be so , whether we will 〈…〉 principles of these contents to be 〈…〉 to their reception thereinto , or 〈…〉 nor praeexistent , what can be clearer than tha● the said parts give them their exist●nce ? and if praeexist●nt , yet in regard they are distin●uished , and such only of them admitted in such sort into an organical part from amongst others , as are apt to combine and mix together in such a form , and so to constitute such a liquor ; it is as clear , that the existence , if not of those principles , yet of that liquor , is dependent on the said part . and if by means of the said parts it is that their contents become such and such peculiar mixtures ; it is hence also manifest , that by the same means they are of such distinct faculties and powers : because the faculty or power of a body lieth not in any of its principles apart , but is a resultance from them all , or from their being in such peculiar sort and manner united and combined together . so the principles of the purgative parts of a root , as of rhubarb , although we should suppose them to be existent in the surrounding earth , yet we cannot say that that earth , or the principles therein contained are purgative ; but only such as by being combined together in such a peculiar way may become so . so the several parts of a clock , although they are and must be all praeexistent to it , and it is their form by which they are what they are themselves ; yet is it the setting together of such kind of parts , and in such a kind of way only , that makes them a clock . and since we see that the mixture of two bodies of two different quali●ies ▪ as of two colours , will produce a third colour differing from them both , as blue and red do a murrey ; why should not two or more bodies of different natures also , be so combined together , as to produce a third nature ? or wherefore may not that be allowed to be performed by nature , which by artificial compounding of medicines or other bodies is designed , and often times eff●cted ? i 'le give but one instance ; water , grease , and an alcalizate salt may be easily so ordered as to be invested with new qualities , nature , and powers ; the salt to lose its extreme fiery pungent taste ; the tallow its smell ; and being before unsociable with water , to mingle therewith ; neither tallow , salt , nor water alone will fetch out a spot of grease , but all united easily do it ; the same three parts united are , in some cases , as in the jaundies , an excellent medicine , any of which given alone may rather prove prejudicial than a cure : and all this done only by duly boiling them together into one body , which we call sope. whence again , if it be such an union and proportion of such a sort of principles which produceth such a faculty ; and that we may by any means come to know what these are ; we may possibly also attain to the knowledge of such rules as whereby any kind of faculty may be made , as to compound such bodies which are neither purgative nor vomitory , so together as to be invested with these faculties . and if to make them , then consequently to mend , exalt , strengthen , and ennoble them with greater ease and certainty . and thus much for the fourth general mean. hitherto we have considered the materials of a vegetable only as ingredient to it : there yet remains a fifth story to be ascended , which is to consider these materials also as they are derived from abroad : or as after they are received and naturalized , they may with others yet abroad have any kind of correspondence . and these are four in general , s●il earth , water , air , and sun , all which in that they contribute so universally to vegetation , and to whatsoever is contained in a vegetable , it is therefore requisite , that of these likewise particular observation should be made . and first of the earth , and of all solid receptacles of plants . where we are to consider their several kinds , as mellow , sandy , clayie , chalky , and others . their ingredients , as rank and mellow earth with sand , or with clay , or sand with clay , or altogether , and in what proportions . the principles whereinto any one of these ingredients separated from the rest , and put to the test of distillation , ustion , calcination , or other , either alone , or by mixture with other bodies , may be resolved . and by their qualities , as colour , smell , taste , &c. both ingredients and principles to be examined . to make tryal of the growth of plants in all kinds of simple soils ; either earthy or mineral , as clay , marl , oker , fullers earth , bole armeniac , vitriol , alum , &c. or vegetable , as ro●ten wood , brans , starch , or flower , &c. or animal , as dungs , pounded flesh , dried and powdered blood , and the like ; that it may appear how far any of these may contribute to the growth of a plant , or to one above another . next of the water , and of all liquid receptacles . where the several kinds of water from wells , springs , rain , and rivers are by their qualities and faculties to be examined , as these and by these their principles either in their natural state or upon digestion , or otherwise may be observable : since plain water it self is undoubtedly compounded of several principles ; the simplicity thereof being argued , neither from its clearness and transparency , for a solution of alum , though it containeth a considerable quantity of earth is yet very clear ; nor from its seeming to have neither smell nor taste , for water drinkers will tell you of the varieties of both in different waters . besides , if these qualities should be accounted rather phansie than sense , the difference of waters is yet more manifest from their different effects , observed by cooks , laundresses , brewers , and others that have occasion to use them : for not to mix with sope without curdling , not to boil meat tender , or without colouring it red , and the like , are the vices of some waters , not of others , which yet would seem in colour , taste , and smell to be the same . tryal should also be made of the growth of plants in all kind of liquid receptacles , as common water , snow water , sea water , urine , milk , whey , wine , oyl , ink , &c. or any of these with a solution of salt , nitre , sal prunellae , sope , or other body . and hereby to observe what follows either in the liquor , or in the plant it self : as if any fixed body being weighed before its dissolution in water , and if the plant set herein groweth , the water being then evaporated , whether the quantity of that dissolved body continue the same , or is lessened . so whether any vegetable will become opiate by growing a considerable time in a plain solution or water-tincture of opium , and the like . which experiments what event soever they have , yet at least for our further instruction in the nature of vegetation may be of use . next of air ; where it will be requisite to inquire , what sort of bodies may be herein contained : it being probable , from the variety of meteors formed herein , and of vapours and exhalations continually advanced hereinto , that some or other of them may bear an analogy to all volatile bodies , whether animal , vegetable , or mineral . and to consider the peculiar nature of that body which is strictly called air. as also to try what different effects a diversity of air may have upon a vegetable ; as by setting a plant or seed either exceeding low , as at the bottom of a deep well ; or exceeding high , as on the top of a steeple . or else by exposing some soil to the air , which is assuredly free from any seed , and so as no seed can light upon it , and to observe whether the air hath a power of producing a vegetable therein , or not : and the like . lastly of the sun ; as to which it may be considered , what influence it may have upon the plant it self , upon the soil , or upon the air. whether that influence is any thing else besides heat , or may differ from that of a fire otherwise than by being temperate and more equal . although it will be found very difficult here to make any sincere experiments . as for that of the collection of the sun-beams by the help of glasses in the form of a magistery or of flowers , and such like , i desire to suspend my thoughts of them till i see them . i will only say thus much at present , that i do not understand why the sun should not have some influence upon bodies besides by heat , if it may be granted that the moon hath , for which it should seem there are some good arguments . we have thus far examined the principles necessary to vegetation ; the question may be put once more , in what manner are these principles so adapted as to become capable of being assembled together in such a number , conjugation , proportion , and union , as to make a vegetable body ? for the comprehension whereof , we must also know , what are the principles of these principles . which although they lie in so great an abyss of obscurity , yet i think i have some reason to believe they are not altogether undiscoverable : how far they may be so , i am so far from determining , that i shall not now conjecture . this is the design , and these the means i propound in order thereunto . to which i suppose they may all appear to be necessary . for what we obtain of nature , we must not do it by commanding , but by courting of her . those that woo her may possibly have her for their wife ; but she is not so common as to prostitute her self to the best behaved wit , which only practiseth upon it self , and is not applied to her. i mean , that where ever men will go beyond phansie and imagination , depending upon the conduct of divine wisdom , they must labour , hope , and persevere . and as the means propounded are all necessary , so they may in some measure prove effectual . how far i promise not ; the way is long and dark : and as travellers sometimes amongst mountains , by gaining the top of one , are so far from their journies end , that they only come to see another lies before them : so the way of nature is so impervious , and , as i may say , down hill and up hill , that how far soever we go , yet the surmounting of one difficulty , is wont still to give us the prospect of another . we may therefore believe our attainments will be imperfect after we have done all : but because we cannot attain to all , that therefore we should endeavour after nothing , is an inference which looks so much awry from the practical sense of men , that it ought not to be answered . nor with better reason may we go about determining what may be done . the greatest designs that any men undertake , are of the greatest uncertainty as to their success : which if they appear to be of good import , though we know not how far they are attainable , we are to propound the means , in the utmost use whereof only we can be able to judge : a war is not to be quitted for the hazards which attend it ; nor the councils of princes broken up , because those that sit at them have not the spirit of prophecy , as well as of wisdom . to conclude , although but little should be effected , yet to design more can do us no harm : for although a man shall never be able to hit stars by shooting at them , yet he shall come much nearer to them , than another that throws at apples . the comparative anatomy of roots prosecuted . the second part . chap. i. being to speak of roots , it is requisite , for our better understanding of what follows , that some things , as to their figures , motions , and ages , be premised . roots are generally distinguished , as to their figures , in being more entire , as is liquorish ; or parted , as st. johns wort . parted either at the bottom , as most roots ; or at the top , as dandelyon and some others . parted again , are either ramified , as cumfry ; or manifold , as crowfoot : both are parted , but the former , by the subdivision of greater branches into lesser ; these , when divers roots have all their distinct original from one head . some are straight , as a radish ; others crooked , as bistort . smooth , as bugloss ; or stringy all round about , as columbine . thick , as rhubarb ; slender , as the vine . long , as fenil ; short , as a turnep : which are distinct from great and little , in that these are so called with respect to several roots ; those with respect to the several dimensions of one . short are stubbed , as iris tuberosa ; or round , as dracontium . round are tuberous , as rape crowfoot ; bulbous , as onion . where note , that all bulbous roots are as it were hermaphrodites , or root and trunk both together : for the strings only are absolutely roots ; the bulb actually containing those parts , which springing up , make the leaves or body ; and is as it were , a great bud under ground . roots , again , are plain or uneven : plain are cylindrical , as eryngo ; or pyramidal , as borage ▪ growing smaller downwards , as do most ; or greater , as skirrets . uneven are pitted , as potato's , where the eyes of the future trunks lie inward ; or knobbed , as jerusalem artichoke , where they stand out . these differences are also compounded : so some roots are both entire and smooth , as peony ; others entire , but stringy , as clary . some both plain and knobbed , as filipendula , lilium non bulbosum , and others . and amongst them all there are several degrees : all which , with other differences , by those that undertake the descriptions of plants , are accurately to be noted : and in drawing these , and all the other parts , their sizes withal should be adjusted by a scale . but the differences above mentioned will serve for our present purpose . the motions of roots are also divers . sometimes level , as of hops , and all such as properly creep : sometimes perpendicul●r , as of a parsnep : which is diff●rent from straightness , for some straight roots are level . both of them are either shallow , or deep : some run level , and near the turfe , as wild anemony ; others lower , as dogs-grass : some strike down but a little way , as stramonium ; others grow deep , as hors-radish : which is different from being long ; for ●any long roots are level , as hops . some again descend , as tulips and other bulbous roots : which differs from growing downwards ; in that here the head of the root is immoveable ; but in descending , the whole root doth locum mutare , running deeper time after time into the earth . some also ascend sometimes , and in some part appearing above ground , as turneps . these motions are also compounded , both in respect of the several parts of the root , and of several times . so the main root of primrose is level , the stringy are perpendicular . the roots of most seedlings grow downward and upward at the same time . those of bistort , iris , and some others , grow in part both downward and upward at several times : whence it is that bistort is crooked ; and that some parts of iris root appear oftentimes above the ground . and many are writhed or twisted without being moved out of their place ; which motion cannot be observed but only by the oblique process of the vessels , which we shall presently describe . the motion of descent hath as yet been observed of bulbous roots only . but it is common to many roots besides , as those of arum , primrose , ammi , avens , iris , and others . for of the trunks of these and many other plants it is observable , that gradually and continually descending below the surface of the ground , and hiding themselves therein , they are thus both in nature , place , and office changed into true roots , which , by the continuance of the said motion in the trunk , also descend . this is more especially demonstrated by some , as by the level and knobed roots of wood-sorrel , primrose , &c. for the leaves of these plants rotting off successively , and their trunk gradually descending into the mould , each basis of these leaves is nourished with a more copious sap , and so swelled into so many knobs . the notice of this motion here , leadeth to the discovery of the like in other plants , where the leaves fall off close by the surface of the trunk , as in iris tuberosa , where only the seats of the perished leaves and the ends of their vessels are obscurely visible . the cause of this descent , so far as it is dependent on the inward conformation of the root , i shall hereafter shew . but the immediate visible one , are the string-roots which these kind of trunks frequently put forth ; which descending themselves directly into the ground , like so many ropes , lug the trunk after them . hence the tuberous roots of iris , upon the rotting or fading away of the string-roots hanging at them , sometimes a little re-ascend . hence also the shape of some roots is inverted ; for whereas most are parted downwards into several legs , some are p●rted upwards into divers necks , as dandelyon and others . for these sending forth at the top several trunk-buds , the said buds successively put forth new and cast their old leaves , and continually also making their descent , are at length formed into so many necks of three , four , five , or more inches long under ground . hence also we understand in what particular way some roots become perennial . some are wholly so , as those of trees , shrubs , and divers woody plants . others in part , or by a new progenies of roots , from the old head or body , in the room of those that die yearly , or after a certain time ; as of lilium non bulbosum , jerusalem artichoke , potato , dog-stones , monks-hood , little celandine , and others : in which plants , one or more of their roots are firm , the other spongy and superannuated , and partly by the ravine of the trunk and other younger roots reduced to a consumption and death . with these tulips and other bulbous roots consort : for the several rindes and shells , whereof chiefly the bulb consists , successively perish and shrink up into so many thin and dry skins : betwixt which , and in their centre , other leaves and shells being successively formed , the bulb is thus perpetuated . in the same manner the string-roots also succeed one another annually . so that at the end of divers years , although it be still looked upon as the same individual root , yet is it in truth another as to every particle thereof . lastly , many other roots are perpetuated by the aforesaid descent of the trunk , out of which it is still annually repaired , as by the gradual perishing of its lower parts it is diminished ; as the tuberous roots of arum , iris , strawberry , avens , &c. the extreme and elder parts whereof first fade , and by degrees rot off . whence also we see the reason of the rugged and blunt extremities of these and some other roots , as of that plant superstitiously called devils-bit ; which is not so originally , but part thereof rotting off , the living remainder becometh stumped or seemeth bitten . thus far of the general shapes , motions , and ages of roots . chap. ii. i next proceed to the several parts whereof a root is compounded . the outer part of all is the skin ; which is common to all roots . 't is diversly coloured , whiter in skirrets , yellow in dock , red in potato , brown in lovage , black in bugloss . it s surface sometimes smooth , as in horsradish ; rough , as in scorzonera . 't is of various size ; very thin in parsnep , somewhat thick in bugloss , very thick in iris. sometimes it is opacous , as in thistle ; and sometimes transparent , as in madder . every root hath successively two kind of skins : the one coetaneous with the other parts ; and hath its original from that which involveth the parts of the seed it self . the other postnate , succeeding in the room of the former as the root ageth ; and is originated from the bark . this skin is usually , if not always , compounded of two kinds of bodies : which also is probable of the coetaneous . the one parenchymous , and frequently constructed of exceeding little cells or bubles ; which in some roots , as of asparagus , cut traverse , and viewed through a microscope are plainly visible . see the figure . these bubles are of different sizes , in bugloss larger , in asparagus less ; and sometimes they coincide and disappear . but in these and all other roots , even where these bubles appear not , the parenchyma of the skin is of the same substantial nature with that other more vivid and bulky one of the bark : as is manifest from its being thence originated ; and alike conformed , as shall be seen ; and not only adjacent to it , as a glove is to the hand ; but continuous therewith , as the parts of a piece of flesh are one with another . of this parenchymous body the skin consisteth chiefly , but not wholly ; there being many tubulary vessels mixed therewith : which though hardly by the microscope , yet otherwise is demonstrable . for in tearing the skin , you shall do it more easily by the length than bredth ; because by the first way , the continuity only of the parenchyma is dissolved ; but by the latter , both of this and of the vessels , these being posited by the length of the root : so that as by the smalness of the bubles of the parenchyma , the skin is dense ; so by these vessels is it tough . again , if you cut a root traverse , and let it lie by for some time , all the parts , where there are no vessels , shrink below the surface of the cut-end ; but where-ever these are posited , there is no shrinking ; which oftentimes evidently appears also in the skin : because the said vessels , though , as the bubles , they may coincide , yet they cannot visibly shorten or shrink up in length ; no more than a straw , whose sides may yet be easily crushed together . further , the root being cut traverse , if near the cut-end you very gently press the side of the root with the edge of your nail , the sap will thereupon arise sometimes from the skin ; in the same manner , as from any other part of the root where the like vessels are posited . and although the sap may likewise be expressed from the pith and other parts where sometimes there are none of these vessels ; yet not without a solution of their continuity ; which here doth not follow , as appears from the disappearing of the sap , together with the intermission of the pressure , the said vessels then dilating themselves by a motion of restitution , and so sucking up the sap again . hereunto may be added the testimony of sight ; the very vessels themselves , in many roots , coming under an apparent view , and standing in the utmost surface of the root all round about , as in that of liquorish , columbine , scorzonera , and others . [ see the figure of scorzonera root . ] which experiments i have here once for all more particularly set down , because i shall have occasion hereafter to refer to them . chap. iii. next within the skin lieth the bark . 't is sometimes yellow , as in dock ; red , in bistort ; but usually , and in seedling roots i think always , white . it is derived from the seed it self ; being but the extension or prolongation of part of one of those bodies therein originally existent , and which i have elsewhere called the radicle . it is variously sized ; sometimes very thin , as in jerusalem artichoke , goats beard , and most trees ; where it also retains the name of a bark or rinde . sometimes 't is more thick , and maketh up the far greatest part of the root , as in the string-roots of asparagus , dandelyon , and others . the thinnest and the thickest are all analogous , and obtain the same general uses . the degrees of its size amongst all roots may be well reckoned about twenty , and seen in the following examples , sc. beet , dropwort , jerusalem artichoke , orpine , valerian , goats-beard , nettle , brownwort , columbine , celandine , asparagus , hors-radish , peony , bryony , eryngo , borage , lovage , dandelyon , parsnep , carrot : in which the bark is considered absolutely , and not in comparison with the other parts . see the figures . it is compounded of two bodies . the one parenchymous ; continuous throughout ; yet somewhat pliable without a solution of its continuity . exceeding porous ; as appeareth from its so much shrinking up in drying . the pores hereof are extended much alike both by the length and bredth of the root ; therefore it shrinketh up by both those dimensions more equally . and they are very dilative ; as is also manifest from its restorableness to its former bulk again , upon its infusion in water : that is to say , it is a most curious and exquisitely fine wrought sponge . thus much the eye and reason may discover . the microscope confirms the truth hereof , and more precisely shews , that these pores are all , in a manner , spherical , and this part nothing else but an infinite mass of little cells or fixed bubles . the sides of none of them are visibly pervious from one into another , but each is bounded within it self : so that the parenchyma of the bark is much the same thing , as to conformation , which the froth of beer or eggs is as a fluid , or a piece of fine manchet as a fixed body . the sides also of these bubles are as transparent as those of water . [ see any of the microscopical figures . ] but their size is usually much smaller ; and their posture more regular . in all roots they are so small , as scarcely without the microscope to be discerned : yet are they of different sizes both in the same and in divers roots ; the varieties whereof amongst all roots may be reduced to about ten or twelve , some of those in dandelyon being of the smallest , and in bugloss of the greatest . [ see the microscopical figures . ] they are posited for the most part at equal height ; and piled even one over another : so that oftentimes they visibly run in ranks or trains both by the length and bredth of the root , as in the root of bugloss or dandelyon split through the middle may be seen . although they are usually spherical , yet sometimes and in some places they are more oblong , as in the outward part of the bark of bugloss . [ see the microscopical figure . ] these bubles are sometimes best seen , after the root , being cut traverse , hath layn by a while to dry . they are the receptacles of liquor ; which is ever of a limpid colour ; and i think always more thin . they are in all seed-roots filled herewith ; and usually in those also which are well grown , as of borage , radish , &c. this parenchymous part is , in many roots , of one uniform contexture ; as in asparagus , hors-radish , peony , potato , and others . in many others it is as it were of a diversified woof ; the bubles being , though regular , yet either in shape , size , or situation different in some parts hereof from what they are in other intermediate ones . for these parts are like so many white rays streaming , by the diameter of the root , from the inward edge toward the circumference of the bark ; as in lovage , melilot , parsnep , &c. they are , though not in direct lines , continued also by the length of the root ; so that they are as it were so many membranes by which the other parts of the bark are disterminated . compare the figures . the continuation of these diametral rays or portions is divers : sometimes but half through the bark , or somewhat more or less , as in melilot . sometimes , and usually running quite through to the very skin , as in parsley : wherewith the skin seems to have a closer communion , and in this and the like roots , to be originated especially there from . they usually stand at an equal distance in the same root ; but with respect to divers , their distance varies ; so less in parsnep , greater in angelica . they are commonly rectilinear , as in lovage ; but sometimes winding to and fro , as in carrot , burnet . see the figures . they are not always of one size : in a carrot exceeding slender , and scarcely discernable ; in others thicker , as in the three greater ones of melilot , common chervil . both by their distance and size they are also less or more numerous , some only as they are nearer , some as smaller , others as both . sometimes they are of the same thickness through the bark from edge to edge , as in lovage . see the figure . and sometimes are considerably spread or dilated towards the skin , wherewith they are joyned , and whereinto they more visibly run , as in parsley . see the root it self . the bubles of these diametral portions are sometimes greater than those of the other parenchymous parts , as in parsley ; and i think , sometimes less . yet as there so here variously sized ; to about six or eight degrees ; and those of parsley about the third , fourth , and fifth . their figure is sometimes more oblong ; and their direction or respect more towards the centre of the root . as the other parenchymous parts of the bark are the receptacles of liquor , so these ( where they are ) of air. this is argued from their being more white , and not transparent , as such roots and parts use to be , which are more copiously and equally filled up with liquor : as the pith of elder , which in the old stalks is white , was once , and by being well soaked , will become again transparent . and from their being more dry and void of liquor ; whereupon their bubles , which cannot be vacuities , must be filled with more or less air , mixed with the sap or the vaporous parts thereof . this is more observable in those diametral portions which terminate upon and run into the skin . the bark is not only of a divers woof , but , as is said , of a compounded substance ; there being a certain number of succiferous vessels , fewer or more , in some place or other , mixed with the parenchymous part above described ; and some way or other are demonstrable in all roots : as by the toughness of the bark in being broken by the bredth : by the visible continuation of the said vessels through the length of the bark in the resemblance of small threds : and by the rising up of the sap in the traverse cut of the root , in such places of the bark , where these threds terminate : as the existence of those of the skin was proved chap. 2. these tubulary threds run not through the bark in direct lines , but are frequently braced together in the form of net-work ; the parenchymous parts every where filling up the spaces betwixt the braced threds ; as in burnet , scorzonera , &c. the bark being paired or striped off is apparent . see the figures . they seem at first , where they are braced , to be inosculated , so as to be pervious one into another : but a more accurate view , especially assisted by a microscope , discovers the contrary . neither are they wond any way one about another , as threds are in a rope : nor implicated , as in ravled yarn or the knots of a net : but only contiguous or simply tangent , as the several cords in the braces of a drum : being thus joyned together by the parenchymous parts , as in speaking of the pith will be understood how . yet do not always the same threds belong and keep entire to one brace ; but are frequently parted into lesser threds transposed from brace to brace . nor do they always , in whole or in part , presently after their contingence , mutually fall off again ; but oftentimes run along collaterally joyned together for some space , as in jerusalem artichoke . these braces are of various number in divers roots ; more frequent in jerusalem artichoke , less in scorzonera , more rare in cumfry . the threds likewise are variously divaricated ; sometimes more where the braces are frequent , as in jerusalem artichoke ; and sometimes less where the braces are rare , as in scorzonera , dandelyon : and in all roots more frequent towards the inner verge of the bark . see the figures . by what is said it is partly implied , that these threds are not single vessels ; but a cluster of them , twenty , thirty , or more or fewer of them together . yet as the threds are not in the braces ; so neither are the vessels , in the threds , inosculated . nor yet twisted ; but only stand collateral together ; as the several twires of the silk-worm do in slieve-silk . neither are these vessels pyramidal , so far as the glass will discover , or from probable reason may be conjectured . nor ramified , so as to be successively propagated one from another , after the manner of veins : but cylindrical , and distinctly continued throughout the length of the root , as the several fibres in a tendon or nerve . these vessels are of divers kinds in divers roots : of the different natures whereof , of , although there may be other ways whereby to judge ; yet so far as by inspection , we may do it chiefly by the diversity of those liquors which they severally contain . sometimes they yield a lympha ; and that thin , as they do in a parsnep ; especially those that make a ring at the inward extremity of the bark . see the root it self . that this clear sap ascendeth only from these vessels , is certain ; because no liquor will do so from any parenchymous part , as chap. 2. hath been said . and because it is of a different nature from the sap contained in the bubles of the parenchyma ; although of the same colour , yet sensibly more sweet . sometimes they yield a thick and mucilaginous lympha , as in cumfry , as appeareth by its tenacity . from the mucilaginous content of these vessels it is , i suppose , that the sap contained in the bubles is rendred of the like nature , so far as it approaches hereto ; which sometimes is more , as in marsh-mallow ; and sometimes but little , as in borage : for in pressing out the liquor of this plant , and then heating it over an indifferent fire ; the far greater part hereof remaineth thin ; only some certain strings and little bits of a gellied substance ●re mixed herewith ; which i suppose , were originally the proper liquor of these lymphaeducts . oftentimes these succiferous vessels yield a milky or white sap ; and sometimes yellow , and of other colours ; as in sonchus , and most cichoraceous plants ; in angelica , and most umbelliferous ; in burdock , and divers thistles , to which that is ' akin : in scorzonera , common bells , and many other plants not commonly taken notice of to be milky . the milky saps of all which , although they differ in colour and other qualities , yet agree in being more oily ; it being the mixture of the oily parts with some other limpid liquor , but of a different nature , which causeth that colour . in the same manner as common oyl and a strong liquamen tartari shaked in a bottle together , presently mix into a white liquor : and although they will for the greatest part separate again ; yet some of their parts without any boiling , or so much as the least digestion with heat , by agitation only , or standing together for some time , incorporate in the form of a thin milky sope , which will also dissolve in water . i suppose therefore that it is the volatile salt chiefly of these plants , which being mixed with their oyl , renders this liquor of a white or other colour . sometimes the oyl will separate and discover it self : for if you cut a fenil root traverse , after it hath layn some days out of the ground ; the same vessels , which in a fresh root yields milk , will now yield oyl . all gums and balsams are likewise to be reputed the proper contents of these vessels : for these and milks are very near ' akin . so the milk of fenil , upon standing , turns to a clear balsam ; of scorzonera , dandelyon , and others to a gum. and in the dried root of angelica , &c. being split , the milk , according to the continuation of these vessels , appeareth , as blood clodders in the veins , condensed to an hard and shining rosin . see the roots themselves . these succiferous vessels are not only of divers kinds in divers roots , but in the same . whether in all , i doubt : but in some it is certain they are : for if you cut a fenil root traverse , both milks and limpid sap will presently ascend , and upon accurate inspection appear thereupon distinctly . [ see both the figure and the root it self . ] whether all roots have lymphaeducts , it is also doubtful ; but most probable that they have , more or fewer , standing for the most part in a ring at the inner verge of the bark : the sap whereof may be so far off common nature in all roots as to be clear and less oily . the quantity of these vessels is very different : in borage , peony , bistort but few ; in asparagus fewer : in parsnep , celandine many ; in fenil , marsh-mallow many more : and betwixt these extremes there are many degrees , as by comparing the roots of horsradish , turnep , briony , skirrets , parsley , goats-beard , and as many more as you please , may be seen . see the figures . there are two ways of judging of their number ; either as their extremities are visible upon the traverse cut of the bark ; or as the bark is diversly brittle or tough , being so from the various number of these vessels therein , as chap. 2. hath been said . the quantity of the ascending sap , is a doubtful argument , whether of the number or size of these vessels . for it is common to most milky roots , for the milk to ascend more copiously : yet in some of them , the vessels seem not to be , in proportion with the parenchymous part , so numerous as in some other roots , where the ascending sap is less ; as by comparing the lacteals of dandelyon and the lymphaeducts of fenil together may appear : so that it should seem , that the bore of the lacteal vessels is greater than that of the lymphaeducts . the situation of these vessels is various and elegant . sometimes they are posited only at the inner edge of the bark , where they make a ring , as in asparagus . in which place and position they stand in most , if not in all , roots , how variously soever otherwise they are posited . this ring is either more entire , as in eryngo , brownwort , valerian , &c. or it is a prick'd ring , as in butterbur . sometimes they are chiefly posturd in a prick-ring towards the outward part of the bark , as in peony : and some are pricked all over the bark , as in melilot . in others they stand not so much in pricks , as portions or columns , as in cumfry . in others again they all stand in in more continued lines , either rays or diametral , as in borage ; or peripherial , as in celandine . the rays are not equally extended in all roots : in parsnep towards the circumference of the bark ; in bugloss about half way . in borage , the rays are more continuous ; in a carrot , more pricked . here also the pricks stand in even lines ; in lovage they are divaricated . of which , and those of some other roots , it is also observable , that they are not all properly pricks , but most of them very little circles , which , after the milk hath been frequently licked off , and ceaseth to ascend , are visible . see the figures . and note , that in observing all milk-vessels , the milk is to be taken off , not with the finger but the tongue , so often till it riseth no more , or but little . and some roots may also be soaked in water , whereby the position of the milk-vessels will be visible by the darker colour of the bark where they stand . the rays sometimes run more parallel , and keep several , as in monkshood ; and sometimes towards the circumference of the bark they are occurrent , as in eryngo : here in a termination more circular , and in bryony angular , or in the form of a glory ; as also in horsradish through a microscope . the peripherial lines are in some more entire circles , as in dandelyon ; in others made up of shorter chords , as in potato , cumfry , and the smaller part of the root of monkshood . in some the pricks are so exceeding small , and stand so close , that , to the bare eye , they seem to be continous rings , which yet through the microscope appear distinct , as in marsh-mallow and liquorish . see the figures . sometimes columns and chords are compounded , as in burnet ; pricks and chords , in potato ; rays and rings , in monkshood ; where the ring is single . in fenil there is a double or treple order both of rays and rings , the lymphaeducts standing in rays and the lacteals in rings . and in marsh-mallow the vessels are so posited as to make both those kinds of lines . in celandine they seem all , to the bare eye , to stand in numerous rings lying even one within another . see the figures . as also in dandelyon ; in which yet , being viewed through a microscope , there is an appearance of very many small rays , which streaming from the inner verge of the bark , cross three or four of the smaller rings , and there terminate . see the microscopical figure . whence it should seem , that lymphatick rays and milky rings are so far mixed together ; only the lympha being confounded with the milk cannot be discerned . and where the milky vessels are evacuated , or at such seasons wherein they are less full , divers milky roots will yield a clear liquor at the inner verge of the bark , where , at other times , they seem to yield only milk. and this is the description of the bark . chap. iv. that portion of the root which standeth next within the bark , is also compounded of two bodies , parenchymous and lignous . the parenchymous is of the same substantial nature with that of the bark : and is originated from it ; being not only adjacent to it , but all round about continuous therewith , even as that is with the skin ; the parenchyma of the bark being distributed , from time to time , partly outward into the skin , and partly inward into this . the position of the several parts hereof is different . for the most part they have a diametral continuation in several portions , running betwixt as many more of the lignous parts from the circumference towards the centre of the root . in the roots of some plants they are more observable , as in cumfry ; which leadeth to the notice of them in all others both of plants and trees . see the figure . sometimes part of this parenchymous body is disposed into rings , as in fenil . the number and size of which rings differ ; in fenil they are in some places broader , but fewer ; in beet they are narrower , but more . see the figure . the diametral portions are in like manner much varied ; in cumfry , celandine larger ; in beet , bugloss , meaner ; in borage , parsnep more and lesser ; and in most woody roots , streaming betwixt the pith and the bark as so many small rays . their continuation is also different ; in some roots to the centre , as in columbine ; in others not , as in parsnep . see the figures . and sometimes different in the same root , as in the vine . see the microscopical figure . the contexture of these parenchymous portions is sometimes uniform , as in bugloss , peony ; and sometimes also , as it is in the bark , different ; in part more sappy and transparent , in part more white , dry , and airy , as in carrot , lovage , scorzonera , and others ; which yet cannot be observed without a wary view . see the figures . but their general texture is the same being all made up of many small bubles : which are of different sizes , like those of the bark ; but for the most part smaller . their shape likewise is usually round ; but sometimes oblong and oval , as in borage ; or oblong and square , as in the vine . the lignous part , if not always , yet usually , is also compounded of two kinds of bodies , scil . succiferous and air-vessels . the succiferous are , as far as discernable , of the same conformation and nature with those of the bark , and in the transverse cut of the root , do oftentimes , as those , emit a liquor . they are also braced ; and many of them run in distinct threds or portions collaterally together . the air-vessels i so call , because they contain no liquor , but an airy vapour . they are mor● or less visible in all roots . they may b● distinguished to the bare eye from its parenchymous parts by their whiter surface ; and standing more prominent , while those shrink below the transverse level of the root , upon drying . they are frequently conjugated divers of them together ; sometimes fewer , and for the most part single , as in asparagus ; sometimes many , as in hors-radish . see the microscopical figures . and their conjugations are also braced as the threds of the succiferous vessels . but they are no where inosculated : nor twisted one about another ; but only tangent or collateral . neither are they ramified , the greater into less ; but are all distinctly continued from one end of the root to the other . their braces , as those of the succiferous vessels , are also of various number ; in cumfry , scorzonera more rare ; in borage more frequent ; as by stripping off the bark of such roots where it is easily separable , may be seen . see the figure of scorzonera . and they often vary in the same root ; so in borage , scorzonera , &c. they are more frequent in the centre and next the bark than in the intermediate space , as by splitting those roots down the middle doth appear . see the figures . they also vary from those of the succiferous vessels ; those being usually more frequent , as in jerusalem artichoke , than these of the aerial . see the figures . betwixt these braced air-vessels run the parenchymous parts above described , as they do betwixt the succiferous in the bark . see the figures . an agreeable structure hereto may be observed in the parts of a muscle ; wherein some , more membranous and white , are posited and knit together in the form of lozenges or close net-work : others , more red , or soft , fill up all the interjacent spaces , and have a counter-process or continuation ; the one by the bredth or thickness of the muscle , the other by the length . the same structure is likewise visible in tendons , but more difficultly the position of both these kinds of vessels is various . the succiferous are sometimes posited in diametral lines or portions , as in the vine : sometimes oppositely to the aerial , as in beet ; each ring herein being double , and made both of sap and a●r-vessels . in nettle the succiferous run cross the aerial in several , five , six , seven , or more rings . in bryony the several conjug●tions of the aerial are surrounded with the succiferous . in patience the succiferous are disposed , besides rays , into many small rings of different sizes sprinkled up and down , and not having one common centre : within divers whereof aerial are included : especially within those which are drawn not into rings , but as it were stragling hedges . see the figures . that also of the air-vessels is various and elegant . in ammi , ●ilium non bulbos●m they make a ring . in these a prick'd ring ; in peony a ring of rays ; in valerian a ring of pricks and rays . in others they make not rings , but longer rays , extended either towards the centre , as in scorzonera ; or meeting in it , as in columbine . in beet they stand in several rings , and every ring made of rays . in cumfry the rays and rings are separate , those stand without , these next the centre . in celandine they are of a parallel , in monkshood of a wedged form . in borage the position of many of them is spiral in horse radish , they stand more confused neither in rings nor in rays ; yet their several conjugations are radiated : with very many other differences . see the figures . th● q●antity of these vessels , as to the space they take up in the root , is to be computed two ways , by their number or s●ze . their number may , in some roots , and in some measure , be judged of by the bare eye , having frequently a whiter surface than the other parts . as also their size ; the bore of these vessels being greater than that of the succiferous in all roots ; especially some . for if you take the roots of vine , fenil , dandelyon , plum-tree , elder , willow , &c. and lay them by for some time to dry ; and then having cut off a very thin slice of each transversly , if you hold up those slices before your eye , so as the sight may be trajected through the said vessels , they hereby become visible , as notably different both in number and size . but undeceitful and accurate observation of both their number and size must be made by the microscope ; and so they will appear to be much more various . in bistort , skirret , they are very few ; in beet very many : betwixt which extremes there are all degrees ; as in orpine , monkshood , scorzonera , great celandine , peony , borage , fenil , &c. m●y be seen . so their size in some is extreme small , as in strawberry , bistort , valerian ; in others very great , as in asparagus , bugloss , vine . they are also of several sizes in the same root ; but in some are less varied , as in lilium non bulbosum , asparagus , bugloss ; in others more , as in bryony , lovage . amongst all roots they vary by about twenty degrees ; as by comparing the roots of vine , thorn , apple , bryony , lovage , fenil , wild carrot , saxifrage , parsley , peony , horehound , cinquefoyl , strawberry , &c. together , may be seen . see the figures of so many of them as are drawn . in some roots they are small and few ; as in jerusalem artichoke ; in others small , but many , as in horse-radish : in bugloss they are great , but few ; in vine great and many . so that the proportion which those of a vine , their number and size being taken together , bear to those of jerusalem artichoke , may be at least ●s fifty to one . see the microscopical figures . of the smallest kinds , as those of cinquefoyl , jerusalem artichoke , and the like , it is to be noted , that they are scarce ever visible in the fresh slices of these roots , but after they have layn by a while , at last by a good glass , clear light , and steddy view , are discernable . in some roots the greater of these vessels stand in or next the centre , as in taraxicum ; in others next the circumference , as in horse radish . somtimes each of them is from one end of the root to the other , of a more equal size , or more cylindrical , as in marsh-mallow ; but usually they widen more or less from the top to the bottom of the root , as in thorn-apple ; about the top whereof they are for the most part but of the sixth , seventh , and eighth magnitude , some of the fifth , but none of the third ; but about the bottom they are most of the third and fifth : whence it is manifest ▪ that some of them are , in the manner of veins , somewhat pyramidal : yet their ampliation proceedeth not towards , but from their original , as in n●rves . of these vessels the learned m●lpighius hath observed ; componuntur ( saith he ) expositae sistulae zonâ tenui & pellucidâ , velut argentei coloris l●minâ , p●rum lat● ; quae , s●●raliter locat● , & extremis l●teri●us unita , ●●ubum , interius & exterius aliquantulum ●sp●rum , ●ffi●it . to whose observation i further add , that the spiral zone , which he so calls , is not one absolutely entire piece ; but consisting of two or more round and perfect fibres standing collaterally together : and according as fewer or more of these fibres happen to break off , from their spiral location , together , the zone is narrower or broader ; usually narrower in the trunk , and broader in the root . of these fibres it is also observable , that they are not inosculated side to side , but are knit or stitched together by other small●r ones ; those being as it were the warp , and these the woof of these vessels . yet i think the several fibres are not interwoven just as in a web ; but by a kind ●f wreath or st●●ch , as the several plates of a mat. a clear and elegant sight of these fibres , and of their interweftage , by splitting a vine root , or a piece of oak , may , in the sides of their greater air-vessels , be obtained ; having altogether the resemblance of close needle-work . the spiration of the fibres of these vessels may be more easily observed in the trunk than in the root ; and better in younger plants ; and not so well by cutting as splitting , or tearing off some small piece through which they run , their conformation being by this means not spoiled , yet this way they are seen chiefly unresolved . but in the leaves and tender stalks of all such plan●● as s●●w upon breaking a kind of doune or wool , they may be seen resolved and drawn out , and that sometimes even to the naked eye , an in●h or two in length ; this wool being nothing else but a number of fibres resolved from their spiral position in these v●ssels , and drawn out in length , and so cluster'd together as so many threds or little ropes ; appearing thus in most vegetables , but especially in some , as vines , scabious , squills , and others . see the plants themselves . the process of their spiration is not , so far as i have observed , accidental , but constantly the same ; scil . in the root by south from west to east ; but in the trunk contrarily , by south from east to west . the content of these vessels is , as hath already been intimated , more airy . the proof whereof is , that upon a transverse cut of the root , the sap never ascendeth there where these stand . being also viewed through a microscope , they are never observed to be filled with liquor . besides , a root cut and immersed in water , till it is in some part got into these vessels , and then taken out and crushed ; the other parts wi●l yield liquor , but these only bubles ; which bubles rise from some small quantity of liquor mixed with the air before contained in the said vessels . to which other arguments will arise out of those things that follow . as also for this content it s not being a pure , but vaporous air. whether these vessels may not , in some vegetables , and at some times , contain liquor , is doubtful . thus far of the lignous part. chap. v. within the lignous part lyeth the pith. this part is not common to all roots , for some have none , as nicotian , stramonium , and others . yet many which have none or little throughout all their lower parts , have one fair enough about their tops , as mallow , borage , dandelyon , and the like . see the roots . and in many others there are parenchymous parts , of the same substantial nature with the pith , visible from the top to the bottom , as in beet , fenil , &c. see the roots and figures . the size of the pith is varied by many degrees easily reckoned an hundred ; in fenil , dandelyon , asparagus but small ; in horsradish , valerian , bistort great . see the figures . the shape hereof in the lower parts of most roots is pyramidal ; but at the tops various , according to the different distribution of the vessels , as in carrot , hyperbolical , in parsley oval ; as appeareth in cutting the roots length-ways . see the figures . the pith , for the most part , especially in trees , is a simple body : but sometimes it is , as the bark , compounded , some certain number of succiferous vessels being mixed herewith ; as in jerusalem artichoke , horsradish , &c. upon a traverse cut , by a strict view , may be discerned . see the figures . their position is sometimes confused , as in carrot ; and sometimes regular , as in parsley , appearing by the traverse cut in rings , and in cutting by the length in arches . see the figure . as all the other parts of the root are originated from the seed ; so sometimes is the pith it self . but sometimes it hath its more immediate derivation from the bark . hence it is , that many roots which have no pith in their lower parts , have one at their top , as columbine , lovage , &c. see the roots . for the parenchymous parts of the bark being by degrees distributed into diametral portions , running betwixt those of the lignous body , and at length meeting and uniting in the centre , thus constitute the pith. in the same manner , at the top of some roots , the pith is either made or augmented out of the parenchymous rings above described , these being gradually distributed to and embodied in the centre ; as in fenil and some other roots , their lower and upper parts compared together , may be seen . from hence the pith appears to be also of the same substantial nature with the parenchyma of the bark , and with the diametral portions , and that they are all one body differing only in shape and place . as also from its being continuous with the diametral portions , in like manner as these are w●th the said parenchyma . and from its contexture , which by a microscope appeareth to be the same in all ; this being also made up of bubles : which the learned mr. hooke first shewed me of the pith in the trunk of elder . and i ha●ing before demonstrated that the bark and diametral portions were of one substantial nature with the pith ; ( as also all the other parenchymous parts of a plant , in the leaves , fruit , &c. as i have elsewhere described them ) i conjectured they wer● 〈◊〉 of the self same contexture ; and acc●rdi●gly , having viewed them through a good glass , i found they were . the bubles of the pith are of very different sizes : seldom less than in the bark , as in asparagus ; usually much bigger , as in horsradish . they may be well reckoned to about fifteen or ●wenty degrees ; those of jerusalem artichoke of the largest ; of valerian , horsradish , of the meaner ; in bistort , peony of ●he smallest . see the figures . their position is rarely varied , as it is oftentimes in the bark , but more uniform , and in the transverse out , equ●●ly respective to all parts of the root : yet being 〈…〉 one over another , in the long ●ut 〈…〉 ●o run in direct trains by the 〈…〉 the root . their shape also is u●●a●ly m●re circul●r ; but sometimes somewha● 〈…〉 the larger kinds , as in jerusal●●●●●●choke . see the microscopical figure . thus far the contexture of the pith is well discoverable in the root . in the trunk farther and more easily . yet since i am giving the description hereof , i shall therefore further illustrate it by examples from thence : and to what hath been observed , i further add , that the sides by which the aforesaid bubles of the pith are circumscribed , are not meer paper skins , but so many several ranks or piles of exceeding small fibrous threds , lying for the most part evenly one over another from the bottom to the top of every buble , and running cross , as the threds in the weavers warp , from one buble to another ; which is to say , that the pith is nothing else but a rete mirabile , or an infinite number of small fibres admirably complicated together ; as by cutting the pith with a razor may be seen . all vegetables exhibit this spectable not alike distinctly , those best with the largest bubles . nor the same pith in any condition , but best when dry ; because then , the sap being voided , the spaces betwixt the fibrous threds , and so the threds themselves are more distinctly discernable . yet is it not to be dryed after cutting ; because its several parts will thereupon coincide and become deformed ; but to be chosen while the plant is yet growing , when it may be often found dry , yet undeformed , as in the trunks of common thistle , jerusalem artichoke , &c. these threds , so far as i can observe , are not single fibres , but usually consist of several . nor are they simply collateral , but by the weftage of other single ones , in their natural estate , knit together ; much after the same manner as the spiral fibres of the air-vessels . this connexion i have no where so well seen , as in the white bottoms of the bubles of a bulrush , being cut traverse ; wherein they have the appearance of very fine and close needle work . the single fibres are seldom and scarcely visible , except by obliquely tearing the pith ; by which means they will appear , through the glass , broken off sometimes a quarter or h●lf an ●nch , or an ●nch in length ; and exceeding sm●ll beyond the threds . in bulrush they are sometimes d●scernable in cutting by the length . these fibres and the threds composed of them , being for the most part so pellucid , and closely situate , they frequently seem to make one entire body , as a piece of ice or a film of water it self : or even as animal skins sometimes shew , which yet are known and commonly allowed to be fibrous . the situation of these threds , is contrary to that of the vessels , as those by the length , so these chiefly by the bredth of the root , or horizontally from one edge of the pith to the other . they are continued circularly ; whereby as oft as they keep within the compass of the several bubles , the said bubles are round ; but where they winde out of one buble into another , they mutually intersect a chord of their several circles , by which means the bubles become angular . the contexture likewise both of the parenchymous part of the bark , and of the diametral portions inserted betwixt the lignous , is the same with this of the pith now described , that is fibrous . whence we understand , how the several braces and threds of the vessels are made : for the vessels running by the length of the root , as the warp , by the parenchymous fibres running cross or horizontally , as the woof , are thus knit and as it were stitched up together . yet their weftage seemeth not to be simple , as in cloath ; but that many of the fibrous threds are wraped round about each vessel , and in the same manner are continued from one to another ; thereby knitting them altogether more closely into one tubulary thred ; and those threds again into one brace : much after the manner of the needle-work called back stitch , or that used in quilting of balls . some obscure sight hereof may be taken in the threds of cambrick in the use of a microscope ; but it is most visible in the leaves and flowers of some plants . the delineation of these things i shall therefore omit , till we come hereafter to speak of those parts . from what hath been said , it may be conjectured ; that the air-vessels successively appearing in the bark , are formed , not out of any fluid matter , as are the original ones , but of the parenchymous fibres ; sc. by changing them from a spherical to a tubulary , and from a circular to a spiral posture . from the precedents it is also manifest , that all the parenchymous parts of a root are fibrous . whence it is probable , that all the parenchymous parts of animals are likewise fibrous , even of the glandules and of all the viscera : which yet through the fineness of the work , and less consistency of the parts , may here be more difficult to observe . and lastly , that the whole body of a root consisteth of vessels and fibres . and that these fibres themselves are tubulary or so many more vessels , is most probable : there only wanteth a greater perfection of microscopical glasses to determine . whence it is also probable , that all the parts of an animal , even bones themselves , upon the original formation of the foetus , are composed of vessels ; or at least of vessels and fibres . for which conjecture i have further grounds which i shall not now mention . the contents of the pith are , sometimes liquor , and sometimes a vaporous air. the liquor is always limpid , as that of the parenchymous part of the bark ; and in nature not much differing from it . the air is sometimes less , and sometimes more vaporous than that of the bark . by this air i mean that which is contained in the bubles . within the concaves of the fibres ● suppose there is another different one : so that as in the bubles is contained a more aqueous , and in the vessels a more essential liquor ; so sometimes in the bubles is contained a more vaporous , and in the fibres a more simple and essential air. an account of the vegetation of roots grounded chiefly upon the foregoing anatomy . the third part . to philosophize , is to render the causes and ends of things . no man therefore that denieth god can do this truly : for the taking away of the first cause maketh all things contingent . now of that which is contingent , although there may be an event , yet there can be no reason or end : so that men should then study that which is not . so the causes of things , if they are contingent they cannot be constant : for that which is the cause of this now , if it be so contingently , it may not be the cause hereafter ; and no physical proposition grounded upon the constancy and certainty of things could have any foundation . he therefore that philosophiseth , and denieth god , playeth a childish game . wherefore nature and the causes and reasons of things duly contemplated , naturally lead us unto god , and is one way of securing our veneration of him ; giving us not only a general demonstration of his being ; but a particular one of most of the several qualifications thereof . for all goodness , righteousnes● , proportion , order , truth , or whatever else is excellent and amiable in the creatures , it is the demonstration of the like in god : for it is impossible that god should ever make any thing not like himself in some degree or other : these things , and the very notion which we have of them , are conceptions issuing from the womb of the divine nature . by the same means we have a greater assurance of the excellency of his sacred word ; that he who hath done all things so transcendently well , must needs speak as well as he hath done . that he who in so admirable a manner hath made man , cannot but know best what his true principles and faculties are , and what actions are most agreeable thereunto ; and that having adorned him with such beauteous and lovely ones , it is impossible he should ever put him upon the exercise of those faculties in any way deform●d and unlovely . that he should do all things so well himself , and yet require his creatures to do otherwise , is unconceivable . and as we may come hereby to rectifie our apprehensions of his laws , so also of his mysteries . for there are many things of the manner of whose existence we have no certain knowledge , yet of their existence we are as sure as our senses can make us : but we may as well deny what god hath made , to be ; as what he hath spoken , to be true , ●ecause we understand not how . and the knowledge of things being gradually attained , we have occasion to reflect , that some things we can now well conceive , which we once thought unintelligible : i know therefore what i understand not , but i know not what is unintelligible ; what i know not now , i may hereafter ; or if not i , another ; or if no man , or other creature , it is sufficient that god fully understandeth himself . it is not therefore the knowledge of nature , but the wanton phansies of mens minds that dispose them either to forget god , or to think unduly of him . nor have we reason to fear going too far in the study of nature , more than the entring into it ; because the higher we rise in the true knowledge and due contemplation of this , the nearer we come to the divine author hereof . or to think , that there is any contradiction , when philosophy teaches that to be done by nature , which religion and the sacred scriptures teach us to be done by god : no more than to say , that the ballance of a watch is moved by the next wheel , is to deny that wheel and the rest to be moved by the spring , or that both the spring and all the other parts are caused to move together by the maker of them . so god may be truly the cause of this effect , although a thousand other causes should be supposed to intervene ; for all nature is as one great engine made by and held in his hand . and as it is the watch makers art , that the hand moves regularly from hour to hour , although he put not his singer still to it : so is it the demonstration of divine wisdom , that the parts of nature are so harmoniously contrived and set together as to conspire to all kind of natural motions and effects without the extraordinary-immediate influence of the author of it . therefore as the original being of all things is the most proper demonstration of gods power , so are the successive generations and operations of things the most proper demonstration of his wisdom . for if we should suppose god did now make or do any thing by any thing , then no effect would be produced by a natural cause ; and consequently he would still be upon the work of creation , which yet sacred scripture assureth us he resteth from ; and we might expect the formation of a child in an egg , as well as in a womb , or of a chicken out of a stone as an egg ; for infinite power maketh no difference in the things it useth . but in that these things are not only made , but so made as to produce their natural effects , here is the sensible and illustrious evidence of his wisdom : and the more complicated and vastly numerous we allow the natural causes of things to be , the more duly we conceive of that wisdom which thus disposeth of them all to those their effects . as the wisdom of the king is not seen by his in●erposing himself in every case ; but in the con●rivance of his laws , and consti●ution of his ministers in such sort , that it shall be as effectually determined of , as if he did so indeed . thus all things are as ministers in the hands of god , conspiring together a thousand ways towards a thousand effects and ends at one time ; and that with the same certainty as if he did prepose that omnipotent fiat which he used at the creation of the world , to every one of them . this vniversal monarchy , as it is eminently visible in all other particular oeconomies ; so is it no less in that of vegetables . infinite occurrences and secret intrigues 't is made up of , of which we cannot skill but by the help of manifold means , and those i suppose such as i have lately propounded . as yet i have prosecuted only one of them , scil . anatomy , and that not throughly neither . so far therefore as observations already made will conduct us , i shall endeavour to go . and if , for the better clearing of the way , i have intermixed some conjectures , i think they are not meerly such , but for which i have some grounds , and which the series of the following discourse may be some proof of . let us say then , that the root of a plant being lodged in some soil for its more convenient growth ; 't is necessary the soil should be duly prepared thereunto . th● rain therefore falling and soaking into it ▪ somewhat diluteth the dissoluble principles therein contained , and renders them more easily communicable to the root , being as a menstruum which extracteth those principles from the other greater and useless part of the soil . and the warm sun joyned with the mollifying rain , by both , as it were a digestion of the soil , or a g●ntile fermentation amongst its several parts , will follow : whereby the dissoluble parts therein will rot and mellow ; that is , those principles which as yet remained more fixed , will now be further resolved and unlocked , and more copiously and equally spread themselves through the body of the soil . these principles being with the growth of plants continually exhausted , and needing a repair ; the successions therefore of wet , wind , and other weather , beat down and rot the leaves and other parts of plants : whereby ( as weeds which are wont to be buried under ground ) they become a natural manure , and re-impregnate the soil ; being thus , in part , out of their own resolved principles , annually compounded again . many of these principles upon their resolution being by the sun more attenuated and volatilized , continually ascend into the air , and are mixed therewith . where although they lose not their vegetable nature , yet being amongst other purer principles , these also , depositing their earthy feculencies , become more subtile , simple and essential bodies . and the air being of an elastick or springie nature , pressing more or less upon all bodies ; it thereby forceth and insinuateth it self into the soil through all its permeable pores . upon its own entrance , it carries also many of the said vegetable and essential principles along with it , which together with the rest are spread all over the body of the soil . by which means , though a less vehement , yet more subtile fermentation , and with the least advantage of warmth continuable , will be effected . the principles being thus farther resolved and subtilized , would presently exhale away , if the rain again did not prevent : which therefore falling upon and soaking through the soil , is as a fresh menstruum saturate or impregnate with many of them , and as it still sinketh lower , carries them along with it from the superficial to the deeper parts of the soil ; thus not only maturing those parts also , which otherwise would be more lean and cold ; but therein likewise laying up and securing a store more gradually and thriftily to be bestowed upon the upper parts again as they need . and autumn having laid up the store , winter following thereupon , doth as it were lock the doors upon it . in which time some warmer intervals serve further and gradually to mature the stored principles , without hazard of their being exhaled . and the spring returning , sets the doors open again , with warmer and more constant sun , gentle and frequent rain fully resolves the said principles , and so furnisheth a plentiful diet for all kind of vegetables ; being a composition of water chiefly , wherein are resolved some portion of earth , salt , acid , oyl , spirit , and air ; or other bodies of affinity herewith . the root standing in the soil thus prepared , and being always surrounded with a bark , which consisteth chiefly of a parenchymous and spongy body ; it will thus , as sponges do , naturally suck up the watry parts of the soil impregnate with the said principles . which principles notwithstanding being in proportion with the watry parts but sew , and also more essential , and though mixed yet as yet little united ; therefore in this parenchymous part , are they never much discovered either by colour , taste , or smell . as it is probable that some distilled waters which discover nothing to sense of the plants from which they are distilled , may yet in part retain their faculties . and it is known that many bodies , as crocus metallorum , convey many of their parts into the menstruum without any sensible alteration thereof . so frost and snow have neither taste nor smell ; yet from their figures , 't is evident that there are divers kinds of saline principles incorporated with them , or at least such as are common to them and divers kinds of salts . the entrance of this impregnate water or sap is not without difference , but by the regulation of the intervening skin ; being thereby strained and rendred more pure : the skin , according to the thickness or closeness thereof , becoming sometimes only as a brown paper , sometimes as a cotton , and sometimes as a bag of leather to the transient sap , as the nature of it doth require . by which it is also moderated , lest the bark being spongy , should suck it up too fast , and so the root be as it were surcharged by a plethora . and divers of the succiferous vessels being mixed herewith , and because lying next the soil , usually more or less mortified , and so their principles somewhat resolved ; the sap is hereby better specified , and further tinctured , such parts of the sap best entring as are most agreeable to those principles , and carrying them off in some part as it passeth into the bark . the sap thus strained , though it be pure , and consisteth of essential parts ; yet being compounded of heterogeneous ones ; and received into the parenchyma of the bark a light and spongy body , they will now easily and mildly ferment . hereby they will be yet further prepared . and also more easily insinuate themselves into all the bubles of the said parenchyma ; swelling and dilating it as far as the continuity of its parts will bear . whereupon partly from the continued entrance of fresh sap , and partly by a motion or pressure of restitution in the swollen and tensed bubles of the parenchyma , the sap is forced thence into the other parts of the root . and because the parenchyma is in no place openly and visibly pervious , but is every where composed of an infinite number of small bubles ; the sap therefore is not only fermented therein , and fitted for separation ; but , as it passeth through it , is every part of it strained an hundred times over from buble to buble . the sap thus fermented and strained , is distributed to the organical parts , according as the several principles of this , are agreeable to those whereof the said organical parts consist . as the sap therefore passeth from buble to buble , such principles as are agreeable to those of the fibres of the said bubles , will adhere to , and insinuate themselves into the body of the fibres ; sc. earthy and watry chiefly , next acid , then spirituous and oleous , and least of all airy . and the sap by its continual appulse and percolation , as it leaveth some parts upon the said fibres ; so as it is squeezed betwixt them from buble to buble , it licks and carries off some others from them , in some union together with it ; and so is impregnate herewith , as water by passing through a mineral vein becomes tinctured with that mineral . the sap thus impregnate with some united principles of the parenchymous fibres , passeth on to the succiferous vessels , whereinto their correspondent principles also enter ; scil . earthy , watry , saline , and oleous chiefly . and because the parenchymous principles mixed with them are in some degree united , and so more ready t● fix : some of these therefore will likewise enter into the said vessels . whereupon , the alkali oleosum of the one , and the acidum spirituosum of the other meeting together , these with the other principles all concentre , and of divers fluids , become one fixed body , and are gradually agglutinated to the vessels , that is the vessels are now nourished . the supply of the sap still continued , the principles thereof will not only enter into the body of these parts , but their concaves . and the parenchymous fibres being wrapped about the vessels , as often as the said fibres are more turgid with their own contained fluid , they will thereby be somewhat shortned , or contract in length ; and so must needs bind upon the vessels , and thereby as it were squeez some part of the fluid contained both within themselves and the vessels back again into the bubles . the sap herein being thus tinctured with some of the united principles of the vessels , divers of them will now also insinuate themselves into the parenchymous fibres , and be incorporated with them ; whereby these which before were only relaxed and dilated , are now also nourished , and not till now . some portion of the united principles of both parts being necessary to the true nutrition of each ; as the confusion and joynt assistance of both the arterious and nervous liquors is to the nourishment of the parts in animals . some portion of the sap thus doubly tinctured , is at the same time transmitted to , and enters the body of the air-vessels ; consisting chiefly of earth , water , air , and acid ; and in like manner as in the other parts herein agglutinated . and the appulse and pressure of the sap still continued , some parts hereof are also trajected into the concaves of the said vessels ; existing therein as a most compounded fluid , partaking more or less both of the principles and tinctures of the other organical parts and of their own containing vessels , and is , as it were , a mixed resolution from them all . and the parenchymous fibres being wrapped about these as the other vessels , and in like manner binding upon them , thus frequently squeezeth part of their contained fluid out again , as necessary , though not to the immediate nourishment of the parts , yet the due qualification of the sap ; being a constant aerial ferment successively stored up within the air-vessels , and thence transfused to the sap and other parts . and that there may be a better transition of the sap thus tinctured to the several organical parts ; therefore none of them are close set and compact within themselves severally ; for so they would be inaccessible to the sap , and their inward portions wanting a due supply of aliment would be starved : but the vessels both of air and sap being every where divided into braced portions , and other parenchymous , filling up the spaces betwixt them , intermixed ; there is therefore a free and copious communication of the sap , and of all the tinctures successively transfused into it , from part to part , and to every portion of every one of them ; the parenchymous portions running betwixt the braces , as the smaller vessels do amongst the other parts in animals ; whereby none of them want that due matter which is necessary either for their nutrition , or the good estate of their contents . for the due distribution of the several parts of the sap , diametral portions of the parenchymous body run sometimes directly through the bark , as in lovage , parsley , &c. and so are all or most of them continuous betwixt both the succiferous and air-vessels from the circumference to the centre ; thereby carrying off a more copious and aerial ferment from the one , and communicating it unto the other . for as the sap enters the bark , the more liquid parts still pass into the succulent portions thereof ; the more airy is separated into those white and dryer diametral ones ; and in its passage betwixt the portions of the air-vessels , is all along communicated to them . yet is it not a pure and simple air , but such as carries a tincture with it from the succiferous vessels : and therefore when the diametral portions are more distant , the vessels run not in a straight line betwixt them , but are reciprocally inclined so , as to touch upon them , as in lovage is visible ; thereby communicating their tincture to the air as it passeth by them through the said diametral portions . by the continual appulse of fresh sap , some both of the airy and all the other parts thereof , are transmitted into the pith ; where finding more room , it will yet more kindly be digested . especially having the advantage herein of some degree of warmth , being remoter from the soil , and as it were tunn'd up within the wood , or the mass of surrounding vessels . so that the pith is as it were a repository of better aliment gradually supplied to those succiferous vessels which are frequently scattered up and down therein , and which ascend into the trunk . but where no succiferous vessels are mixed herewith , it usually becomes dryer , and is replenished with a more aerial and warmer sap ; whereby the growth of the caulis is promoted as by an hot bed set just under it . and thus all the parts have a fit aliment provided for their nourishment . in this nourishment the principles of the sap are , as is said , concentred , and locked up one within another : whence it is that the organical parts , being cleansed of their contents , have none of them any taste or smell , as in the piths of plants , paper and linen cloth is evident ; because till by digestion , violent distillation or some other way they are resolved , they cannot act upon the organs of those senses . for the same reason they are never tinctured excepting by their contents ; and although to the bare eye they frequently shew white , yet viewed through a microscope they all appear transparent . in like manner as the serum of blood , whites of eggs , tendons , hairs , and horns themselves are transparent , and without much smell or taste , their principles being in all of them more or less concentred ; but being forcibly resolved , are ever variously invested with all those qualities . and as from the concentration of the principles in every organical part they all agree thus far ; so from the predominion of those of each part the rest are controuled , not only to a concentration , but an assimilation also , and their respective properties are thus preserved . hence the succiferous vessels are always tough and most pliable ; for so are all barks wherein these vessels abound : so are the twires of flax , which are nothing else but the succiferous vessels of that plant. for sal alkali , oyl , water , and earth are , as is said , the predominant principles of these vessels . now it is the oyl chiefly by which bodies are tough : for being of it self viscous and tenacious , by taking hold of other principles , marries them together ; and the sal alkali and earth concentred with it , addeth to it more strength . hence the caput mortuum of most bodies , especially those that abound with oyl and sal alkali , are brittle and friable ; those principles , which were the ligaments of the rest , being forced away from them . hence also the parenchymous parts of a root are brittle and friable ; sc. because their earthy , and especially oleous and saline principles are , as is said , so very few . therefore all piths and more simple parenchyma's break short ; so corn , and the roots of potato's , and divers other plants being dryed , will easily be rub'd to meal ; and many apples after frosts eat mealy ; all which parts have the analogy and essence of one only body . and as the consistence of the several organical parts is dependent on their principles , so are their figures . and first the succiferous vessels from their sal alkali grow in length ; for by that dimension chiefly this salt always shoots ; and being a less moveable principle than the rest , and so apt more speedily to fix or shoot ; thus over-rules them to its own figure . and even as the shape of a button dependeth on the mould , the silk and other materials wrought upon it , being always conformable thereunto : so here ; the salt is as it were the mould , about which the other more passive principles gathering themselves , they all consort and fashion to it . hence also the vessel● are not pyramidal as veins , but equally thick from end to end ; the shootings of the said salt being also figured by the like dimension . and as by the saline principles the vessels are long , so by the oleous they are every where round or properly cylindrical ; without some joynt efficacy of which principle the said vessels would be flat , or some way edged and angular , as all saline shoots of themselves are , as those of alum , vitriol , sal armoniac , sea salt , nitre , &c. and because the spirituous and more fluid portion of the principles is least of all apt to fix ; while therefore the other parts fix round about , this will rema●n moveable in the centre ; whence every vessel is formed , not into a solid but hollow cylinder , that is , becomes a tube . the lactiferous vessels are tubulary , as the lymphaeducts , but of a somewh●t wider concave . for being their principles are less earthy and oleous , and also more loosely concentred ; as from their easie corruption or resolution by the air , it appears they are ; they are therefore more tender ; & so more easily dilative and yielding to the said spirituous portion in the centre . whence also they are more adapted to the free motion of the milky content ; which being an o●eous & thic●er body , and having no advantage of pulsation as the blood in animals , might sometimes be apt to st●gnate ▪ if the vessels , through which it moves , were not somewhat wider . as the saline principles are the mould of the succiferous , so are the aerial of the air-tubes . now the particles of air i suppose are all crooked , and many of them spiral ; which from the elastick nature of the air is probable ; being capable both of dilatation and angustation by force ; which it could not be , if its particles were 〈◊〉 and not crooked , nor so well by 〈◊〉 all of them simply crooked , as if some of them were also spiral . wherefore the said spir●l and other crooked particles of the 〈◊〉 shooting and setting together as the 〈◊〉 the other principles cling and fix conformably round about them : so that as by force of the saline principles the rest are made to shoot out in long continued fibres ; so by force of the aerial , those fibres are still disposed into spiral lines , thus making up the air-vessels . and according as fewer of these aerial particles are in proportion to the saline , the concave of the air-vessels is variously wider , or the fibres continue their shooting by wider rings , as those that come nearer to a right line , and so are more complient to the figure and shooting of the said saline parts . and whereas the succiferous vessels shooting out only in length are never sensibly amplified beyond their original size ; these on the contrary , always more or less increase their diameter , because their fibres being disposed into spiral lines , must needs therefore , as they continue their growth , be still dilated into greater and greater rings . and being at the bottom of the root more remote from the air , and so having somewhat fewer particles purely aerial their ingredient to them , then at the top , they fall more under the government of the saline , and so come nearer to a right line , that is into greater circles , and so the air-vessels , made up of those circles , are there generally wider . by mediation of their principles the parenchymous parts likewise of a root have their proper contexture . for from their acid salt they are fibrous ; from their oyl the fibres are round and in all parts even within themselves ; and from their spirit it is most probable that they are also hollow . but because the spirit is here more copious than the air ; and the saline principle a saldacidum , and more under the government of the spirit than an alkali ; therefore are not the said fibres continued in straight lines , as the succiferous vessels ; or by one uniform motion into spiral lines , as the fibres in the aerial ; but winding in a circular manner to and fro a thousand ways , agreeable to the like motions of the spirit , that most active , and here most predominant , principle . and the spirituous parts being , as is said , here more copious and redundant , they will not only suffice to fill up the concaves of the fibres , but will gather together into innumerable little spaces up and down without them : whence the fibres cannot winde and wreath close together , but are forced to keep at some distance one parcel from another , and so are disposed , as bread is in baking , into bubles . and the under fibres being set first as the warp , the spirituous parts next adjacent will incline also to fix , and so govern an over-work of fibres wrapping as the woof in still smaller circles round the other , whereby they are all knit together . for the same reason the succiferous vessels being first formed , the parenchymous fibres set and wrap about these also . and the air-vessels being formed in the centre , the succiferous run along those likewise ; as volatile salts shoot along the sides of a glass , or frost upon a window ; and so are as it were incrustate about them in a ring . all the more aetherial and subtile parts of the air , as they stream through the root , it should seem do gradually dispose the air-vessels where there are more of them , into rays . therefore in the inferiour parts of the root they are less regular , because more remote from the air. and in the upper parts of many roots , as cumfry , borage , parsnep , where those that are next the centre are confused , or differently disposed ; those next the bark and so nearer the air , are postured more regularly and always into rays . for the same reason it may be ; that the succiferous vessels in the bark where the air vessels are more numerous , are usually disposed into rays ; and that the parenchyma of the bark is disposed into diametral portions ; and that where the air-vessels are fewer or smaller , these portions are likewise smaller or none , as in chervil , asparagus , taraxium , orpine , bistort , horse-radish , potato's , &c. the said aetherial parts of the air have a power over the air-vessels , not only thus to dispose them ; but also to sollicite and spread them abroad from the centre towards the circumference of the root ; which power , in speaking according to vulgar sense , i take leave to call attraction . this attraction or magnetick power betwixt the air and these vessels may be argued , from the nature of the principles common to them both . from the electral nature of divers other bodies , the load stone being not the only one which is attractive . and from the spreading of these vessels always more or less at the upper part of the root where nearer to the air : which is not meerly the spreading of the whole root , but a particular motion of these vessels visibly encroaching farther upon the bark . and from other effects hereafter mentioned . the spreading of these vessels is varied , not only according to the force the air ●ath upon them , but their own aptitude to yield thereto . as oft therefore as they are slenderer , they will also be more pliable and recessive from the centre towards the circumference : hence in such roots where they are small they stand more distant , as in turnep , jerusalem artichoke , potato's , and others ; and so their braces are fewer ; and in the same root , where they are smaller , their distance is greater . besides , in these smaller air-vessels , the rings being less , and the spiral fibres whereof they are made continuing to shoot ; the said rings therefore must needs be so many more , as they are smaller , and so take up more space by the length of the root ; and so not being capable of being crowded in a right line , every vessel will be forced to recede to a crooked or bowed one . the succiferous vessels , being by the parenchymous fibres knit to these , will likewise comply with their motion and spread abroad with them . yet being still smaller and more pliable than the air-vessels , and so more yielding to the intercurrent fibres of the parenchyma , their braced threds will sometimes be much more divaricated , than these air-vessels , as in jerusalem artichoke . and because the succiferous vessels , although they are joyned to the aerial by the parenchymous fibres , yet are not continuous with them ; neither fall under the like attractive power of the air as the aerial do ; the aerial therefore upon their spreading , do not always carry all the succiferous along with them , but often , if not always , leave many of them behind them sprinkled up and down the pith ; as in parsley , carrot , jerusalem artichoke , turnep , &c. may be seen . the spreading of the air-vessels still continued , several of them at length break forth beyond the circumference of the root , and so are distributed , either in the lower parts into branches and strings , or at the top into leaves . and least they should all spread themselves into leaves , and none be left for the caulis ; as where they are very small , or the succiferous vessels to bound them are but few , they might ; therefore divers of them are oftentimes more frequently braced in the centre ; for which reason they cannot so easily separate and spread themselves from thence , but run more inwardly up into the caulis , as in borage . from the various sizes , proportions , and dispositions of the parts , roots are variously sized , shaped , moved , and aged . those that by annual growth are large , have fewer both aerial and succiferous vessels , and a more copious parenchyma . so that the aerial vessels , or rather the airy ferment contained in them , volatilizing a smaller portion of the sap ; this therefore being less capable of advancement into the trunk , must needs remain and fix more copiously in the root , which is thereby more augmented . so where the succiferous vessels are few , the root is yet proportionably large ; and where they are numerous , it is never so , as to its annual growth , in any proportion to their number ; because their tincture will go farther in setting the parenchymous parts , than the tincture of these will in setting them . when the aerial vessels are more pliable and sequent to the attraction of the air , and so spread themselves , and the succiferous together with them more abroad ; in the manner as hath been said ; the root also will grow more in bredth ; the nutrition of the parenchymous parts , to which the vessels are adjacent , being thus by the same dimension more augmented ; as in turnep , jerusalem artichoke , &c. but where these are not spread abroad , the root is but slender ; as in asparagus , dandelyon , &c. the vessels as they thus spread and move towards the circumference , because the fibres of the parenchyma are no where inosculated or continuous with them , but only wrapped about them , and their motion so exquisitely slow ; therefore they make not their passage through the said parenchymae by tearing of it , or causing any rupture ; but only by slipping themselves along its fibres , as it were from buble to buble , ( as we are wont the rings of a tarring iron ) and so as they move forward themselves , leave the said fibres behind them all knit together in the centre , thus either making or augmenting the pith. if the aerial vessels be contracted , and somewhat large or numerous , and the succiferous also more copious round about them ; the root grows very long , as those of fenil , vine , liquorish , &c. for the air-vessels containing a more copious ferment , it will well digest and mature the sap ; yet the succiferous being over proportioned to them , it will not therefore be so far volatilized as to ascend chiefly into the trunk , but only to subserve a fuller growth of these vessels : and these being more numerous , and so more sturdy , and less sequent to the expansive motion of the aerial ; this their own growth , and consequently that of all the other parts , cannot be so much in bredth as length . where the same aerial vessels are fewer , or more contracted , or sheathed in a thicker and closer bark ; the root is smooth , and less ramified ; as in asparagus , peony , taraxicum . but where more numerous , sheathed in a thinner bark , smaller , more dilated ; the root is more ramified , or more stringy , as in columbine , clary , beet , nicotian . for being , as is said , by these means , more sequent to the attraction of the air , approaching still nearer the circumference of the bark , they at last strike through it into the moulds . and the parenchymous fibres being wrapped about them , and the succiferous vessels knit to them by those fibres ; therefore they never break forth naked , but always invested with some quantity of these parts as their bark : where by whatever essential part is in the main body of the root , is also in every branch or string . from the same expansion and pliability of the air-vessels , the root oftentimes putteth forth root-buds ; in the formation of which buds they are pliable and recessive all kinds of ways ; being not only invited outward toward the circumference of the root , as in root-strings ; but spread more abroad every way in the bud ; whereas in the said root-strings they are always more contracted ; which , in respect of the disposition of the parts , is the principal difference betwixt the root and the trunk . hence those roots chiefly have root buds , which have the smallest air-vessels ; these , as is said , being most pliable and expansive . but because the expansiveness of the vessels dependeth also in part upon the fewness of their braces ; therefore the buds shoot forth differently in divers roots . where fewer , they shoot forth beyond the circumference of the root , as in jerusalem artichoke ; where more close , as in potato's , the buds lie a little absconded beneath it , the air-vessels being by their braces somewhat checked and curbed in , while the bark continueth to swell in a fuller growth . if the aerial vessels are all along more equally sized , the root is so also , or cylindrical ; as those of eryngo , horse-radish , marsh-mallow , liquorish , &c. but if unequal , growing still wider towards the bottom of the root ; the root is unequal also , but groweth , quite contrary to the air-vessels , still smaller or pyramidally ; and the more numerous and larger the vessels are , the bark is proportionably the less , and so the root more sharp and spiring , as in borage , nettle , patience , thorn apple , &c. for here where the said air-vessels are wider , they contain a more copious ferment , whereby the sap is thereabout more volatilized , and copiously advanced to the upper parts . withal , thus receiving within themselves , and transmitting to the upper parts a more plentiful vapour , they hereby rob the parenchymous parts of their aliment , and so stint them in their growth . from the different proportion and situation of the parts , the motions of the root are also various . for where the air vessels are spread abroad and invested with a thinner bark , the root runs or lyes level , as in the level roots of primrose , ammi , anemone , &c. may be seen . so that these roots as by the perpendicular ones shooting from them into the moulds they are plucked down ; so by the air-vessels , standing nearer the air and more under its attractive power , they are invited upwards ; whereby they have neither ascent nor descent , but keep level betwixt both . but if these vessels are contracted standing either in or near the centre , and are invested with a bark proportionably thick ; the root striketh down perpendicularly , as dandelyon , bugloss , parsnep , &c. therefore the said vessels , although they are spread abroad in the level , yet in the perpendicular roots of the same plant they are always contracted ; as by comparing the level and down right roots of ammi , primrose , jerusalem artichoke , cowslip , and others , is manifest . if the aerial vessels are contracted and environed with a greater number of succiferous , the root grows deep , that is , perpendicular and long ; perpendicular from the contraction of the aerial , and long from the predominion of the succiferous , which in their growth are extended only by that dimension , as in liquorish , eryngo , &c. if the succiferous are over proportioned to the parenchymous parts , but under to the aerial ; the root is perpendicular still , but groweth shallow ; the succiferous being sturdy enough to keep it perpendicular , and the aerial having a predominion to keep it from growing deep ; as in stramonium , nicotian , beet , &c. if on the contrary the parenchymous are predominant to the aerial , and that both in the root and trunk ; then the whole body of the root changeth place or descends : for the said aerial vessels haveing neither in the trunk , nor in the root a sufficient power to draw it upwards ; it therefore gradually yields to the motion of its string-roots ; which as they strike into the soil pluck it down after them . and because the old strings annually rot off , and new ones successively shoot down into the soil ; it therefore annually still descendeth lower , as in tulip , lily , &c. may be observed . where the air-vessels are much spread abroad and also numerous , the root oftentimes , as to its several parts , descends and ascends both at once : so radishes and turneps , at the same time their nether parts descend , their upper ascend , where therefore the said vessels are more loosely braced and spread much more abroad than in the lower parts . hence also the upper part of the roots of most seedlings ascends ; because the first leaves being proportionably large , and standing in a free air , the air-vessels in them have a dominion over the young root , and so yielding themselves to the sollicitation of the air upwards , draw the root in part after them . by the situation and proportions of the parts , the age of the root is also varied . for if the succiferous vessels have the greatest proportion , the root is perennial , and that to the farthest extent , as in trees and shrubs : because these vessels containing a more copious both alkali and oyl , and their several principles being more closely concentred , they are less subject to a resolution , that is , a corruption or mortification by the air. if the parenchymous parts have much the greatest , the root seldom liveth beyond two years , but afterwards perisheth either in whole or in part , as do divers bulbous , tuberous , and other roots ; whether they are more porous and succulent , or more close and dry . if porous , all the fluid principles standing herein more abundantly , either by a stronger fermentation , or otherwise , ●●solve the fixed ones of the organical parts , whence the whole root rots , as in potato's . hence also parsneps , and some other roots , which in a hard and barren soil will ●ive several years , in another more rank , will quickly rot . but if the parenchyma be close , then the air chiefly entring in and filling it up , thus mortifies the root , not by rotting the parts , but over drying them , as in satyrion , rape crowfoot , monks-hood , &c. but if the air-vessels have the greatest , and especially if more large , and withal are spread more abroad ; the root is annual , as in thorn apple , nicotian , &c. for hereby transfusing into all the other parts a more copious air , they are thus by degrees hardned and become sticky , and so impervious to the sap , which should have a free and universal transition from part to part : as bones by precipitations from the blood at length cease to grow . or the same more abundant air so far volatilizeth the fluid parts , that they are wholly advanced into the trunk , and so the root is starved . whence the air-v●ssels also of the trunk , where numerous and over proportioned to the bulk of the root , as in corn , they so far promote the advance of the sap , as to exhaust the root , sucking it into a consumption and death . from the principles of the parts , their contents and the several qualities hereof are also various ; the fluid of each organical part being made chiefly by filtration through the sides thereof ; such of the principles in the sap being admitted into and transmitted through them , as are aptest thereto : in the same manner as when oyl and water being poured upon a paper , the water passeth through , the oyl sticks : or as the chyle is strained through the coats of the guts into the lacteal vessels : or as water in purgations , is strained through the same coats from the mesenterical . the principles therefore of the parenchymous fibres being spirituous , acid , and aerial , they will also admit the like into them ; excluding those chiefly which are alkalizale and oleous . and as by the conjugation of such principles in the fibres , the like are capable of admittance into them ; so the proportion and union of the same principles regulates their transmission into their concave : wherefore the principles of the fibres being chiefly acid , next spirituous , and least aery ; the more aery ones will be transmitted : for if more of them should fix , they must do so by similitude and adhesion ; but where there are fewer similary parts to adhere to , fewer must adhere . the fibres then contain so many parts of air as to admit many more into their body ; but not to fix them ; which therefore must needs upon admission pass through into their concave ; where , together with some other more spirituous parts , they make an aetherial fluid . and because some aqueous or vaporous parts will also strain through with them ; hence it is , that as more and more of these enter , they by degrees still thrust out the aery ones , which quitting the more succulent fibres of the parenchyma , are forced to betake themselves to the dryer ones , scil . all those whereof the diametral portions do consist . for the same reason the aery parts being gradually excluded the succulent fibres of the bark ; they are forced to recede and transmigrate into those of the pith : and the fibres themselves being filled , and the aery parts still forced into them ; they at length also strain through the fibres into the bubles ; whence while the bark is succulent , the pith is often filled with air. the lymphaeducts being more earthy , s●linous , oleous , and aqueous , will both admit and copiously fix the like principles ; yet the water being more perfluent than the rest , will therefore strain , with a lighter tincture of them , into their concave . especially the oleous principles hereof being rampant , and less apt to fix and seize the aqueous parts , upon their entrance , than the saline . but the lactiferous being somewhat less earthy and oleous than the lymphaeducts , and the oleous parts being herein less rampant ; therefore the earthy and oleous parts will be both copiously transmitted hereinto . so that the lymphaeducts being more oily , both admit , and fix the like principles ; the lacteals being moderately oily , admit them , but fix them not , letting them pass through ; but the parenchymous fibres being scarce at all oily , do not so much as admit them . the fluid ferment contained in the air-vessels , is also in part dependent on the principles of those vessels , being in their percolation tinctured therewith . but because the percolation is not made through the body of the fibres whereof the vessels are composed , but only betwixt them ; therefore the transient principles are not here distinguished so precisely as in all the aforesaid organical parts , but more promiscuously pass into the concaves of the said vessels , and are therein all immersed in a body of air ; the fibres themselves in the mean time , as those of the parenchyma , admitting and containing a more aery and aetherial fluid . the contents are varied , not only by the nature , but also the proportion and situation of the parts , whereby they are in different facility and quantity communicated to one another . hence it is partly that a vine , and that corn hath so little oyl ; sc. because their air-vessels in proportion with the other parts , are so great and numerous : in corn the stalk being also very hollow , and becoming as it were one great air-vessel . for the oily parts of the sap are so exceedingly attenuated by the aery ferment contained in these vessels , that they are for the most part so far immersed in the spirit , or mixed therewith , as not , by being collected in any considerable body , to be distinguishable from it . and the affinity that is betwixt spirits and oyls , especially essential , is manifest ; both are inflammable per se ; and burn all away ; the odors , which we call the spirits of plants , are lodged in their essential oyl ; both being duly rectified , will mix as easily together as water and wine . so that although oyl , by the separation of its earthy and saline parts , which give it its sensibly oleous body , may not be so far attenuated as to produce a spirit ; yet that it may so far , and so be mixed with it , as not to be discerned from it , will be granted . hence also the lactiferous vessels , because they stand more remote from the aerial , and the succiferous interpose ; the liquor therefore contained in them , is not so much under the government of the aerial ferment , and is thence partly more oily . for the same reason , all roots which are milkie , so far as i have observed , have an under proportion of air-vessels , these being either fewer or smaller . from the precedents we may receive some information likewise of the odours , colours , and tastes of plants . and for odours , i suppose that the chief matter of them is the aerial ferment contained in the air-vessels . not but that the other parts do also yield their smell , but that these yield the strongest and the best , and immediately perceptible in fresh , undryed , and unbruised plants . for the air entring into , and passing through the root , and carrying a tincture from the several organical and contained parts along with it , and at last entring also the concaves of the air-vessels ; it there exists the most compounded and volatile fluid , of all others in the plant , and so the fittest matter of odour ; and such an odour as answers to the smell of all the odorous parts of the plant. wherefore the organical parts smell not at all , because the principles are , as hath been said , so far fixed and concentred together . hence also the contained themselves , or any other bodies , as their principles are any way more fixed , they are less odorous : so is rosin less than turpentine , and pitch than tar , and many the self same bodies when they are coagulated , than when they are melted : so also musk , which is not so liquid as civet , is not so strong ; nor ambergreece as musk ; for although it hath a more excellent smell than musk , yet yieldeth it not so easily , since it is a more fixed body , and requireth some art to be opened . hence also the leaves of many plants lose their odour upon rubbing ; because the air-vessels being thereby all broken , all their contained odorous fluid vanisheth at once , which before only strained gradually through the skin . yet the fixed parts themselves , upon drying , are so far altered by the sun and air , as to become resoluble and odorous . so also of their colours . as whence the colours of the skins are varied ; for divers of the succiferous vessels together with the parenchymous parts successively falling off from the bark therein ; by their proximity to the earth and air their principles are more or less resolved , and so produce divers colours . so those roots which turn purple any where within , have usually a blacker skin ; the one of those two colours being by a resolution and corruption of parts easily convertible into the other , as in cumfry , thistle , &c. so the milk of scorzonera , contained in the vessels of the bark , upon drying turneth into a brown colour ; wherefore the skin , in which there are dive●s of those vessels , is of the same . so both the milk and skin of lovage is of a brownish yellow . but parsnep hath a clearer sap in all its succiferous vessels and a whiter skin . so potato's being cut traverse after some time out of ground , have divers red specks up and down where the vessels stand , and their skin is accordingly red . the reason , i say of these colours , is the resolution or reseration of the principles of the several parts chiefly by the air , and a lighter mixture of them consequent thereupon ; whereby the sulphurious or oily parts which were before concentred , are now more or less rampant , discovering themselves in divers colours , according as they are diversly mixed with the other principles . hence these colours are observable according to the nature of the parts wherein they are , or whereunto they are adjacent ; so where the succiferous vessels run , there red , or some other more saturate colour ; the oleous principles being , as is said , more copious in these vessels ; as in the bark of peony , the inward parts of potato's , &c. may be seen . but the parenchymous parts , where more remote from the said vessels , they are usually white or but yellow , the sulphurious principle hereof being , as was said , but sparing . the same is seen in those roots which shew both red and yellow ; those parts principally where the succiferous vessels run being red , and where the aerial only mixed with the parenchymous being yellow , as in patience . so the pithy part of a carrot , where the aerial have very few succiferous mixed with them , is yellow , but the bark where the succiferous are very numerous , is red . for the same reason many roots which are whiter in their upper parts , are purple or reddish in their inferiour , as avens , strawberry , &c. because those lower parts having layn longer underground ( these being descending roots ) their principles are thereby somewhat nearer to corruption or somewhat more resolved , and so the oleous ramp and spread all over the rest in that colour . and that the resolution of the sulphurious and other principles is partly effected by the air , appears , in that where the air hath a better access to the succiferous vessels , the colours are chiefly produced , or are more conspicuous . so in potato's , where the succiferous vessels are either next to the external air , as in the skin ; or contiguous with the air-vessels , as in the ring within the bark ; there they produce a red : but where more remote from both , as in the middle of the bark and centre of the root , there they produce none . hence also it is , that the leaves and flowers of some plants , as bloodwort , wood-sorrel , radish , jacea , &c. although green or white in the greatest portion of their parenchymous part , yet where the succiferous and aerial vessels run , they are of red , blue , and other colours ; the oleous parts of the one being unlocked and opened by the aery of the other . and lastly of their tastes . where either the succiferous vessels are lymphaeducts , or the diametral portions in the bark are wanting , or the air-vessels numerous and large , the root is of a weaker taste ; as that of burnet , melilot , borage , bugloss , cumfry , potato , &c. for in that they are less oleous , and the air more copiously mixed with the saline principles , whereby these are either mollified or refracted ; they are neither hot nor pungent , but become more mild . whence also of the same kind of roots , those which have the smallest and sewest diametral portions , as skirrets , are the mildest ; and those with the largest , the strongest , as lovage . most roots which are acres or biting , have a very copious parenchyma in proportion with the succiferous vessels , as of arum , dragon , and others ; because the saline and other principles are not so much hot by any sufficient quantity of sulphurious from those vessels , but rendred rather pungent from some spirit and air. but divers vmbelliferous roots , especially which abound with lactiferous vessels , are hot ; as fenil , lovage , angelica , &c. yet is it not their oyl alone that makes them hot , but the combination thereof with the saline parts ; as is manifest from the nature of the seed of these plants , wherein the oyl is most copious ; and which being held to a candle till they burn , constantly spit ; which cometh to pass by the eruption of the saline parts ; being the very same effect with that which followeth upon burning of serum or blood. and therefore as the seeds are more hot , they also spit the more , as in cumine , &c. which though fulsom , yet not so hot , less ; in fenil and dill more ; scil . there being a greater quantity of volatile salt contained therein . hence all essential oyls are hot , the spirit and volatile salt being incorporated herewith . and some of them will shoot , and crystallize as salts do , as that of anise , which argues a mixture of a considerable quantity of volatile salt. as also from the nature of these oyls , in being amicable to the stomach , carminative , and sometimes anodyne ; scil . as they kill some fetid , corrosive , or fermenting a●id : and volatile salts themselves will have the like operation in some cases as these oyls . many lactiferous roots , as taraxicum and others of that kind , are not so much hot as bitter . for although by the lactiferous vessels they are very oily ; yet those vessels being posited in rings and not in rays , and having no diametral portions running through their bark to the air-vessels ; the acido-aerial parts do hereby , although not mortifie , yet so far refract the saline , lightly binding up the oleous therewith , as to produce a bitter taste . which bordereth upon astringent ; wherein , i suppose , the saline and earthy are mean , the oleous least , and the acid most , and so more closely binding up the oleous and earthy with the saline . hence many sweet bodies upon burning become bitter ; the acid parts , which before were more concentred , now becoming rampant and more copiously mixed with the oleous . the roots or other parts of many vmbelliferous plants have a sweetish taste , as both sweet and common chervil , both garden and wild carrot , parsnep , fenil , &c. the saline principles being concentred in the oily , and both of a moderate quantity with respect to the rest : for by the oily the saline is rendred more smooth and amicable , and both being moderate , they are not therefore hot , as in some other vmbelliferous roots , but by the predominion of the other principles made mild . hence it is , that sugar it self is sweet , scil . because it is an oleous salt ; as is manifest from its being highly inflammable ; its easie dissolution by a moderate fire without the addition of water ; and in that being melted with turpentine and other oily bodies , it will mix together with them . and the crystals in the oyl of aniseeds , may be called saccharum anisi . so also the acid parts of vinegar being concentred in the salino-sulphurious of lead produce a sugar . hence barley , which upon distillation or decoction yieldeth only an acid , being turned into mault becomes sweet : scil . because being steeped , couched , and so fermented , the oleous parts are thereby unlocked , and becoming rampant over the other principles gives them that taste . and the bile it self , which , next to water and earth , consisteth of most oily parts , and of many both saline and acid , is a bitter-sweet ; the saline and acid being smoothed by the oleous , and the oleous gently bound up together with both those . the explication of the figures . table i. fig . i. a slice of the root of marsh-mallow cut traversly about the top . aaa . the skin . aaa ccc . the bark . acacac . diametral portions of the parenchymous body which run through the bark towards the centre . the black rings in the bark represent the position of the succiferous vessels . the black specks represent the position of the air-vessels . the greater whereof are those in the centre ▪ and the utmost standing in a ring adjacent to ccc or the inner verge of the bark . n. b. that in this , and all the other figures generally , by every single speck is not represented a single air-vessel , but a conjugation of air-vessels , sometimes fewer , and sometimes more together . fig. 2. a slice of the same root ●ut traversly about the bottom ; wherein both the succiferous and air-vessels still keep their general position ; but the former are not here represented . fig. 3. a slice of the same root ●ut traversly about the middle . aaa ccc . the bark ; wherein the diametral portions and the succiferous vessels are both omitted . cccccc . diametral portions frequently running betwixt the centre and the inner verge of the bark in just six rays . fig 4. a slice of the root of cumfry . aaa ccc . the bark . eee . the position of the succif●rous vessels ; being from the utmost verge of the bark to the black chords peripherial ; and from these the inner verge standing in columns . ecec . the simply parenchymous parts of the bark . cctt . the position of the utmost air-vessels in double speck rays . tte . the position of the inner air-vessels in rings . all the white spaces are simply parenchymous parts of the same substantial nature with the pith. fig. 5. a slice of the root of fenil . aaaccc . the bark , or all that p●rt of the root which is analogous to it . cebceb . the position of the succiferous vessels especially called the lymphaeducts in a triple order of rays . eee bbb . the position of the milk vessels in speck rings . the white lines are parenchymous portions running through the bark . ccce . the air-vessels , somewhat radiated . e. the pith. fig. 6. a slice of the root of parsnep . aaa eee . the bark . eee . the position of the succiferous vessels in rays . eee c. the air-vessels , more plainly radiated about the circumference , and more confused about the centre . fig. 7. a slice of the root of beet . aaa . the skin . to the first order of specks may be accounted the bark , and no further . cee ccc . the succiferous vessels postured in ring● , and those rings made up of short rays . the specks are the air-vessels , being all postured from the centre to the circumference in speck rings , and those rings made up of short rays ; especially those betwixt aaa ttt . the white spaces are all parenchymous parts . fig. 8. a slice of the root of horse-radish . aaa ccc . the bark . the specks therein represent the position of the succiferous vessels . ccc vvv . the air-vessels , standing neither in rays , nor rings . e. the pith. the specks therein are a few of the succiferous vessels . fig. 9. a slice of the root of borage . aaa ccc . the bark . the succiferous vessels are here omitted , but are postured in rays like those in fig. 30. ccce . the air-vessels . cece . their position more in rays next the inner verge of the bark . eee . their position in spiral lines next the centre . the white spaces are s●mply parenchymous parts . fig. 10. a slice of the root of peony . aaa eee . the bark . the specks therein represent the position of the succiferous vessels . ee cc. the greater part of the air-vessels postured in a ring next to the inner verge of the bark ; and that ring made up of short rays ; and most of the vessels herein of a larger size . at the centre also there are one or two conjugations more of a larger size . the rest standing in rays betwixt are smaller and more distant . all the white spaces are simply parenchymou● parts . fig. 11. a slice of the same root cut traversly about the thinner part . aaa ccc . the bark . the specks therein represent the succiferous vessels . ccc . the smaller air-vessels postured in rays . the greater standing here only next the centre , and postured triangularly . fig. 12. a slice of the thick level root of iris tuberosa . aaa eee . the bark . vpon the inner verge hereof stand the succiferous vessels ; but are here omitted . eee . the air-vessels ; somewhat closer here than they are in the root it self . ccc . other air-vessels dispersed up and down in several conjugations irregularly . the air-vessels of every conjugation are postured in a little ring , each ring or conjugation containing a part of the parenchymous body as a small pith within it self , represented by the black specks . each one of these conjugations shooting forth entire with its pith within , and part of the parenchyma without , becomes a perpendicular string-root , like that represented by fig. 27. fig. 13. a slice of the root of bistort . aaa ccc . the bark . vpon the inner verge of the bark stand the succiferous vessels in a ring ; but are here omitted . ccc eee . the air-vessels all postured in a speck ring next the inner verge of the bark . eee . the pith. fig. 14. a slice of the root of great celandine . aaa ccc . the bark . the peripherial lines or chords , represent the position of the succiferous vessels . cece . the air vessels postured all in rays from the inner verge of the bark towards the centre . about the centre more confusedly . ee . the parenchymous or pithy parts . fig. 15. a slice of the root of dandelyon . aaa ccc . the bark ; or all that part of the root which is analogous to it . the peripherial lines , or rings and chords represent the position of the succiferous or milk vessels . ccce . the air-vessels postured confusedly . e. the pith. fig. 16. a slice of the root of columbine . aaa ccc . the bark . the succiferous vessels herein postured rather in rays ; though the graver hath represented them by rings . eee . the air vessels postured in rays ; some whereof are continued to the centre , others half way , or less . the white spaces represent the parenchym●us parts . fig. 17. a slice of the root of orpine ●u● traversly at the tuberous part . aaa c●c . the bark . the small specks represent the position and quantity of the succiferous vessels therein . ccc eee . the air-vessels . ccc . the utmost of them postured in a ring . eee . divers of them running from the ring in rays towards the centre . the white spaces analogous to the pith. fig. 18. a slice of the same root cut traversly at the slender part . wherein the air-vessels are postured in a double ring , the one next the bark , the other next the centre . fig. 19. a slice of the root of goats beard . aaa ccc . the bark . ccc . one part of the succiferous or milk vessels postured in a ring upon the inner verge of the bark . and some of them which should have been represented by pricks sprinkled up and down the bark are omitted . ccce . the air-vessels all postured in rays , and running from the inner verge of the bark towards the centre . and a conjugation of them postured just in the centre . betwixt these rays of air-vessels run some exceeding small diametral and more aery portions of the parenchymous body . fig. 20. a slice of the root of valerian . aaa ccc . the bark . ccc . the succiferous vessels postured in a ring upon the inner verge of the bark . the specks represent the air-vessels postured likewise in a ring next the inner verge of the bark ; and some of them radiated towards the centre . ae . the pith. fig. 21. a slice of the thicker part of the level root of ammi . the smaller specks represent the position and quantity of the succiferous or milk-vessels in the bark . the larger specks represent the air-vessels postured in a ring adjacent to it ; and usually made up of nine conjugations . within is contained the pith. fig. 22. a slice of the thinner part of the same level root . the succiferous vessels in the bark are omitted . the air-vessels postured in a ring adjacent to it ; and consisting of five conjugations . fig. 23. a slice of the perpendicular root of ammi . the smaller specks are the succiferous vessels in the bark , or that part of the root analogous to it . the great black spot representeth the air-vessels all conjugated or clustered in the centre . fig. 24. a slice of the upper part of the root of venus looking-glass . aa cc. the bark . ee . some of the succiferous vessels postured therein in a speck ring . ee cc. and some of them postured in rays . cc. the air-vessels ; some of them postured in single conjugations next the bark , but most in rays meeting in the centre . the white spaces are parenchymous parts . fig. 25. a slice of the thinner part of the same root . wherein the succiferous vessels are in part postured into three chords answerable to the former in a circle . the rest should have been in short rays . the air-vessels are postured in three portions triangularly , and each portion also of a wedged or triangular figure , the points of all three meeting in the centre . fig. 26. a slice of the root of sun spurge . wherein the air-vessels are postured in four conjugations quadrangularly . fig. 27. a slice of the perpendicular or string-root of asp●ragus . aaa . the skin , which is very thick . ●●●●ae . the bark ; or all that part of the root which is analogous to it . the small black rings represent the position of the succiferous vessels upon the inner verge of the bark ; yet not in two rings as here represented , but in one . the inner white space representeth the position of the air-vessels in a thick ring . the black spot representeth the small pith within it . fig. 28. a slice of the tuberous or thicker part of the root of lilium non bulbosum . aaa eee . the bark ; or all that part of the root which is analogous to it . the succiferous vessels are postured in a ring upon the inner verge of the bark , as in asparagus , but here omitted . eee . the air-vessels postured in a thin speck ring . c. the pith. fig. 29. a slice of the root of jerusalem artichoke . aaa . the skin . ccc . the bark . the succiferous vessels therein dispersed up and down chiefly in specks , and some in shorter chords , but both are here omitted ; and the rest in a ring upon the inner verge of the bark . eeee . divers other succiferous vessels dispersed abroad about the centre ; but the conjugations are smaller and less discernable than is represented by these specks . ddd . the air-vessels postured in rays of unequal length , and winding to and fro towards the centre . with each of these rays other succiferous vessels seem to be mixed . all the white spaces are simply parenchymous and of the same nature with the pith. fig. 30. a slice of the root of bugloss . aaa eee . the bark . eee ccc . the succiferous vessels therein postured in rays , and running from the inner verge thereof towards the circumference about half way . eee t. the air-vessels postured in rays , and running directly from the inner verge of the bark towards the centre . c e t. parenchymous portions inserted betwixt all the rays , and meeting in the centre . fig. 31. a slice of a younger root of eryngo . aaa eee . the bark ; or all that part of the root analogous to it . eee ccc . the succiferous vessels . eee . those upon the inner verge of the bark posited in a ring . ec ec ec . others streaming in rays towards the circumference . ccc . the uniting and oval or arched termination of the rays . eee v. the air-vessels posited in a ring adjacent to the inner verge of the bark . v. the pith. fig. 32. a slice of the root of brownwort . aaa eee . the bark . eee . the succiferous vessels posited in a ring upon the inner verge thereof . ec ec . the air-vessels postured in rays from the inner verge towards the centre . ccc . the same air-vessels standing thicker and altogether confusedly at the centre . fig. 33. a slice of the root of nettle . aaa ccc . the bark . ccc . those succiferous vessels that are therein posited in a ring upon the inner verge thereof . all the rest of the succiferous vessels are posited in divers other rings standing all one within another . the air-vessels are postured in rays running directly cross the succiferous rings . fig. 34. a slice of the tuberous or thicker part of the root of dropwort . aaa ccc . the bark . ccc . the succiferous vessels postured in a ring . cece . the air-vessels postured some in single conjugations adjacent to the inner verge of the bark ; and some in rays meeting in the centre . fig. 35. a slice of one of the thinner and rounder parts of the root of bryony . aaa eee . the bark . ececec . the succiferous vessels posited therein in the form of a glory , and extended about half way towards the circumference of the bark . eeee . the air-vessels postured partly in rays , but especially in rings one within another from the inner verge of the bark to the centre . round about every speck or conjugation succiferous vessels also seem to stand . all the white spaces are simply parenchymous parts . fig. 23. a slice of the root of melilot . aaa ccc . the bark . the specks represent the position of the succiferous vessels therein , the diametral portions extended half way towards the circumference of the bark are here omitted . ccc . three very thick parenchymous or diametral portions , postured triangularly , and meeting in the centre . the air-vessels are all postured in rays represented by the prick-lines . both these and the smaller diametral portions running betwixt them should have been more numerous . fig. 37. a slice of the root of burnet . aaa eee . the bark . eee . the position of the succiferous vessels in columns extended half way towards the circumference . divers other succiferous vessels postured in chords represented by the black lines . all the white spaces are simply parenchymous parts . the air-vessels are posited in rays from the inner verge of the bark to the centre . fig. 38. a slice of the upper part of the root of lovage . aaa ccc . the bark . the black lines are the diametral portions running through the same from the circumference towards the centre : within the bark very conspicuous , but out of it scarce discernable . the little circles and specks represent the succiferous vessels posited betwixt the diametral portions , some of the circles on both sides adjoyning to the said portions . bbb . the more succulent parenchymous parts of the bark wherein all the succiferous vessels stand . cee . the air-vessels standing most of them in short rays from the inner verge of the bark towards the centre , and some of them meeting therein . d. the pith. fig. 39. a slice of the smaller part of the same root . aaa eee . the bark ; or all that part of the root which is analogous to it . from eee to the centre stand the air-vessels all contracted together . fig. 40. a slice of the root of patience . aaa eee . the bark . ccc . the simply parenchymous part of the bark . eee . the succiferous vessels postured in rays , and extended from the inner verge of the bark both towards the circumference and towards the centre ; most of them in the bark uniting or arching together . iii. other succiferous vessels , many of them winding to and fro in extravagant lines , but most of them postured in little circles of different sizes , all represented by the specks . within every circle , and the larger white spaces , are contained the air-vessels ; but not here represented , because , being few , not discernable , except by glasses . all the other parts of the white spaces besides where the air-vessels stand , are simply parenchymous . fig. 41. a slice of a small potato . aaa bbb . the bark . the succiferous vessels are postured therein some in rays and specks upon the inner verge , and others in chords towards the circumference ; whereof some of them should have been longer . bbb . and the other shorter lines and specks towards the centre , are the air-vessels . cccc . the simply parenchymous parts . fig. 42. a slice of a carrot . aaa ccc . the bark . the position of the succiferous vessels therein is represented both by the lines and specks . ccc . their position in short lines upon the inner verge of the bark . cbcbcb . their position in speck rays extended towards the circumference . bbb . their position in winding lines partly radiated , and partly peripherial : more of which should have been represented adjacent to the skin , and running sharper and more directly upon the speck rays . eee . the position of the air-vessels in short rays from the inner verge of the bark towards the centre . divers other air-vessels sprinkled up and down the pithy part of the root , represented by the black specks ; and seeming to be environed with other succiferous vessels . nb. that besides the differences betwixt these roots seen in their descriptions here set down ; divers others may be observed by comparing the figures together : and many more in viewing them through a microscope ; especially as to the number and size of the v●ssels , and of the bubles of the parenchymous parts . though most of the figures come up to what is material , yet some of them fall short of that elegancy and preciseness visible in the roots themselves , if cut and observed in a due manner . table ii. fig. 1. a piece of the root of scorzoner● split down the middle . aaaa . the skin or outside of the bark ; which is very rough . cece . the conjugations of the succiferous or milk-vessels , by which partly the skin becomes rough . ccc . the braces of the said vessels . eee . the parenchymous parts filling up the spaces betwixt the braced vessels . aaa ttt . the bark shewed in the transverse cut . the specks represent the position of the said milk-vessels therein . tdtdtd . the air-vessels postured in rays . d. a larger conjugation of them in the centre . fig. 2. a piece of the bark of the root of garden burnet ; which stripeth off much better than that of scorzonera . aaaa . the inside thereof represented and laid flat . the black lines represent the position of the succiferous vessels . at the white spaces they are divaricated by their braces . fig. 3. a piece of the same scorzonera root before in part described . ●aaa . representeth the middle part or substance of the bark , the outward part being p●●red off . ce ce ce . the above said milk-vessels . cccc . their braces here towards the inner verge of the bark more numerous . eeee . the ●arenchymous parts filling up the spaces betwixt the braced vessels . fig. 4. a piece of the root of dandelyon split down the middle . ac ac . the thickness of the bark , or all that part of the root analogous to it . ssss . the conjugations of the milk-vessels running through it : which sh●uld not have been represented by lines altogether continuous , but frequently broken off ( as those in the bark of burnet ) where they are divaricated by their braces . aeaded . the said milk vessels as they appear postured in chords and rings upon the traverse cut . ccc . the air-vessels all clustered together in the centre . fig. 5. a piece of the same scorzonera root before in part described . aaaa . representeth it with the bark striped off by half its circumference . eded . the air-vessels adjacent to the inner verge of the bark . ddd . the braces of the air-vessels conformable to the utmost braces of the milk-vessels represented in fig. 1. of this table . eee . the parenchymous parts filling up the spaces betwixt the braced air-vessels . ccce . the air-vessels appearing in the traverse cut , as in fig. 1. of this table . the lines should have run directly upon the specks ; the specks being the terminations of the said lines or air-vessels running through the length of the root from the inner verge of the bark to the centre . fig. 6. a piece of the same scorzonera root split down the middle , as the first . aaaa . representeth the inside or the flat of the said piece . ded ded . the air-vessels running through it betwixt the inner verge of the bark and the centre . vvv . the breaking off of the said vess●ls where they are divaricated by their braces . eeee . a larger conjugation or cluster of the said vessels at the centre , and there more closely braced . ca ba. the bark and the milk-vessels therein appearing upon the transverse cut . c c. the air-vessels . fig. 7. a slice of the root of borage cut down the middle . aa cc. the thickness of the bark . cccc . the air-vessels represented by all the broken lines . cc. most of the said vessels more frequently braced towards the inner verge of the bark , being broken or cut off at every brace . eeee . some few of them braced more closely at the centre ; and many of the braces appearing together unbroken . edc . the gradual approach of the said vessels towards the circumference at the top of the root . d. the pith thereby made . fig. 8. a slice of a carrot cut down the middle . ad ad . the thickness of the bark . dbb dbb . the air-vessels running through the root . db . their closer position , more frequent braces , and greater number next the inner verge of the bark . the rest about the middle and centre represented by the smaller lines : the greater should have been so many light shades representing the more sappy parts of the parenchymous or pithy body where some sow of the succiferous vessels seem to run . one or two conjugations should also have been drawn from d to e at the top , bounding the pith in an hyperbolical figure . eeee . some of the succiferous vessels gathered together more numerously at the top of the root , without any air-vessels mixed with them . cccc . the side-leaves . ae . the centre-leaves springing up either before or upon the caulis . de . the space wherein some both of the succiferous and air-vessels are , by degrees , collaterally distributed into the said leaves cc a e. fig. 9. a slice of the root of parsly cut down the middle . ad ad . the thickness of the bark . vvv . the air-vessels : but the lines by which they are represented should not have been altogether continuous , as they are , below the oval , nor all out so numerous . ve ve . the conjugations of the said vessels running along the circumference , and meeting at the basis of the caulis , and so bounding the pith in an oval figure . ca ca. the side-leaves . ee . the centre-leaves . s t l e. some of the succiferous vessels standing in the pith without any air-vessels mixed with them . s vv . some of them more numerous and confused . tt ll . others of them arched . ll e. the arches closer and more obtuse . in the traverse cut of the root the same succiferous vessels appear postured in rings . sss . the parenchymous parts of the pith. fig. 10. a piece of the root of jerusalem artichoke cut by the length . aaaa . as it appeareth with part of the bark paired off . cece . the air-vessels . cc. the braces of the said vessels , being very rare . eeee . the succiferous vessels with their braces , which are exceeding numerous , and much divaricated . the white spaces are parenchymous parts . fig. 11. the root of jerusalem artichoke . aaa . as it appeareth with all the bark paired off . bd . the air-vessels . d. their braces . bcd . the spaces betwixt them filled up with the parenchymous body . cc ee . the manner of the eruption of a root-bud , or of a trunk from the root . the rings are made up chiefly of the succiferous , and the rays and specks of the air-vessels . e. the pith in the centre of the bud. table iii. fig. 1. a slice of one of the perpendicular or string-roots of asparagus cut transversly . aaa . as it appeareth to the bare eye . the utmost black ring is the skin . eee . the bark , or all that part of the root which is analogous to it . the inner black ring sheweth the position of the succiferous vessels upon the inner verge of the bark . within which the air-vessels stand , and should have been represented by another white ring . and within this a very small pith according to fig. 27. ( tab. i. ) above described . aa . one half of the same slice as it appeareth through the microscope . bb . the skin ; composed throughout into bubles . it should have been bounded by a line from the rest of the bark to the thickness of about one third of an inch. aa . gg . the bark , or all that part of the root analogous to it ; composed throughout into bubles . ee . the bubles of the bark ; here more round . the texture of the fibrous threds whereof they are composed , is not here represented , because that will be more perspicuous in the draught of the pith of the root . dd. gg . the position of the succiferous vessels in a ring upon the inner verge of the bark . gg . tt . the air-vessels also postured in a ring ; and of a larger size . the white rings shew the sides of the said air-vessels . the black spots within them shew their concaves . the spaces betwixt them filled up with a mixed body , partly consisting of succiferous vessels , but chiefly parenchymous . tt . the pith , composed throughout into bubles . fig. 2. a slice of the slender part of the root of jerusalem artichoke cut transversly . aaa . as it appeareth to the bare eye . ccc . the bark . ce ce ce . both the succiferous and the air-vessels represented by the black lines , the succiferous being postured directly against the air-vessels , upon the inner verge of the bark . but the lines are too few . e. the pith. aa . one half of the same slice as it appeareth through the microscope . bb . the skin . aa . ee . the bark . the black columns are the succiferous vessels . ss . the younger and more succulent portion of the said vessels postured in chords . in the other parts of the columns stand the elder and less succulent . amongst them stand the air-vessels , of a smaller size , and about four or six in every column . el. el. other columns betwixt them wholly parenchymous . ll. the pith. ee . the bubles of the pith , which are very large , and most of the largest by the weftage of their composing fibres made angular . table iv. fig. 1. a slice of a smaller root of dandelyon cut traversly . aa . as it appeareth to the bare eye , answerable to fig. 15. tab. i. aa . one half of the same slice as it appeareth through a microscope . cc. the skin . aa . gg . the bark ; or all that part of the root analogous to it . dtg . the position of the succiferous or milk-vessels amongst the smaller bubles , in chord-rings ; the chords being of different lengths in the same ring . ee . the parenchymous rings betwixt them all from c. to g. wherein the bubles are of a larger size ; yet all of them small in respect of those in many other roots . gt . gt . the bubles streaming in rays cross three or four of the black rings ; in which space other succiferous vessels , scil . lymphaeducts seem to be mixed with the lacteal . from gg . inward stand the air-vessels , all contracted into a cylinder in the centre : the larger whereof about the centre , the smaller next the bark . and all of them small in comparison with those in many other roots . the spaces betwixt them filled up with a mixed body , partly consisting of succiferous vessels , but chiefly parenchymous . fig. 2. a slice of the smaller part of the root of marsh-mallow cut traversly . aa . as it appeareth to the bare eye according to the description of fig. 2. tab. i. aa . one half of the same slice as it appeareth through a microscope . bb . the skin ; not altogether so thick ; and the bubles rather postured in rays . da. da. the bark . gg . the succiferous vessels postured in a ring upon the inner verge of the bark . ss . ll. the rest of the succiferous vessels standing in more distinct conjugations throughout the bark both in rings and rays represented by the black spots . sl . sl . the parenchymous parts of the bark standing betwixt them . from dd. to the centre stand the air-vessels . dt . dt . some few of them postured in rays : the parts betwixt which are wholly parenchymous or pithy . from tt . inward the rest , and greater part of the air-vessels standing together in the centre . table v. fig. 1. a slice of the lower part of the root of bugloss cut traversly , as it appeareth to the bare eye . a. the skin . a e. the bark . ccc . the succiferous vessels in a ring . within them the air-vessels . fig. 2. the same slice , as it appeareth through a microscope . a. bbbb . the skin ; which should have been somewhat thicker . aa . ll. the bark . bb . gg . the bubles of the bark postured rather circularly . gg . ff . the rest of the bubles all radiated ; amongst which 't is probable some few of the succiferous vessels run . ss . the arching of the buble-rays . ff . ll. the succiferous vessels more visibly and numerously postured in a ring upon the inner verge of the bark . within stand the air-vessels postured in rays , most of them meeting in the centre . ttt . a single air-vessel . ll . a conjugation of two in the peripherial posture . ff . a conjugation of three in the diametral posture . eee . some of them more firmly contained together in the centre by the parenchymous threds . dddd . parenchymous parts . table vi. fig. 1. a slice of the lower part of the root of horse-radish cut traversly , as it appeareth to the bare eye . a. the skin . ac . the bark , with the succiferous vessels therein represented by the smaller specks . within stand the air-vessels represented by the larger and blacker specks . e. the pith. fig. 2. the same slice , as it appeareth through a microscope . aa . the skin . a. b. the bark . b. l. the succiferous vessels therein postured in the form of a glory . b.g. the air-vessels postured in a thick ring ; the several conjugations whereof are radiated . g. e. other succiferous vessels within the air-vessels postured in a thin ring . e. the pith. ee . the bubles of the pith. table vii . fig. 1. should have represented a slice of a small root of a vine cut traversly ; but the sculpture is utterly false . fig. 2. the same slice , as it truly appeareth through a microscope . a. the skin . a. b. the bark . s. the succiferous vessels therein postured in more distinct portions , the figure of ea●h portion coming near an half-oval . lll . the woody part of the root consisting of vessels originally succiferous . amongst them stand the air-vessels of different sizes . eee . one of the largest . e. a conjugation of three small ones . dd. parenchymous or diametral portions inserted betwixt the aforesaid vessels about a third part towards the centre ; the bubles whereof are quadrilateral . b. g. other larger and longer portions continuous with the bark , and pointing near the centre . b. l. six others all meeting in the centre , and crossing each other almost at equal angles . finis . tab. 1 tab. 2 tab. 3 tab. 4 tab. 5 tab. 6 tab. 7 blagraves astrological practice of physick discovering the true way to cure all kinds of diseases and infirmities ... being performed by such herbs and plants which grow within our own nation ... : also a discovery of some notable phylosophical secrets worthy our knowledge, relating to a discovery of all kinds of evils, whether natural or ... from sorcery or witchcraft, or by being possessed of an evil spirit, directing how to cast forth the said evil spirit out of any one which is possessed, with sundry examples thereof / by joseph blagrave of reading, gent. ... blagrave, joseph, 1610-1682. 1671 approx. 405 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 85 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2008-09 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a28315 wing b3112 estc r13219 11697220 ocm 11697220 48251 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a28315) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 48251) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 14:17) blagraves astrological practice of physick discovering the true way to cure all kinds of diseases and infirmities ... being performed by such herbs and plants which grow within our own nation ... : also a discovery of some notable phylosophical secrets worthy our knowledge, relating to a discovery of all kinds of evils, whether natural or ... from sorcery or witchcraft, or by being possessed of an evil spirit, directing how to cast forth the said evil spirit out of any one which is possessed, with sundry examples thereof / by joseph blagrave of reading, gent. ... blagrave, joseph, 1610-1682. [24], 187 [i.e. 139], [2] p. : ill. printed by s.g. and b.g. for obad. blagrave ..., london : 1671. reproduction of original in cambridge university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of 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to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng exorcism -early works to 1800. medicine -early works to 1800. astrology -early works to 1800. botany, medical -early works to 1800. medicine, magic, mystic, and spagiric -early works to 1800. 2006-04 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2006-09 spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images 2007-07 robyn anspach sampled and proofread 2007-07 robyn anspach text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion blagrave's astrological practice of physick discovering , the true way to cure all kinds of diseases and infirmities which are naturally incident to the body of man. being performed by such herbs and plants 〈◊〉 grow within our own nation , directing the 〈◊〉 to distil and extract their vertues and making up of medicines . also , a discovery of some notable phylosophical secret worthy our knowledge , relatin● to a discovery of all kinds of evils , whether natural or such which com-from sorcery or witchcraf●ts or by being possessed of an evil spirit : directing how to cast forth the said evil spirit out of any one which is ●ossessed with sundry examples thereof . by joseph blagrave of reading gent. student in astrology and physick . london , printed by s.g. and b. g for obad. blagrav . at the printing press in little brittain , 167● . the truth is , i find by good experience , especially in very cold infirmities , as agues , dead palsies , and such like , its impossible to make a sympathetical cure when saturn is strong , were it not so that those observations before-going were in force , and approved : as for example , if the patient be old , his grief cold , his complexion cold , the season of the year cold , and his remedies to be applyed cold , it must needs destroy nature , for where heat is wanting there can be no life : but if saturn be the afflicting planet and weak then herbs which are under the dominion of the sun and jupiter being of known vertue to cure the distemper or grife will do it ; they being by nature hot and moist , whereas saturn is by nature cold and dry , clean differing in elemental qualities , and this is called an antipathetical cure ; but in all infirmities whatsoever which are caused by the evil influence of mars , he being strong in the heavens , the remedies used must be by such herbs and plants which are under his own dominion , together with herbs of the sun but if the complexion of the patient , their age , and the season of the year doth naturally produce heat , then to use some small numbers and dose of such herbs which are under the dominion of venus , may be proper at some convenient times to give the patient towards the refreshing of nature , yet chiefly in point of cure you must adhere unto those herbs and plants which are under mars and the sun whereby to work your cure , for if you should give cooling remedies in hot distempers when mars is strong , 't will destroy the patient as i have sufficiently proved ; but as i have elsewhere expressed if mars be the afflicting planet and weak , then those herbs and plants under the dominion of venus and the moon ; together with a select number of herbs under the dominion of the sun will do it . in all cures whatsoever , a select number of herbs under the dominion of the sun must be used . these rules being well observed and carefully followed , may through gods blessing produce wonderful effects ; as i have sufficiently proved in my many years practice and experience , as you will find in this book . to the truly learned , and my most honoured friend elias ashmole of the afiddle temple esq windsor herauld at armes , and comptroler of the excise for his majesty . sir , although somwhat abashed ( when i consider those admirable guifts , both of learning and knowledge which are seated in your worthy person as by your admirable works in print are manifest ) to dedicate these my laboues , yet being imboldned not only by our former acquaintance , as having ever found those noble parts in you , both of wisdom and affability : but also considering the great love and affection you did always bear unto philosophy : and so by consequence , a true lover of such , who are well-willers thereunto , according unto that maxime in philosophy , every thing delighteth in its own element , and doth sooner adhere unto it , than to its contrary : and should this book come into some mens hands who are not delighted in these kinds of studies , although wise and well learned in other things , yet they will assuredly slight , and not regard what i have written , nor yet willingly shew any love or countenance to the writer , for according unto that notable expression of yours to the reader , in your excellent book , intituled , the way to bliss : that 't is as possible to shape a coate for the moon , as in writing to please every genius : so various are the generality of our inclinations , &c. what i have written in this book is no translation , but meerly the subject of 〈◊〉 many years practice and experience in the ●●●rological way of physick : and published , not 〈◊〉 for my own vindication in point of art 〈◊〉 practice , but also to instance others to do the like cures as i have done ; for i may truly say , 〈◊〉 wonders have been wrought , as in this book will appear : yet many people i find are unsatisfied concerning any way of practice in physick , the reason i conceive is , because many illitterate persons , and others who are ignorant of the art of astrology do foolishly speak against it , verifying that notable saying of the poet ars non habet inimicum nisi ignorantem . concerning the lawfulness of the art , i have sufficiently given satisfaction to the wise , in the epistles of those almanacks of mine , dated anno , 1658. and 1659. besides , there are many excellent men who have written both learnedly and largely thereupon ; should i mention your most worthy self , who is known to be a great master herein , and not only in astrology but also in philosophy , the most excellent part having i dare say , few or no equals living . sir , for the love i bear unto your most worthy person , and to those most excellent guifts which god hath endowed you withal , i heartily wish i had higher and more excellent things to present you , that so you might take delight in reading , and increase in knowledge thereby : however , i question not , but that when you have read it over , you will find somewhat herein worthy your perusal which may ( if ad nothing unto your wisdom and knowledge ) put you in mind of greater mysteries : even as in motions , the lesser wheels being moved , causeth the greater wheels to be set on work . craving pardon for the boldness of him who heartily wisheth your increase , both in coelestial , and terestial wisdom , health , and happines in this life , and eternal joy in the life to come ; and who shall ever remain , sir , your assured friend and servant to command jos . blagrave . to the right worshipful sr. john davis knight , one of his majesties deput . leift. and justice of peace for the county of b. right worshipful , having for many years past had the happiness to be acquainted with your worship , and having ever found seated in your most worthy person , those most excellent guifts of knowledge , both in divine and moral things ; but most especially , that most excellent guift and noble quality of affability , being a vertue of the greatest demonstration of true generosity . we find it recorded , that this noble vertue did abound with antonius the emperour ( called for his wisdom the philosopher ) who would permit the meanest of his subjects to come unto his presence and to converse with him ; for which quality , he was ever held in high esteem , and well beloved : but on the contrary , such who have abandoned this vertue , ill have befell them : i shall instance one example hereof , in julius caesar who so long as he continued affable and loving unto his subjects they intirely loved him ; but when once he lest off this vertue , and fell into pride , they quickly forsook him , altering their good affection of love unto disdain ; and shortly after conspired his death : and would he but have vouchsafed to have read a note which a me in person delivered him when he went to the senate , he might for that time have saved his life , there being written in it , the whole discovery of the plot. sir , i needed not to have mentioned these things , presuming your worship is sufficiently acquainted therewith already , as having read these moral vertues , and vices : not only in antonius , and julius caesar , but also in many others . sir , i want words to express the love and good affection i did always bear unto your worthy person ; having ever found you to be a true lover of such , who were studious in all lawful arts and sciences . that which i here present your worship withal , is not only astrology , which is the first and chiefest of all liberal arts and sciences ; but also the true astrological way of my many years practice in physick ; for without knowledge in astrology , it 's impossible to be either a phylosopher or good physician , for hath the theory and practick thereof is derived from astrology . in all ages astrology was ever held in high esteem ; the knowledge whereof ( as testi●ieth josephus ) was taught by god himself unto adam , and from him , unto posterity ; this worthy author further saith , that he saw the art of astrology graven in stone in assyria , done by seth before the flood : also those magicians or wisemen which came to worship christ , were great astrologers , without question ( next unto divinity ; it s the most excellent study in the world ; for those who are but me only read in this art , must needs know , that a mighty and powerful hand hath wrought those wonders which ●●●●is●●●y ●●en in the heavens , as the sun , moon , stars , and p●ane●s with their m●●ions and powerful app●ri●ians upon all su●●una●y c●●●ure● . sir , i know i need an arguments to perswade you unto the lawfulness o● excel e●●y of this worthy science , well knowing , that your worship , as i have already declared , was ever a true 〈◊〉 th●re●f : i question not , but that when you have read once ●h●se my labours , you will not only be the more confirmed in your good ●pinion hereof , but also find somewhat ●e●●in which may increase your knowledge in these secret mysteries . sir , may these my writings prove acceptable unto your most worthy hands , i have obtained the end of my 〈◊〉 , which was in some measure to demonstrate the great affection which i did always bear unto your most worthy person , and shall ever remain , your worships servant to command jos . blagrave . to all my loving countrey-men in general , but especially to those of reading , being the place of my nativity . it was the saying of our blessed saviour that a prophet could not be without honour save in his own country . although i count my self no prophet , yet by the rules of astrology i have predicted such things which ( to our sorrow ) have come to pass as may appear in my almanack for the year 1665. and others formerly written : i presume , i have both friends , and enemies amongst●y u● ; it s well known unto many , that i have done very great cures both in the town , and places adjacent , although i have not mentioned their names in this book , yet i find that many being unsatisfied concerning the legality of my way of cure , have refused to come or send unto me for help to cure their infirmities : and many of 〈◊〉 wh● did come , c●●me for the most part privately , fearing either loss of reputation or reproaches from their neighbours , and other unsatisfied people ; and also fear●●● then what i did , was either diab●lical , or by unlawful means . i question not but when you have read over this book , although some things may seem mistical at the first , especially unto such who never before read any books of this nature , yet by oft perusied and well heeding what i have written , i am confident it may , and will give satisfaction unto any of reasonable capacity : and for the benefit of those who de●ire knowledge in the astrological and chymical way of physick ( which is the most assured way extant ) i have both briefly and plainly instructed the learner herein , so that those who can but read and will take pains may assuredly attain unto it , and be inabled thereby to do the like cures as i have done : and as concerning the resolution of questions by figures , a thing much questioned by some , i have in this book given sufficient reasons thereof according unto art , thereby inabling others ( if they please to take the pains ) to do the like . what i have formerly done herein , was more to satisfie the earnest importunity of others , than for any gain or profit which came unto me , for i alwayes ( although some reward was given me for my pains therein ) accounted my self a loser thereby , in regard of my practice in physick ; and let the artist be never so careful to give content , yet what will the most men say , ( especially such who are ignorant of the art ) if we discover the thing sought after , surely he doth it by the devil , otherwise , how could he do it , but if we chance to fail , as sometimes we may by taking a wrong ascendant , then they will assuredly say , they are cheated of their money : i speak seriously i take no pleasure in such questions , for the reasons aforesaid , having denied many which came unto me therefore . kind country men and women , my thoughts are better of you then wholly to blame you , for i dare say it was either false reports , or ignorance of the way i profess , which caused many of you to be enemical unto me ; wherefore , i have the rather published this treatise that so f●r time to come , you may not only be setled in your opinion , but also be fully satisfied , that what i have already done , or shall for time to come do in the astrological or chymical way of physick , which is the way of my practice , is both honest , just , and lawful ; and is no more then what every industrious physician ought to know , and without knowledge therein , its impssible to be an expert physitian , as in this book will appear : concerning the legality of this art of astrology , if any are unsatisfied they may read ●y epistles of those almanacks dated , 1658. and 1659. besides there are many authentick authors who have written both learnedly and largely thereupon , for i intend not at this time t● trouble my self or reader much farther herein , only thus much at present , i say , next unto divinity it is the most to be admired and most excellent study in the world , and worthy our knowledge ; for there is so much seen of the wonderful work of god in it , that it must needs convince the most unbelieving persons whatsoever , and cause them to know that a mighty and powerful hand hath wrought those wonders which we visibly see , is the heavens , sun , moon ; stars and planets , with their motions and powerful operations over all sublunary creatures ; and hath given unto man so much knowledge thereby ( next unto the angels ) that he is able to reveale and make known in a great measure his heavenly will thereby unto his people , that so they may be forewarned of his wrath to come . if i find this book hath acceptance with you , i shall be incouraged to labour in my study and profession to do you and the country farther service , and shall ever remain , your assured loving country man and servant . jos . blagrave . in nobilissimi , & magni astrologi encomium . intima sanguinei scrutatur pectora tauri agmine plebeo cinctus spect ante sacerdos , imperiumque suum est quoties argenteus alti solis avis tendit romana insignia bello . augur cede viro , cede ô geometria magno astrologo , claroque jovi summeque perito ad sua multiplices deducere sydera morbos . non aesculapius talem cognoverit artem , nedum virgilius magnus , non thessala tempe talem frugifera conspexit vertice doctum . ex tripode haud quaquam sacro grynaeus apollo verius ad sortem humanam dedit ore loquelas . astra regunt morbos , morbi sacrantur avitis planetis , veluti summis piacula sanctis . aurea mundanis celebratur regula velis . quis super atra silex jamjam casura cadentique imminet assimilis , veniunt hic circis ad antrum , contenti rediere omnes . h. pratt . generosus . the contents of this book . a catalogue of the herbs and plants appropriated unto their several planets . pages , ● , 2 , 3 , 4. general rules whereby to know under what planet every herb or plant is governed , p. 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11. rules concerning the gathering of herbs and plants at the right planetary hours . 12 , 13 , 16 , 17. concerning numbers attributed unto the planets with the reason thereof . p. 18 , 19. the way to find the disease by the sun or moon afflicted . pag. 21. to know the time of death or recovery by the critical figure . pag. 22.23 . judgment upon a decumbiture figure , and also upon acute and perperacute sicknesses . p. 24.25 . judgment upon another decumbiture of a sick person . pages 25 , 26 , 27. the characters of the seven planets : twelve signes ; and the five usual aspects : and the houses of the planets . pag. 28 , 29. the sick-mans glass , with the use of an eph●meris . pag. 30 . 3● . how to erect a scheme or figure for any time given . p. 32 a decumbiture figure set for the time of my friends falling sick : with judgment thereupon . p. 3● , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38. observations concerning the ascendant . pag. 39.40 . brief rules concerning long or short sicknesses : and whether the patient is like to live or dye . p. 73.74 . the bodily shape and infirmities atributed unto the twelve signes . pag. 75. the bodily shape with the parts and members of the body together with the diseases which the planets generally rule . pag. 77. concerning the moon of mars or sol afflicted in any of the twelve signes . pag. 79. concerning the moon of saturn or jupiter afflicted in any of the twelve signes , pag. 82. how to make dyet-drinks , or to extract the spirits of plants or herbs . how to make syrups , lambitives , pills , glisters , fa●mes , fumigations , cataplasms , oymments , and bathes . pages . 86 , 87 , 88 , 89 , 90. of purgations and the manner of purging , vomiting , bathing , sweating , blooding , with some other additions necessary to be known . pag. 91 , 92 , 93. a catalogue of choyce herbs or plants , collected for the curing of all kinds of grief● or infirmities whatsoever , alphabetically expressed , beginning at pag. 94 , and ending at p. 113. one cure done at oxford , anno dom. 1658. another cure done at oxford , anno dom. 1659. p. 64.65.115 , 11● , 11● . one cure done at tylehurst near reading , anno 1667. pag. 118. the way to cure the evil , commonly called the kings evil , with an example . another kind of evil and the cure thereof . 119 , 120 , 121 , 122 , 123. another kind of evil which cometh from sr●m sore●ry or whichcraft with the way of cure . 127. a boy suddainly struck dumb and so continued three years how cured . pag. 144. how to make the sympathetical powder with its application . pag. 131. the vnguent its making and use p. 131. concerning witchcraft and sorcery , with the way of cure . pag. 135. some experimental rules whereby to afflict the witch . pag. 154. the way to cure both witchcraft and sorcery . p. 155. some notable phylosophical secrets whereby to cure sundry distempers . pag. 15● . two pretty secrets in philosophy pag. 160. some practical and experimental rules whereby to give judgment astrologically upon thefts , strayes , fugitives , decumbitures of sick persons , vrines , or any other h●rary question , from page 161 , to page 168. concerning the casting forth of devils out of such who are possest , and how performed by the author . form . p. 168 , to 17● . concerning agues and quotidian infirmities with the way of cure thereof 176 , to page 183. concerning all kinds of madness , its cause and cure . postscript to the reader pag. 184. a short epistle unto those who are students and well-willers unto the art of astrology , page 108. an introductory preface to the reader . haveing formerly spent some of my youthful years in the study of astronomy and astrology , and since that , in philosophy and the practice of physick , and finding by good experience how each part doth depend upon the other , for without some knowledge in astronomy , one can be no astrologer ; and without knowledge in astrology , one can be no philosopher ; and without knowledg both in astrology and philosophy , one can be no good physitian : and whosoever desireth to make practice , either in the astrological or chymical way of physick ( as for the drug way , there can be no certainty in careing thereby , as will plainly appear in this book ) having laid his foundation as aforesaid ( which if any practitioner or student in physick be ignorant of , this book will sufficiently instruct them therein ) must build and rely upon these five substantial pillars following , without which , there can be no admirable cures done , or wonders wrought in this noble art of physick , viz. time , vertue , number , sympathy , and antipathy . first , time is of great concernment whereby to gather each herb or plant at the right planetary hours , which this book will sufficiently inform you ; and likewise to know the hour and time when to administer your physick aright , for if the physick be administred at a wrong hour , be it purge or vomit it will work contrary effects , as i have oft times proved : example , if you give a purge when the moon is in an earthy sign , aspected by a planet retrograde , and that the ascendant with its lord doth correspond , then the purge will turn unto a vomit : and on the contrary , if a vomit be given when the moon is in a watery sign , aspected by planets swift in motion out of watery signs , the signs ascending with its lord corresponding , then the vomit will turn to a purge : also an exact time must be obtained whereby to erect your figure aright , whereby to give judgment upon the disease , its cause and termination , which this book will sufficiently instruct you in . for by urine alone , no true judgement herein can be given , except in some few infirmities which proceed from the blood , or passages of urine , for urine is but the excrement of blood : there are many other considerations to be made use of by vertue of time , which i for brevities sake am willing at present to pass over , and so shall proceed unto the word vertue , which is in brief , a right knowledge and understanding of the nature , properties , elemental qualities and effects which each herb or plant hath , whereby to cure all kinds of griefs or infirmities whatsoever , either by sympathy or antipathy , as this book will sufficiently inform you ; and all growing within our nation . i shall not trouble my self or reader in setting forth the dangers in using forrain drugs , yet i deny not , but that some drugs , whose vertue and operations are well known unto us may in many respects be useful , by reason our climate doth not afford some ingredients which are necessary to be used in some distempers , as figs , raisons , currants , sugar , wine , and spirits . &c. which are oft times made use of , whereby to make our dyet-drinks and spirits of plants extracted the more savory , and doth help to work a more forceble effect in many distempers , as you will find in this book : and i have accordingly in some infirmities made use thereof . thirdly , concerning number : there are certain numbers attributed unto the planets , which every astrological or chymical physician ought to know ; more especially , such who use this way of cure by herbs or plants which is the most assured way extant as best agreeing with our english bodies , yet as i have already declared both in decoctions , and in chimical extractions , ingredients , together with herbs may be used to make it the more forceable and savory ; but should we take all herbs or plants which are accounted good for every grief , not having regard to any select number , there being so many sorts of herbs approved good for the same , there would be no certainty either for the gathering of the herbs at a right hour , or yet know when you have enough whereby to work your cure : the certainty of a select number is not only according unto my own experience , but also it s the opinion of cornelius agrippa , an excellent philosopher , and many others : what numbers are attributed unto each planet , and the reasons thereof , i have elsewhere in this book expressed . fourthly , concerning sympathy , that is , when any planet who is strongest in the heavens by essential dignities , shall afflict the principal significator of the sick : especially , if more strong than that planet which is of a contrary nature ; then those herbs or plants which are under his dominion , shall according unto their vertues and numbers be collected to cure the infirmity , alwayes provided , they are gathered at the right planetary hours , which this book will inform you ; example , if mars be the afflicting planet and is more strong in essential dignities than venus , then you must make choyce of such herbs which are under the dominion of mars to cure such infirmities which he usually produceth , which this book will also acquaint you with . there is no infirmity or disease whatsoever , but in a second cause proceedeth from the evil influence of the afflicting planets ; and what infirmity soever any planet causeth , he hath herbs by sympathy to cure it : in this condition , heat must fetch out heat , even as if one should burn ones finger , and then heat it against the fire , which cureth by sympathy : likewise , i have known a great cold taken , to be cured by a pippin taken in cold water , venus being strong in essential dignities ; and if we should give cooling remedies when mars is strong , it will destroy the patient , as i have often proved ; for it stands by reason , that if a weak man contend with a strong man well armed , he must needs be worsted : but if mars be the afflicting planet , although strong , and venus also be near equal in strength , then we must chase a select lesser number of her herbs to joyn with mars , and so the dose must be proportionable according to their strength and weakness , and so the remedies will be between both , rather adhereing unto the strongest planet . fifthly , concerning antipathy , admit the moon or principal significator of the sick be afflicted by saturn , a planet cold and dry , and he weak in the heavens , and the planet which is of a contrary nature is strong , as instance jupiter who is hot and moist , then a select number of herbs under the dominion of jupiter , being of vertue to cure the distemper must be used , provided they are gathered at the hour when jupiter raineth , which this book will inform you . but if saturn and jupiter be near equal in strength , then use a medium between both , and let one part of your herbs be by sympathy under saturn , and the other part under jupiter , alwayes adhereing unto the stronger planet , both by number and dose ; and ever remembring in all cures whatsoever to use a select number of herbs which are under the sun , in regard he is fountain of life , and sole monarch of the heavens ; and all those herbs which are under his dominion are always approved good to comfort the heart , brain , nerves , arteries , and vital spirits , and are likewise good to resist : poyson : likewise in all cures whatsoever , you must have regard unto the age of the patient , together with their complexion , and the season of the year , that so you may help to support natures defects , for a cholerick or sanguine man or woman by nature requireth things more cooling then flegmatick , or melancholy man or woman , and a flegmatique or melancholy man or woman requires things more heating than a cholerick or sanguine man or woman ; consider the like between youth and age , and the season of the year . note , that each herb or plant mentioned in this treatise , is set down by way of catalogue under the planet which owneth the plant or herb , it being done according unto their elemental qualities and vertues ; having given sufficient reasons thereof , i confess i much differ from authors , for what i have written in this book is no translation , being meerly according unto my practice and experience for many years , by vertue of which herbs and plants ( through gods blessing ) i have done many great and wonderful cures , i dare say , greater hath not been done since the apostles times , for i have caused the blind to see ; the deafe to hear ; both lame and bed-rid people to go ; the dumb to speak , such who have been in extremity of pain , i have eased them ; likewise i have cured all kinds of evils , and all kinds of agues ; together with all sorts of madness , having in this book given sufficient reasons for the same : i have likewise inserted in this book , the names , and places of dwelling of sundry persons who have been by me cured of such infirmities and griefs aforesaid , and how performed ; that so others may be informed how to do the like : i have also instructed the learner , how by the moon in acute , or sun in chronick griefs , or infirmities to find the disease with its cause , and termination . i have also shewed the way how to erect a figure , and thereby to give judgment , either upon the decumbiture , sight of the urine or any strong fit of the patient . and for the benefit of such who desire farther inspection into this art of astrology , having by the rules in this book , or by their own study attained unto the perfect way of erecting a figure : i have shewed the way how to give judgment upon any horary question , as thefts , strayes , fugitives , and urins , &c. it being according unto my way of practice and experience for many yeares . i have also shewed the way and manner how i have cast forth devils , out of such who were possest , that so others may be informed to do the like . courteours reader , what i have written in this book , is not only for my own vindication against all scandals and false aspertions which are usually cast upon me , by such who are ignorant of my way of practice , but chiefly to instruct others , and to inable them to do the like cures as i have done , that so many hundreds may be kept from perishing . there are many who do admire at the cures by me done , but being unsatisfied of the legallity of my way of cure , do thereupon refuse to come , or send to me for help , to cure their infirmities . and as for the vindication of the art of astrology , i shall not at present trouble my self or reader therewith , but shall refer those who are unsatisfied , unto those epistles in my almanacks , dated anno , 1658. and 1659. and unto many other authentique authors in print . some observations concerning sympathy of cure. vvhereas in the catalogue of plants , the planet saturn hath but very few herbs or plants allotted unto him : yet notwithstanding in my epistle before going , i told you , that what griefs or infirmities soever any planet caused , there are herbs by sympathy , as well as antipathy to cure it ; wherefore know that , although an herb or plant may by elemental qualities be under the dominion of mars , as being hot and dry , and so gathered at his hour , yet in regard of his vertues , and being approved good to cure such infirmities which are under the dominion of saturn , it may justly and rationally be called a sympathetical cure , by reason mars is exalted in capricorn the house of saturn . example , agues , especially quartans , are usually caused by saturn . now worm-wood , carduus , and such like plants being hot and dry , are properly attributed unto mars , both in point of gathering and numbers , yet in regard these herbs and plants are of known vertues to cure agues which saturn causeth ; and mars being exalted in capricorn which is the house of saturn : therefore it may properly be called a sympathetical cure : and so herbs under the dominion of sol , cure infirmities by sympathy caused by mars , because the sun is exalted in aries the house of mars : and so herbs under venus cure by sympathy infirmities under jupiter , by reason venus is exalted in pisces the house of jupiter ; and so herbs of jupiter cure by sympathy such diseases which are under the dominion of the moon , by reason jupiter is exalted in cancer which is her house : the benefit which we have from this observation is as followeth ; if saturn , mars or any other planet , be the afflicting planet , and strong ( which argueth a complyance ) then those herbs which are under the dominion of that planet which is exalted in his house , being good for to cure the infirmity may be used and ( for the reason aforesaid ) it shall be called a sympathetical cure , for when planets are strong and afflicting we must comply with them , as i have elsewhere expressed . note , that in all sympathetical cures whatsoever , there must be one elemental quality in the planet of complyance , with the nature of the planet afflicting ; as for example , herbs under mars have the quality of drith with saturn ; and herbs under the sun have the quality of heat with mars ; and herbs under venus have the quality of moysture with jupiter ; and herbs under jupiter have the quality of moysture with the moon , blagrav's astrological practise of physick . a catalogue of the herbs and plants in this treatise mentioned being rightly appropriated unto their several planets , according unto their elemental qualities and virtues , and agreeing with the author's experience and practice for many years : there are many other herbs , which might have been incerted herein , but these here mentioned are the most material and useful , being all english plants and well known , and without question , if rightly applyed , may well serve to cure any infirmities , whatsoever that are cureable , as i have sufficiently proved . but those that please may insert-others , having knowledge of their elemental qualities and virtues , according unto the rules hereafter expressed . saturn . alder-black ●irds-foot . bull se . clounds woundwor● , cats-tail . hauk weed . hemlock . henbane . mandrake . m●sse of oak . night shade oak . poppey black . poly podium of the oak , tway blade , or two . leaved-grass . jupiter . agrimony . alexanders aromatical-reed . beans-blew bittony of the wood . bittony of the water . borrage . cinkefoil . cammels-hay . columbi●es with blew flowers . cresses . comfrey with blewish or purple flowers bugloss . bugloss wilde . dodder of time , or of any other jupiter plant . dog stones . elm-tree leaves and bark . fell-wort . fetherfew . flower-de-luce . fooles-stones . fox gloves , with purple flowers . fumitary . goats-beard , or josephs flower gromel , flowers and leavs . gander-gosse . harts tongue . hyssop . knot grass . lark-spur with blew flowers . mallowes . orach with blew flowers . poppy with blew flowers perwinckle . purplewort . parsnip . parsnip wilde . spleenwort . satirion . saracens consound . scurvey-grass . smallage . time. mother of time. wild flax . mars . agnus castus . ale-hoofe , or ground ivy . anemony . anet . archangel , with red flowers assarabacca . arsmart . asphodil . beans red . beets red . bell flowers bend weed . birthwort . bishopsweed bitter-sweet . blites , with red flowers . box tree . bramble . brooklime . broom . butchers broom . broom rape . briony . buckthorn . butter-bur . butter wort . carduus benedictus . catmint . coloquintida . charlock . cotton-thistle . cockle . crowfoot . crossewort . danewort . darnel : dittander . dittany or paperwort dock ▪ dogs tooth . dragons . doves foot . dropwort . dyers weed . elderbuds fern. filipendula fleabane . furzbush flowers . gallanga . garlick . germander . gladdon stinking . glassewort . goutwort ground pine . heath . hellebore . helmet flower . hore hound . haw thorn . hemp. hops . holly . horse tail jack by the hedge . ivy. knapweed . louse berries . leeks . monkshood . mouse ear . mustard mercury . ●edge-mustard . nettles . nep. onyons . osmond royal both flags osmond water both flags park-leavs , or tudson poppey red flowers . pilewort . pepperwort . radish . ragwort . rocket . rhubarb . bostard-rhubard . rupturewort . sawwort . savin . saxifrage . sciatica cresses . scabious . scorpion-grass . spurge . self heal . sene. shepheards needle . sheapheards purse . sneesewort . sopewort . spearwort solomo's seal . swallowwort . tamaris . thistles . tarragon . toothwort , or dentory . our ladies thistle . wake robin . cuckow pint . wormwood . wood waxon . woad . wallwort . wood sage . sun. ale cost or costmary . angelica . anise . ash-tree . almonds . allgood . atens . bazil-street . birds eye . burnet . bugle . calamint . cammomil . centory . chervil , or sweet cicely . celandine . clary . catmint . cowslips . comfrey with yellow flowers . crown imperial good for palsies . daffydils , or daffydowndilly . dill. ditany . eglantine . elecampane . eye-bright . fennel figwort . golden rod. gilly-flowers sweet . herbs ears . holly rose . hig●aler flowers yellow with woolley leavs . saint katherines flower saint johnswort . saint jameswort . ladies bed-straw : with yellow flowers juriper . lavender . lavender cotten ladies man●le . lovage . lillies yellowish flowers . mary golds . marjerome sweet maudlin sweet . masterwort . may weed . melilo● mints garden . misletoe . mugwort . motherwort . mallein . one blade , or herb true love . oxlips . parsly saint peters wort . palma bristi . peny royal . pimpernel piony . roses red . rosa solis . rosemary . roses damask . rue saffron . sanicle . sage . sampire . saunders . scordium . setwall . savory , summer . southern wood . sun-flower . sundew . spignel . tansey tree of life . tormentil . valerian . vervain . walnut leaves . woodbine flowers , or honey suckles . wood-rose . vipers bugloss . venus . adders tongue . apples . arrach stinking arch-angel ; white-flowers . arrow head . artechokes . alkanet . barley . beans-white . bears-breach . beech-leavs . blites-flowers white . beets white . bucks horn plantane . cleavers , or goose-grass . colis foot . columbines with white flowers . crab tree , cherry-tree and fruit cranes-bil . cud-weed . comphrey roots . daisies . dandeli●n . ducks meat . e●de● flowers . flea-wor● . ●elli-●ry● flixweed . groundsel . gourds . harts-ease or herb of the trinity . herb true love . herb two pence , or money wort . hounds tongue . larks spur , with white flowers . lillies with white-flowers . maiden hair . moss on apple-trees or crab-trees . mulberries leaves navel wort . orrach flowers white peach flowers . pellitory of the wall . plantane . perwinckle , wild . pond weed . poppy flowers white . pauls bettony . primrose . ribwort . roses white . rushes . saunders flow . white snakeweed . sorrelwood sowthistle . stich-wort . spinach . staw berries . sycomore tree . thro●●-wort , or bell flower . three leav'd grass . turnip root . vine leavs . violets , leavs & roots water cresses . mercury . alkanet , all good . barberries . blood wort . bell flower . blew bottle . dog grass . ●ndive . fluellin . liver-wort . loose-strife . loose-wort . lung-wort mede-sweet . medlar tree . maddir . millet . privet . quinces . succory . rampion . sorrel-garden . star-wort . wh●r●e-berries . willow-tree . wood bine-leavs . wild tansey . yarrow . moon . cabbage . chick-weed . coleworts . cucumber . housleek or sengreen . lettuce . mellions . orpine . pompions . pompions . purslane . moon wort . general rules to know under what planet every herb or plant is governed by the only use of an herbal , with the true reason thereof , according unto the author's experience and practice for many years ; as followeth . the first thing considerable , is to take n● 〈◊〉 of the elemental qualities of each planet ; viz. whether hot and dry , hot and moist , cold and dry , or cold and moist ▪ and of what decrees ; as first , second , third or fourth . secondly , we must by an herbal find the nature or elemental quality of the plants ; if you find that both the planet and plant do accord in elemental qualities then we may conclude , that such an herb or plant is under such a planet : for any reasonable philosopher well knoweth , that every element doth naturally sympathize with its own like , even as the actions of men doth naturally sympathize with their complexion and condition of that planet which hath predominancy over them , as i have elsewhere expressed example ♄ saturn is a planet cold and dry in the third and fourth degree : now by the herbal i find , that hemlock , henbane , night-shade , and such like , are cold and dry in the third and fourth degree ; and therefore may justly be attributed unto the planet saturn . ♃ jupiter is by nature hot and moist : now by the herbal i find , that burrage , mallows , and the herb or plant called dog-stones , are by nature hot and moist ; and therefore may justly be attributed unto jupiter . ♂ mars is by nature hot and dry in the third and fourth degree : now by the herbal i find , that carduus , wormwood , tobacco , rhubarb , hellebore , box , and such like , are all under the dominion of mars , as being hot and dry in the third and fourth degree . ☉ the sun is by nature hot and dry in the first and second degree , and near unto the third : now by the herbal i find , that angelica , baum , marigolds , rue ▪ sweet marjoram , and such like , are all hot and dry in the first and second degree , perhaps rear unto the third ; and therefore are all attributed unto the sun. ♀ venus is by nature cold and moist in the first and second degree : now by the herbal i find , that violets , spinage , white beets , white beans , and such like , are all under the dominion of venus , as being cold and moist in the first and second degree accordingly . ☿ mercury is by nature cold and dry in the first and second degree : now by the herbal i find , that endive , succory , woodbine , lung-wort , liver-wort , and such like , are all cold and dry in the first and second degree , and are therefore under the dominion of mercury . ☽ the moon is by nature cold and moist in the third and fourth degree ; and by the herbal i find , that cabbage , sea-green , chickweed , orpine , purslain , and such like , are all cold and moist in the third and fourth degree ; and therefore are under the dominion of the moon . another way whereby to attribute each herb or plant aright unto the planet , that so hey may agree both in elemental qualities and virtues , more especially of the first part in the degrees of heat or cold , it being the way of my practice , and that with good success . first , having by an herbal found the virtue of the plant which is approved for the curing of such infirmities or diseases which are under the dominion of such a planet , as causes them , although the herb or plant agree but in the first elemental quality of heat or cold , yet the herb or plant may justly and rationally be attributed unto the planet which owns the grief , and so thereby make a sympathetick cure : as instance , jupiter who is by nature hot and moist , and hath predominancy over the liver , lungs , blood , veins , plurisies , and the like : now by the herbal we find , that lung-wort , wood-bittany , agremony , scurvigrass , and such like , are all good to cure such infirmities , notwithstanding they are all hot and dry in the first and second degree , yet having the first elemental quality of heat , together with virtue to cure such defects which jupiter causeth , they may justly be attributed unto jupiter ; and so plantane , white beets , and dandelion , accounted by authors cold and dry , may justly be attributed unto venus , as having the first elemental quality of being cold ●n the first or second degree , and hath virtue to cure by sympathy such defects which venus causeth , or otherwise by antipathy unto mars , as doth plantane , which cureth cuts and wounds which mars causeth : now white beets and dandelion cureth by sympathy ; the first bringeth down womens courses , the other helpeth to cleanse the passages of urin , always provided in these particular applications , that the first elemental quality of heat or cold doth agree , as aforesaid , without which there can be no true gathering or attributing the plant aright unto the planet , as i have shewed more at large elsewhere . and farther , should we not sometimes use this particular way herein expressed , both jupiter and venus , who are great friends unto nature , would have very few herbs or plants allotted unto them , especially jupiter who is the greater fortune ; for by the herbal you shall find very few herbs or plants which doth accord in elemental qualities of heat and moisture with jupiter ; and the truth is , i find that authors do most of them agree in the first elemental quality , or part of heat or cold , but in the latter part of drith or moysture somewhat differing ; and without question they do but guess thereat , or otherwise by tradition follow each other ; neither do they give true knowledge therein ( especially in many herbs and plants ) as instance dandelion , which hath a known virtue to open and cleanse the passages of urin : now if this plant were cold and dry , which most authors hold , how could it have this virtue to open and cleanse ? for of necessity moisture must do it , for all plants which are drying , are usually stopping and binding ; and so saturn , a planet cold and dry , when afflicting the ☽ in earthy signs , always produceth bindings in the body : also the blossoms of plants are somewhat to be regarded , more especially when they agree in the first elemental quality of heat or cold ; as instance , wood-bittany , hyssop , bugloss , burrage , and such like , whose blossoms are blew , a colour which ♃ owneth : and notwithstanding they are all hot and dry ( except burrage ) yet they are rightly appropriated unto jupiter , by reason of their virtues , as curing such defects which ♃ causeth . but should we grant that herbs and plants , which are by nature cold and dry , to be under jupiter ( as many learned authors do hold as i could name ) as instance endive , succory , and such like , there can be no reason given for it , by reason they are so much differing in elemental qualities , for the plants are cold and dry , and the planet jupiter hot and moist , clean opposite unto each other ; wherefore it standeth by reason , and is rational to be under mercury , whose nature doth sympathize , as being cold and dry , and so to cure by antipathy unto jupiter , the herbs being of known virtue to cure such distempers , which jupiter causeth ; likewise i find that many authors do attribute , clary , mints , peny royal , and many others , unto venus a planet cold and moist , whereas the herbs are all hot and dry , of a clean contrary nature . now these plants doe properly belong to the sun ; and the rather in regard of their virtues , as being comfortable unto the heart and vital spirits , and being of sweet smell and pleasant taste : i could instance many more , which authors do wrongfully apply , as instance they attribute angelica , sage , box , and such like to be under the planet saturn whereas the herbs are all hot and dry especially box who is hot and dry in the fourth degree , both the first plants are without question under the dominion of the sun , as being of a good smell ▪ and taste , and are of known virtues to comfort the heart , arteries , and vital spirits and to resist poyson . the other being very hot , and of bitter taste rightly belongeth unto the planet mars as agreeing in elemental qualities , i confess , i have read many authors , and i find many of them accord , but clean out of the way of truth : the reason is , as i conceive , because their works are many , or most of them but translated , and so following by tradition each other , not well weighing the reasons have likewise erred , but as to the virtues of herbs and plants they do for the most part accord , giving reasons for the same . what i have written in this book i● not by imitation of others ; but from my own daily practice and experience . and should i set down the many , difficult cures , which i have done by virtue of herbs i should hardly be believed , except by such who are well versed in the secrets of astrology and philosophy : for many countrey people think , they make a bold adventure , when they come unto me for cure , presuming that what i do is more than natural . they not considering , or at least being ignorant of the extraordinary virtue of herbs and plants more especially being gathered at the right planetary hours together with the right numbers of herbs and plants belonging unto each planet being collected and being truely in due times administred ; for time , virtue and number , together with the right understanding of the way of cure by sympathy and antipathy are the five principal pillars of our work in the astrological or chymical way of physick , as i have already declared in my before epistle to the reader . here followeth some necessary rules to be observed concerning the gathering of each herb or plant aright according unto the true planetary hours , without which no great cures can be done or wonders wrought in the astrological and chymical way of physick . i have also set down the way how to reconcile any difference , which may sometimes arise by way of application of the plant unto the planet : for i must confesse by reason of the difference amongst herbalists concerning the qualities and vertues of some particular plants there may happily be some rational contest therein . the way to gather such herbs and plants which are of known elemental qualities and virtues out of contest is as followeth . before we proceed herein it will be necessary for the reader to understand the planetary hours , which are inserted at the beginning of the second book together with the almanack perpetual adjoyning for both the planet , which is lord of the hour and the plant which is to be gathered must both agree in elemental qualities especially of the first part of heat or cold . example , if i were minded to gather baum , rosemary , marygolds angelica , and such like plants or herbs , which are under the dominion of the sun ; upon sunday the fourteenth of march 1699. now from the suns rising until he is an hour in highth which is until seven a clock , is the hour of the sun , likewise the sun reigneth again the eighth hour , which is between one and two a clock after upon at which times you may gather any herbs or plants under the dominion of the sun. now if any one were minded to gather any herbs of the sun upon tuesday the sixteenth day then between seven and eight a clock in the morning is the hour of the sun. and likewise between two and three a clock afternoon , as appeareth in the almanack answerable unto the day of the month , also by the same rules you may gather any other herbs or plants at the right planetary hours accordingly , which are out of controversie . rules whereby to gather such herbs and plants , which are in controversie , that so you may have the true planetary influence notwithstanding as followeth . vvhen you are minded to gather any herb or plant in controversie , as instance dandelion before mentioned , this plant being by my rules under venus , but by some autho●s appropriated unto jupiter by reason it hath a virtue to open the obstructions of the liver ( being under jupiter ) but it hath also a virtue to open and cleanse the passages of urine , as i have already declared ( which is under venus ) but chiefly it hath the first elemental quality of being cold , agreeing with venus , whereas jupiter is hot . now to reconcile this or any other difference of the like nature , do as followeth ; let both planets in question at the time of gathering be in conjunction , sextile or t●ine , aspect unto each other . or otherwise let the moon be seperating and applying by any of those aspects from the one planet to the othe● , by this rule you may have the true planetary influence of both planets in question : alwayes provided that the lord of the hour doth accord with the first elemental quality of the planet be it hot or cold , wherefore in this condition venus must be lord of the hour at the time of gathering the herb or plant accordingly . i shall instance one herb more ; suppose , i was minded to gather sweet-marjerome , which plant is by many authors appropriated unto the planet mercury , the reason they give is because mercury is conjoyned in some particular operations of the brain , and this plant is of known virtue to comfort the brain . but by my rules and dayly experience , i find it to be under the dominion of the sun ; first by reason of its elemental qualities as agreeing with heat and drith : secondly in regard of its virtues , for all herbs and plants , which are of sweet smell , and are of approved virtues to comfort the heart , brain , nerves and arteries , and vital spirits , as this plant is are justly and rationally accounted to be under the dominion of the sun who is the fountain of life , lord of leo and exalted in aries , whereas mercury hath only predominancy over some particular operations of the brain , as he hath in all the five sences . it s generally approved of all authors that the bulk of the brain in all creatures , is under the dominion of the moon . the vital and quickning part under the sun , the operation of mercury as aforesaid . now to gather this plant at the right planetary hour , that so you may have the influence of both planets in question , you must do as before expressed , let those planets concerned be in either conjunction , trine , or sextile , aspect unto each other , at the time of gathering , or otherwise let the moon be separating and applying from the one planet to the other at the time of gathering by any of the before going aspects : example , if i were minded to gather the said sweet marjerome in september , 1669. about which time such like plants are in their prime to gather . in which moneth upon the fourteenth day the sun and mercury are in partil conjunction , but their influence holds above a week before and after , for until they are separated ten degrees from each other their orbs , raies , or influence holds strong unto perfection , wherefore you may gather this plant aright upon sunday the fifth day , or upon sunday the tenth day or upon sunday the fifteenth day from the suns rising until the sun is about an hour in hight ; and likewise in the afternoon between one and two of the clock as appeareth in the perpetual almanack for the day appointed . also you may gather any days of those weeks , when the sun is lord of the hour , and if the moon be in friendly aspect it s the better how to find the lord of the hour , i have shewed elsewhere at the beginning of the second book note , that in gathering all kinds of herbs and plants whatsoever , more especially , when you intend to do any great cure , you must get the influential virtue of one of the fortunes , viz. the sun , jupiter , or venus to be joyned or be in some friendly aspect with that planet , which owns the plant having regard unto the infirmity or grief which either by simpathy or antipathy hath any relation to the fortune , as instance endive , which is cold and dry under mercury yet in regard its approved good to cool the heat of the liver , which is under jupiter , therefore let jupiter be in conjunction , trine , or sextile aspect unto mercury or the moon separating and applying by any of those aspects from the one planet to the other , when you gather the plant , this is to be done , when an infortune owns the plant or herb you are minded to gather . a plain and easie may how to gather herbs or plants aright that so you may have the benefit both of the day and hour , when each planet reigneth , which owneth the plant throughout the year : and will generally serve to gather any herbs or plants aright for the use of physick , being fitted for every ten dayes of the month throughout the year and so for ever . note , all herbs and plants , which are under the dominion of the sun are gathered on sundayes : and all those herbs and plants which are under the dominion of the moon are gathered on mondayes : and all those under mars on tuesdayes : and all those under mercury on wednesdayes : and all those under jupiter on thursdayes : and all those under venus on fridayes : and all those under saturn on saturdayes ▪ now every planet which is lord of the day , ●uleth the first and the eighth hour of the day , each day being divided into twelve equal parts , which we call the planetary hours ( and so the planetary hours are near twice so long in the highest of summer , as they are in the midst of winter ) example , suppose i were minded to gather herbs or plants under the dominion of sol upon one of the first ten dayes of january : then upon sunday from the suns rising , which is six minutes after eight a clock until 46 min. past eight in the morning , and likewise from 40 minutes past noon until 20 minutes past one , you may gather any herb or plant under the dominion of the sun by which account you have the benefit both of the day and hour as aforesaid as appeareth in the table following , you may do the like for any other plant or herb whatsoever , alwayes remembring that the planet which is lord of the day ever ruleth the first and the eighth hour , divided as aforesaid into twelve equal parts . january the first 10 days . length of the planetary hours bef . noon from the suns rising which is 6 min. after 8 until 46 min. past 8. h. m. aft. noon from 40 min. past noon , until 20 min. past 1. 0 40 january from the 10 day to the 2● day .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 47 min. after 7 until 30 min. past 8. h. m. aft. noon from 43 min. past noon until 20 min. past 1 0 43 january from the 20 unto the end .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 26 min. past 7 until 30 min after 8. h. m. aft. noon from 43 min. past noon until 26 min. past 1. 0 46 february the first 10 days .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 12 min. after 7 until 8 a clock . h. m. aft. noon from 48 min. past noon until 36 min. past 1. 0 48 february from the 10 day to the 20 day .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 57 mi. past 6 until 40 min. past 7. h. m. aft. noon from 51 min. past noon until 14 min. past 1. 0 51 february from the 20 day unto the end .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 36 min. past 6 until ●8 in min. past 7. h. m. aft. noon from 54 min. past noon until 48 min. past 1. 0 54 march the first 10 days .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 7 min. past 6 until 5 min. past 7. h.   aft. noon from 58 min. past noon until 58 min. past 1. 0 58 march from the 10 day to the 20 day .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 6 a clock until 7 a clock . h. m. aft. noon from one a clock until 2 a clock . 1 0 march from the 20 day to the mon. end .     bef noon from the suns rising being 28 min. after 5 until 33 min. past 6. h. m. aft. noon from 5 min. past 1 until 11 min. past two . 1 5 april the first 10 dayes .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 3 min. after 5 until 13 min. past 6. h. m. aft. noon from 10 min. after 1 until 19 min. past 2. 1 13 april from the 10 day to the 20 day .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 45 min. past 4 until 58 min. past 5. h. m. aft. noon from 13 min. past 1 until 25 min. past 2. 1 13 april from the 10 day to the end .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 8 min after 4 until 48 min. past 5 : h. m. aft. noon from 14 min. past 1 until 29 min. past 2 1 14 may the first 10 days .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 8 min. after 4 until 37 min. past 5. h. m. aft noon from 19 min. past 1 until 37 m. past 2. 1 19 may from the 10 day to the 20 day .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 56 min. after 3 until 17 min. past 5. h. m. aft. noon from 22 min. after 1 until 42 min. past 2. 1 22 may from the 20 day unto the end .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 45 min. after 3 until 8 min past 5. h. m. aft. noon from 23 min past 1 until 45 m. past 2. 1 23 june the first 10 days .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 39 min. after 3. until 3 min. past 5. h. m. aft. noon from 24 min. past 1 until 47 min. past 2. 1 24 june from the 10 to the 2 day .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 39 min. after 3 until 3 min. past 5. h. m. aft. noon from 24 min. past 1 until 47 min. past 2 1 24 june from the 20 unto the end .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 44 min. past 3 until 7 min. past 5. h. m. aft. noon from 23 min. past 1 until 46 min. past 2. 1 23 july the first 10 days .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 35 min. after 3 until 16 min. after 5. h. m. aft. noon from 21 min. past 1 until 42 min. past 2. 1 22 july from the 10 day to the 20 day .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 8 min. past 4 until 27 min. past 5. h. m. aft. noon from 19 min. past 1 until 37 min. past 2 1 19 july from the 20 day unto the end .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 26 min. past 4 until 49 min. past 5. h. m. aft. noon from 16 min. past 1 until 22 min. past 2. 1 16 august the first 10 days .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 45 min. past 4 until 58 min. past 5. h. m. aft. noon from 13 min. past 1 until 25 min. past 2. 1 13 august from the 10 day to the 20 day .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 3 min. after 5 until 13 min past 6. h. m. aft. noon from 6 min. past 1 until 13 min. past 2. 1 10 august from the 20 day to the end .     bef noon from the suns rising being 23 min. after 5 until 47 min. past 6. h. m. aft. noon from 6 min. past 1 until 13 min. past two . 1 6 september the first 10 days .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 47 min. after 5 until 47 ●in . past 6. h. m. aft. noon from 2 min. after 1 until 4 min. past 2 1 2 septem . from the 10 day to the 20 day .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 6 min. past 6 until 5 min. past 7. h. m. aft. noon from 59 min. after noon until 58 min. past 1. 1 59 septem from the 10 day to the end .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 26 m. after 6 until 22 min. past 7 : h. m. aft. noon from 56 min. after noon until 50 min. past 1. 1 56 october the first 10 days .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 50 min. after 6 until 42 min. past 7. h. m. aft noon from 52 min. after noon until 43 min. past 1. 1 52 october from the 10 day to the 20 day .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 11 min. after 7 until 8 a clock . h. m aft. noon from 19 min. past noon until 37 min. past 1. 1 49 octob. from the 20 day unto the end     bef . noon from the suns rising being 27 min. past 7 until 14 min. past 8. h. m. aft. noon from 46 min. past noon until 31 min. past 1. 0 46 november the first 10 days .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 48 min. after 7 until 30 min. past 8. h. m. aft. noon from 43 min. past noon , until 24 min. past 1. 0 43 novem. from the 10 day to the 20 day .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 3 min. after 8 until 43 min. past 8. h. m. aft. noon from 40 min. past noon until 19 min. past 1 0 40 novemb. from the 20 day unto the end .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 45 min. past 8 until 53 min after 8. h. m. aft. noon from 38 min. past noon until 15 min. past 1. 0 38 decemb. the first 10 days .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 20 min. after 8 until 57 min. past 8. h. m. aft. noon from 37 min. past noon until 14 min. past 1. 0 37 decemb. from the 10 day to the 20 day .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 20 mi. past 8 until 57 min. past 8. h. m. aft. noon from 37 min. past noon until 14 min. past 1 0 37 decemb. from the 20 day unto the end .     bef . noon from the suns rising being 15 min. past 8 until 53 min. past 8. h. m. aft. noon from 38 min. past noon until 15 min. past 1. 0 38 concerning numbers attributed unto the seven planets with the reasons thereof , agreeing with cornelius agrippa an excellent philosopher , besides my own daily practice and experiencè . saturn . numbers attributed to the plan . to this planet ♄ belongeth three numbers , viz. two , seven , nine ; the number two as being next beneath the starry firmament , and also as being one of the two infortunes , the number seven , as being the seventh in order , and highest from the earth . it s also a number fatal and climacterical ▪ as joyned with the number nine . also the number nine is a number fatal and climacterical , as joyned with the number seven : for nine times 7 makes 63 , which number all philosophers do hold to be fatal and climacterical by reason the nines and the sevens do meet . 2 7 9 jupiter   jupiter hath three numbers , allotted unto him , viz. one , three eight ; the number one , as being the head and chief fortune ; the number three , as being the the third star or planet in order from the starry firmament beneath saturn also , as being one of the three fortunes . the number eight as containing the mistery of justice and religion : for jupiter in astrology doth always represent the sober priest or minister , according unto which number christ was circumcised : also we read of eight degrees of blessedness , &c. 1 3 8 mars .   mars hath four numbers alloted unto him , viz. two , four seven , nine : the number two , as being one of the two infortunes : the number four , as being the fourth in number from the starry firmament next unto jupiter : the number seven as being a number fatal and climacterical as joyned with nine : also he hath the number nine as being a number fatal and climacterical , as joyned with seven . this planet as likewise saturn are both enemies unto nature . 2 4 7 8 sol.   the sun hath five several numbers alloted unto him , viz. one , three , four , seven , ten , twelve . the number one as being sole monarch of the heavens : the number three , as being one of the three fortunes : the number four , from the four quarters of the year : the number ten ▪ as being the number of the end of life , as multiplyed by seven : the number twelve as passing through the twelve signs of the zodiack . 1 3 4 10 12 venus .   venus hath three numbers alloted unto her , viz. two , three , nine : the number two as being female . the number three as being one of the three fortunes : the number six as being the number of generation consisting of two threes . 2 3 6 mercury .   this planet mercury hath two numbers alloted unto him , viz. two five : the number two , as being part male and part female . and therefore called the hermaphrodite . the number five as having predominancy over the operation of the five senses . 2 5 moon .   the moon hath three numbers alloted unto her , viz. two , six , nine : the number two as being female : the number six as being the number of generation : the number nine , as being the utmost receptacle of all coelestial influences . 2 6 9 the astrological way , whereby to discover all kinds of diseases , or infirmities incident unto the body of man : and likewise how to know whether the sick shall live or die : also the time , when either recovery or death may be expected ; with the true astrological way of curing each disease which is cureable , as followeth . in the first place , before we come to set forth the method of cure , it will be necessary to find what the grief is , and from what cause ; without which its impossible to do any great cures . there are two wayes by which judgment may be given herein : the one astrologically by a figure of twelve houses , which is accounted to be the most assured and exactest way : the other is by the moon according as she is afflicted by the malevolent planets , having regard to the signs or constellations , wherein she was afflicted , at the time of decumbiture : this way may serve generally in acute diseases , and i do find by my daily practice , that one shall seldom err herein , but in case of such diseases , which are natural from the birth , or have been of very long standing , or more especicially , if there be any suspition of witchcraft , a figure of twelve houses is most rational i shall briefly shew the way of both : but in regard a figure of twelve houses and the astrological way in giving judgement thereupon may seem difficult at the first , especially unto those , who have never formerly read or studied any whit in this science : and farther considering that many , who are well willers hereunto either may want time , or be unwilling to take the pains herein , may neglect the study hereof , and so this my writing may prove uselesse unto them , i have for the satisfaction and incouragement of all well willers unto this study and practice of physick , set forth one general way in giving judgment , either by the moon afflicted in acute diseases , which terminate in a month , or by the sun in chronick diseases , which are of above a months standing : this being the very way of my own daily practice and experience for many years , wherein you shall seldome or never fail , especially in acute diseases , as for other chronick and long lasting griefs there will be more time allotted to consider of them : the truth is long continued infirmities ( and some others ) doth require more inspection than that only of the sun and moon afflicted and therefore a figure of twelve houses will be proper to give judgement therein for many times the ascendant , sixth and twelfth houses with their lords will be concerned therein , as shall be shewed in order . also it will be necessary after the grief is known , to know the critical , intercidental , and judicial daies and times ; being the times for change either of life or death ▪ which is done by a critical figure divided into 16 equal parts , as shall be shewed in the next paper . the way to find the disease by the sun and moon afflicted . in the first place by an almanack take notice , what sign the moon is in , when the sick first takes their bed , and by what planet or planets she is afflicted , whether of saturn or mars ( or mercury , which is much of the nature of saturn ) then having recourse unto the rules elsewhere in this book under the titles of the moon by saturn or mars afflicted ; there you shall find the disease and the cause thereof . the almanack , which you use herein must be such a one which setteth forth the daily motions of the planets : i shall give one or two examples hereof , as followeth , a friend of mine took his bed the 10th day of october 1667 at a quarter past one a clock after noon , the moon being of nine degrees in sagitary and mars in eight degrees thirty five minutes in virgo , which argueth that mars is in platick square to the moon , we call that a platick aspect , which doth not perfectly accord in degrees and minutes , and if mars had been but one degree in virgo , yet we should account it a platick square , by reason that the orbs , rayes , or influence of the moon unto any planet doth begin to opperate , when she is within ten degrees aspecting any planet ( as is shewed at large elsewhere ) now to find the grief with its cause , you must repair unto the place in this book intituled , the moon in sagitary of mars oppressed , as in page 57 which sheweth that the sick is tormented with a strong fever and cholerick passions , &c. occasioned by surfeiting or too much repletion as there more at large appeareth : the next thing considerable is to know whether the sick shall live or die , and the time when either death or recovery may be expected : now in regard that the moon is applying by a friendly sex to aspect unto venus a fortune , and free from combustion and not in that part of the zodiack called via combusta ( as shall be shewed more at large elsewhere ) i did conclude that the sick would recover ( and so he did ) had the moon applyed unto the infortu●s ♄ or ● and no fortune interposed his friendly rays , then i should have concluded that the sick would have died of this sickness , to know when the time of recovery will be is found by a critical figure or circle divided into 16 equal parts , i shall not stand or spend time to give you the definition of each term of art ; onely thus much i say , the intercidental time , or divident part of the circle is not so dangerous , as the judicial time or part , nor yet the judicial time so dangerous as the critical time . the : cui steali . cirkle of 1c equall pts begining whear the moon wes at the ●lecum litus doict ♏ ♐ 4 / 9 note , that in this critical figure each part containeth 22 deg . 30 min. you must begin where the moon was at the decumbiture , viz. in 9 deg . ♐ unto which you must add 22. deg . 30 min. now in regard there is 30 deg . in every sign you most set down 1 deg . 30 min. capricorn for the first intercidental time into which 1 deg . 30 min. you must add 22 deg . 30 min. which maketh 24 capricorn , for the first judicial time : now if you add 22 deg . 30 min. unto the last number it maketh 6 deg . 30 min. aquarius , which is the second intercidental time and if you add 22 deg . 30 min. unto the last number , it maketh 9 deg . pisces , which is the first crisis or mortal time , according unto which account you must go round the circle , as appeareth by the figure , now to know when the time of recovery will be you must observe by a critical figure , when the moon upon a critical day doth meet with any friendly aspect of either of the fortunes , viz. jupiter or venus or sol or leo , for then the time of recovery may be expected . this critical figure being set for a friend of mine at the time aforesaid . i did observe each change , and alteration of his distemper ; and i alwayes found that upon the critical and judicial dayes and times , he was ever most afflicted . the reason is because the quartiles , oppositions , and semi-quartile aspects are more pernitious and hateful aspects , then any other , as the intercidental times , which happen between the critical and judicial times consisting only of 22 deg . and a half , which we call a semi semi quartile aspect , they seldom prove mortal , by reason the aspect is not so bad and forceable as the other , it being but half the half quartile aspect , yet notwithstanding sometimes in perperacute mortal sicknesses , i have known the sick depart , when the moon came unto a partile evil aspect of the infortunes , no fortune interposing their friendly rayes upon an intercedental time , but this is not usual ; but as concerning the time of recovery of my friend before mentioned it was upon the fourth and last critical day , the moon being returned unto the place she was in at the decumbiture : at which time she applyed to the sextile of venus and trine of jupiter , which happened upon the sixt day of november after midnight , would my friend have been let blood , he might questionless have recovered upon the second crisis , at what time the moon applyed to the trine of venus , now had this sickness continued longer , than we account the grief chronick , and then we give judgement by the sun afflicted , as before we did by the moon but all acute griefs do end usually before the moon goeth round the zodiack ; some griefs are peracute and those end sooner , others are perperacute , and those commonly make a quick dispatch one way or other . but of this i have treated more at large elsewhere . judgment upon an imaginary decumbiture , for the better explanation hereof i shall instance two or three imaginary decumbitures as followeth . suppose one should take his bed april the 10th 1668. at noon , the moon being then in 12. deg . 50 min. in the signe leo and saturn , in 12 deg . 50 min. in the signe aquary now this is called a partile opposition aspect , by reason the moon and saturn are just in the same deg . and min. opposite unto each other : had the sick took his bed 16 hours sooner , or later , then it would have been called a platick opposition , for as i have said elsewhere , the influence of the moon and planets doth begin to appear when she is 10 deg . distant from any aspect which will take up near 20 hours motion before and after separation ; now to know what the grief is , you must seek out the place in this book intituled the moon in leo of saturn oppressed , which argueth the sick shall be troubled with unkindly heat in the breast , and a violent feavour , with faintness at the heart , or swounding fits , and inclining to the black jaundies occasioned from ill melancholly blood , &c. now to know whether the sick shall live or dye , and the time when either recoverie , or death may be expected , is as followeth . first the moon is increasing in light . secondly she is not in that place in the zodiack called via combusta , which is from the middest of the signe libra unto the middest of scorpio thirdly the moon seperateth from jupiter a fortune , and applyeth unto a friendly trine aspect of the sun fountain of life . fourthly , the moon is free from combustion of the sun. a planet is under combustion when he is not fully elongated 7 deg . 30 min. from him . we have only two testimonies of death , which is first , saturns being in opposition of the moon at the time of decumbiture . secondly his being more strong then the moon , yet commonly a planet strong is not so malicious as those which are weak and peregrine ; however it appeareth that there is foure testimonies of life and but two 〈◊〉 death , wherefore we may conclude according to the rules of art that the sick shall recover : now to know the 〈◊〉 when ▪ you must by a critical figure of 16 equal parts , 〈…〉 when the moon upon any intercidental , judicial 〈…〉 day doth meet with any benevolent aspect of the 〈…〉 , be it sun , ●upiter , venus or dragons head , no evil 〈◊〉 interposing their bad influence for then the sick shall 〈◊〉 , which according unto the critical figure will be upon the 12th . day of april about one a clock at night , at which time the moon will be in 14 deg . of the signe virgo and jupiter in 14 deg . of taurus making a partile trine to each other , but the sick shall begin to recover sooner at the first intercidental time , which is about six a clock in the morning ( at which time the moon will be 5 deg . 20 min. in virgo , which is 22 deg . 30 min. distance from the place she was in at the decumbiture ) for as i have already declared the influence of the moon doth begin to opperate , when she is ten degrees distant from any aspect of the planets . concerning acute griefs . note , that at the time of decumbiture of any sick person , if the moon be free from the bad aspects of the infortunes , which is saturn , mars , mercury , or dragons tail that then ( more especially ) if the infortunes jupiter or venus attend upon the next judicial or critical day or time that the moon meeteth with any friendly aspect of the fortunes , no ill planet opposing the sick shall recover : but commonly acute griefs are seldom ended before the first critical time , at which time the moon maketh a quartile aspect unto the place she was in at the decumbiture , consisting of 90 deg . the moon alwayes goeth this 90 deg or fourth part of the zodiack in lesse than eight dayes ; sometimes acute griefs last untill the moon hath passed over three critical days or times , viz. until she returneth unto the place she was in at the decumbiture making the fourth crisis ; an example hereof is of my friend before mentioned : and if by the rules aforesaid you find that the grief is mortal , then you must proceed forward round the critical figure , until you find the mortal time , according unto the rules before mentioned , and you must do the like upon the rules for the time of recovery . concerning peracute griefs . there are are also some infirmities and sicknesses which end ▪ usually before the first judicial time is over ( called peracute griefs ) at which time the moon maketh a semi-quartile aspect to the place she was in at the decumbiture , consisting of 45 deg . now this aspect is not so pernicious as the quartile , yet oft-times the sick dyeth before this aspect is over ; more especially when the moon at that time meeteth with the infortunes , and no fortune interposing their friendly rayes . this semi quartile aspect or judicial time , the moon finisheth in less than four days likewise on the contrary by the rules aforesaid the sick may recover at the said judicial time . concerning perperacute sicknesses . there are also some sicknesses perperacute , and such griefs commonly terminate before the first intercedental time is over at which time the moon maketh a semi semi quartile aspect to the place she was in at the decumbiture , which consisteth of 22 deg . 30 min. containing the 16th . part of the critical figure , more especially when the infortunes doth afflict the moon , at that time no fortune attending : it was observable , that in the time of the plague , that many thousands died before the first intercidental time was over , which number or time the moon finisheth in less than two dayes . and many lived not one day , dying immediately so soon as they were struck , which we call the time of decumbiture or first mortal time . i have known the like both in appoplexies and convulsions , mother fits , and risings in the throat , and such like griefs . another judgement given upon a decumbiture figure . i shall take an imaginary time , and so give judgement thereupon for the better informing of young students herein i could have inserted many exemplary figures of my own , but considering that new almanacks may be had when happily old ones may be lost i therefore thought this way most profitable to instruct the learner . i shall instance the 22 day of april 1668 about nine a clock at night , at which time i will suppose one took his bed : now the question is what the grief is , and whether the sick will live or die : and when either death or recovery may be expected , you must in the first place by an almanack find in what sign the moon is , and how aspected : now at the hour and time aforesaid , the moon will be in 5 deg . 48 min. of the sign aquarius , and at the same time . i find mars to be in 5 deg . 48 min. of the sign scorpio , which maketh a partile square aspect consisting of 90 deg . : now to find what the grief is you must repair unto the place in this book , where it is written , the moon in aquarius of mars oppressed , which argueth , that the sick shall be troubled with great pain at the heart and with swooning fits also very feavourish , likewise a pain in the breast with difficulty of breathing , and the blood swelling in all the veins , the cause of this sickness proceeding from violent affections and vehement passions , &c. now the next thing considerable is to know whether the sick be like to live or die ; and the time when either death or recovery may be expected . first the moon is decreasing in light , secondly the moon departeth from the square of mars and applyed unto the conjunction of saturn both enemical planets : thirdly , neither sol , jupiter , or venus doth cast their friendly rayes or influence at the time aforesaid unto the moon , wherefore according unto the rules aforesaid , the sick person will die : to find the time , when you must frame a critical figure of sixteen equal parts as aforesaid , begining at the place where the moon was at the decumbiture , making that the first critical or mortal time , which if the sick escape , then at the next critical or mortal time , you must observe how the moon is aspected , at which time you shall find the moon meeteth with the opposition of ♂ being upon the 29th . day of april in the month aforesaid at one a clock after noon : now in regard there is no fortunate planet interposing their friendly rays at that time we may conclude that the sick wil depart , and not before , because the sun at intercedental and judicial times meeteth with no bad aspect of the infortunes . yet notwithstanding i have known some , who have been mortally struck according , unto any rational mans judgment at the decumbiture in acute griefs , who through gods blessing , having an expert and skilful physitian , and having withstood the bad influence of the afflicting planets , at the first mortal time beyond expectation upon the next critical time have recovered , and so it may happily prove to some , who shall take their bed at the time aforesaid . the reason is because between the time of decumbiture and first crisis , there is usually near seven days time , during which time ( especial remedies being applyed ) the sick may happily be the better enabled to with-stand the encounter , more especially if the intercedental and judicial times be freed from the evil aspects of the infortunes , as here it falleth out at this last decumbiture . the truth is life and death is in the hands of god , and whatsoever stars foreshew , yet he by his power and blessing upon the means used can preserve life , when he pleaseth , wherefore the sick ought not at any time to despair , for i my self have oft times recovered my patient having out lived the first mortal time as aforesaid , but i must needs say such changes and chances are seldom seen , for where one doth escape many dieth , for the stars are god's messengers , and what they do foreshew , do assuredly without miracle come to pass . concerning the way and manner how to cure each distemper , i have shewed elsewhere . concerning the astrological way of giving judgement by a sign of 12 houses . although what is already written , i have known by good experience to hold true by many examples it being for the most part the method of my daily practice ; yet for the benefit and better satisfaction of practitioners , and others , well-willers thereunto , especially such who desire further inspection into this art. i shall in the next place shew how in an astrological way judgement may be given by a figure of 12 houses . for i must confess that in such infirmities , which are natural from the birth , and likewise some chronick griefs , which have been of long continuance , and likewise such infirmities , wherein there is any suspition of witchcraft , cannot so exactly be discovered by the sun or moon afflicted , as by a sign of twelve houses for the ascendant sixth , eighth , and twelfth houses with their lords will be for the most part concerned therein as shall be shewed in order as followeth . in the first place you must erect your figure ; either for the time of decumbiture , or for the time of any strong fit ( if any be ) or upon the receipt of the urin , or time of the first visitation of the patient , and you must be sure for to frame , and vary your ascendant , that it together with its lord may exactly personate the sick. secondly you must in order set down the cuspe of every house . thirdly you must set down the characters of the planets in every house , which for to do , and likewise how to frame the ascendant , i shall briefly declare . but before you can proceed herein , you must perfectly know the characters of the seven planets , and twelve signs , and the five aspects of the planets , and the houses of each planet . the characters of the seven planets with the dragons head and tail. ♄ saturn ♃ jupiter ♂ mars ☉ sol ♀ venus ☿ mercury ☽ luna ☊ dragons head ☋ dragons tail the characters of the twelve signs , with the parts of the body by them signified ; and how they stand opposite unto each other in the zodiack , as followeth . ♈ aries head and face . ♉ taurus neck and throat . ♊ gemini arms & shoulders . ♋ cancer breast , stom . & ribs . ♌ leo heart and back . ♍ virgo bowels and gutts . ♎ libra reins and loins . ♏ scorpio secrets and bladder . ♐ sagitary the thighs . ♑ capricorn the knees . ♒ aquary the leggs . ♓ pisces the feet . the five aspects of the planets . ☌ conjunction , that is when any two planets are in one and the same degree of any sign . ⚹ sextile , that is when any two planets are 60. degrees from each other : and containeth a sixth part of the zodiack . □ square , that is when any two planets are 90. degrees from each other : and containeth a fourth part of the zodiack . △ trine , that is when any two planets are 120. degrees from each other : and containeth a third part of the zodiack . ☍ oppsition , that is when any two planets are 180. degrees from each other : and containeth half the zodiack . note , that there is 30 deg . in every sign , and two signs make a sextile aspect , three signs make a square , four signs make a trine , six signs make an opposition , which containeth half the zodiack . the whole containeth 360 deg , which is 12 times 30 deg . the houses of the planets . ♄ saturn hath two houses ; viz. the signs ♑ capricorn , and ♒ aquarie : ♃ jupiter hath two houses ♐ sagitary , and ♓ pisces : ♂ mars hath two houses ♈ aries , and ♏ scorpio : ☉ sol , hath but one house , which is ♌ leo : ♀ venus hath two houses ♎ libra and ♉ taurus : ☿ mercury hath two houses ♊ gemini and ♍ virgo , ☽ the moon hath but one house , which is ♋ cancer . how to frame the twelve houses , and what every house concerns , in a decumbiture figure . the sick : mans : glass shewing what euery house concernes in case of sicknes ; 1 the sick mans ●son : 2 his estate : 3 his kindred 4 his father somtimes his grave 5 his children 6 his sicknes and servants 7 his wife his phissi●ion and publick enemies 8 his death 9 his religeon 10 his mother and phissick 11 his frindes 12 his privat enemies and selfendings the next thing considerable is , to have knowledge how to insert the twelve signs upon the cusp of every house , and likewise to set the seven planets in those signs : but before we can proceed therein it will be necessary to understand the use of an ephemeris or almanack , which setteth forth the daily motions of the planets . and for the better informing of young students herein , i shall for example set down in order for the month of october , 1667. the form as usually is printed , and shew the use thereof until the tenth day of the said month ; which will be enough whereby to understand , not only the residue of that month , but also every other month throughout the year , provided alwayes that your almanack must be such a one which setteth forth the daily motions of the planets , whose title page to every month is as followeth , october hath xxxi . dayes . month days week days the daily motions of the planets and ☊ ♄ ♃ ♂ ☉ ♀ ☿ d ☊ ♑ ♉ ♍ ♎ ♎ ♎ ♌ ♊ 1 a 25 35 1 59 3 8 18 2 7 21 3 25 1 48 10 29 2   25 36 1 51 3 45 19 1 8 36 5 9 14 25 10 26 3 c 25 37 1 43 4 21 20 1 9 51 6 45 27 25 10 23 4 d 25 39 1 35 4 57 21 1 11 6 8 25 10 ♍ 16 10 20 5 e 25 40 1 27 5 33 22 0 12 2 10 6 24 48 10 17 6 f 25 42 1 19 6 14 23 0 13 37 11 47 8 ♎ 18 10 14 7 g 25 43 1 11 6 48 24 0 14 52 13 28 21 47 10 11 8 a 25 45 1 3 7 23 25 0 16 7 15 9 6 ♏ 18 10 8 9 b 25 47 0 55 7 59 26 0 17 22 16 50 23 39 10 4 10 c 25 49 0 47 8 35 27 0 18 38 18 32 8 ♐ 31 10 1 concerning the use of the ephemeres . the first column on the left shews the days of the month , the second column sheweth ' the week dayes , the next column sheweth the daily motion of saturn , the sign next beneath his character sheweth what sign he is in , and the numbers next beneath that sheweth how far saturn is entered into the sign for every day , the first number is for degrees , the the second minutes , and so forwards fot every planet accordingly : example , ♄ saturn the first day is 25 deg . 35 min. in the sign capricorn : the second day he is 25 deg . 36 min. in capricorn : the third day he is 25 deg . 37 min. in capricorn : the fourth day he is 25 deg 39 min. in capricorn and so forward . in the next column is ♃ jupiter and the sign ♉ taurus beneath which argueth that ♃ jupiter is in the sign ♉ taurus , and over against the first day is the numbers 1 deg . 59 min. which sheweth that he is so far in the sign : the second day is but 1 deg . 51 min. the third day he is 1 deg . 43 min. the fourth day he is 1 deg . 35 min. the and so onward , this planets numbers decreaseth daily by reason he is retrograde and moveth backward , as somtimes all the rest will , except the sun and moon in the next column is ♂ mars and underneath the sign virgo , and under that the numbers 3 deg . 8 min. which argueth that mars the first day is gotten so far in the sign capricorn , the second day he is 3 deg . 45 min. in the sign capricorn , the third day 4 deg . 21 min. the fourth day he is 4 deg . 57 min : in virgo , and so downward as you find in the table ; you may do the like for the rest of the planets accordingly . how to erect a scheme or figure according unto any time given . the usual time whereby to erect a figure concerning any patient , is first by the time of falling ill , or most properly , when the patients first betake them to their bed , which we call the time of decumbiture : but if that may not be had , as sometimes 't will fall out , especially in chronick griefs , then you must take the time , when the urin is first brought , or the time of any strong fit , if any be . or the time when you first visit the patient , provided alwayes that you so vary your ascendant , that it together with its lord may exactly personate the sick , without which no true judgment can be given , by reason the ascendant , fourth , sixth , eighth , and twelfth houses are concerned , now if you fail in the first , there can be no certainty in the rest , how to know what bodily shape belongeth unto each figure , and planet is shewed elsewhere in this book : for the better understanding hereof i shall insert one example as followeth , a friend of mine being very ill took his bed , october the 10 1667 , at a quarter past one a clock in the afternoon , according unto which time i did erect a figure as followeth , having by an almanack found out that page intituled the daily motions of the planets , as is before expressed for the month of october , you must seek for the 10 day of the said moneth , and move forward in a strait line , untill you come unto the sixth column , and under the characters over head thus expressed ☉ there you shall find the number 27 , which sheweth that ♎ the sun is gotten into the sign libra 27 deg . upon the tenth day aforesaid , with this number 27 you must enter the table of houses , which you shall find at the end of the almanack , and seek out the page , where it is written sol in libra . and in the column under 80 min. the signs going down in a strait line , there you shall find the number 27 , and in the column next adjoyning on the left hand under the title of time from noon moving downward unto the same line where is the number 27 before mentioned , there you shall find the numbers thus printed , viz. 13 , 40 , 12 , but the number 12 being but seconds you may leave out and so take only the two first numbers 13 , 40 , which you must set in some place by it self , then you must add to that number the time of the day , when the sick first took his bed being a quarter past one a clock afternoon , as for example   h. m. time from noon 13 40 the time of the day , when the sick took his bed 1 15   14 55 note that the 15 min stands for a quarter of an hour , there being 60 in an hour . a figure for the time of dccum biture october the 10th h / 1-m / 15 p : ìn . annc doni 1667 : ☽ a = ♂ ad ⚹ ♀ the next thing material is to set the planets in those figures , and houses , which for to do you must by the almanack find out the page before mentioned , for the month of october . and from the tenth day moving in a right line , you shall in each column find the numbers of degrees and minutes according as each planet hath gotten into each sign : example , the first number is 25 deg . 49 min. and saturn is over the head of capricorn , which argueth that saturn is so many degrees and minutes entered into capricorn , which degrees and minutes you must set in the first house , as by the figure appeareth . in the next column is 0 deg . 47 min. and jupiter is over the head of taurus , which sheweth that jupiter is forty seven minutes in taurus , which number with the character of jupiter must be set in the third house . in the next column is 8 deg . 35 min. and mars is over the head of virgo , which argueth that mars is gotten so far into virgo , and must be set in the eighth house . in the next column is 27 deg . and sol is over the head of libra . in the next column is 18 deg . 38 min. and venus is over the head of libra . in the next column is 18 deg . 32 min. and mercury is over the head of libra . in the next column is 8 deg . 31 min. and luna is over the head of sagitary , which argueth that the moon was at noon so far entered the sign sagitary , but in regard it was above an hour after noon when the sick took his bed , there must be half a degree , which is 30 minutes added unto the moons motion , for by reason of her quick moving , she getteth one degree in two hours , wherefore we must set the moon in nine degree● sagitary ; you must do the like in all other figures : had he took his bed at midnight you must have added six degrees , and then the moon would have been fourteen degrees thirty one minutes entred sagitary . now having set the signs on the cuspes of every house , and the planets in those signs as by the figure appeareth : i shall in the next place shew how to give judgement thereupon , and so thereby discover the grief as followeth how to give judgement by the figure of twelve houses . the general way , especially in acute griefs , is to give iudgment by the moon being in any of the twelve signs and by the infirmities afflicted , as i have already declared : and this being an acute grief , judgment must be given accordingly , yet notwithstanding i shall by this figure set forth his natural infirmities or griefs , and so instruct ●●e learner how to give judgement in any other chronick griefs by the signs on the ascendant , sixth house and their lords afflicted . for some lasting and obscure griefs cannot be discovered by the sun and moon afflicted in the first place you must observe whether the ascendant , which is the first house , or the sixth house or their lords be any way afflicted by the malevolent planets saturn , mars , mercury , or the sun , for sometimes the sun may and will afflict more , especially if the grief lie●h about the heart , or in the arteries , or vital spirits . in the ne●t place it will be necessary to know whether the grief be natural , or whether it came by witchcraft or sorcery : now if you find the lord of the twelfth house in the ascendant or if the lord of the twelfth being in the sixth , or lord of the sixth in the twelfth , or if the lord of the ascendant be combust , that is , when the sun is not above eight degrees thirty minutes distant from him , or if one planet be lord of the ascendant and twelfth house , and an infortune , then you may conclude that the grief is more than natural , more especially where there is any just suspition thereof , which may be somewhat deferred by heeding well the nature of their distempers , as i have shewed elsewhere : but in this figure i find no such thing ; wherefore i did conclude , the grief was natural ; occasioned by his own disorder of body : as shall be shewed in order . sometimes i have known the ascendent , the sixth house , or their lords have been afflicted by the lord of the twelfth house and yet the sickness was not from witchcraft , notwithstanding , those suspected evils ; for if jupiter and venus , or the sun , do cast their friendly aspects unto the afflicted planet or cusp of the house aforesaid , that then the grief came by some disorder of body : also , if that lord of the ascendant be in the twelfth , or in the sixth , the grief is natural : for from the twelfth house , we give judgment of self-undoing so well as otherwise ; but any rational experienced practitioner may easily distinguish , the natural diseases , from the unnatural , by heeding well the manner of their distempers , as aforesaid : and generally i find that those who are taken in this snare of witchcraft , that at the time of any strong fit , or when they are more than usually tormented , that then the ascendant together with its lord doth exactly personate the sick ; and at that very time , the lord of the twelfth house doth one way or other afflict , either the ascendant , or its lord ; or that an infortune lord of the ascendant and twelfth house , which may so happen , when the proper ascendant is intercepted in the first house , as i have oft times experimented . i shall now proceed to give judgment upon the decumbiture figure before mentioned ; and in the first place , describe the person of the sick . secondly , y rules discover , whether the sick shall live or die , if live , how long time before recovery . thirdly , i shall by rules set forth , what the grief is , and from what came . fourthly , how and which way he was recovered . the mans person is described by the ascendant capricorn , and saturn his being therein who is lord thereof , viz. one of a middle stature , full and well set , of a dark or swartish complection , ●ad brown hair , as you may find more at large in this book . signes of recovery , was first saturn lord of the ascendant , being his significator is strong as being in his own house , and is more strong than mars who is the afflicting planet . secondly the moon doth separate from mars , and apply first unto venus and from thence to the sun and jupiter , all fortunes . thirdly , the sun is increasing in light . fourthly neither the moon , or saturn are combust ; planets are said to be combust , when they are not elongated eight deg . thirty min from the sun. fifthly , she is not in that part of the zodiack called via combusta , which is from the middle of libra to the midst of scorpio . lastly , venus lady of the fourth house , which usually sheweth the end of all things of this nature , was in friendly aspect to the moon , at the time of decumbiture ; all which are arguments of recovery . the time when followeth , first , the angles of the figure are part fixt , and part common . secondly , the moon was in a common sign which argueth , that the grief was not perfectly , acute , nor yet chronick , but between both and so it proved , for upon the last critical day the feaver left him , at which time the moon came to the place , she was in at the decumbiture viz. unto the ninth deg of sagitarius : yet notwithstanding , at the last critical time he had a very strong fit , the moon being then in square to mars ; but venus fortune and lady of the fourth house , being in friendly aspect to the moon , and she together with saturn being both more strong than mars , who was the afflicting planet , put an end to this sickness at the time aforesaid . the next thing considerable , is to discover the grief , and from what cause ; and likewise , what infirmities she was naturally subject unto from the birth : now concerning the present acute grief , i found the moon being in the sign sagitary , was the platick square of mars afflicted , for between the sign virgo , the place where mars is , and the sign sagitary , the place where the moon is , containeth ninety deg . which number maketh a square had the moon been but one degree in the sign sagitary yet that would have been a platick square , for if we consider the moity of each orb , there will be ten deg . allotted , at which time and distance , the influence of those planets doth operate , both before and after any aspect . now to know what the present distemper was , by reason it was an acute grief ; you must find out the place in this book entituled , the moon in sagitary , of mars oppressed , which argueth a high and strong fever with the flux , or lask and cholerick passions ; the pulses few and taint heating slowly , his blood over heated . the bright star of the harp : and the star called the swans-bill , both of the nature of mars and jupiter in the ? a cendant ? made the fever the more violent : the cause of this sickness was from inordinate exercise , surfeiting , or too much repletion , as you may find more at large at the place aforesaid . the way of recovery was by application antipathetical unto mars the afflicting planet by reason that venu was more strong in essential dignities , as being in her house . now in regard that mars is by nature hot and dry , i made choice of such herbs and other remedies , which were cold and moist ; wherefore i advised that such decoctions , syrrups , or cordials , which were administred should be cooling and cleansing , also glisters the like , ever remembring as in this , so in all other cures , to fortifie the heart and vital spirits with herbs under the dominion of the sun : would the patient have been perswaded to let blood , the fever would without question , have left him , upon the second critical time , the moon meeting then with the friendly aspect of venus a fortune and strong . note , that as we give judgement by the sun and moon afflicted , in acute and chronick griefs , so by the same rules you may give judgement by the lord of the ascendant or sixth house afflicted , example , in the last figure , mercury being lord of the sixth house , and in the sign libra , is in platick square to saturn , and conjunction of the sun , who is much of the nature of mars , only the sun striketh more upon the vital spirits : now according unto the rule in giving judgement by the moon afflicted in the sign libra , it sheweth a severish distemper and blood over heated , occasioned from surfeiting . the next thing considerable is to know , what infirmities naturally he was subject unto from the birth . in this question judgement must be given from the ascendant , sixth house , and their lords afflicted ; first the ascendant is no way afflicted , save onely by the presence of saturn , who is lord thereof : now in this question saturn is not accounted an enemy , notwithstanding he is naturally evil , as being in his own house , and lord of the sick mans person , for according unto the old saying , the devil will not hurt his own . also the sixth house is no way afflicted , wherefore we have onely mercury lord of the sixth considerable herein , and he i find is in libra in platick coniunction of venus lady of the fourth . now any planet although he be naturally a fortune may afflict so well , as the infortunes being lord or lady of the fourth , sixth , eighth , or twelfth houses , for every planet must do his office to know what the grief is ; you must take notice of the sign , where mercury lord of the sixth house is , videl . in libra , and what parts of the body is signified thereby , also what griefs or infirmities are under the dominion of venus : first under the sign libra is reins , and loyns , and under venus is also the reins together with back , belly and members of generation and passages of urine : to my knowledge he hath for many years past been oft-times perplexed with difficulty of making water , and with pains in his reins , back , and belly . what i have written i presume will be sufficient to instruct the learner , but practice and experience will be the only means to inlarge the practitioners ●●dgement herein , for 't is impossible for any man to write , be he never so curious and exact in any art , but that somewhat may be added unto it . observations concerning the ascendant . that which i have found by daily practice and experience , is carefully so to erect your figure ( either for the time of decumbiture , or the time of any strong fit , or when the patient was more than ordinarily sick or afflicted , or for the time when the urine is brought , or when you go to visit the patient ) that the ascendant together with its lord may exactly personate the sick , for if neither the ascendant nor the lord thereof doth agree in shape , complexion , and hair with the body of the sick , you cannot safely give judgement by a figure of twelve houses , especially in many infirmities , as i have often experienced ; for the first , fourth , sixth , eighth , and twelfth houses will be especially concerned therein ; wherefore if you fail in the first foundation , the whole building must needs be obstructed and out of order . example , in the decumbiture figure before mentioned , ha● i erected the figure , but for one hour sooner , sagitary would have ascended , whereof jupiter is lord , and then the person of the sick must have been described accordingly . now jupiter signifies a man of an upright and tall stature , complexion ruddy , face oval , full , and fleshy , and a kind of a bourn brown hair : also the sign sagitary represents a man much after the same shape and likeness , by which it appears what a vast difference it might produce by takeing a wrong ascendant , both in regard of the personal shape , and likewise in the discovery of the grief of the sick : whereas it appears by taking the true ascendant , that it doth not on-only dilineate his person , as is before expressed , but doth exactly discover his present distemper , and natural infirmities : for let the time of decumbiture or the time for receipt of the urine , or the time of any strong fit be brought , and the artist never so curious by enquiry , except by chance , he shall not get the true ascendant , for many reasons may be objected to the contrary : first clocks may fail , and so sick persons will hold out longer then others before complaint , and the urine may by the messenger be hastened , or retarded , you see one hour maketh a mighty alteration . i shall quote another example , suppose a man or woman , who is under the dominion of sol lord of leo , should fall sick , which represents one of a large stature , fat , full , and fleshy , complexion sanguine , and yellowish hair . now perhaps when the urine is brought , or through mistakes of clocks or time , gemini should ascend , whereof mercury is lord , what a mighty difference could this produce : for the planet mercury represents one of an upright and tall stature , spare body , long face and nose , of a dark swarthy complexion , and sad hair : also the sign gemini signifies a tall body , a dark and obscure complexion , and sad or black hair . i could instance many more , wherefore advise all practitioners in this art so to vary their ascendant , that it together with its lord or planet posited in the ascendant may exactly personate the sick , without which no true judgment can be given especially in many chronick griefs or infirmities , and in case of witchcraft and sorcery . some brief rules concerning long and short sicknesses ; and whether the patient is like to live or die . first of long or short sickness . i a fixt sign on the cusp of the sixt , or the lord of the sixt , or lord of the ascendant , or the moon in accute , or sun in chronick griefs be in fixt signs afflicted by the malevolent planets , or by the lord of the 12 , 8 , or 4th , argueth long and lasting griefs or infirmities ; if adhering unto a partil aspect , the grief encreaseth ; if drawing from partil aspect , the grief diminisheth : also fixt signs gives moneths , and sometimes years before recovery ; common signs gives weeks , and sometimes moneths , moveable daies or weeks before recovery . now concerning the number of daies , weeks , moneths or years , you must observe how many degrees is wanting before the influence is over , accounting by the moity of their orbs , and so many moneths , weeks , daies or years it will be before recovery ; but if the figure sheweth death , then you must account how many degrees is wanting to make the partil aspect of the principal significators , and so account so many daies , weeks , moneths or years before the time of death 2 the principal significator of the sick changing his sign , argueth a change of the disease , either for life or death 3 the latter degrees of a sign on the cusp of the sixth house , or the significator of the sick in the latter degrees of a sign , argueth a sudden change either for life or death . 4 the lord of the ascendant , or principal significator of the sick person , being stronger then the afflicting planets sheweth recovery , in moveable signs the sooner ; but if the afflicting planets be strong , and the principal significator of the sick weak , more especially if the afflicting planets hath relation unto the eighth or fourth houses , it sheweth death . 5 if the lord of the ascendant , or lord of the sixth , or if the ☽ in accute , or sun in chronick griefs be afflicted in azemine degrees , it sheweth a continued sickness , if not sudden death . 6 if the lord of the ascendant , or principal significator of the sick turn retrograde , it sheweth a relapse , and the cure goes backward . 7 the lord of the ascendant , or principal significator of the sick strong , swift in motion , with a fortune attending especially in a moveable sign , sheweth a speedy recovery lastly , we must heed the nature of the disease , for strong fevers , convulsions , apoplexies , risings in the throat , with some pestilential infirmities , and such like desperate griefs , will sooner terminate , then such which are usually lasting , as consumptions , dropsies , agues , gouts , and such like . some brief rules concerning recovery . first , a fortune , or the ☽ in accute , or ☉ in chronick griefs strong in the ascendant , and not afflicted , nor yet being lord of the sixth , eighth or twelfth houses , sheweth recovery . secondly , the lord of the ascendant strong , and more strong then the afflicting planets , sheweth recovery . thirdly , the lord of the ascendant , or the ☽ in accute , or ☉ in chronick griefs ioyned unto , or friendly aspected with a fortune , or applying unto a fortune , sheweth recovery . fourthly , the ☽ encreasing in light , swift in motion , and strong applying unto a fortune in accute griefs , sheweth recovery fifthly , if the lord of the ascendant doth dispose of the afflicting planet , especially being equal in strength , sheweth recovery . signs of death . first , the lord of the ascendant weak and afflicted by the malevolent planets , and no fortune interposing , sheweth death . secondly , the lord of the ascendant , or the ☽ afflicted in the fourth or eighth , or by the lord of the eighth , argueth death , or if the lord of the eighth be in the ascendant . thirdly , the lord of the ascendant combust in the ascendant fourth , sixth , eighth , or twelfth , or in the way called via combusta , sheweth death . fourthly , if the ☽ in accute , or ☉ in chronick griefs is ●●●●cted by the infortunes , or by the lord of the eighth or ●●ar●h , no fortune interposing their friendly rays , more especially if the lord of the ascendant be weak , it sheweth death . fifthly , the ascendant , or lord of the ascendant , or the ☽ in accute , or the ☉ in chronick griefs meeting with fixt stars of the nature of the infortunes , no fortune interposing his friendly rays , sheweth death . sixthly , the ☽ applying unto combustion in the ascendant fourth , sixth , eighth , or twelfth houses , or via combusta , sheweth death . seventhly , the ☽ applying from the lord of the ascendant to the lord of the eighth , and the lord of the ascendant weak , sheweth death . eighthly , an eclipse of the ☽ in accute , or of the sun in chronick griefs upon a critical day , and the lord of the ascendant weak , no fortune strong interposing their friendly rays , sheweth death , generally in all decumbitures , the nearer the afflicting planets are to the earth , the worst . the bodily shape and infirmities attributed unto the twelve signs . aries ♈ signifieth one of a reasonable stature , dry body , strong limbs , and big bones , but not fat , somewhat long face and neck , complexion somewhat brown , their hair and eye-brows inclining unto blackness : the diseases incident unto this sign is pushes , whelks , polipus , or noli me tangere all diseases which proceed from the head , as convulsions , dead palsies cramps , madness , virtigo , megrims , falling sickness , and such like taurus ♉ signifieth one short , but full and well set , full face and eyes , broad forehead , large strong shoulders , full hands , thick lips , and black rugged hair ; under this sign are all diseases incident to the throat , as kings evil , quinzies , fluxes of rhumes falling from the head into the throat , impostumes and wens in the neck . gemini ♊ those persons usually who ate under the dominion of this sign , are tall and straight of body , with long arms , of a dark sanguine complexion , and blackish hair , their body strong and active ; under this sign are all diseases in the arms , hands and shoulders , with windiness in the veins , corrupted blood , sometimes it produceth distempered fancies . cancer ♋ signifies one of a low and small stature , bigger made from the middle upwards then downwards , face big and round , of a whitely pale complexion , sad brown hair , one apt to be sickly ; under this sign are all imperfections of the breast and stomack , as cancers , ptisick , salt-flegms , rotten coughs , weak digestion , cold stomack , dropsical humors , and impostumations . leo ♌ signifies one of a large fair stature , full and fleshy , narrow sides , and broad shoulders , full and great eyes , sometimes goggle-eyed , yellow or dark flaxen hair , sometimes curling , of a sanguine or ruddy complexion ; under this sign are all tremblings or passions of the heart , violent burning fevers , pains either at the heart or back , sore eyes , plague , pestilence , and yellow jaundies virgo ♍ signifies one of a mean stature , but well composed , a brown ruddy complexion , black hair , shrill and small voice , well favoured , but not very beautiful : the diseases which are incident unto this sign , are all such which belong to the belly , as obstructions in the bowels , and miseraicks worms , wind collick , spleen , hy●ondriack melancholly , and such like libra ♎ personates one of a well shamed body , straight and tall , a round and beautiful visage , a pure sanguine complexion but not very high coloured , the hair yellowish or sandy-brown , and somewhat smooth ; under this sign are all diseases of the reins and kidneys , also all diseases proceeding from wind , and corruption of blood . scorpio ♏ signifies one of a middle stature , strong , full , and well set , somewhat broad-faced , of a muddy or darkish complexion , sad or black hair , bow-legged , short-necked , and somewhat hairy : the diseases incident unto this sign , are ulcers , inflammations . gravel or stone in the bladder , all imperfections and difficulties of urine , ruptures , hemorhoids , the french pox , and running of the reins , priapismus , and all diseases which infect the privities both of men and women . sagitary ♐ signifies one of a fair stature , and strong body , long face , but full and fleshy , complexion sanguine or ruddy , the hair a kind of chestnut colour ; the diseases which are under this sign are fevers , and such infirmities which are occasioned through heat of blood : the sciatica , and all pains i● the hips and thighs , falls from horses , and hurts by four-footed beasts . capricorn ♑ signifies one rather short then tall , narrow , 〈◊〉 ●ace , thin beard , black hair , narrow breast , small neck , complexion swarthy ; under this sign are all diseases in the ●●●●es and hams , leprosies , itch and scabs , all diseases of ●●●ancholly , all schirrous tumors , sprains , fractures and dislo●●●●●●s . aquary ♒ represents one of a thick squar corpor●ture , strong and well composed , not very tall , visage long , complexion fair and clear , hair sandy-coloured , but if ♄ be in this house at the birth , then black hair , and the complexion will be more sanguine , with distorted teeth ; under this sign are all diseases incident to the legs and ancles , and all melancholly winds coagulated in the veins and blood ; also cramps pisces ♓ represents one of a short stature , not decent , but rather ill composed , a large face , complexion pale , the body fleshy or swelling , and somewhat incurvating with the head ; the diseases subject unto this sign is all lameness , and aches incident to the feet , and all diseases coming of salt flegm , and mixt humors , all blood putr●fied , as scabs , itch and botches , or breakings out about the body , small pox and measles ; also all cold and moist diseases , and such which come of catching cold and wet at the feet . the bodily shape , with the parts and members of the body and diseases which the planets generally rule . ♄ saturn represents one of a middle stature , broad and large shoulders , sometimes crooked , his thighs lean , his feet and knees indecent , many times hitting or shovelling one against the other , broad forehead , eyes little , complexion muddy or swarfish , looking downward , thick lips and nose , thin beard , black hair : diseases and sicknesses subject unto this planet are quartan agues , and diseases proceeding from cold , dry , and melancholly distempers ; the retentive faculties , all impediments in the right ear , and teeth , also rhumes , consumptions , black jaundies , palsies , tremblings , and vain fears , dropsies , the hand and feet gout , the spleen and bones . ♃ jupiter signifies one of an upright and tall stature , a large deep belly , thighs and legs strong proportioned , his feet long , face oval , full and fleshy , complexion brown , ruddy , and lovely high forehead , his hair soft , and a kind of a 〈…〉 brown , much beard , his speech sober : the diseases under this planet are plurifies , and all infirmities in the liver , lungs , ribs , sides , veins , blood ; the digestive faculty , cramps , pain in the back-bone , squinzies , windiness , and put●efaction in the blood , feavers proceeding from wind , and ill blood . ♂ mars signifies one of a middle stature , body strong , big bones , not fat visage , round complexion , ruddy , the hair between red and sandy flexon , crisping or curling , hazel eyes , a bold confident man or woman , and fearless : the sicknesses incident to this planet are ●ertian fevers , and pestile●● burning fevers , the plague , bloody flux , small pox , a●● diseases of choler , the shingles , gall , and left ear phrensies , and sudden distempers in the head , carbuncles fistulaes , all scars and hurts by iron . ☉ sun those who are under the sun are of a strong large corporature , and well composed body , fat and fleshy , of a yellow saffron ruddy complexion , goggle or large eyes , hair yellowish : the sicknesses under this planet are all diseases of the heart and brain , palpitations , tremblings , sudden swoundings , catars , the nerves and arteries , the right eye of men , the left eye of women , and vital spirit of both ; all infirmities of the eyes , and diseases of the mouth , rotten fevers , and stinking breaths . ♀ venus signifies one somewhat short , but full and well set , fat and fleshy face , round complexion , dark , but lovely light brown hair , and smooth , a rowling eye , and full of amorous inticements , a body well shapt , and delightful : sicknesses under this planet , are all diseases of the matrix , and members of generation , running of the reins , french pox , also griefs of the belly , back , and navil , any disease arising by inordinate lust , priapisme , diabetes , or pissing disease , hernias , and impotency in the act of generation , the throat , womens breasts , and the milk in them . ☿ mercury denotes one tall of stature , spare body , long arms and hands , long face and nose , thin lips , little hair on his chin , but pretty store on his head , inclining to blackness , an olive or sallow complexion , eyes between black and grey , oft-times much partaking of the planet he is joyned withal : sicknesses under this planet , are all diseases of the brain , as madness , vertigoes , lethargies , or giddiness in the head , ptisick , stammering , memory , dry coughs , snufling in the head or nose , dumbners , all evils in the fancy , or intellectual parts , and tongue , the nerves , the defects of the uvula , or gargareon . ☽ moon the moon generally representeth one of a fair stature , flegmatick full , fat , and fleshy round face , complexion whitely , lowring looks , hair light brown , grey eyes : sicknesses and diseases are apoplexies , palsey , collick , belly-ake , the menstrues in women , dropsies , fluxes of the belly , all ● old rhumatick diseases , and cold stomack , surfeits , rotten ●●●ughs , convulsions , falling-sickness , kings evil , apostems , ●●●all pox and measles , the collick , bladder , and members 〈◊〉 generation . concerning what effects the moon worketh in any of the twelve signs upon the body of the sick , she being afflicted by the conjunction , square , or opposition aspects of mars at the decumbiture . note , that the sun afflicting the moon , doth work near the same effects , only the ☉ striketh more upon the heart and vital spirits . the ☽ moon in ♈ aries of ♂ mars afflicted or oppressed . if at the time of decumbiture the moon be in ♈ aries of ♂ or ☉ oppressed either by ☌ □ or ☍ , then the sick shall be tormented with continual fevers , with little or no rest or quietness , a continued extreme thirst , and driness of the tongue and breast , an inflammation of the liver , tending unto a phrensie , high and inordinate pulses , sometimes a deprivation of senses , and the patient ready to run mad , or hath some extreme pain or grief in their belly , or small guts , occasioned by cholerick obstructions : the original cause of this disease shall proceed from a distempered affection of the membranes , or pellets of the brain , and excess of cholerick matter . if venus be stronger then mars , then cooling remedies will be suitable ; however 't will be necessary to let blood . concerning the way how to cure each distemper , is set down elsewhere in this book . the moon in taurus of mars afflicted . those that take their bed under such configuration , as aforesaid , shall be afflicted with a continued fever , the whole frame of the body obstructed , with an inflammation of the throat , neck , and hinder part thereof , and ach of the bones ; also insomniation , or inordinate watching , very thirsty , longing after cooling things : oft time the sick will be afflicted with the strangury , or stone , with gravel in the reins and kidneys , pestilent sore throats , or hoarsness , or some ill matter setled there : the cause is from much ill blood , choler , and sweet flegm . the moon in gemini of mars oppressed . those who take their bed under this configuration , shall he afflicted with a violent burning fever , and with obstructions , their blood extreme windy and corrupted , some great pains or lameness in their arms or joynts , the pulses long and inordinate ; oft-times the patient is troubled with the stone or heat in the reins , and sometimes spitting of blood : the cause of this distemper usually is from ingurgitation , or too much drinking of strong wine or beer , and some cholerick matter . the moon in cancer of mars oppressed . those that take their bed when the ☽ is in cancer of mars afflicted , the sick will be troubled with much flegm , and ill matter setled at their breast and stomack ; also with eversion , and turning of the ventricle , oft-times desiring to vomit , with some defect in the blood : this disease cometh from surfeiting , or too much ingurgitation , and oft-times turneth unto a loosness , or a rotten cough , and sometimes spitting blood . the moon in leo of mars oppressed . those who take their bed when the moon is in leo of mars afflicted , shall be subject unto a strong fever , with a disturbed brain , and strong raging fits ; also they will be subject unto much drowsiness and heaviness all over their body ; also the heart oppressed with faintness and swounding fits , and the party almost raging mad , with little or no appetite : the cause of this distemper is from excess of choler , and blood abounding , over-heated . the moon in virgo of mars oppressed . those who take their bed under this configuration , shall be subject unto a flux in the belly , small fevers , the pulse , remiss avertion of the ventricle , also tormented with wind in the belly or guts , and chollick , bad stomack many times , weakness or pains in the legs near the anckles ; the cause from original choler , melancholly , and sharp fretting humors . the moon in libra of mars oppressed . those who take their bed , the moon being in ♎ of ♂ oppressed , will be subject unto an inflammation all over the body , also fevourish , unapt to sleep , their pulses high , troubled with wind and plenitude of blood , many times they have the stone or gravel in the kidneys or great heat therein : the cause is from surfeiting or disorder in diet , also plenitude of blood . the moon in scorpio of mars oppressed . those who take their bed , the moon being in scorpio of mars oppressed , argueth that the sick is afflicted , or hath some grievous infirmity in their privy parts . if children or young-people , then it argueth the small-pox or measles . also it sheweth ( more especially in times of pestilential diseases ) the pestilence , or some poisonous or pestilential grief : many times it causeth boiles or scabiness to break forth . the cause is from blood extreamly corrupted , or from some infectious and poisonous grief , accidentally taken into the body by smell or taste . the moon in sagitary of mars oppressed . those , who take their bed the moon being in sagitary of mars oppressed shall be tormented with high fevers , and cholerick passions , with the flux or lask , the pulses few and faint , the sick burns extreamly many times , it sheweth the hand and foot gout with breaking out , and sore throats , sometimes sharp rheums offend their eyes . the cause is from surfeiting or gluttony , or too much repletion . also from inordinate exercise , and blood over-heated . the moon in capricorn of mars oppressed . those who take their bed , the moon being in capricorn of mars oppressed , shall be troubled with excesse of choller , and with great desire to vomit , no perfect concoction , and oft returning fevers , a puffing up the sinews , and a flux of the belly immediately followes an inflamation of the breast ; some exulceration in a cholerick humour offends the party in his hands or joynts of his fingers , also the sick is inclining unto the yellow jaundies . their blood all over the body disaffected . the cause is from choller , and evil digestion , and blood corrupted . the moon in aquary of mars oppressed . those who take their bed the moon being in aquary of mars oppressed , are troubled with swooning fits , and pained at the heart , and are very feaverish , pulses are high , and the blood swelling in all their veins , oft-times complaining of great pain in their breast , drawing their wind with great difficulty . the cause is from most sharp and violent affections or vehement passions . the moon in pisces of mars oppressed . those who take their bed when the moon is in pisces of mars afflicted shall be tormented with sharp burning feavers and vehement thirst , and usually oppressed with a violent looseness ▪ complaining of great pain in their bellies , or an extraordinary rotten cough , also a deflux of rhuem falling from the head to the throat , they being near suffocated therewith , their bellies swolne and in danger of a dropsie , oft-times they are troubled with itching and a salt humor in the blood . the cause of the distemper is from two much ingurgitation , and drinking of wine and strong drinks , and the body abounding with choller , and salt flegm , and bloud corrupted occasioned by disorder . concerning what effects the moon worketh in any of the twelve signs , upon the body of the sick , she being afflicted by the conjunction , square or opposition of saturn at the time of decumbiture . note , that mercury afflicting the moon worketh the same effects onely be striketh somewhat more upon the brain and nerves . the moon in aries of saturn or mercury oppressed . those who take their bed , the moon being in aries of saturn or mercury oppressed , shall be troubled with head-ach , and a distillation of rhuems falling from the head into the throat and wind-pipe , also a stuffing in the head , with dulness of the eyes , inordinate drowsiness , and dulness of mind , and bad stomach , intemperate sweats , being hot within and cold without , more afflicted in the night then by day . the occasion of this distemper is from great cold taken , and want of exercise , and sometimes by eating trash contra●● to nature . the moon in taurus of saturn or mercury oppressed . those who take their bed , the moon being in taurus of saturn or mercury oppressed , shall be feaverish proceeding from obstructions aod distempers of the precordiacks and arteries , viz. of the inward parts , near the heart , liver , and lungs , some ulceration there abouts , their pulses are lofty and high , and an inflamation of the whole body . the disease proceedeth from too much luxury , or from surfeiting or inordinate repletion , also melancholly and ill diet . the moon in gemini of saturn or mercury oppressed , those who take their bed under this configuration shall be indanger of a feaver , and the pain disperses it self all over the body , but principally in the arteries and joynts : also the sick is inclinable to a consumption : the vitals much afflicted , the pulse low and little : also they will be subject unto frequent sweatings with symptomes of the spleen . the disease more troublesome in the night than in the day . the cause of this distemper is from much waiting , weariness of the mind , and overburdening with multiplicity of affairs , excess of labour , or violent exercise . the moon in cancer of saturn or mercury oppressed . those who take their bed , the moon being in cancer of saturn oppressed , shall be afflicted in the breast with tough melancholly matter or thick flegm : also troubled with coughs , catharrs , hoarseness , and a distillation of rhuems or humours falling into the breast , their pipes are narrow and obstructed , inordinate feavers , pulses little and low , oft-times a quotidian , but now especially a quartane ague followes with belly-ake , or some infirmness in the reins or secrets . if the moon be decreasing and near the body of saturn , the sickness is like to be long and lasting . the cause is from great cold and inordinate eating or drinking , and want of moderate exercise . the moon in leo of saturn or mercury oppressed . those who take their bed , the moon being in leo of saturn oppressed , shall be oppressed with much heat in the breast and intension of the heart-strings , with augmenting feavers , the pulses keeping no course annoyed with external and internal heat : also great faintness of heart or swooning fits , after some time , if not cured the sick will be subject unto the black jaundies . the cause it from grief taken , and ill melancholly blood . the moon in virgo of saturn or mercury oppressed . those who take their beds , when the moon is in virgo of saturn oppressed , shall be troubled with in ordinate feavers , pricking or shooting under the ribs : also viscous flegm obstructing the bowels , sometimes the wind chollick afflicts them : also the gout and aches in the thighs and feet : i oft-times find they are much troubled with wormes . the cause of this distemper is usually from crudities , and evill digestion in the stomack and contrary diet . the moon in libra of saturn or mercury oppressed . those who take their bed , when the moon is in libra of saturn or mercury oppressed shall be troubled with pains of the head , breast , and stomach disaffected ; the cough , hoarsness , and distillation of rhuems shall afflict them , and losse of appetite , small fevers troubling them by night , oft-times great pains in their joynts , knees , and thighs : also some defect in their reins , kidneys , and bladder . the cause is originally from surfeting or glutton and meat not fully digested or excess of venery . the moon in scorpio of saturn or mercury oppressed . those who take their bed , the moon being in scorpio of saturn afflicted , shall be subject unto some defects in their secret parts , hemorhoids , piles , or some exulceration , their no retention of urine , oft-times vexed with the stone or stop in the bladder , sometimes if a man ▪ the gonorrea , if a woman too much of menstrues . the cause is of corrupt flegm , or disorder of body . the moon in sagitary of saturn or mercury oppressed . those who take their bed , when the moon is in sagitary of saturn oppressed , shall be tormented with defluction of thin sharp humors , and aches of the sinews , and arteries , extreamities of heat and cold , and oft-times a double access of a feaver , and most commonly a violent burning feaver at the first being ill . the cause is from blood infected with choler and melancholy , and sometimes by great pains taking or violent exercise and cold taken thereupon . the moon in capricorn of saturn or mercury oppressed . those who take their bed , whilst the moon is in capricorn of saturn oppressed shall be afflicted with heaviness at the breast and stomach , and difficulty of breathing , and dry coughs , their lungs oppressed , more pained by night than day , with intended feavers , oft times troubled with head-ach , and noise in their head . the cause is from great cold , melancholy and disorderly dyet . the moon in aquary of saturn or mercury oppressed . those who take their bed the moon being in the sign aquary of saturn or mercury afflicted , shall be troubled with much melancholy , winds coagulated in the veins , the malady ceaseth on them unequally with remission and intension , their heads pained with wind or noise . also troubled with faint fits or passion of the heart , sometimes a sore throat , or troubled with a rising there , being in danger of suffocation . the cause is from excess of labour want of sleep whereby to refresh nature , and much trouble of mind . the moon in pisces of saturn or mercury oppressed . those who take their bed , when the moon is in pisces of saturn oppressed shall be troubled with much sighing and pricking or shooting of the breast and under the paps , and continual augmenting feavers , with extensions of the precordiacks and heart-strings , or arteries ; also their throat is oppressed with thick flegm , and their breast with a rotten cough , and store of watry matter lodging there . the cause is from extreamity of cold taken by bathing , or otherwise by much wet . the way to make diet drinks by decoctions or to extract the spirits of plants or herbs : also to make syrups , lohochs , or lambetives , pills , gly●●ers , fumes , suffumigations , cataplasms , oyntments , bathes : also the making and administrating of purgations and vomits , and concerning blood-letting , &c. concerning decoctions and dyet-drinks . having by the rules elsewhere expressed in this book collected the herbs together suitable to the cure according unto their virtues and numbers , alwaies remembring in all cures to fortifie the heart with herbs proper , you must take the herbs and chop them small : but unto all diet drinks i usually add as followeth , to make it the more strong and useful , viz. raisons , currants , ( sometimes figs ) liquorish , and aniseed , and if the patient be much troubled with wind , then you may also put into it sweet fennil-seed , coliander-seed and such like , which are good to expel wind . these additions must be bruised well in a mortar , and so boiled with the herbs , when its boiling you must keep them close covered , whereby to keep in the spirit , you may boil these herbs , with the addition in bear or ale . if you desire to make it strong and nutritive , then when it is new boiled you may put into it white-wine , muscadel , or brandy , according unto the temper of the patient . a good handful of all sorts of herbs put together will be sufficient for three or four gallons of liliquor ; you may let it boil until a forth part or thereabouts be wasted , for if you keep it close covered it will not waste very much in the boiling : now of this diet drink we usually give the patient thereof three times a day , viz morning , afternoon and at night , and every morning about an hour after they have taken the diet drink , you must give the patient water grewel or broath made with either the same herbs , or other herbs which are suitable to the cure , according ●nto their virtues and numbers . how to extract the spirits of plants and herbs . if the patient be weak , and must take smal quantities , then you must do as followeth , having collected the herbs together suitable to the cure , shred them small with the addition according as in the decoction aforesaid , and put them into a limbeck still , and put into it a quantity of bear or ale with some white-wine , muskadel , and brandy to make it proportionable unto the quantity of liquor and herbs before expressed , viz. a good handful of herbs with the additions unto two quarts or better of liquor , this will keep a long time . there is yet another way to extract the spirit as followeth . take the herbs with the additions , being shread small and bruised put them into warm water , and put some berm unto it , let it work three dayes , as doth bear , and then distil it in a limbeck still , if you desire to have it strong you may put brandy or spirit of wine unto it , and put fresh herbs to it , and still it over again . the way to make syrups . take the roses , herbs or flowers , and bruise them , put them into a convenient quantity of fair water , my usual dose is about three pints of water to a pound of flowers , roses , or herbs : let the water be hot , and let it stand with the herbs or flowers in it , about twelve hours , then strain it and infuse more of the same herbs or flowers , and heat more water and put unto it ; you must sometimes infuse the roses , herbs , or flowers whole without bruising to make it have the smell of the plant : the more of the roses , herbs , or flowers you do infuse into the liquor , the stronger it will be , and the oftner you do infuse the better : the last infusions i usually boil , and then gently strain it , and to every pint of liquor add a pound of the best sugar at the least , you must cimber it over the fire , until it be a syrup , you may know when 't is enough by cooling some in a spoon , when 't is made you must keep it in glasses or stone pots , bound over onely with paper , or such like , you must not stop it close with cork , least it break the glass . concerning lohochs or lambatives the making and use . having made your election of such herbs , which are of virtue to cure , such inward defects required , shread and boil them by way of decoction , and when you have strain'd it , put twice its wait of honey or suger , and so boil it to a lohoch , which is somewhat thicker than a syrup , if the grief be of flegme , then honey is best . these lambetives are usually taken with a liquorish stick . and are most usually taken for inflamations and ●ulcers in the lungs , coughs , asthmaes and difficulty of breath , and such like infirmities . concerning pils their making and use . all kinds of pils are made onely by beating the substantial matter into a powder , and so with syrup ( or little gum tragacanth dissolved in distilled water ) made up into pils . they are usually taken at night . if it be one●y to cause the patient to go to stool the next day , then so much alloes as will heap on a two pence for a strong body or less for a weak body mixt with a little mirrh and saffron will be enough , these pils are also good for the head and stomach . there are many forts of pil● made for several infirmities , as you may find in the london dispensatory , unto which i shall refer you . i confess i seldom use any pils , except what i haue mentioned ; for i find the astrological way of cure by herbs doth ( if rightly applyed ) cure all distempers , and griefs whatsoever , loosen the body and alay any pain of the head , and the like as you shall find in this book , yet sometimes when the patient is bound in body and the destemper requireth a decoction made of such herbs , which are commonly heating , and so for the most part binding , such as are palpetations , convulsions , palsies● , apoplexies , and such like . then i usually give the patient pils at night made as aforesaid , if need require . concerning glysters . if the patient be much afflicted in the belly and guts , or is very costive in body , as sometimes it will fall out , more especially when the grief requireth herbs heating and binding to work their cure , then i usually apply glisters and ointments made of such herbs , which are antipathetical to the afflicting planet : but most especially such herbs , which are good to comfort the heart , to expell poison , and cleanse the guts . also you must be careful that the herbs be gathered at the right planetary hours , not omitting their numbers which he longeth to each planet . when you have gotten the herbs together , shred them small , and boil them in milk , together with such seeds and roots , which are good to expell winds , about a pint and a half of milk boiled until it be near half wasted will be enough , for any reasonable man or woman ; after its boil'd and strain'd i usually put into it three or four spoonfuls of sallet oyle , and a spoonful of hony or course sugar . and so give it the patient blood warm . but my usual way is first to give the patient a suppository made of sal-gem . to bring them first to stool , by which means i find the glyster worketh the more effectual upon the humour offending . for many times if no suppository be first given the glisters , will not stay , by reason the patient cannot keep them in their body . concerning fumes . if the head and brain be disaffected by reason of superfluous moisture , then fumes are proper to be used by reason they have a drying quality , provided they be made antipathetical unto the afflicting planet , you must shred , bruise , and dry those herbs , plants , or roots , which you intend to use , and so bring them into powder , and when you intend to fume their heads put some of this powder upon hot coles , and let the patients hold their heads over it , twice a day is enough , viz. morning and evening . they must be careful to keep their head and feet warm . concerning suffumigations . if the head and brain be disaffected by reason of great drought , be it hot or cold drought , you must make choice of such herbs according unto their vertues and numbers , which are antipathetical unto the afflicting planet , shread them small and boil them , either in strong bear , ale , or strong maulted water , and while it is hot , let the patients hold their head over it , and be careful they take no cold afterwards . concerning cataplasms . cataplasmes are oft-times used to help cure agues and sometimes to apply unto the feet to draw from the head , and more especially in such infirmities and defects wherein the nerves and arteries are concerned being laid to the pulse , neck , and other parts of the body , as occasion is offered , i commonly use them in convulsions , appoplexies palpitations , and such like distempers . the way to make them is thus , you must make choice of such herbs according unto their virtues and numbers , which are good to cure the grief as you shall find in this book , shread them small and pound them in a mortar , with a quantity of white salt , and a few raisons , honey , a litle venus turpentine , or burgelary pitch to make it hold together , you must lay it on hot . concerning oyntments . those oyntments which are made heating must be made with sallet-oyle , and those oyntments , which are cooling must be made with either neats foot , oyle , or sweet lard ; i usually put into both a little sheep suet , so make it thick : the way to make each kind is as followeth : and first of the oyl heating , having by the rules in this book made choice of such herbs , according unto their virtues and numbers , which are proper to cure the desect , shread them small and bruise them well in a morter ; then put them into a convenient quantity of oyl , imagine unto two handful of herbs about a pint of oyl ; if you cannot stay to make it by reason of your present occasions , then set it over the fire , keeping it close covered , and when it s near crisp strain forth the oyl , and if you desire to make it very strong , then shread more herbs , and bruise them and boil them in the same oyl again , until it be crisp , and so strain it , and keep it for your use . but if you desire to make it strong , and have convenient time to do it , then bruise the herbs and put them into the oyl , and set them in the sun for a week or two , then strain it and infuse more herbs , and at length boil them until they be crisp , and having strain'd it keep it for your use . if you intend to make a cold oyl , then infuse the herbs being shread and pounded , as foresaid , into sweet-lard or neats-feet oyl , you may take some of each , and make it after the same manner , as you did the hot oyl aforesaid . if these ointments be used about wounds , running sores , or ulcers , then ●twill be convenient to dissolve half an ounce of turpentine in two ounces of oyl by the heat of the fire , more especially if you use the hot oyl thereunto , otherwise not for every cure , for the most part is antipathetical unto the afflicting planet , except the afflicting planet be very strong in the heavens , for then you must in some measure comply as i have else where in this book expressed . concerning bathes or fomentations . bathes are used either in case of hot or cold swellings , sometimes for aches , ulcers , wounds , burnings , or scaldings , and such like , having by the rules in this book made choice of such herbs and plants , which are necessary for the cure , cut them small and boil them in strong maulted water . my usual way is to boil the water and mault together , about three or four pints of mault , to seven or eight pints of water ; when the liquor is strong strain it from the mault and put the herbs into the liquor , and so soon as it boils take it from the fire ; you must bathe or foment the place grieved warm with the bath , and then immediately use such oyntments , as are proper for the cure , and so by swath or otherwise according , as the grief is make it up . i commonly use the same herbs in the bath which makes the oyl : once a day , being at evening , is my usual time to do it . of pvrgations . when you give a purge , let the moon be in a watry sign , or let a watry sign ascend , and let the moon be aspected by any planet which is direct , if swift in motion and under the earth the better . but by no means let the moon be aspected of any retrograde planet , for then the patient will be apt to vomit . secondly , if you desire to purge any humour , or element predominant , do as followeth . let the planet be weak which is of the nature of the element offending . and let the moon apply unto or be in trine or sextile with that planet , which is of contrary nature ; as instance mars , who ruleth choler , being by nature hot and dry , now if you desire to purge choler , then let mars be weak , and let the moon be applying unto venus , and if you desire to purge melancholy , which is under ♄ , then let ♄ be weak , and the moon applying unto jupiter : and if you desire to purge flegm let venus be weak , the moon decreasing and applying to the sun by trine or sextile aspect : and if to purge blood let jupiter be weak , and the moon applying unto mercury : you must do the like in purging any other parts or members of the body , by observing what planet hath predominancy over it , as instance saturn ruleth the spleen , jupiter ruleth the liver and lungs , mars the gall , sol the heart , venus the reins and vessels of generation , yet notwithstanding if any planet , which owns the infirmity , be lord of the ascendant of the patient , and if he be strong its the better , but let the moon apply by any friendly aspect unto a fortune , and if she be in the sign , which represents the part of the body grieved its the better . of the manner of purging the body . if the body require a strong purge be sure to eat no supper , but if any let it be light of digestion , and take it early before you go to bed . also before you go to bed take a little aloes in the pap of an apple , so much as will heap on a single peny , but not bruised too small , or otherwise take two or three small pils made suitable to the humour offending ; and if the patients body be much bound , take either a suppository made with sal-gem , or a glyster to open and prepare the body , before the physick works : take the purge in the morning early , and let the moon be in a watry sign or else let a watry sign ascend , as is above expressed ; take either water-gruel or thin broath , about an hour after , and likewise after every stool , and fast at the least six hours after ( i mean from meat ) or any other diet . how to purge the heal , or remote parts . when you intend to purge the head or remote parts of the body , you must give the patient ●●ls made up in a hard form , for the longer it remaineth in the body the better it works upon the remote humours offending . how to purge choler . that which purgeth choler gently is peach-flowers , blew-violets , damask roses , cent●ury : but i chiefly use aloes , and rubarb , provided the body be strong , else not . how to purge flegm and water . elder-buds , elder-flowers , broom-flowers , flower-de-luce roots , hyssop , spurg , dwarf-elder . orri : but i chiefly use bryony-root or jallop , the body being strong . how to purge melancholly , pollipodium , sumitory , white and black hellebore , dodder , epithimum , inde mirabilaus , lapis lazuli . but that which i chiefly use it sena and seamony . how to purge blood. to purge the blood is best done by decoctions made with such herbs , which are suitable to the grief , as you may find elsewhere in this book ; but if you desire to purge gross humours , proceding from corruption of blood ; as boils , botches tumors . itch , or scabs : then i commonly use the powder called pulvus sanctis , or holy powder , made according to the london dispensatory . of vomits . when you intend to give a vomit , let either the moon or lord of the ascendant be in an earthy sign aspected by a planet retrograde , and let the sign ascending be an earthy sign , when the vomit is taken ; or let the moon be aspected by planets stationary or slow in motion , if about the earth the better : any one of these observations will serve where there are no testimonies against it . of bathes , or sweats . enter bathes or sweats for hot diseases , when the moon is in a a watry sign , as ♋ , ♏ , ♓ . enter bathes or sweats , for cold infirmities , when the moon is in fiery signs , as ♈ , ♌ , ♐ . of fluxes . rheums , and laxes , to stay fluxes , rheums , and laxes let the moon be in an earthy sign , as ♑ , ♉ , ♍ . of clysters . take glysters when the moon is in aiery or watery signs , especially in ♑ or ♏ . of blood-letting . let blood on the right side at spring , and on the left-side at the fall . cholerick persons must be let blood , when the moon is in watry signs , as ♋ , ♏ , or ♓ . flegmatick persons must be let blood , when the moon is in fiery signs , as ♈ , ♐ , but not in ♌ , because that sign governs the heart . melancholy persons must be let blood , when the moon is in aiery signs , as ♎ and ♒ , but not in ♊ , because that sign governs the arms , except you let blood in some other part of the body . sanguin persons may l●t blood , when the moone is in my sign except ♌ , or the place signified by the sign where the moon is . young people may let blood before the first quarter is over . middle age from the first quarter to the full. elder people from the full to the last quarter . old people from the last quarter to the change . good to comfort the vertue . attractive the moon in ♈ ♌ ♐ retentive ♉ ♍ ♑ degestive ♊ ♎ ♒ expulsive ♋ ♏ ♓ here followeth a catalogue of such choice herbs , which cureth the most usual infirmities and diseases incident unto men and women ( being discovered by the sun and moon afflicted in any of the twelve signs , or by a figure of twelve houses ) out of which you may make diet drinks , intments , baths , glysters , fumes , suffumigations , cataplasms , and the like , according unto the humour offending : and without question , if rightly understand , may serve to cure all griefs and infirmities whatsoever , although not by me named , as for example , if one shall desire cure for the asthmah or shortness of breath , these herbs which openeth obstructions doth it . note , that all inward griefs or infirmities are usually cured only by decoctions and the spirits of plants , which are extracted from them : and such diseases or infirmities which proceed from the heart and brain , and lye in the nerves and arteries and vital spirits , such as are convulsions , appoplexies , palpitations , palsies , and such like are not cured onely by decoctions , but also by ointments and cataplasmes applyed unto the pulses and other parts suitable : and as concerning all pains , aches , humours , and swellings , baths and ointments , suitable to their condition are most proper : not omitting diet drinks , corresponding in all cures whatsoever . note , that i do not use all the herbs named for every cure , but only a select number , as is else where expressed . a a abortion to hinder , snakeweed or bistort , madder , mosse , sage ●anfie , tresoil . aches coming of cold , or taken under cold planets to help , rosemary , camomil , rue , bayes , saint johns wort , lavender , marjerom , sage , cink-foil , broom , wormwood , ragwort , mugwort , elmpeel , smallage , comphrey vervain , wild-tansey , brooklime , arsmart , goutwort , calmint , hyssop , charlock , scabious , southernwood , marigolds . aches coming of heat , or taken under mars , camomil , saint johns wort , baume , arsmart , grouncel , sorrel , archangel , mallowes , honey-suckles , violet leaves , elmpeel , elder-flowers , comphrey , mugwort , smallage , henbane , chick-weed , seagreen , turnip , cabbage , cinkfoil , plantain , orpine , daisie , lettuce , spinage , endive , adders-tongue , pimpernel , trefoil , sow-thistle . after-hirth and secundine to expel : angelica , camomil , chervil , horehound , mallowes , mugwort , marygolds , peny-royal , time , wake robin , alessander , fennel , garlick , house-tongue . agues , if you intend to cure all kinds of agues you must take notice under what planet the patient is most afflicted , whether under saturn or under mars or both as i have elsewhere expressed in this book , and so make choice of herbs accordingly : rosemary , lovage , camomil , rue , centaury , southernwood , wood-bitany , sage , vervain , fetherfew , horsemint , savin , assarabacca , carduus , wormwood , tobacco , burdock , mustard , rhubarb , sorrel , grouncel , plantain , calamint , cinquefoil , fumetary , black hellebore , smallage , satirion dodder , bryony , agrimony , hyssop , vipers-grass , endive , succory , burrage , trefoile , periwinckle . appetite to procure : sorrel , sloes , apples , barberies , capers , black-cherries , mulberies , mints , goose-berries , grapes ; generally such herbs , plants , or fruits , which are sower , having no unpleasant relish are good . saint anthonies fire : rhubarb , rue , saffron , bugloss , brooklime , adders tongue , houseleek , chickweed , night-shade , white poppy , pondweed , crab-tree , dane-wort , hounds-tongue adders-tongue , henbane , lentils , mandrake , hemlock . appoplexies : misletoe , lavender wall-gilly-flowers , melilor , box wild citruls , lillie , marjoram , sage , pellitory , fennel , master-wort . apostumes , adders-tongue , bears breech , melilot , onions , rye , chickweed daisie , liverwort , privet , vervain , flax , mugwort . b b back and reins to strengthen : saint john's-wort baum , angellica , rosemary , misletoe clary , mints , cowslips , comfrey lungwort , burrage-blossoms , sweet-maudline , costmary , mace , solomons-seal , wood-bittany barrenness to help : barren-wort , clary , saint james-wort , ladies mantle , mercury , horsmint , sage , shepheards-needle belching sour to repress : aniseed , bitony , cammomil , marjoram , wormwood , hares-foot , wood-bitony , burnet belly-ach : cammomil , centory , sweet-marjoram , plantaney , smallage , rue , angelica , sage southernwood , time , hyssop , gronnd-ivy or alehoof fenel-root , and fennel-seed , fern , stinking gladwin , marsh-mallows . belly to looson : basil , baise , white-beets , elder-buds , fumitory , hounds-tongue , laurel mallows , maiden-hair , mercury , mirabilan , mulberries peach flowers , roses , poppy , potatoes , rhubarb , satirion , scabious , sene , spurg , spinach , violet-flowers , leaves , and roots belly to bind : bulleys , caltrop chesnuts , cowslips , eglantine , saint john's-wort , lentils , ginger , dates , medlars , quinces rice , services , whortleberries , hot stued pruens , red-wine . bladder to cleanse : angelica , rosemary , pimpernel , dandelion , burrage , burdock , assarabacca , furzbush-flowers , featherfew , chervil , dodder , amphier southernwood , spignel , vine , white-wine . vide , stone in the kidneys , reins and bladder . bleeding to stay : aloe , red-beans , golden-rod , hawes , ladies bedstraw , liverwort , moss , arch-angel , plantaney , yarrow , saunders oak , drydates , chesnuts , comfrey , tormentil , roses , rosemary , burnet cats-tail , herb two pence , horse-tail : moon-wort , mulberries : if the bleeding be at nose , my usual way is to tie the small of the leg and the hand-wrist on that side which bleedeth , and to dry some of the patients blood to a powder , and let them snuff it up into their nostrils . blood to cleanse : angelica , rue , sage , scurvey-grass , rhubarb , blood-wort , liver-wort , scabions , burrage , hyssop , blew-bottle , broom-buds , fox-gloves , watercresses , elderbuds and berries , burdock , chervil . breast and stomach to cleanse , vide , obstructions to open and remove . breath-stinking to help : rosemary , cowslips , rue , wormwood , balsome , butchers-broom , smallage , pomecitron , burnet , angelica , sage . broken-bones to help knit : bugle ▪ elm-peel , butchers-broom , holly , mastick-tree , self-heal , solomons-seal , yarrow , bugle . burning and scalding to cure : adders-tongue , asphodil , balm-apple bears-breech , burdock chick-weed , cat tail , coltsfoot , danewort , daffodil , elder ▪ henbane , water-bitony , housleek lettice , orpine , plantane , purslain , tobacco , friers-cowle , cabbage , juyce of crabs , or sower apples , sheeps-dung . burstings or ruptures to cure : saint john's-wort comfrey , cinkfoil , solomons-seal , sanickle , rupture-wort , elme-peel , vervain , calamint , yarrow , daisie , golden-rod , knapweed , mouse-ear , valerian , tway-blade , adders-tongue , horse-tail-baum , century , bugle , juniper , venus wake-ro , bin saturn tway-blade , germander , birth-wort , saturn hawk-weed , saturn birds-foot , mars osmund-royal , mars and water-osmund . c c carbuncles to cure : spurge , tobacco , walnut , vetch , fennel , colewort , or cabbage . catarrhs or thin rheums to stay : saffron , angelica , sweet-marjoram , sweet-maudlin , cost-mary , lavender , saint james wort , bugloss , calamint , tobacco , spignel , storax . child-birth to help : bugloss , balm-apple , horehound mother-wort , mugwort , parsely , wood-bind , sun-dew columbine , carrawaies , cinnamon , parsnip , vine , trefoil , spikenard , mallows , and marshmallows . choler and flegme to purge : black-alder , aloes briony , centory , elder-buds , endive , fennel , stincking gladdon , black hellebore , hyssop , lungwort , mercury , spurge , sycomore , tamarind , tormentil , woad , violet leaves and roots ▪ glasswort , gourds , flower-de-luce , fleawort , saint johns wort , mezereon . chollick of wind to ease : agrimony , aniseed , angelica , apricock , bettony , bezar-tree , briony cammomil , sweet-sennel-seed , coliander-seed , carroway-seed centory , cranes-bill , daisie , danewort , eglantine , fethersew , galingal , herb true-love , jack by the hedge , lavender , parsley , peach-flowers , horse-radish , ribwort , rue , saxefrage , tobacco ▪ tamarisk ▪ zedory yarrow , mouse-ear colds , coughs , and hoarseness to cure , angelica peny-royal , bettony , borage , colts-foot , cinquefoil , clary , horehound , calmint , cumfrey , daffodil , elecampane , figs , fennel , germander , stincking gladdon , jack in the hedge , juniper liquorice , maiden-hair , mosse , parsely , mouse ear , rocket , rue , sage , sun-due , time , tobacco , valerian , vine ▪ zedoary . consumptions to cure : balsame , barly cicely , mouse eare china , cullians , melons , mosse , vine , burdock , snails , aniseed , arrow-head , borrage , bugloss , dandelion , hore-hound . convulsions to cure , saint johns wort , misletoe , centaury , bame , angelica , clary , mints , cowslips wood-bitany , wall-gilly-flowers , sage , sweet-marjoram , lavender , southern-wood , elecampane , bryony , haukweed mellilot , worm-wood , carduus , garlick , hyssop , asphodil , calamint , dane-wort , stinking gladdon , hearts ease , sea-holly , sage , time , valerian . courses of women or monthly terms to provoke : flower-wort , motherwort , nep , sage , dill wood-bittany , bayberies , elecampane mercury , wild carrots hactaper , germander , clary white-beets , mugwort stincking gladdon , flower-de-luce , euckopint , birthwort , calamint catmint , fetherfew , gilly-flowers , gooseberries , groundsel , honeywort , hore-hound saint johns wort , lovage , peny-royal , piony rosemary rue saffron , savin , savory , briony , southernwood , spignal , tansie wake robin , woolfs-bane . courses of women or the reds to stop : saint johns wort : red beers , red-nettles arrach , comphrey roots ▪ yarrow , red corral , red pibble-stone , ribwort , corriander , rind of oke , in fume to sit over , juniper , ladies mantle , lentils , periwinkle , quinces , sanickle , saunders , red poppy , tamarisk tree . cramps to ease : asphodil , bazil , bears breech , calamint , wild carrat , elecompane , dane-wort , flower-de-luce , garlick , sea holly , misletoe , peniroyal , rosemary , saffron , southern-wood , tobacco , turpentine , vine , woodbine , wolfs-bane , fennel , camomil . d d deafness to cure : angelica , bay , bawm , lavender , wood-bettony , holly , ivy , rue , wall-nuts , tobacco , hellebore , savory , sene , wormwood , carduus , henbane . digestion and concoction to help : angelica , bawm , sweet-marjoram , peniroyal , spearmint , elecompane , sweet-maudlin , costmary , rocket , tarragon , jack by the hedge , lovage , radish , camphire , vine , carroway , eglantine , cinnamon , cloves , coriander . dogs mad their bitings to cure : hounds tongue , bawm , bettony , burdock , eglantine , sea-dogs grass , hore-hound , mug-wort , mercury , pimpernel , mints , sene , yarrow , box : the flesh of the same dog present cure . dropsie to cure : agrimony , asarabacca barley , bazil , camomil , celandine , centory , burdock , broom , broocklime , ash , bryony , coffee , dittany , elder , flower-de-luce , garlick hellebore , box , sea holly , lawrel , marjoram , sweet-maudlin , peniroyal , pimpernel , moss , spurge , tobacco , wormwood , cardus , rosemary , lavender , bays , rue , smallage , sage , st johns wort , hyssop , varven , tamarisk , rubarb , saffron , bettony , anniseed , parsley . e e ears pain and noise to help : jews ears , bettony , bazil , asphodil , clivers , coriander , danewort , dittany , fennel , hemp-seed , ivy parsley , pellitory rubarb , tamarisk , melilot bays , leeks , peach , plantane , marjoram . eye-sight to quicken : eye-bright , celandine white roses archangel , angelica , bawm , centory , germander , hawkweed , heath , lavender , lovage elecompane , melilot , medesweet , rue , savory , vine , vipers grass , sparagus , wake-robin , valerian . eyes inflamed , red or blood-shot to cure ; blew bottle , clary , eye-bright , housleek , ivy , larkspur , marjerom , mede-sweet , marygold , moss , mullein , plantany , poppy , southern-wood , tansey , trefoile , wolfs-bane yarrow , myrtle , violets , endine . f. f. falling sickness , piony , misletto rosemary , sweet-marjerom , southern-wood , lavender , elecompany , germander , hysop , wood-bittany , sage , costmary , cinquefoile , burrage , master-wort , staggerwort , worm-wood cardus garlick , cowslip , fox-gloves , penny-royal , elder-buds , violets grouncel , mallows , box , bryany , black cherries , ditany , fennel , rue ▪ hellebore , sea-holly juniper laserwort , moss , mousear , purslain , satirian sene , sundew , tyme vine , trefoile feavers to cure , marygolds , roses , hysop dandelion , blew-bottle , herb two pence , purslain , snakeweed , worm wood . feavers burning to cure , adders-tongue , barley bourage , butter-burr , crowfoot , currants , daises , dandelion , endive , hazel-tree lilly , limons , violets feavers pestilential to cure , angelica , rue , saffron , bishops-weed , carnations , dragons , ducks-meat , fluellin , sorrel , scabious , worm-wood , sage , burnet , violets . flegm to purge , bryony , butchers-broom , daffedil , dodder , feverfew , fox-gloves , fumitory , stinking gladdon , endive , succory , birthwort , hawk-weed black hellebore , henbane , hissop , holly-berries , bind-weed , alheal , butter-wort , elder-buds . flowers of women , see courses . flux of the belly , and humours to stop , red beets , blood-wort , box , brambles , bugloss , burnet cinquefoile , cocks-head , cud-weed , flower-de-luce , cranesbil , germander , golden-rod , harts-tongue , holly , ore-hound , ladies-mantle , moss , orpine , periwinckle , pimpernel , plantainy , quince , rice , rupture-wort , services , sheapherds-purse , spikeneard , worm-wood flux bloody to stay , addders tongue , agrimony , barberries , red beans , bullais , burnet , chesnuts , cinquefoil cowslips , pruens , hot dry dates , dock , hazle-nuts , hearb two peace , holly , rose , house-leek , lilly ▪ madder , maudlin , costmary , mede-sweet , moss , mulberries , oke , oxlips , rosemary , sorrel , whortle-berry , yarrow , tormetil , periwinckle , quinces , tansey , self-heale . french-pox to cure , rue , smallage , hissop , sea-holly , sage , alloes , marsh-mallowes , southern-wood , plantany , damask-roses , asarabacca , cowslip , primrose , hemlock , angelica , worm-wood , violet-leaves and flowers , box , dane-wort , hounds-tongue , tobacco , tormentil , vipers-grass , hops , vine , tamarisk , dodder , pellitory : there is also two sorts of wood used in dyet-drinks , viz. guaicum , and fraxinus , or the gums of them . note , that in curing this disease , those herbs which are used for bathes must be drawing , clensing , and healing , such as is rue , smallage , hissop , tobacco , marsh-mallows , box , eringo , &c. and the herbs used for diet-drinks must be good to expel poyson , purge and cleanse , as rue , aloes , angelica , sage , bayes , cowslips , primrose , plantany , violets , roses , &c. also the wood or gum called guiacum , and fraxinus . the herbs which makes the oyles or oyntmenes must be good to resist poyson , cooling and healing , such as rew , angelica , cowslip , damask-roses , plantany , violets , prim rose● , henbane , hemlock , &c. in this distemper , you must let blood in the neither vein of the yard : by this rule you may cure , if begun in time , but after long continuance in this condition fluxing and other extremities must be used . fundament ▪ falling to remedy , snake-weed , gals , blew pimpernel , star-wort , cuckowpint , wake-robin . g. g. gall , to open , asarabacca , buggle , calamint , rubarb , hemp-seed bitter-sweet , celandine , centory , endive , saffron , ale-hoof , or ground ivy , cammomil , dandelion , dodder of time or other dodders , quich-grass . green-sickness to cure , asarabacca , broom , centory , marygolds rubarb , maudlin , vine , powder of steel . guts stopt , or the illiack passion to cure , ivy , mints , sheapheards needle , plantane mallowes , southernwood , summer savory . gout to cure , see aches hot and cold . h. h. head-ach to cure , aloes , bazil , betony , bryany , butchers-broom , cudweed , cummin dodder , fluellin , frankinsence , hellebore , housleek , ironwort , medesweet , melilot ▪ mints , mugwort , moss , night-shade , enny-royal , spickneard , roses , sycamore , tobacco , time , vine , vervain , woodroof . head-ach , to draw unto the feet by way of cataplasm , rue , smallage , bryony , henbane , worm-woo , cardus , mallowes , lavinder , hissop , hactaper . by this way i cured one mrs. forrest in oxon a stationers wife who was a long time pained after she had tryed many others . heads giddiness and swimmings to cure , aniseed , catmint , bryony , fennel , bears-ears , beets , severfew , pellitory , peniroyal , sene , solomons seal , maudlin , master-wort , olives ▪ saffron , box , time , tobacco , wolfs bane , vipers-grass vine head to purge : celandine , elder-buds , stinking gladdon , lawrel , sweet-marjoram ▪ maudlin , costmary , dragons , pimpernel , rosemary , sene , sneeze-wort , solomons seal , sow-bread , clary , vine heart to fortifie against infection , and likewise to comfort , angelica , rosemary , marigolds , bawm , borrage , bugloss , carnations , saffron , rue , sage , sene , zedoary , mother-wort , cinamon , damask roses , lavender . hearts fainting or palpetations to cure : angelica , marigolds , borrage , bawm , rosemary , bay-berries , costmary , burnet , cinamon , cloves , endive , sage , saffron , nutmeg , strawberries , damask roses spikenard , galingale , harts tongue , lavender , saunders vipers grass : also the hearts of creatures which are good to eat . hearing lost to cure : bawm , lavender , bay , briony , henbane , wood-bittony , rocket , southern-wood , tobacco , worm-wood rue , cardus , sweet-marjoram , eye-bright , cocks head , turpentine , woodbind hickock to stay : birth-wort , fennel , harts tongue , marjoram ▪ shepherds needle , time , skirrets , woodbind dill . hemorhoids or piles to cure : pilewort , cuckopint plantany wall peniroyal , pelatory of the wall , chickweed , catmint , stinking gladdon , gout-wort , hounds tongue , lawrel , leeks , tobacco , lupine , fig-wort , fig-tree , garlick , vine , fumitory : the root of hounds tongue dried under embers in paste , or wet paper made into a suppository gives present ease . hoarsness , and loss of voice to help : burdock-root , cherry-tree gum chervil cinkfoil , liquorish , horehound , violets , leeks , rosemary , saffron , colts-foot turnop tobacco , lavender . humors gross to expel : aloes , bay , camomil , costmary calamint , centory , catmint fox-gloves fumitory garlick , hyssop , juniper , lavender liquorish , misleto , mother-wort , sage rue , scurvigrass southern-wood , sycamore parsley , heart-wort fennel nettle , scabious , turbith vine horse-radish lovage , spearmint , peach-tree peniroyal , st. peters wort , pollipody of the oak , roses . i i iaundies yellow to cure : aloes agremony , the inner yellow bark of black elder , asarabacca , bay , wood-bittony , calamint , doder of time , flower de-luce , furz-bush flowers , hemp , mouse-ear , hedge-mustard , eringo and sea-holly , hops , horehound , madder , rosemary , rupture-wort , succory roots , wormwood , bazil , butchers broom , briony , centory , docks , liver-wort , marjerom , roses , rubarb , rue , saffron , spikenard , tormentil , tamarisk , vine , broom-blossoms , fumitory . inflamations to asswage ; apples , barley , beets , bugloss , claver , colewort , colts foot , endive , succory , gooseberries , hemlock , henbane , horsetail , housleek , saint johns wort , knot-grass , ladies mantle , lilly , liquorish , liverwort , melilot , moss , mulberries , night-shade , orpine , pimpernel purslane , ribwort , saunders , solomons-seal , sorrel , sowthistle , violets , wheat , woad , madder , marjerom , clavers . joynts pained , see aches hot and cold . illiack passion , see guts stopt . itches to cure : alehoof or ground ivy , bay , calendine , chick-weed , cuckow-pit , dock , fumitory , vinegar , hyssop , hops , plantane , roses , cockle , elecompane , mugwort , rhubarb , sene , tobacco , wormwood , vine , stinking gladdon , madder , pondweed . k kernals and knots in the flesh to cure : archangel , cinquesoil , mandrake , mugwort , mustard , lupine , pondweed , rib-wort , rue , spikenard , tormentil , woad , figwort , white-lilly root . kidneys to cleanse : kidneywort or wall peny-royal , garden-tansey , furz-bush-flowers , dodder , elder , fluellin , hops , juniper maiden-hair , parsley , piony , plantane , fennel , broom-blossoms , southernwood , saxifrage , shepheards-needle time , spignel . kings-evil to cure : angelica , bay-berries , cammonil , baume , burnet , eye-bright , marigold , primrose , costmary celandine , clary , wood bittony , burrage , sweet , marjerom , arch-angel , melilot , lavender , bugloss , endive , misletoe , sorrel , hearts-tongue , fox-gloves , pimpernel , southernwood , barley flower or meal , pilewort , rosemary , or the lesser celandine , cleavers , figwort or throat-wort , stinking-gladdon , burdock , mints , broom-blossoms . l lasks or looseness to stay : agrimony , barberries , bulleis , burnet , chesnuts , couslips , barley , black-cherries , cinnamon , clivers , darnel , st. johns-wort , mints , nutmeg quinces , yarrow , sage , harts-tongue , furzbush , flowers , hazel-nuts , filberds , oake , wheat , prewons hot , red wine , red pibles broke into powder , rupture-wort . leprosie to cure , ash-tree-bark , bryany , stinking gladdon , black-helebore , darnel , the mealior flower , calamint , elm-tree-bark or leaves , flaxweed , mustard bay , saffron tamarinds , time , vine , virgins-bower ▪ viper-wine , a snake first rosted with salt , and afterwards burnt and brought into powder of which give the patient a dram every morning in liquor convenient . lethergy or drousie evil to cure , sow-fennel , water-cresses , lavender , mustard , onions , penny-royal rosemary , sage , summer savory , iack by the hedge time , vine . liver obstructed , to open and purge liverwort , agrimony , dandelion , asarabacca , bay , wood-bittany , angelica , celandine , centory , costmary , daisiees , harts-tongue dodder , elder-buds , cammomel , elecompane , broom-blossoms , furz-bush-flowers , horehound , hemp , sea-holly sweet marjerom , plantain , saffron , sorrel , scurvy-grass , sene , tormentil , juniper , liquerish , fox-gloves , germander , peach , spicknel , shepheards-needle , vine . lungs to open and cleanse , longwort , hounds-tongue , pollipody of the oak , hissop , alexanders borrage , chervil , cinquefoile , cudweed , horehound , colts-foot , burdock , vervain , st. james-wort , rubarb , sundew , liquerish , bay , tormentil , angelica , apples , feverfew , sweet marjerom , saffron , sene , dodder , alexander , birth-wort , figs , time , vine rubarb , zedoary . m. m. melancholy to repress and purge , apples , bacom , angelica , burrage bugloss , elecompane , arch-angel flowers , cowslips , costmary , burnet , dandelion , feverfew , fumitory , madder , penny-royal , bazil , dodder , frankincense , lavender , saffron , marygolds , tyme , scurvy-grass , tormentil , sene , vine . mirth to cause , angelica , bawm , burrage , burnet , carnations , chervile , rosemary , marygolds , saffron , time , rise arch-angel , blossoms , sweet marjerom , also all pleasant fumes . mother-fits , suffocation or rising to cure , motherwort , stinking arrach , bawm , bay , burdock , cammomil , mugwort , ele-companie , sparment , rosemary , wood-bittany , bishops-weed burnet , butter-bur , caraway , fetherfew masterwort , catmint pellitory of the wall , peony , summer savory , walnut-tree , fennel , germander , jack by the hedge , juniper , lovage , marigolds , mustard peny-royal , rosemary , rhubarb , tobacco , southernwood , spignel , wolf-bane , vine . milk to cause in womens breast : burrage buglos , lettuce , vipers , bugloss , barley , cabbage purslane , rocket , sow-thistle , turnip , milk-wort trefoile anemony ▪ herb-frankincense , saint katharines flower , bel-flower . milk to dry up in womens breasts : asarabacca , basil red-beans , rue , vine . monthly courses , see courses of women . n n nose bleedi●g to stop see bleeding to stay . numness to remove : hyssop , lavender bears-breech , nettles , wormwood , rosemary , clary , chervil , burrage , angelica , costmary . o o obstructions to remove : angelica , baum , centory , loveage , rue , rosemary , cammomil , saint johns wort , penyroyal , mints , tansey , costmary , sweet-maudline , wood-bitony , endive , succory , dandelion , liver wort , blood-wort , burrage , lung-wort , hyssop , sage , elder-buds , sweet-marjerom , elecampane , germander , fumitory rhubarb , saffron , scurvy-grasse , vervain , vipers-grasse , vine , liquorish , hore-hound . opening plants : angelica , bettony , cammomil , calamint , borrage , broom asphodil , bishops-weed , bay , dandelion , docks , fennel , fethersew , figs , fox-gloves , lovage , fea-holly , rose , sage , marigolds , peach rue smallage , taragon , time , dragons , dropwort saint johns wort , germander , sampire , radish , roses , ditany , cucumbers , wild citruls , horehound , tamarisk . p p palsey to cure : angelica , bag●● , rosemary , clary , misletoe , mase marigolds , borrage , blossoms , cowslips , sage cammomil , chervil , hissop , lavender southernwood , saint johns wort , burnet , blew-bottle fetherfew balsome , bears-ear , box , daffodil , parsnip , sage , summer savory , saxifrage sene mother-wort , juniper , oxlips , pelitary , pepper , pine , vine , tobacco piles to cure , see hemorrhoids . plague or pestilence to cure or prevent , angelica , baum , celandine , carnations , cicely , colombines , elecampane , dyers-weed , sage , fumitory , marigolds , snakeweed one blade , blew-bottles , but turbur , chervil or cicely , cinkfoil , cuckow-pint , devils-bit , germander , herb-true-love , horehound , ivy , mary-golds , pimpernel , rue , scabious , vervain , wheat-meal , jack by the hedge , juniper , rhubarb , saffron , southernwood , vipers-grass , yarrow , a chicks fundament laid to the plague sore killeth the chick and cureth the patient . pleuresie to cure , angelica chervil , flea-wort , lovage , marsh-mallows , hedg-mu●●ard , scabious , violets , clary , cummin , haukweed , rhubarb , sage , trefoil , aloes , centory , saint katherines-flower , mullein , laser wort netle , almonds . ptisick to cure : bilberries , chervil or cicely , costmary , sweetmaudlin , knapweed , liquorish , marsh-mallows , parsley , plantane , polipody of the oak , rosemary , bay , bears-breech , daffodilly , lungwort , mouse-ear , purslain , ribwort , sundew , saffron , master-wort , cranes-bill , moss . purples to cure : bishops-weed , snakeweed , fleawort , purplewort , tormentil , water-germander . purging the body of ill humors : aloes , asarabacca , briony , box , butter-wort , alder-tree danewort , endive , featherfew , laurel , juniper , rhubarb , saffron , tobacco , scabious , spinach , marjoram , swallow-wort , spurge , broom , blossoms , saxifrage , turbith , bindweed , herb-terrible , vine . q q quinsey to cure : cudweed , cinkfoil , lovage , orpine , ragwort , violets , wormwood , calamint , mulberries , vine , broom-blossomes , leeks , madder , rhubarb , saint james wort , dane-wort . r r reins to cleanse : sparagus roots , sea-holly or eringo , featherfew , filipendula the roots , hops , saxifrage , succory , tansey , grasse , pellitory , pimpernel , rhubarb , mercury . running of the reins to cure : blites liverworr , dock , aromatical reed rupturewort , solomons-seal , spleenwort , artichoakt , apples , comfrey , dandelion , sea-holly , bares-foot , sanicle , venus turpentine , snake weed , yarrow , flower-de-luce , knot-grass , saunders , red-roses , amber and venis turpentine given with the white of an egg roasted morning and , evening cureth , probatum ▪ rheums to stay , costmary , sweet-maudlin , sciatica-cresses , knotgrass , dogs-mercury , nep or catmint , plantane , red-roses , sage , bay , bugloss , hounds-tongue , hazle-nuts , aromatical-reed , corriander . rest to procure , see sleep . rickets , ashen-keys , coffee . herbs which are good to open obstructions , and are cleansing strengthning and cordial , bein made into oyntments and diet drinks will cure . ringworms , barberries , borrage , bugloss , celandine , hemlock hops , sengreen , liverwort , dogs-mercury plantane , rue scabious , sorrel , oyl of wheat , alcanet , garlick , hellebore vine . ruptures , see burstings . s. s. scabs and scurfs to heal , alehoof or ground-ivy , black alder-tree , ash-tree-bark , bay , barberries , beets , wood-bittany , bryany , bugle , bur-dock , clary sciatica-cresses dock , flaxweed foxgloves , golden-rod , hops , hore-hound , cow-parsnep , pellitory of the wall , agrimony , catmint , fumitory , scabious , savin , sene , tobacco , spurge , dodder , elecompane , beech , beets , bloodwort . scaldings to cure , see burnings . for a scaldhead the bark of ash-tree burnt , to ashes , and made into a lye to bath withal doth cure , probatum est sciatica or hip-gout to cure , alehoof or ground-ivy , angellica , arch-angel , sparagus , burdock , cinkfoile , sciatica-cresses , dock , flaxweed , fumitory , stinking gladwin , groundcel , henbane , st. john's-wort , kidney-wort , or wall penny royal , mustard , nettles , the white poplar , ragwort wild-tansey , asarabacca , broom , lesser centory , goutwort , jack by the hedge , madder , rue , southern-wood , tobacco , time , trefoile , laser-wort , mallowes . serpents-stingings , or venemous-bitings to cure , adders-tongue , alexanders , asarabacca , calamint , elecompane , sern , asphodil , bittony , buglosse , harts-tongue , sea-holly , horehound , housleek , madder , moss , nettles , piony , bayes , rue , scabeous , sperage , sycomore , trefoile , woolfs-bane , burdock , cudweed , germander , scorpion-grass . spleens , diseases , obstructions and inward swellings to cure , alehoof or ground-ivy , alexanders arch-angel , asarabacca , baum , baise . beets , wood-bitony , calaminnt , cammomil , centaury , dandelion , water-fern , furz-bust-flowers , germander , stinking gladwin , harts tongue hauk-weed , hops , horehound , ivy , lavender , broom-flowers , marsh mallows , misletoe , mustard , horse-radish , southernwood , ladies-thistle , tormentil , winter-gilly-flowers , woad , marjerom , rocket , tamarisk , time , vervain , wormwood , dittander , dodder of time , angelica rhubarb , scurvy grasse , spleen-tree , sumitory , sene , rosemary , peach-flowers , parsley , sampire , elder-buds . stomach bad to help , cleanse strength : agrimony , aples , avens , baise , wood-bitony , chervil , costmary , sweet-maudlin , crossewort , endive , elecampane , flower-de-luce , haukeweed , hounds-tongue , peach-flowers or leaves , dock bastard , rhubarb , the seed or root , sorrel , currants , angelica , baum , alexander , sweet-marjerom quinces , capers , succory , dandelion , dodder , jack by the hedge , liquorish , lovage , mints , mosse , young charlock , mustard , tansie , time , wormwood , roses , scurvey grass , horse-radish , vine , cammomil , peny-royal , goose-berries , purslain , spinage , lettuce , oranges , straw berries , mosse , vine , walnuts , mirobalans , fennel , rue , spignel , limmons , saint johns wort . stiches or side-pains to ease : avens , wood-bittony , briony , cammomil , wild-carrots , parsly sage , our ladies thistle , garden valerian , asphodil , birthwort , chervil elecampane , cammomil , fennel , germander , larkspur melilot , misletoe , rupturewort stichwort , trefoil , time , rue vine . for the stone : saxsfrage , pellitory of the wall , mother of time parsley , radishes , stilled out of milk in a cold still . stone and gravel to expel : apples , apricock , bean , bramble , brook lime , broom blossoms , fursh-bush-flowers , bittony , dandelion , baise , burdock , cammomil , carnations , adonis flower , wild carrots , blach-cherries , colombine , cockle cowslips , fetherfew , sorrel , mugwort , pimpernel , cranes-bil , dittany dodder , dropwort , eglantine , fennel , golden-rod , couch-grasse , haws , jack by the hedge , saint james wort , saint johns wort , ladies bed-straw , liver-wort , marsh-mallows , master-wort , maiden-hair , medlar-stones , melilot , mints , mosse , netle , nutmeg , ox-eye , parsley , parsnet , pellitory , peny-royal , periwinckle , piony , purslane , violet , radish , rhubarb , spignel , tansie , time , vervain , wolfsbane , trefoil , vine . stone in the kidneys and reins to expel aromatical reed , balsome , beech ' birch-tree , bramble , cabbage , dane-wort , golden rod , mayden-hair , parsley penny-royal , rupture-wort , saxifrage , dandelion , furzbush flowers straw-berries , medler-stone , young turnip-leaves , butchers-broom broom , groundsel . strangury or pissing stopt to help agrimony angelica , alexanders , rosemary , pimpernel , aples , bazil , bettony , brooklime , dandelion , dasies , broom , sweet marjerom , asarabacca , butchers-broom , fetherfew , fennel-root , borrage , bramble , liquorish , centory diptany , dropwort , eglantine , germander , stinking gladwin , couch-grass , gromwel , hawkweed , hops horse-tail , juniper , lark-spur , mercury , mints , pellitory , spikenard radish , saxifrage , southern wood , tansey , time , tormentil , trefoile , valerian , vine , groundsel . swellings , see aches hot and cold . swounings and ●aintin●s to cure aromatical reed , bazil borrage , balm , dodder of time mother-wort , sweet marjerom , penny-royal rosemary , angelica , sun-few , vine , cinamon , endive , costmary , tobacco vine , vipers-grass , quinces , cherries . sinews shrinking to help , cammomil , chickweed , elmpeele , comfry , oyl of trotters , sow-fennel , laserwort , turpentine oyl of young puppies under nine dayes old . sinews to strengthen , balsom , centory , cowslip , fennel , flower-de-luce ladies bed-straw , mints , rosemary , sage , pellitory , yarrow , tansie , st. johns's-wort . spitting of blood to stay ▪ clowns-woundwort , borrage , comfry , dock , elecompane st. johns's-wort , inner bark of oak , plantane , sage , bettony , fennel , harts-tongue , red beets , red arch-angel , leeks , long-wort , bramble moss purstain , ribwort , sanickle , trefoile , blood-wort , rubarb , shepheards-purse , arrowhead , barberries , almonds , horehound , holly rose . spots , freckles , and pimples in the skin to clear , bazil , bayes , bell-flower , broom blossoms , bryony , elecompane , fetherfew , fumitory , roses , calamint , celandine , coleworts , daffodil , dittander , endive , flower-de-luce , hawk-weed , lovage , onions , parsley , penne-royal , radish , roket , rosemary , savin , scurvey grass , solomon's-seal , strawberries , tansie , vervain , wheat . sleep to procure , anet , barley cowslips , endive , lettuce , saffron , white poppy , purslain , roses , sensitive herbe , tobacco , virgins bower , wormwood , henbane , hemlock , lilly , parsley , nightshade , nutmeg , onions , herb true-love , vine , mandrake , moss , dandelion , plowmans-spikenard , stinking gladwin . scurvey to cure , brooklime , water-cresses , horse-radish , cuckow-flower , danewort , juniper , scurvy-grass , horse-taile , fluellin , vine , wayfaring-tree , tamarinds , cloud-berries , coffe . shingles to cure , cinquefoile housleek , rue , pellitory , olive-tree , egyptian-thorne , lentil , cow , parsnip , plantane . surfeits to cure , angelica , coleworts , liverwort , wormwood , broom-blossoms , red poppy , saffron violets , red roses , clove-gillie-flowers , aniseed , coleander , figs , reasons . t. t. termes . see courses . tetters to heale , beech-tree , celandine , hops , horehound , liverwort , plantane , sorrel , oyle of green wheat , darnel , alcanet , almonds , cresses , fluellin , jessemine , hellebore , st james-wort , limons , myrtle , pine , rubarb ▪ swallow-wort , vine . throtes-almonds to help , dil , boxthorn , bramble , cedar , cink-foile , divils-bit , caltrops , elder , fumitory , mustard , pellitory , primrose , smallage . throates-kernels and swellings to waste , sorrel , black-thorne-leaves , alder , clivers , fumitory , hyssop , st james-wort , orach , plumbs rampions , rubarb , snake-weed , start-wort , throat-wort , or bell flowers , cammomel . throat-sorenes and diseases to help , ground-ivy , pellitory of the wall , red-roses , sage , self-heale , black-thorn leaves , vine-leaves , elder-flowers , barley , bulleis , columbine , fig-tree , hissop , toad stools , wood-bine , golden-rod , cammomel . throates-inflammations to asswage , cuckowpint-root , walnut-tree , straw-berries , throat-wort , toad-stools , vine-leaves , violets , worm-wood , cammomel . tooth-ach to help , black-alder , arsmart root or seed , sparagus-root , red beet-root , broom , ivy-berries , broom-rape cink-foil-roots , flower-de-luce roots , penny-royal , tamarisk-tree , angellica , asphodil , bazil , box , burdock , cammock , celandine , crow-foot , dentary , henbane , hemlock , mustard , neetles , pellitory , poppy , pockweed , rubarb , saffron , spurge , sundew , tobacco ; tamarisk , taragon , vervain , wormwood , yarrow , hissop . v. v vertigo see heads-giddiness . venemous-beasts or vipers-bitting to cure , ash tree , sweet-bazil , white-beets , borrage , burdock , cabbage , centory , dane-wort , or dwarf-elder , elecompane , flower-de-luce , harts-tongue , hounds-tongue , hissop , hore-hound , st. john's-wort , knot-grass , mustard penny-royal , cliver , woad , or dyers-weed , wormwood , scorpion-grass , juniper , vipers-grass , woundwort , yew , tresoile . vlcers and sores to heale , agrimony , black-alder , alheale , aloes , angellica , balsam , barley , bettony , birthwort , bu●le , bryony , broom-blossoms , bramble , centory , clary , butter-bur , campion clivers , cockle , colts-foot coleworts comfry , dandelyon , dodder , elder-blossoms , eleeompane , cudweed , winter-cresses , fox-gloves , ground-pine , goats-beard , gourds , germander , harts-ease , herb true-love , hellebore , henbane , horehound , misseltoe , pimpernel , sage , savin , st. john's-wort , juniper , hissop , hounds-tongue , master-wort , cudweed , holly , rose , lilly , mullein , pondweed , plantain , pine , rubarb , poppy , roses-red , smallage , snakeweed southernwood , self-heale valerian , wakerobin or cuckowpint , zodoary , yarrow , lentils , bares-ears . vlcers or sores running and spreading to cure , adders-tongue , avemony , arsemart , asphodiss , endive , egyptian-thorn , darnel dodder , camels-hay , celandine , crossewort , dragons , figwort , fluellin , friers-cowl , bares-eares , holly , rose , hemlock , jack by the hedge , hops , horse-tongue , housleek , ivy , knapweed , medesweet , moss , oates , oyl-pulse , olive-tree , poud-weed , rose-wood , smallage , tobacco , tamarisk-wood , woolfes-bane , vetch , foxstones , cinksoil , blewbottles , red wild campions . vlcers-hollow , and fistuloes to cleanse st. james'-wort , hellebore , hounds-tongue , fox-stones , fryers-cowl , spurge , knapweed , juniper , ivy , plantane , rib-wort , tormentil , vervain , yarrow , winter-green wound-tree . vlcers hollow to fill with flesh honey-wort , frankincense , lentills , maudlin , costmary , pitch , thorow-wax juniper . vlcers in the privy parts to cure , apples , aver baum , bramble , bugle , cranes-bill , plantain , cresses , ducks-meat , senugreek , golden-rod , holly , rose , knot-grass lung-wort , sage , tansie , woodbine , throat-wort , galingale , privet . vomiting to repress , spearmint , craks , onyons , adders-tongue , cinnamon , ash-leys , cranes-bill , currants , sennel , couch-grasse , egyptian thorn , ladies mantle , liverwort , marjerome , mastick-tree , mirabalans , moonwort , moss , peny-royal purslain , quinces , sol●mons seal , snakeweed , tormen v●til , tresoile , wortle-buries , wormwood , zedoary , vine 〈◊〉 ●ine to provoke : alexanders , aniseed , apples , aromatical-reed , artichoke , assarabacca , asphodil bazil , bays , white-beets , bramble , bryony , burdock , butchers broom , calamint cedar , bears-breech , carrowaies , carrots , black-cherries , chervil , cocks-head , corrander , crabs , water-cresses , do●d●r , dragons , dandelion , dropwo●t , dyersweed , elecampane , endive , fennel fluelline , fumitory , furz-hush-flowers , galingale , garlick , germander , stinking gladdon , golden-rod , gooseberries , hartwort , he●b two pence , sea-holly , hops , horse-tongue , jews-thorn saint john● wort , juniper , ivy , knot-grass , lavender , laurel , leeks , liverwort , lovage , lupine , madder , sweet-marjerome , master-wort , maudl●ne , costmary , medlars maiden-hair melilot mercury , miller , moss , mirtle , netle , oak , onions , parsley , parsnip , pellitory , peny-royal , petiwinckle , radish , poley , rocket rosemary , rhubarb , rue , safron , sage , sampier , savin scabious , shepheards needle , smallage , southernwood , spiknard taragon , time , tresoil valerian-wood-bind vine . vvula fallen to help : columbine , dittany , harts-tongue , mouse-ear , mulberries , prim-rose , cowlli●s cuckow-pint , or wake robine . w. w. wind to expel : angelica alexanders , aniseed baise , dil elecampane , balsome birth wort bryony , cammomil , fetherfew fennel , masterwort , mililot carawaies , carmint , cinnamon , coffee , cummin , dragons , mints , oats , parsley , elder-buds , galingale , garlick ginger , hemp seed , holly , rose , hissop , juniper , ivy , loveage , jack by the hedge , winter , and summer savory , valerian , walnuts , nutmeg pepper , pockweed red-poppy , rosemary , rue , safron , sage , tobacco , tansie , time , toothwort wormwood , motherwort , zedoary vine , tamarish . whites or reds to stay : agrimony , adders-tongue , red-beets , red arch-angel , snake-weed cinkfoil , comfrey , liver-wort , red-roses , mirtle , oak , rosa solis or sun dew , rosemary-flowers . womb to open and cleanse : angelica , bishops-weed , balsame , betony , birch-tree , birthwort briony , fetherfew , butchers-b●oom , cammomil fennel-figs , flower de-luce , lavender , dogs-mercury , mandrake , rue , mouse ear , savin , vine . worms to kill : agrimony , aloes arrow-head , arsmart , sweet-apples , pearmain and pippin , butter-bur , celandine , devils-bit , box calamint , century , ivy-berries , onions , dane-wort , horse-radish , wormwood , garlick , wormseed , fetherfew , eglantine elecampane , fern , gall of an ox , hazel-tree , hemp , henbane hops , horehound hissop , juniper , lavender , sweet-maudlin mustard , rocket , rhubarb , southernwood tobacco , tansey , time , vervain , walnut-tree , wolfs-bane , zedoary . make a plaister with wormwood , garlick , celandine , fetherfew , and mints , stampt together with the gall of an ox and vinegar ; apply this plaisterwise to the belly , and it will both kill and bring forth the worms . wounds green to help : adders-tongue , agrimony , wood bitony , birds-foot , blew bottles , al-heal , arsmart , broom , bugloss , celandine , cranes-bil , diers-weed , elecampane , elm , plantane , bugle , burnet , fluellin , fox-gloves , herb true love , hissop , saint james wort , saint johns wort , lungwort , melilot , mallows , moss , orpine , self-heal , sensitive herb , tobacco , yarrow , shepheards-purse , trefoil , clowns wound-wort , comfrey , cud-weed , sanicle , devils-bit , fern , fig-wort or throat-wort , hounds-tongue , loose-strife , pear-tree . wounds , inflamations to asswage : adders-tongue , chick-weed , daisy , hore-hound , loosestrife , one blade , straw-berries , ve vain , yarrow , balm-apple housleek , sopewort , primrose orpine , purslain . wounds to heal : asarabacca , balm-apple balsame , baum , bears-ears , addars-tongue , birds eye , blew-bottle , arsmart , bugle , buglosse , burnet , cranes-bil , crossewort , daisie , fern , elder-buds or flowers , golden-rod , herb two-pence , bea sears , horehound , saint johns wort , ivy , hounds-tongue , loosestrife , lungwort , madder , mastick . maudlin , costmary , moonwort , oak , plantane , rue , sanicle , self heal , satirion , solomons seal , southernwood , sun dew or rosa solis , to mentil , turpentine , valerian , twayblade , woad , yarrow , zedoary , wood-roof , tobacco , ladies mantle , clowns-wound-wort , fox-gloves , hissop . y y yellow jaundies , see jaundie● here followeth some examples of such griefs and infirmities which were by the rules aforesaid both astrologically discovered and cured . i shall relate only two cures done at oxon : i could have inserted many more done within that city during the time of my abode there , but i am unwilling over-much to enlarge my book , or trouble the reader therewith ; these two being enough for satisfaction . 1. i cured the daughter of mr. brown living in high-street in oxon , anno 1658. this was the first cure i did within that city : this maid having been about twelve moneths under the cure of several doctors , and her father finding that her grief rather increased than diminished , and hearing by some what great cures i had done in other places , came unto me , and after some communication i erected a figure , by which , according unto the rules of astrology i quic●ly found what was the distemper and the cause thereof ; which i am confident no drug doctor could do by the urine : her grief proceeding from an extraordinary distemper of the heart and brain , and not without some rising in the throat by flegm , and ill matter setled between throat and stomack ; her condition for the time being , was as followeth ; she had near a dozen firs a day , which took her somewhat like the falling-sickness but mixt with convulsion , for during the time of her fit , she seemed senceless with some small striving and so revived again , but not without some sighing and sadness : she was afflicted under the sun and mircury , the one having predominancy over the heart , the other the brain and so by consequence the nerves and arteries oppressed ; the one causing deadness , the other sencelessnes for the time being of her fit : i judged it to be one kind of evil , which would without question ( if not cured ) have turned unto that which is usually called , the kings-evil ; for in length of time ▪ when the nerves are oppressed , it many times causeth white kernels , swellings sometimes in the throat , and at other times in the eyes , and indeed in any part of the body , more especially in that part signified by the sign wherein the principle significator of the sick is afflicted , and then , but not before it 's usually called the kings-evil : the way of cure , was as followeth in the first place i gave her three solary herbs to wear about her , having a ●ertue agreeing with the uature of gold , and serveth instead of gold , for as gold is under the dominion of the sun as being a metal , so likewise are many herbs and plants under the dominion of the sun accordingly as being vegetable , and being gathered at the right planetary hours according unto their number worketh the same effects in cure , being worn or otherwise . this cure was effected by such herbs suitable to the grief which were by antipathy unto mercury , a planet cold and dry , viz. under jupiter , a planet hot and moist , but by herbs which were by sympathy , under the sun , for let the sun be strong or weak there it no opposing of him , as being fountain of life ; for in all cures whatsoever , herbs of the sun must be used , and the rather in this cure , by reason the maid was by nature melancholy , and likewise afflicted under mercury a melancholy planet . in all kinds of evils , the plants and herbs used for cure , must be gathered at the right planetary hours according unto their vertues and numbers : had this maid been by nature cholerick , then we might have used herbs under venus , or the moon , as being afflicted under the sun , for in all cures we must help to support natures defects , so well , as to fortify the heart ; but most usually melancholy people are afflicted under melancholy cold planet : and cholerick people under hot planets , more especially in evils , for every element naturaly doth sympathise with its own like , and doth more vehemently strike thereupon then on the contrary , even as the actions of men and women do naturally sympathise with their complexions be it choller , or melancholy , &c. an other cure done in ▪ oxon on the daughter of mr. collens a baker , anno 1669. this maid for some time was troubled with convulsion-fits , now her parents being willing to have remedy , went unto several doctors , and others for remedy , who used such physical means , and other remedys as they thought meet : at length they used hot bathes wherein they shrunk up both her legs , after which , not knowing what more to do for her , they willingly left the cure ; by which it appeared , that the remedy was worse than the disease ; for instead of curing her distemper , they left her limbs useless ; whereupon , hearing of me , and the many great cures which i had done for others , they came unto me , desiring to know , whether i could help her distemper , and cure her limbs ? for as they said , having spent much money upon her already , they would not willingly part with any more , except i would undertake to perfect the cure : after some discourse , having taken an exact time whereby to erect my figure , and finding that it was radical by the rules of astrology , i found that the maid was curable ; whereupon , having agre'd with them for the cure , at a price , provided if i did not perfect the cure , i was to lose both my charges and pains : i made entrance thereupon , and within some short time i did ( through gods blessing ) reco●er both her health and limbs , and she hath s● continued ever since . by the figure , i found that the moon and mercury were principally concerned , as having the greatest predominancy over her distemper , the one ruling over the bulck of the brain , the other over the acting and sensitive part of motion , and so between them making her fits violent and strong : these afflicting planets having relation to the twelfth house , ( and no fortune ▪ or lord of the tenth house , enterposing , gave strong suspition of an evil upon the maid , neither in my opinion was it otherwise and that was one great reason why the doctors and others could not help her ; for evils are of that nature that except they be cured by the rules of astrology ( without a miracle ) they are seldom , or never cured , for the more they are tampered with , the worse commonly they will be ; for in this condition , those herbs and plants which are used , must be gathered at the right planetary hours , and according to their numbers , elemental qualities , and vertues , as i have elsewhere expressed ; the manner of cure was as followeth , first , having gotten three solary plants which were gathered at the hour of the sun , i gave them the maid to wear about her neck instead of gold , for as gold is a metal under the sun , and hath a strong vertue to withstand the evil , so likewise such herbs which are under the sun are approved to have the same vertue accordingly , being gathered as aforesaid . secondly i made choice of such herbs and plants which were antipathetical unto the moon and mercury ; and so to oppose mercury , i took herbs under the dominion of jupiter a planet hot and moist , whereas mercury is cold and dry and to oppose the moon , a planet cold and moist , i took herbs under mars and the sun both hot and dry , out of which herbs being collected according unto their numbers , elemental qualities and vertues , and gathered at the right planetary hours : i made dyet-drinks oyles , and cattaplasms . the manner how to make them i have shewed elsewhere in this book : only to the oyl applyed unto her le●s , i did mix it with oyle of young puppies under nine days old ▪ and with the jelly of calves legs which did help cause the sinews being shrunk to extend and stretch forth : after i had used this oyl about nine days , having gotten good help , we stretched forth her leggs and did splet them fast , and about a week after she assayed to move with crutches , after which continuing the oyntment , and keeping her leggs splitted in some short time being young she recovered : also by dyet-drinks ▪ & applying cataplasms to the hand-wrists , not omitting planetary oyles , applyed to the heart and brain made out of those herbs collected as aforesaid , she was likewi●e recovered of her convulsion fits , but against the good will and liking of those who had her formerly in cure , and some others their partakers , for it seems they were so troubled about the cure by reason they could not do it , that they made the vice chancellour acquainted therewith , pretending that i had cured this maid by unlawful means , whereupon , mr collins this maides father was sent for , to give him account concerning the way and means used for his daughters cure , who it seems gave him such ample satisfaction therein , that i never was much troubled more , only the said chancel●our sent two schollers to dispute with me , the one was , as i was informed a doctor , the other a master of arts , who after two or three hours discourse , were fully satisfied concerning the legallity of my art and profession and as they told me at parting , they did believe , i should have no more trouble therein , yet notwithstanding , those who were my adversaries would not rest contented , but did on the sabbath day put up bills unto the ministers to pray and preach again●t me , and my art ; which when i understood , i could not forbear to smile , remembring a pretty story of a rich usurer who lived in london ▪ a friend of his desired him to go with him hear a sermon , the preacher having notice of his coming spake much against usury and usurers , and all those that went unto them ; whereupon , the sermon being ended , the usurers friend askt him how he liked the sermon , he said very well , and wished there more such preachers , why said his friend ? to speak against you , and all those of your profession ? i care not for that said the usurer , for the more it s cryed down , and the fewer there be of my profession , the more custom i shall have ; for the usurer was resolved preach while they could against it , never to give over his trade . and the truth is , after the ministers had preaehed against me and my art , i had twice so much custom as i had before , for they could not have done me better service for many which before had not heard of me made much enquiring after me , hearing what great cures i had done . not long after came two men who warned me to depart by a day , pretending they had order , i was informed they were apothecaries however to avoid trouble , in regard i was no graduat doctor , nor yet free of the city , i thought it best to depart and live where i formerly had done in the parish of aldermarston near reading : but the citizens never left me , for unto this day , i have many cures out of the city , and places near adjoyning notwithstanding , i live ten miles distant would i have been at the charge of a license i would have lived there in spight of all my adversaries , but i am well plea●ed to live where i am having practice enough . one cure lately done in bark-shire , anno. 1667. one mr. peter wickenss , living in the parish of tile-hurst , in the county of berks , having lain bed-rid for some time past , who could wagg neither hands nor legs , he made tryal of many physicians , mounte-banks and others , but could find no help , continuing rather worse than any whit amending : at length he sent to me , for as i have already declared , i am seldom imployed but in case of great necessity , ( the reasons i have shewed elsewhere ; ) and having by the rules of astrology discovered the grief with its cause and termination : i did undertake the cure at a price , and did perform the same in about eight weeks time , he hath been since at london and hath gone several other journeys , and hath continued well unto this present time of my writing hereof : the cure was performed as followeth , having by the rules of astrology discovered saturn to be the afflicting planet who was both weak and peregrine , i effected the cure by antipathy , viz. by herbs under the dominion of jupiter , and sol , what herbs are good for dead-palsies i have set down elsewhere in this book , and likewise under what planet each herb is governed out of which having collected a select number agreeing unto each planet by the rules before going : i did make both oyles cataplasms , and dyet-drinks with the oyles we annoinred the brain reins of his back , cliches of his armes , groyn , knees and anckles , together with heart and stomack . the cataplsams we applyed to the feet , and hand-wrists . the dyet-drink i ordered him to take three times a day ▪ viz. morning , and after dinner , and at night . i also ordered him to take water-grewel made with herbs suitable unto his condition every morning about an hour after he had taken the dyet-drinks ; sometimes in this infirmty we use suffumigations to the head more especially when we find the patient under a cold dryth : also the dyet and food which they eat who are in this condition must be nutritive and of easy digestion ; the patients in this condition will be very apt to be bound in their body , not only for want of exercise , but also by reason the applycations are for the most part hot , wherefore sometimes we give them glisters , pills , or suppositers according unto discretion . here followeth the way astrologically not only to discover but also to cure all sorts of evils , together with that commonly called , the kings-evils . concerning the evil commonly called the kings-evil , and the cure thereof as followeth . it 's generally called the kings-evil , in regard it pleased god to give the kings of this nation that great gift of curing these kinds of infirmities : 't is not as many foolishly do imagine , called the kings-evil in regard of any sins by them committed , and so for that cause it should fall upon the subject : for the evil is directly from themselves occasioned by some extraordinary distemper of the brain , and so from thence dispersed by the nerves into several parts of the body sometime i have known it fall into the eyes and at other times into the neck and throat with white kernels , swellings ; and sometimes 't will be in any other parts of the body and the swelling is alwayes white . now in regard that chyrurgions and doctors in former times were ignorant , not only of the cause but also of the way of cure by reason it lay wholly in the nerves , for these kinds of evils coming wholly from the brain as aforesaid : at the first beginning never toucheth upon the flesh , brain , or blood only the nerves are puffed up and riseth in kernels white , whereupon such applications which usually cured other swellings were clear antipathetical unto these kinds of swellings , and rather increased than any way diminished their pain : i have cured many of this kind of evil also , as is well known unto many in the country . many times it falleth out to be in the optick-nerves , and then the eyes are in a very sad condition . about a year a go i cured the daughter of one john alexander , living in mortimer in the county of berks , she was taken in both eyes , they were so cloased up , that she could not endure to have them opened whereby to apply any remedy , she lay thus above six moneths quite blind , besides what time the grief was drawing on before , and the more they tampered with her the worse she was ; at length they were fearful that her eyes would perish in her head , ( as it seems one maids did who was of their acquaintance . ) whereupon they came to me and having agreed upon the price for the cure ▪ i did undertake and perform it in about a moneths space ; the manner how i did perform it i shall relate before i conclude , i do find that in , former ages multitudes perished through these kinds of evils , by reason ( as i said before ) that doctors and chyrurgeons were ignorant of the true cause of the distemper , and so by consequence of the cure ; whereupon it pleased god to give this gift of healing , first , unto king edward the 1. who for his piety was called the confessor , who was the first english king , who suecceeded after the deans wete extinguished , and after him successively this great gift hath continued unto the kings of this nation : i shall now proceed to set forth the way of cure , not only of this mans daughter in question , but also how to cure it in any part of the body , provided it be taken in hand in time , before the nerves , flesh , and bones are perished , for in length of time , if it be not cured , 't will get into the flesh , bones , and blood : and then in the end , commonly that limb or member of the body , be it arm , foot , legg , and sometimes thigh and all is cut off : the way of curing this maides eye , was as followeth . in the first place i made choice of three solary herbs which are esteemed good for the nerves viz. rosemary , angellica , and bawm , these herbs i cau●ed to be made close up in a linnen cloath ( taking a small quantity of each , being all gathered at the hour of the sun ) and gave it her to wear about her neck instead of gold , for as gold is a metal under the dominion of the sun , and hath a vertue to comfort the brain ; for the sun hath predominancy over the brain , as i have shewed elsewhere : see also these herbs being under the dominion of the sun hath the like sympathetick vertue to comfort the brain : accordingly also i made choice of a select number of solary herbs to make a dyer-drink by way of decoction ; and likewise to make an oyl to annoynt th● brain . but unto the eyes i applyed only celandine-water , given in a small tincture of roman-vitriol ; but at the first beginning of the cure , i did for a few dayes apply raw-fresh meat to the powl or neck to help dry and divert the humour from the eyes ; by this means through gods blessing she was soon recovered . now the way to cure this kind of evil when it setleth in any other part of the body , is as followeth , you must in the first place make use of three solary herbs , as aforesaid , to wear about their neck : also you must make a bath of solary herbs , according unto the number before mentioned , belonging unto the sun , and being gathered at the right planetary hour : also out of the same herbs , you must make an oyntment , and once a day you must bath the place grieved pretty hot , and then immediately with this oyntment anoynt it , and keep it moderately warm , you must be sure to make choice of such solary herbs , which are esteemed good for the brain and nerves , as you will find in this book elsewhere : i shall relate one example , this year i cured a maid , who was the only daughter of mr. henry bulstrode , living in warfield parish in the county of berks , she had the evil in her ear and right side of her head , being most grievously pained therewith : her father tryed many doctors and others to his great cost and charge , but instead of mending she grew worse every day than other , and the more they tampered with her , the more she was afflicted ; the swelling was white , she was in this condition about nine moneths : at length finding no remedy , and hearing by some of his neighbours , what great cures i had done for others , her father came unto me , and having agreed with me about the charge , i did undertake the cure , and in about six weeks time did perfect the cure accordingly . the way which i used was according to what i have already declared : viz. by diet-drinks , baths ointments , and herbs to wear about her neck , as is before expressed . all the herbs used were solary . and gathered at the true planetary hour , agreeing with the number attributed to the sun. note , that when the sun or any other planet , whose herbs you intend to use be strong in the heavens , the lesser numbers will serve ; but when they are weak then the greater numbers must be used : a planet is said to be strong when he is in essential dignities , and weak when out of dignities in the heavens , the reasons i have shewed elsewhere in this book . another kind of evil , commonly called atake . most people call this kind of evil atake , by reason , that the patient is on the sudden perplexed with great pain , whereas usually natural infirmities doe first mind the patient , before it increaseth unto extreamity , according as the influence of the afflicting planets draweth unto partile aspect of the significator of the patient ; and if a figure be set for the time , when the pain did first assault the patient , one may by the rules of astrology easily discover from what cause the grief came , and whether natural or from witchcraft . the way which the witches usually take for to afflict man or beast in this kind , is as i conceive , done by image or moddel made in the likeness of that man or beast they intend to work mischief upon , and by the subtilty of the devil made at such hours and times , when it shall work most powerful upon them by thorn , pin , or needle prickt into that limb or part of the image , which answereth to that limb or member of the body afflicted . for example , i shall relate what happened lately as i am credibly informed . an old woman , who lived near the devises in wiltshire , ( she was imprisoned about the time , when i began to write this book , in ●nno 1667. for the fact ) being in a lone place was observed to stoop and imploy her self in digging or making a hole in the earth . now immediately after she was gone , they went to the place , and there found an image like a man with a thorn prickt into it , at which time there was a man in the parish , who was in great tormenting pain in one of his limbs , which by compare did answer to that limb prickt with a thorn into the image : and when they took forth the thorn , the man had present ease , but when they put the thorn in again the man was tormented . when witchcraft is wrought only by image prickt as aforesaid , the patient is usually pained outwardly , in one limb , member , or part of the body and the swelling if any is usually white : there is no pain whatsoever more tormenting , than it , and commonly such pains are white swellings ; and usually with most people called evils or takes , not thinking from what cause it cometh . yet i am of opinion and do find by experience , that all white swellings are not such evils , which cometh from evil persons , for it may proceed from some extraordinary distemper of the nerves , such as is the evil commonly called the kings evil , as i have already declared . it s observable that in all kinds of evil , the more they are tempered with the worse they are ; for except the right way of remedies be applyed , the patient will be but the more tormented : i know many have lost their limbs and sometimes life , and all in regard those who have undertaken to cure them , being unskilled in the way of astrology could not effect the cure . i have cured many , who have been taken in this condition , and to my knowledge have never failed , where the patient was cureable but when the bones , sinews , nerves , and arteries , and flesh is perished before one begins , and joynts dislocated , then there can be no perfect cure expected , although some good may be wrought in staying farther proceedings . there is no grief or infirmity whatsoever , but may through witchcraft and sorcery , by the help of the devil be wrought upon the bodies of men and beast , and i could instance many , which i have cured . i shall mention two examples : the first being a cure done upon a maid living at newton near newbery in the county of berks , she lay two years bed-rid , and could wag neither hand nor foot ; her father told me he had tryed many doctors , which cost him above an hundred pounds , but she was never the better , but rather the worse ; she took no sustenance , save onely verjuice posset , for if at any time she took ought else , she soon did vomit it up all , her body and limbs outward , were taken in the nature of a dead palsie and her inward parts with a great stop at the breast and stomack , her father told me the time when she first took her bed , by which i erected a scheme , and according unto the rules of astrology , i told her father , i found she was taken either by witchcraft or sorcery , if not both , and that was the reason why the drug doctors ▪ could not help her ; i undertook the cure at a price , and within eight weeks , i recovered both her body and limbs , and she hath continued well ever since , it being above nine years ago , since the cure was done . the way how to cure either witchcraft or sorcery is set down in another place in this book . the cure was effected . in the first place i endeavoured to afflict the witch ; and then by diet drinks and ointments made of planetary herbs antipathetical unto the afflicting planet ( being saturn ) gathered at the planetary hours , their qualities , virtues , and numbers , corresponding ; the herbs used were under the dominion of the sun and jupiter . it appeareth that both witchcraft and sorcery had been wrought upon the maid , by reason that both her limbs outward , and body inward , were afflicted as aforesaid . objection , if witchcraft worketh alone only but upon one limb or member of the body as before is declared ; then how cometh it to pass , that her whole body and limbs generally were thus made useless , to which i answer that if the thorn , pin or needle were prickt in the head , when the sign that is the moon was in aries , and that the infortunes as instance saturn were in bad aspect unto her ( as probable it was ) when the witch first began her mischief , then it might unhappily work mischief or damage unto the whole body : for it standeth by good reason that if the brain , which is the fountain from whence the nerves do proceed be oppressed , that then the motion of the whole body must needs be obstructed , for the nerves which is a small string that runneth under the veins throughout the whole frame of the body proceeding from the brain are the onely sensitive part of motion ; insomuch that if a chirurgion happen to prick a nerve , when he letteth any one blood , the limb will be in danger to be useless , and i heard of two , who lost the use of their arms thereby when i lived in oxford , and as it fareth with the body to be senceless and so useless , when the brain and nerves are oppressed , so likewise it fareth with the body , as being dead , and void of life , when the heart and arteries are oppressed , i shall instance one example hereof , about eight or nine years ago i cured a maid , whose name was mary boyer , she was about eighteen years of age , her father , together with this maid did live in glassenbury , being above eight miles from my dwelling : he brought her to my house where i now dwell to be cured ; her condition was as followeth , every day near the same hour she was taken with a great pain and pricking at her heart , and then immediately , sounding fits followed , lasting two or three hours ; she was above twelve moneths in this condition before i undertook the cure ; and as her father told me , he had been at great charge going after many doctors , and yet notwithstanding , was rather worse , than any whit amended , and no marvel , for how can any doctor cure such distempers , when they are ignorant of the cause , for witchcraft or sorcery can no way be discovered , nor yet cured , but by the way of astrology , except a miracle be wrought , 't is true , god can do what he pleaseth ; but i never knew , or heard of any man or beast that was cured ( since the apostles times ) that were bewitched , any other way , than by the astrological way of physick : and 't is a great mercy , that god is pleased to raise up , and to give knowledge unto a mortal man to do it ; for , although the afflictions of this kind cometh from the devil and his instruments , which we commonly call evils or takes , yet the cure cometh by , and through gods blessing upon the honest industry of the astrologers and philosophers , who are the men only acquainted with these kinds of cures : and as it pleaseth god to suffer the devil and his instruments the witches to afflict his people , by reason of their neglect of duty and prayer : so again , it pleaseth god through prayers joyned with lawful means , to take off their power , and to return the evil back from whence it came , and so to have their infirmities and diseases cured : these cures are not done as many foolishly do imagine , by such who are called white witches , for the white witches and the black witches are all one , as i shall make appear , and t is but a m●e ▪ cheat or delusion , for the one witch by image or meddel afflicts the patient by thorn , pin , or needle prickt into it . the other witch being confederate gives forth , that she can cure , whereupon , when the patient cometh , these two confederate witches divides the gain , and the cure is quickly done , for t is but pulling forth the thorn or pin , out of the image , and the patient is cured ; but i have known sometimes when the patients have been ill of long continuance and so the grief being gotten into the flesh , bones , blood , nerves , arteries and the like , that then they could not cure them , for then remedies proper made with planetary herbs , as dyet-drinks , bathes , oyntments , and such like remedies , as i have elsewhere expressed , must be used , for 't is not enough when gotten into the flesh and blood , to take out the thorn or pin ; and those who go unto such cunning women , if they stay too long as aforesaid , are afterwards inforced to come unto me , or some others , who are skilled in the art of astrology and philosophy for cure , for witches cannot help them ; and i have known sometimes , that suspected witches when they could not help their patients , have come unto me for remedies , and i have cured them . i shall relate the manner how the cure was effected upon the maid before mentioned , with some passages which happened thereupon . in the first place , for the incouragement of all such who are conversant in daily prayer unto god , i shall relate what i have proved by many examples , for in all my practice , i could never find , that ever any man , or woman that did daily pray , especially in the morning , were ever taken in the snare of witchcraft that day : and this maid now in question , was as a man may say , taken napping ; i shall relate the manner how she became insnared : but first i shall declare , what happened between her father , and my self concerning her devotion : after her father and my self were agreed about the cure , i told him , 't was pitty that she did neglect her duty towards god , for if she had used daily prayer , she had never been brought into this condition ; he answered , that to his knowledge that could not be the cause , for she did usually every morning pray , before she went forth of her chamber : then i told him , that if she would affirm it upon oath if called thereunto , would cure her for nothing , more especially , if she prayed that day she was took in this condition , whereupon he called in the maid , and after some exhortations given , i askt her the question , she answered , that she did not pray that morning when she was taken in this condition and desired her father not to be angry , and she would declare the reason of her neglect , which was as followeth , her mother being minded to brew , called her up very early in the morning to fetch water from the conduit , now the custom is , first come , first served ; it so fell out , that this maid and another maid meeting at the place , fell together by the ears concerning who should be first served , whereupon , the other maid being worsted vowed revenge ; and the same day immediately after , she was taken in this condition , as i shall relate : now her father told me , that the other maid lived with one who was much suspected to be a witch , and according unto my figure which was set for the day and hour when she was first taken in this condition , i found , that she was afflicted by the planet saturn , lord of the twelfth , which is the house of witchcraft , which planet , according unto the rules of astrology did exactly personate the suspected witch . the power of witchcraft was so strongly wrought upon this maid , that for twelve moneths together she could not go into any bed until after midnight ; besides her daily fits , which usually took her near one hour of the day as followeth ; first , when the fit began it would prick about her heart , as if needles were thrust into her , and then immediately after it would disperse throughout her whole body by the arteries , and then for some hours she would seem dead : and further , the power of witchcraft was so strong upon her , that if at any time of the day , or night , ( before midnight ) she did but touch any bed , she would immediately fall into a fit , as i at her first coming did make several tryals , i conceive , that the witch did not only work by witchcraft alone , by image prickt into the heart which by sympathy , through the subtilty of the devil did work upon the heart and arteries of the maid , but also did use some way of sorcery whereby to aflict her inward parts , for she was much troubled with griping pains in her belly and stomack , whereas formerly she was healthful : now the way used for the curing of this maid , was as followeth , first , according unto the rules hereafter mentioned , i did endeavour to afflict the witch to the end , she might forbear to act any farther in her villany . secondly i made her dyet drinks , by decoctions with such herbs being gathered at their right planetary hours , which were under the dominion of the sun and jupiter , being antipathetical unto the afflicting planet saturn ; and likewise with those herbs i made oyntments proper to comfort the heart and arteries , with cataplasms to the hand-wrests , sometimes when i found the veins high , i let her blood , fearing the arteries might be oppressed thereby , for as i have already declared the arteries and nerves run both under the veins : i likewise for a time accustomed her to eat hearts ●oyled , baked , or stewed , which might by sympathy help to fortify her heart : i also gave her water-grewel made with such herbs which were agreeable to her condition , to be taken an hour after she had taken her dyet-drink every morning as indeed we usually do in all distempers , according unto which rules before going this maid was well and perfectly cured within ten weeks , notwithstanding , she was above twelve moneths in this condition before she came unto me : and notwithstanding , her father as he told me had tryed many doctors to his great charge , for as in this , so in all other kinds of evils , the more they are tampered with the worse the patient will be , except they had the knowledge by the rules of astrology and philosophy to understand the way of cure. another kind of evil which cometh from sorcery . i find by experience , that there is another kind of evil wherewith many are infected , and i shall instance one example . a woman living at a place called nutbeam within a mile of way-hill where once a year the great fair is kept , was taken with this kind of evil as followeth : the cause of this womans distemper was from sorcery , as by my figure was discovered and the party suspected was the minister of the parish , by my figure described to be a man of saturn , in the times of mercury , which signifies a man of reasonable stature swarthy complection , and of a lumpish countenance , and sad or black hair ; he was a man of small wealth , only hired to execute the office or function , for the time being : the occasion which moved him to do it , was , as the woman told me , because she would not trust him for mault ; whereupon he threatned revenge , and at a gossiping feast he had the opportunity to do it , as followeth ; first , he moved to have a health go round the table , and so did undertake to spice every ones cup , but when it came unto this womans turn to drink , she did observe , that he took spice out of another paper which he had prepared , pretending that it was all one : this woman told me she was not willing to take it , fearing least he should do her some mischief ; but being unwilling to disturbe the company , well-hoping that his malice would not have lasted so long , she drank it , after which , before the day was ended , she began to be very ill , being taken with a great pain and griping in her belly , and likewise every day encreased in bigness of body , being grown so big as three ordinary women , insomuch , at length a reasonable horse could not well carry her ▪ she tryed many doctors , and spent much money ▪ but could find no help , at length hearing of me , her husband brought her unto me ; she was above two years in this condition before i did undertake the cure , yet notwithstanding i did recover her in about three moneths time , staying not only her griping pains in her belly , but also , did very much lessen the extream groth of her body : the way which i used for her recovery was , by decoctions , oyntments bathes , sweats and glisters : she was taken under saturn who was lord of the twelfth house , and in the ascendant : the cure was performed by antipathy , viz. with herbs under the sun , mars , and jupiter : what herbs are good for dropsical humours under the planets before mentioned , you may find in this book ; and likewise , how to make decoctions , bathes , oyls , and glisters , suitable unto her condition . now concerning this minister , i shall relate what followed , i having by my art made some discovery , and this woman for the reasons aforesaid , justly suspecting him , both she and her husband were minded to have him before a justice , but that i somewhat disheartned them , and told them , that the discovery which i had made , could be no evidence against him , whereby to implead : but not long after , this priest having upon some other occasion differed with an other of his parishioners , after prayers ended , his son standing in the church-yard , this minister came unto him , took off his hatt and gave him a tap on the head , saying , ( before some of the neighbours ) thou shalt lye by it some time for thy fathers sake : immediately after , this boy , being very sick , took his bed , and came no more abroad in a long time : whereupon , this womans husband , and the boys father resolves to prosecute against him , and accordingly , sent for a warrant , intending to have him before a justice , but the priest having some notice thereof fled , and as i am informed , was never heard of unto this day . another cure done upon a boy living at throxford , in the county of berks , who was suddenly struck dumb , and so continued during the space of three years . i shall in the first place relate the manner how this boy was taken in this condition : as followeth , this boy living with his unckle ( his father being dead ) was imployed to drive , and fetch home milch beasts , being kept for a dairy ; now in a morning being holy day having on his best array , being somewhat pleasant , meets with a woman , who was very much suspected to be a witch , and minding to make sport with her , calls her old witch , demanding whether she was going , she not answering , he threw several stones at her , with that she began to be angry , and saith unto him ( as the boy after he could speak related ) sirrah i will make you hold your tongue , using many threatning speeches ; and indeavoured to run after the boy , who was too nimble on foot for her : after which time during three years , as abovesaid , he became speechless and seeming simple , and so might without question have continued unto this day ( without miracle ) had not the astrological way been used both for the discovery and recovery of his distemper . the friends of this boy told me they had spent much mony about his cure , but to no purpose , having as they said tryed many doctors and others , insomuch that they thought him uncureable : but by accident hearing of me , and of the many cures by me done , the friends of this boy came unto me , desiring to know whether i would undertake to help him to his speech again : i ask'd them , if they could tell the time , when he first lost his speech , which they readily told me . it being done upon a holy day , they could the better do it , whereupon having erected a figure , according unto the day or time given , i quickly found the cause of his distemper ( without which there could be no cure wrought ) and told them , that i was confident through gods blessing , that i could help them the planet afflicting was ♄ a cold , dry , melancholly , earthy , evil planet : the defect lay wholly in the vvula or gargarean ; and as men who are taken with extream cold , which usually settleth in this part , are seemingly speechless , or at least speak with little or low voice , so this boy being more vehemently afflicted under so sad a cold planet , could not speak at all : and likewise he seemed to be foolish , for there was a great cold defect in the brain and head , so well as in the vvula . now having by the rules of art discovered the cause so well as the distemper it self ; the friends of this boy and my self agreed upon a price for the cure , which i performed in less then a months space . the cure was effected as followeth , having in the first place by the rules hereafter mentioned , endeavoured to afflict the witch , that so she might be discouraged to act any further in her mischief . i used herbs antipathetical unto the afflicting planet being saturn , viz. herbs under the dominion of the sun and jupiter , according unto their numbers and virtues , being gathered at their right planetary hours , three of which hetbs being under the domion of the ●un . i caused him to wear about his neck , it being in virtue answerable unto gold , and a number which properly belongeth unto the sun , as i have shewed elsewhere , and as gold is a metal under the dominion of the sun , and hath a virtue to withstand all kinds of evils , and to comfort the heart , arteries , and vital spirits , so likewise hath these herbs under his dominion the like properties , as also the ruby amongst stones ; generally all those pains , aches , distempers ▪ or afflictions , which are caused by witchcraft are called evils , and sometimes these kinds of evils will turn into white kernels , swellings , proceeding from some extraordinary distemper in the nerves ( as i have elsewhere expressed , and then it s usually called the kings evil. ) having collected my herbs together according unto their numbers and virtues , being under the dominion of the sun and jupiter , as aforesaid , and caused a mixture , then out of these herbs , we usually make diet drinks ointments , and suffumigations ; of the diet drink , i gave him three times a day , viz. morning , afternoon , and night , also every morning we usually give them water-grewel made with some of those herbs about an hour after they have taken the diet drink , by which means through gods blessing the boy within a month was cured , and hath so continued ever since . i believe it will be a warning unto him , how to meddle with such creatures in a morning without prayer . i shall relate one passage , which happened between the boys unkle and my self , as followeth ▪ the month being expired , wihich was the time set for the boys cure , he came to see whether the boy could speak or no , whereupon i called in the boy and bad him speak to his unckle , which he did , desiring to know how all his friends did ; whereupon his unkle seemed to be much troubled , and sad , for as he told me afterwards , he did verily believe , that i had infused a spirit into the boy to make him speak ; and his reason was because the doctors and others , who had undertaken to help him ( but could not ) said he would never be cured , as they verily believed by any man whatsoever : whereupon the boys unkle desired me to keep him somewhat longer , and then he would come and bring money for the cure : the reason why he brought no money with him , was , because he did not believe i could help him ; and he made his bargain so , that if i did not cure the boy , i was to have nought for my charge and pains . and about a week after he came privately to my servants , desiring to speak with the boy , which he did , and then , but not before he was satisfied , for the boy could both pray and readily give answers unto questions . after which , about a week following , he came again with one of his neighbours , who both heard the boy speak and pray again , and was fully satisfied , paying me , what we had agreed upon for the cure . it seems they were not onely disheartened by physitians , but also hearing that i did many times set figures , concerning nativities , thefts , strays , and fugitives , &c. as though i had wrought the cure by unlawful means . but before we parted , i gave them both such ample satisfaction , that they went away well contented and satisfied , being joyful , that it was their good hap to come unto me . now whether this boy was by this woman bewitched or whether it pleased god to lay such an affliction upon the boy . it may be a question worthy of answer ; unto which i shall briefly reply in point of art , that in regard the only afflicting planet was lord of the twelfth and an evil planet , i did conclude that the infirmity might proceed from fascination or witchcraft , but not without gods permission , for ( as i have elsewhere declared ) if we neglect daily prayers , we lie lyable unto the assaults of sathan , and his instruments for the time being ; especially in our bodies : for our saviour jesus christ taught us to pray daily , not only for bread but also to deliver us from evil , wherein , if we fail , the fault is ours . how to make the sympathetical , powder with the way to apply the same , for the curing of wounds , and sundry distempers : especially such which any way concern the blood or vital spirits . take of roman vitriol six or eight ounces , beat it very small in a morter , then search it through a fine search , do it when the sun enters leo , which is about the twelfth of july , then spread it finely upon an earthen glased pan , set it daily in the heat of the sun during forty days , and keep it warm at night , and be careful it takes no wet or cold , afterwards you must continually keep it dry , with this powder alone kept dry and warm , great cures may be done , i shall instance one example , a brother of mine living in southcote near reading in the time of the late war had a mastiffe dog shot into the neck and head , with a brace of bullets . the dog being very much swell'd , lay pining away and was in appearance near unto death . a gent. who came by accident having some of this powder in his pocket was desirous to make some tryal thereof upon this dog , whereupon with a linnen cloth we took some of the corruption , which was about his neck , and immediately applyed a small quantity of the powder unto it keeping it very warm , whereupon presently the dog revived , stood up and wagged his tail ; then presently for further tryal , we laid the powder with the corruption to the air , and then the dog fell down as dead again , shivering , and then immediately we closed it up again , and ever afterwards kept it warm , and the dog in a short time recovered . the way to apply this powder for the curing of distempers and infirmities , especially such , wherein the blood and vital spirits are concerned . vvhen you are minded to cure any disease or infirmity , you must by the help of this book take notice what herbs are good to be used to cure the grief or infirmity , out of which you must take a select number according unto their elemental qualities and virtues , being rightly appropriated unto their severall planets , and gathered at the right planetary hours , which this book will sufficiently instruct you , dry them so that you may pound them and searce them into fine powder . then take the quantity of half a dram thereof , and the like quantity of the sympathetical powder , and mix them well together in a mortar , ever after keeping the powder warm and dry : and when you are minded to cure thereby ▪ you must warm the powder very well over a few coals , and while its warm put a small quantity of the patients blood into it , and mix it very well together , always keeping it warm , and so make it up in a little bag , and let the patient wear it next their skin , that so it may always be kept warm . i have by virtue of this powder done many very great cures , and should have still continued in this way of practice , but that i found many were unsatisfied , concerning the legality thereof , taking it for a kind of charm , by reason i ordered the patient to wear it about their necks , and i believe they did the rather conceipt so in regard , i did use to resolve many questions in astrology , as thefts , strays , fugitives , &c. there is but one danger in this way of cure , which is as followeth . if the patient happen to lose this mixture from their necks or body wheresoever worn , or otherwise let it take cold , the grief will be apt to return a●ain , more especially if the patient be not perfectly recovered . but when the patient is through well , than they may burn it . i could have inserted many cures , which i have effected by vertue of this powder , i shall only mention one for example , as followeth about nine years ago , there lived a woman in newbery , in the county of berks , she was daily troubled with fits , which at the first , would begin with a kind of trembling about the heart , and from thence by degrees set al the arteries to work throughout her whole body , after which , for some hours she would be as seemingly dead , and could wagg neither arm or leg ; for cure whereof , i let her blood in the heart vein , and having my powders made in readiness , according unto what is before expressed ; i mixt some of her blood with the powder , and while it was warm made it up into a little bag , which i caused her to wear about her neck , by vertue of which , not omitting dyet-drink suitable to her condition ; she was in about a months space recovered ; notwithstanding , she was near twelve moneths in this condition before she came unto me : the cure being perfected , her husband , according unto our agreement paid me for the cure , but it so chanced , that within some small time after , she carelesly lost this from her neck , whereupon , her fits began to mind her again , and more and more increased , insomuch , that she was almost so bad as at the first , for as i said before , except the patient be for some time perfectly well , at least a moneth , the grief will be apt to return , especially , when the principal matter of cure is lost or neglected , for it s not sufficient in any distemper whatsoever ▪ only to cure , except for a time there be a perfect settlement for we daily find , that relapses are very dangerous and apt to befall many who think themselves well recovered . this womans husband came to me again , and told me , that his wife was so bad as ever ( being much discontented ) he not knowing the reason ; i askt him , whether she had not lost the little bag from her neck which i gave her to wear he told me he thought she had : the truth is , through carelessness she had lost it , whereupon , i once more let her blood , and did as is before expressed , desiring her to take care of it , which she did ; after which , she became well again , and her fits left her , and so hath continued well ever since , as i am informed . this cure being effected about eight or nine years ago . the vnguent , or wonderful oyntment for wounds : composed of the four elemental parts of mans body . the seven planets being applyed thereunto : it s making , and use ; followeth : the ingredients . the moss of a dead mans scull 2. ounces . of mans grease 2. ounces . of mummy ½ . ounce . of mans blood ½ . ounce . oyl of lindseed 2. ounces . oyl of roses 2. ounces . bolearmeniack ½ . ounce . the three last ingredients are the rather added unto it because it helpeth to bring it unto a subtile oyntment : and without question , there is also great vertue in them . elements . nature . complection . planets . water . cold and moist . flegm . venus and luna . fier . hot and dry. choller . sol and mars . earth . cold and dry. melancholy . saturn & mercury ayr. hot and moist sanguine . jupiter . all these things before mentioned must be mixt together and beaten well in a morter until it become an oyntment then keep it in a close thing from ayr for your use . the way to use this unguent whereby to cure , is as followeth : take the blood or matter of the wound upon the weapon or instrument which made the wound : or otherwise , dry it upon a piece of wood , then put the wood into the oyntment , or else anoint the blood , being kept dry upon the wood with the oyntment , and keep it from air ; you must every day wet a fresh linnen rag with the urine of the patient , and so bind up the wound : do it early every morning . also you must be very careful that the oyntment which is applyed to the blood take no cold , with this unguent wonderful things may be done if it be rightly managed according unto the directions aforesaid . i shall quote one example concerning the tryal of this unguent as followeth , one day being at dinner with sir humphrey forrester of aldermaston in the county of berks. the gentlewoman , who usually waited on his lady was extreamly tormented with the tooth-ach , we caused her to prick her teeth with a tooth pick , and to blood it , immediately we put the tooth-pick into the ointment , and the gentlewoman had present ease ; after some short time , we took forth the tooth-pick , and put it into vinegar , whereupon she was presently in extream pain : we took the tooth-pick forth of the vinegar , and applyed it to the unguent , and she was immediately well , and so continued . i could have inserted many great cures done by virtue of this unguent , which for brevities sake onely i am willing to omit . concerning witchcraft , and sorcery , with the cure thereof , as followeth . the way to know whether the patient be bewitched or not i have already set down , elsewhere in this book . i find by experience , that those , who are taken in the snare of witchcraft are usually afflicted in some outward limb or member of the body caused by an image made in the likeness of man or beast , and through the subtilty of the devil made at such hours and times , when by sympathy it shall reflect upon the man or beast whom they intend to hurt or destroy ; it being done by thorn , pin , or needle prickt into that part of the image , which answereth unto that part of the body of man or beast wherein they are pained or grieved . an example hereof i have already mentioned , concerning the woman lately taken at the devises in wiltshire : but that which i conceive is the most usual way practised by witches is most properly called sorcery : for by the help of the devil some poysonous matter is prepared , and mixt with some blood and vital spirit of the witch , and so by smell or taste infused into the body of man or beast bewitched , or rather by which they are infected : for its observable in philosophy : si acceperis terram cadaverosam cujuscunque viri mulierisve , qui notabili quocunque morbo moriebatur , eandemque des ullo masculo aut foeminae , eodem morbo contaminabuntur ; in morbis aliquibus odore tantùm hoc efficitur , exempla gratia , in peste , lue venereae , seu morbo gallico elephantiasi sive lepra . those who are thus wrought upon by sorcery may be infected with most kinds of diseases whatsoever : as i have sufficiently discovered in my practice of physick ▪ besides i have known many things , which through sorcery have been so infected and spoiled , as instance bear cream , and milk , whey , and such like , that neither housewife or dairy maid could make any good use thereof . i shall relate one example hereof . when i was a boy my father kept a dairy at a place called shenfield near reading , and one of my sisters had the charge thereof , upon a time my father desired her to make some wilde curds , and to send them home ; which she did endeavour to do , but could make none . the reason was , as she conceived because an old woman ( suspected for a witch ) was at that time denyed whey , who went muttering away discontented . the next day my father came with one of his brothers , named john blagrave , a man of great knowledge in astrology and philosophy , as appears by his many works in print now my father askt her why she sent him no curds , she told him , she could make none , notwithstanding she had used her best skill ; and related what is aforesaid concerning the woman suspected : now my fathers brother aforesaid being desirous to make further tryal hereof went into the house , and caused the whey to be hung over the fire again which no sooner was done , but presently it rumbled , and made a noise , as if many bullets had been in it , whereupon he caused the kettle and whey to be taken from the fire , and caused a greater fire to be made : he also called for a cord and an iron wedge , he took the cord , and bound the kettle round about , and wrested it very hard , and then caused the kettle with whey to be set over the fire again , and having heat the wedge red hot , put him into the whey , and immediately there was abundance of curds rose up , after which my unckle sent a messenger to the suspected witches house to know how she did , who brought word , that after much knocking at length she opened the door , where he found the witch or suspected person shrunk up like a purse or leather put into the fire . by which it appeareth , that part of the vital spirit of the witch was infused into the whey , for otherwise it could not have wrought so violently upon her , for should the poysonous matter , or thing be given or used alone without some blood or vital spirit of the witch mingled with it , the burning of the patients blood or urin would not hurt them , or the putting this red hot wedg into the whey , could no way have afflicted her , which it did by sympathy , as appeared by her body being shrunk up as aforesaid . the true way to cure both witchcraft and sorcery , according unto the authors experience and practice . the curing of such who are bewitched , is not done only by such , who are called white witches , ( as many foolish do imagine ) for the white witch and the black witch are all one , as i have elsewhere expressed , they are but confederate witches , the one witch by thorn , pin , or needle pricks into the image through the subtilty of the devil causeth the infirmity , pain , or lameness ; the other witch giveth forth , that she can cure , and so when the friends of the bewitched cometh unto the white witch , or cunning woman ( they divide the gain ) and the cure is quickly done , it s but pulling forth , the thorn , pin or needle , and the patient is cured , and i have been credibly informed by some who have gon to these cunning women , or white witches ; that their cattle , or the patient afflicted have been perfectly well before they have gotten home : but as i have already declared , after either man or beast have been bewitched above moneth , they cannot cure them , especially , if the pain continue in one place all that time but sometimes they will move the thorn , pin , or needle into some other part of the body , that so they may have remedy when they come unto them ; for after the pain or infirmity have been of above a moneth standing , the grief will get into the flesh , blood and vital parts , and then the pulling forth of the thorn , and the rest will do the patient but little good , and cannot possibly help them , wherefore in this condition the patients friends must of necessity repair unto such who are well skilled in astrological and philosophical way of cure as i shall declare in order hereunto , but before we proceed unto the way of cure , it will be necessary to shew , how to afflict the witch , that so she may be discouraged to act any further in her mischief : for notwithstanding their witchcraft by image , as aforesaid , yet i seldom find , especially where the patient hath been above a moneth bewitched , but that sorcery is wrought so well as witchcraft , upon the patient ; and sometimes immediately together with the witchcraft , especially , where there are no confederate witches , for the white witches cannot help , where sorcery hath been wrought upon the patient , by reason it breaketh forth immediately into some poysonous or infectious inward grief or infirmity , which can no way be cured ( except by accident ) but by the astrological , philosophical way of physick . here followeth some experimental rules , whereby to afflict the witch , causing the evil to return back upon them . 1. one way is by watching the suspected party , when they go into their house ; and then presently to take some of her thatch from over the door , or a tile , if the house be tyled ; if it be thatch you must wet and sprinkle it over with the patients water , and likewise with white salt , then let it burn or smoke through a trivet , or the frame of a skillet : you must bury the ashes that way , which the suspected witch liveth . it s best done either at the change , full , or quarters of the moon : or otherwise , when the witches significator is in square or opposition to the moon . but if the witches house be tiled , then take a tile from over the door , heat him red hot , put salt into the patients water , and dash it upon the red hot tile , until it be consumed , and let it smoke through a trivet or frame of a skillet , as aforesaid . 2. another way is to get two new horseshooes , heat one of them red hot , and quench him in the patients urine , then immediately nail him on the inside of the threshold of the door with three nailes , the heel being upwards : then having the patients urine set it over the fire , and set a trivet over it , put into it three horse nails , and a little white salt : then heat the other horshooe red hot , and quench him severall times in the urine , and so let it boil and waste until all be consumed ; do this three times and let it be near the change , full , or quarters of the moon ; or let the moon be in square or opposition unto the witches significator 3. another way is to stop the urine of the patient , close up in a bottle , and put into it three nails , pins , or needles , with a little white salt , keeping the urine alwayes warm : if you let it remain long in the bottle , it will endanger the witches life : for i have found by experience , that they will be grievously tormented making their water with great difficulty , if any at all , and the more if the moon be in scorpio in square or opposition to his significator , when it s done . 4. another way is either at the new , full , or quarters of the moon ; but more especially , when the moon is in square or opposition to the planet , which doth personate the witch , to let the patient blood , and while the blood is warm , put a little white salt into it , then let it burn and smoke through a trivet , i conceive this way doth more afflict the witch , then any of the other three before mentioned by reason the blood hath more life in it then the urine ; for the urine is accounted , but as the excrement of blood : the reason why the witch is tormented , when the blood or urine of the patient is burned , is because there is part of the vital spirit of the witch in it , for such is the subtlety of the devil , that he will not suffer the witch to infuse any poysonous matter into the body of man or beast , without some of the witches blood mingled with it , as appeareth by the whey before mentioned . for 't is the devils policy , either by this means to detect them or otherwise by torment to bring them unto their ends : for the devil well knoweth , that when the blood or urine of the patient is burned , that the witch will be afflicted , and then they will desire to come to the place , for to get ease , for by the smell thereof , their pain is mitigated by sympathy ; even as by sympathy , when the blood and urine is burning , they are tormented , yet sometimes they , will rather indure the misery of it than appear , by reason country people oft times will fall upon them , and scratch and abuse them shrewdly . i conceive the onely reason the devil doth suck the witches blood is mearly to detect them , or otherwise one way or other to bring them to their ends , and sometimes they are discovered by their tet , at which place the devil usually sucketh their blood , whereby to mix with the poison , which they by their wicked ways do infuse into the body of man or beast , and so infect them . i do find by practice and experience that few or none are bewitched by image or moddel alone , but that there is sorcery wrought with it for otherwise the burning of the blood or urine of the patient could no way afflict them in any sympathetick way , as aforesaid ; having by the rules aforegoing set forth the way , how to afflict the witch . i shall in the next place discover the general way of cure . the way to cure both witchcraft and sorcery , commonly called evils or takes . having by a figure discovered under what planet the patient is afflicted , and in what part of the body the grief or pain lyeth ; whether outward in any limb or part of the body , or throughout the whole body , as it will sometimes fall out when the nerves or arteries are oppressed , proceeding from the heart and brain , or whether inward in the bowels , guts , liver , lungs , heart , breast , or stomack ; or be it what other disease or distemper whatsoever , for as i have already declared there is no disease or distemper whatsoever , but may be brought upon man or beast by witchcraft and sorcery , as i have already in several examples demonstrated : if the grief , pain , or distemper , be in the outward parts , limbs , or members of the body , then the cure must be by bathes and ointments made antipathetical unto the afflicting planets ; as instance if saturn be the afflicting planet , then herbs must be used under the sun and jupiter . if mars be the afflicting planet , then herbs must be used under the dominion of the sun and venus : alwayes provided that the herbs be gathered at the right planetary hours , according unto their virtues and numbers : if the ●rief lieth inward at the breast , stomach , and heart , then you must chuse such herbs , which are under the dominion of that planet , which is antipathetical unto the afflicting planet , and are good to open obstructions , and to comfort the heart and arteries , ever remembring in all cures to use a select number of herbs , under the dominion of the sun , in regard he governeth the heart and is fountain of life , a●d sole monarch of the heavens . it the grief lie in the bowels and guts , then sometimes glisters must he used made with such herbs especially which are good to expel poyson , being under the dominion of sol , which this book will sufficiently instruct you in , together with such herbs , which are of a contrary nature , unto the afflicting planet , but if the afflicting planet is more strong than the planet which is a contrary nature , then you must chuse a small select number of herbs of his own nature , which are good to cure the infirmity , and mix them with the other herbs before mentioned , concerning the way to make glisters , bathes , oyls , decoctions , or diet drinks , and what else is meet to be used in all cures whatsoever , i have already elsewhere in this book expressed . note . that in the curing of all kinds of evils , i do usually cause the patients to wear a select number of solary herbs gathered at the hour of the sun , the reasons i have shewed elsewhere in this book . i could have been more copious in setting forth the way of curing both witchcraft and sorcery , but that i have sufficiently treated thereof in the way of curing all kinds of evils before mentioned , for i conceive , that generally those evils before mentioned , came from witchcraft and sorcery , onely some particular evils may proceed from some extraordinary distemper of the nerves as i have elsewhere expressed with the reasons thereof , here followeth some notable philosophical secrets worthy our knowledge . how by the magnet of ones body to extract a spiritual mummy whereby to cure most diseases incident unto the body of man : it being done either by seminaion or transplantation hereof into a growing vegitable , as followeth . the magnet of ones body is the dung or excreement , which must be dryed seven or nine days in the shade , and kept from wet this magnet thus prepared must be laid unto that part of the body , which doth naturally evacuate by sweat from the vital or natural part of the body defective but if we make a general medicine , then the magnet must be applyed unto all parts , which doth naturally evacuate by sweat . this magnet must be so prepared , that we may transplant the same , when the moon increaseth , and if she apply from that planet , which is lord of the ascendant of the patient , or from the planet afflicting unto one of the fortunes , 't wil work the stronger , provided that the fortune , which the moon applyeth unto be antipathetical unto the afflicting planet ; as if mars be the afflicting planet then let the moon apply unto venus , if saturn afflicts then unto jupiter , if the lord of the ascendant or the afflicting planet be a fortune , then let the moon apply unto the other fortune , the manner how to transplant the imbibed magnet whereby to cure by semination is , as followeth . take the imbibed magnet , and mix it with a reasonable quantity of earth , and then sow in it such seeds of herbs , which are proper to cure the infirmity , which this book will sufficiently instruct you in , let the earth thus mingled be placed in as fruitful a place as conveniently you can , that it may grow the better , you must sometimes more especially when the moon is in conjunction , trine , or sextile of the sun or one of the fortunes , mix the patients water with some of their excrements ▪ and so water the seeds , but you must not do it too often , once a week will be enough , for fear you should destroy the seed , for the rain and other fertile waters will be most proper and natural to make it grow . there is yet another way , by me used , which is to take the imbibed earth , prepared as aforesaid : and having a plant , which either by sympathy or antipathy is most rational to cure the infirmity taken up clean with its root , place it into the imbibed earth , and so water it as aforesaid : both ways are effectual to cure if rightly ordered . lastly , when you find that by semination , or transplantation , the grief is changed into a 〈◊〉 , we must do as followeth ; if the disease be dry , and of a combust nature , as the yellow jaundies or the like ; then you must take the herbs or plants with its earth and cast them into running water : if the disease be of moisture , then burn the earth and plants . if the grief be aiery , then hang the earth and plants in the smoke to dry , and the patient will be firmly cured . how to cure any swelling , sore , s●irrhous tumor , or warts . take the flesh , hand , or any part of any man that is newly dead , with it rub or stroke any place defective , and then bury it : as the dead mans hand or flesh perisheth or wasteth in the earth , so the swelling , sore , or schirrous tumor , or warts will fade away , and the patient be recovered . the reason in philosophy is thus , as the northern property is an enemy to southern heat , so by his contact it causeth all unnatural things growing to fade away , in changing the vegetating nature growing touched , into the mortifying nature dying . how to work the same cure by herbs or plants . take arsmart or adders-tongue gather it at the hour of mars the moon increasing , let mars be in trine or sextile to venus or the moon applying from mars to venus , or from venus unto mars ; steep the herb or weed first in fair water , until it be well moistened , then apply it unto the place defective , until it be warm , after which bury the plant or weed , and as it perisheth in the earth , so the patient will recover . how to cure an atrophy or wasting limb. bore a hole in a willow-tree with an augur unto the pith ; save some of the bored stuffe , and apply it unto the limb or member of the body defective , at the new of the moon 24 hours , then take the paring of the nails , with some hair , and the scraping of the skin from the limb or member of the body defective , put all these into the hole of the tree , and stop them up close with a peg of the same wood , do this when saturn is weak , the moon increasing , the fortunes in some friendly aspect to the moon , in fruitful signes : also a hole bored in the root of a hazel-tree , and ordered as aforesaid , the bark being taken off , and laid on again , and then covered with earth will do it . how to cure the hot or cold gout . bore a hole in an oke to the pith , then take the bored stuff and apply it to the limb or member defective , three days before the change of the moon ; then take the pairing of the nailes , and hair of the limb or member defective , and put it together with the bored stuff into the hole of the tree , and stop it up close with a peg of the same wood : do this , when saturn is weak , if the gout be of cold , or when mars is weak if the gout be of heat , and let the moon be in trine or sextile to venus : if the gout be of heat , or unto jupiter if the gout be of cold , you must be sure to stop it up close , and semon it up from air . how to cure a plague-sore , and draw forth the venemous matter . take a living chick and apply the fundament of the chick unto the plague-sore , it will draw forth the venom , kill the chick and cure the patient . also a dryed toad macerated in vinegar , and laid to the soar will draw forth the venemous matter , and cure the patient . how to cure the hernia , or rupture . bore a hole in an oak to the pith : but first so , take off the bark that it may glutinate and grow : lay on the bored stuff to the place defective three days and nights before the new noon ; then take some hair from the privy parts , together , with the pairing of the nailes ▪ and the boared stuff , and put them into the oak , and so stop it up with a pegg of the same tree , then lay on the bark , and with tree-wax , or tempered clay , or paste , seament and daub the place up from air : and as the bark doth glutinate and grow , the hernia , or rupture will close ; also a hole bored in the root of a hazel-tree will do it , being ordered as aforesaid , and kept close covered with earth ; this is best done in the spring quarter ▪ by reason the bark will glutinate and close the better . here followeth two pretty secrets in philosophy . how to know how any kinsman , friend , or acquaintance doth during their absence , being traveled into any far country . you must cause your kinsman ▪ or friend to be let blood , and while its warm , infuse a small quantity of the spirit of wine into it , and keep it close stopt up in a glass from ayr ; now if your friend be well and contented , the blood will look lively and fresh accordingly , but if he chance to be ill , or discontented , the blood will be changed , and the ●ore ill or discontented your friend is , the more will the blood be changed accordingly ; if he be much perplexed , vexed , or fevourish the blood will be high coloured ; if melancholy , weak and faint , the blood will be pale and wan . and after sickness , if he recover health , the blood will look lively and fresh again , as at the first ; but if they happen to dye , the blood will putrify and stink accordingly , as doth the rest of his body . how to know each others mind at a distance , it being done by sympathy of motion as followeth . let there be two needles made of one and the same iron , and by one and the same hand , and touched by one and the some load stone , let them be framed north , and south , when the moon is in trine to mars , and applying unto one of the fortunes : the needles being made , place them in concave boxes , then make two circles answerable unto the diameters of the needles , divide them into twenty four equal parts , according unto the number of letters in the alphabet then place the letters in order round each circle , now when you desire to make known each others mind , the day and hour being first concluded on before hand ; you must upon a table or some convenient place fix your boxes with the needles f●●●d therein , then having in readiness pen , ink , and paper , and with each party a load-stone , those who intends first to begin , must with his load-stone gently cause the needle to move from one letter unto another , until a word is perfected , according unto which motion the other needle will answer : and then after some small stay , they must begin another word , and so forward until his mind is known , which being done , the other friend with his load-stone must do as before , moving gently from letter to letter until he hath returned answer accordingly : this will hold true if rightly managed . here followeth some practical and experimental rules whereby to give judgment astrologically , either upon thefts , strayes , fugitives , decumbitures of sick persons , or vrins , or any other horary question whatsoever . in regard it hath been my custom together with my daily practice in physick for many years past , by the rules of astrology , not only to give judgment upon decumbitures and urines of sick persons , but also upon nativities ; and to resolve all horary questions , as thefts , strays amongst cattle , and fugitives , and by reason whereof , many foolish and ignorant people , and other , who think themselves wise also hath rashly and unadvisedly judged my ways and actions of this nature , to be diabolical ; and thereupon , hath not only themselves refused to come or send unto me for help , in case of sickness , but hath also diverted others upon the like occasions whereupon to satisfie both my friends , and others , antagonists ; i have inserted these judgments following , according unto the rules of astrology , which may serve , together with other directions in this book elsewhere expressed , if well heeded ; not only to satisfie the learned in this art , concerning the legallity of my way of practice herein , but also to instruct others who are young students in this art : i could have inserted figures for every question , having many hundreds lying by me , but being unwilling to spend time , or blot paper therewith , presuming that what i have written will be sufficiently satisfactory unto each friendly reader , yet for farther satisfaction i shall refer the desirous herein unto my ephemeris for the year , 1658 , wherein i have not only by scripture , and reason vindicated the art of astrology , but also have inserted therein three schemes with judgments astrological thereupon , the one concerning strays amongst cattle : the second , concerning thefts : the third , concerning sickness : i confess , i have denyed many , concerning questions of thefts , for it neither brings credit , nor yet much gain to the artist : for let a man be never so exact herein what will they for the most part say ? if by the art we discover the theef , and way of the goods , surely he doth it by the devil , how could he so exactly else discover the theef and way of the goods ; but if we chance to miss , as sometimes we may do by taking a wrong ascendant ; and more especially , when a wrong time is given for the time of loosing : then they will assuredly say : we do but cozen and cheat people of their mony , besides it oft times brings trouble to the artist : i shall relate one accident which besel me herein : once a butcher of our parish having lost some linnen , and linnen cloathes , came with his wife to my house , desiring me to erect a figure , and thereby to inform him who had it , or what became of the linnen ; now by the figure , i did discribe a maid servant ▪ who lived in the house ; when he came home , he unadvisedly caleth his maid theef , saying , she had stoln his linnen , whereupon , she goeth to the justice for a warrant , to bring her master before him , pretending , that he had done her much wrong , in defa●eing her ; now , her master to excuse himself , layeth the fault on me ; whereupon , i was sent for by warrant , to appear at a day set , which accordingly i did , where i met with a minister of reading , who was a great enemy unto astrology , who , as i was informed came on purpose to aggrevate the matter against me , maintaining , that the art was diabolical ; whereupon having heard all my accusations with many vile reproaches , with so much patience as possibly i could , i at length , desired the justice that i might be heard , and not interrupted until he had fully heard , what i could say , which was granted ; whereupon in the first place , as touching the maid , i told the justice that what i said unto the butcher , was no more than what i discovered by the art of astrology , which art was known , and allowed in all schools of learning through the world ; and that i could both by scripture , and reason prove it to be lawful , it i might be heard ; the minister replyed , he would maintain the contrary , i askt him , if he would argue it with me in point of art , which i thought he understood not ; or , in divinity , that which he professed ▪ he said , by divinity , i answered , that i was content : after some arguments i desired his answer , concerning the 1. of samuel , the 9 , chapter where we find that saul , together with one of his fathers servants was sent forth to search for his fathers asses that was lost , who after three days search in the wilderness could not find them : whereupon , they communed together what to do , who concluded , to go to the seer ; which was samuel the prophet : for prophets , as the marginal notes testifies , were sometimes called seers , without question , a by-word given them as sometimes astrologers are called cunning-men : but saith saul to the servant , what have we to give the man ? by which it appears , they thought he would take mony ( and good reason for his pains ) the servant answered , i have four shekles , then come saith saul , let us go ; and when they came to samuel , after some communication , he tells them , the asses are found and at home , bidding them , return in peace . the minister hearing this after some pause , said , samuel was too blame : now the matter of discovering goods lost was the only thing urged against me ( for he could not be ignorant of the strong influence which the stars and planets have upon all sublunary creatures in other regards : ) the justice hearing his weak reply , told him plainly , that for ought he could perceive , i was too hard for him , and wished him to give over his discourse , unless he could produce better matter ; not long after , notwithstanding this maids impudence , maintaining the contrary against her master and dame and my self : at a fair she was apprehended at reading and brought before the same justice with some of her dames linning cloathes upon her , and then she kneeled down and beg'd for mercy , but what punishment she had , or what became of her afterwards i never inquired , neither do i desire as i said before , to be troubled with such questions . of horary questions . by a horary question , any one matter or thing may be resolved which concerneth the querent , provided , that the ascendant , together with its lord ▪ or planet posited in the ascendant , or sign where the lord of the ascendant is , doth personate the querent : and that the figure be radical . there is no matter or thing whatsoever , but will be concerned in one of the twelve houses : as for example , if it concerns the querents person , then the first house doth it ; if his estate the second house ; if his kindred or neighbours , the third house ; if his father , or lands , or dwellings , or the end of any thing , the fourth house ; if his children play , messengers , or agents , then the fifth house ; if his servants , sickness , or small cattle , the sixth house ; if love questions , his wife , publick enemies , or thefts , the seventh house ; if wills , legacies , the dowry of the wife , or manner of death , the eighth house ; if long voyages , or journeys , church matters , religion , or dreams , the ninth house ; if honour , office , or preferment , then the tenth house ; if his friends , the eleventh house ; if private enemies , great cattle , or witches , then the twelfth house ; there may be many other matters or things resolved by the twelve houses , but these are the most usual , and material . of thefts and strays amongst cattle . there are two wayes in giving judgment , in case of losses : the one is by erecting a schem for the time of a thing being lost or strayed , or otherwise ; if the party be present that lost the goods , or that was trusted with the goods , to take the present time when first the question was propounded , and so to erect a figure , taking care that it be radical , and that the ascendant together with its lord , or planet posited in the ascendant doth personate the querent ; if it concerns cattle or any other thing lost or mist , and that the querent is uncertain , whether it be stoln , straid , or casually lost , you must in this case examine by an ephemeris , or almanack , which hath the daily motions of the planets , whether the lord of the first , or second house , or lord of part of fortune , or the lord of the house of the moon , or of her term , doth seperate from any planet by any aspect whatsoever ; then you may conclude , that the thing is not stoln : all planets which are lowest in their spheres . are said to seperate from a higher planet ▪ when they depart from them by any aspect whatsoever ; but if a higher planet happen to be retrograde , that is , going backward in motion , then the higher planet may be said , to separate from a lower ; now if on the contrary you find , that neither the lord of the ascendant , or second house ; or lord of part of fortune , or lord of the house of the moon or of his term , doth separate from other planets , but that other planets doth separate from them , then we may conclude , that the cattle or thing lost is stoln , if the separations be near equal , then the plurality of testimonies must be regarded ; if you find by the rules before going , that the cattle or thing mist , is straid or casually lost , and not stoln ; then you must have regard to the moon , & lord of the twelfth , if it be great cattle ; or to the lord of the sixth , if it be small cattle , as sheep hogs , goats , and such like ; and observe what signs the moon , and lord of the house of the cattle are in ; or part of fortune , or his lord , and judge by the strongest ; and then observe the nature of the sign , whether fiery , farthy , airy , or watery , and what places they represents and then observe , whether the planets be in angles , succedant or cadent houses and whether in moveable , fixt , or common signs ; and how many signs or degrees there is , betwixt the ascendant and planet which representeth the cattle lost , and so judge accordingly ; fixt signs , and cadent houses alwayes signifie the greatest distances , and we usually alow for every fixt sign , four miles ; for common signs , and succedant houses we usually allow somewhat above half so much as we do for fixt signs , that is about two miles and a half for every common sign ; moveable signes and angles sheweth the cattle to be near the place , and for every moveable sign , we usually allow but half a mile : now had the goods lost been gold rings , or gold , plate , or silver , or linnen , or pretious sones , as rubies , or diamonds , or the like ; then we must take notice , what sign the lord of the second is in , and likewise , what sign the part of fortune is in , and his lord ; also the lord or significator of the thing lost , what sign he is in , as if gold which is under the sun , or silver under the moon , or linnen under venus , likewise a diamond is under venus ; and the ruby under the sun ; also the fourth house , and his lord are to be regarded , as shewing the end of all things , and you must judge according unto the plurality of testimonies ; if the significators be in fiery signes , it sheweth , the goods lost to be near the fire , or chimney ; if in earthy signs , then in some low place , or with earth ; if in watery signs , then in , or near some water , as sink , pump , or sestern , or such like : if in airy signes , then above staires or in some high place . but if on the contrary , by the rules aforesaid you find the thing stole , then the description of the thief , and what became of the goods , is as followeth ▪ first the thief is described by that planet which is peregrine in an angle , if no peregrine planet be in an angle , or second house , then the lord of the seventh house shall be significator of the thief , sometimes the lord of the hour will do it , when the time of losing is certainly known : if many peregrine planets be in angles ; more especially , when a double bodied sign ascends , then it shews so many thieves . a planet is said to be peregrine , when he is out of all essential dignities , viz. neither in his house , exaltation , triplicity , term , or face , having found by ptolomies table in the almanack what planet or planets are peregrine , you may describe their persons in this book , under the title of the bodily shape , and which of the planets generally rule . the way of the goods if found thus , if the lord of the second house , and significator of the thief be joyned together , or have any friendly aspect unto each other , or be in one triplicity , or if the significator of the thief doth dispose of the querents part of fortune , or the lord of the second house , or the significator of the goods , then we may conclude , that the goods are with the thief , and at his disposing ; but if the significator of the thief be separated from what is aforesaid , and doth apply ; or if the moon , or any other other inferiour planet doth separate from the significator of the thief and apply unto another planet , he shall be the receiver , which is signified by that planet , you must judge the way and distance of the theif according unto the signs and quarters of heaven , where the significator of the thief is accounting from the ascendant , as is before expressed . of fugitives . as in questions of thefts and strays , so the like in fugitives , judgement is given either by erecting a scheam , for the time of straying or going away , or otherwise , for the time of the querents coming : if you have the exact time of the fugitives going away . then the ascendant , its lord , the moon and planet posited in the ascendant or angle , especially if he personate the fugitive , shall be significators of the fugitive , and according unto the nature of the signs , and places by them signified and quarters of heaven , wheresoever we find them together with their applications unto other planets judgements is usually given : if those significators be in or apply unto the sign gemini , then we conclude they are travelled towards london , if in capricorn then oxford ; if in virgo , reading ; if cancer , ●cotland ; if taurus , ireland ; if the principal significator as in the ninth house , or joyned to the lord of the ninth , then we conclude they are for a voyage or long intended journy : north signs shew northward , east signs castward , west signs westward , south signs southward : alwayes observing the quarter of heaven : if the planets concerned be swift in motion , and in movable signs , then they go apace , if in fixt signs and slow in motion then they go but slow ; but if the time of flying be not perfectly known , then we erect the figure according unto the time when the question was propounded , and so the lord of the seventh house joyning there with mercury and the moon , but more especially that planet , which doth own the fugitive according unto shape and profession : also we must consider what relation the fugitive hath to the querent , whether wife or husband , kindred or servant , and the like , and if the personal shape of the fugitive doth correspond with the planet which is lord of the house inquired after , you may with the more confidence give judgement thereby , i have oft-times given judgement upon these questions , and i find they will hold true , if well heeded . of vrines . the astrological way whereby to give judgement at the view or first sight of the urine , both in acute and chronick griefs , is immediately to erect a figure , and so to vary your ascendant that it may be radical and that the ascendant together with its lord may personate the sick , and if the griefs be acute , then the time of decumbiture or first falling ill , must be inquired after , that so the assured place of the moon in any of the twelve signs may be obtained , for by the moon in any of the twelve signs afflicted of the infortunes , the grief is discovered together with its cause and termination . but if the grief be chronick that is of above a months standing then from the sun the ascendant sixth house and their lords afflicted , judgment is usually given . in regard i have already at large set forth my way of practice herein , i shall in this place onely in brief set down , what i find concerning my experience in urins , for although an exact judgement both concerning the grief , together with its cause and termination ( by urine ) cannot be obtained , yet some general judgements thereby may be given , which may well serve for a four penny reward : first if the urin be of an amber colour ( and the patient ill ) for generally that coloured urine sheweth health of body ) then the grief or infirmity lyeth in the vital and animal spirits from whence doth proceed palsies , palpetations , and convulsions , and such like distempers : in this condition the urine is not concerned by reason the blood and those passages from whence the urine doth proceed , are not infected , for the urine is but the excrement of blood ; if the urine be white or paleish , it sheweth great weakness both in stomach and body , and if the urine be high coloured and red , it argueth a fever , or that some extraordinary pain doth afflict the sick , but the place where and cause why cannot be known without a figure : sometimes it sheweth plenitude of blood ; especially if the veins be high , if gravel or red sand appear at the bottom it sheweth the stone in the reins , kidnies , or bladder . if the urine be of a light sandy colour , and somewhat thick , it sheweth great cold taken , and oft times it turneth unto an ague , and if the urine be slimy and somwhat thick , it threatneth worms in young people , and consumptions in elder ; but if the urine be green or black coloured it usually sheweth death to ensue , also if the urine be of a sad brown colour it threatneth death , i question not but that authors have largely and learnedly written hereupon , unto whom i shall i do seldom trust , or rely upon my judgment herein , neither do i administer any physick thereby for the astrological , sympathetical and antipathetical way of administring physick cannot be done without a figure , for the strength and weakness of the planets afflicting and afflicted must first be discovered ; those who are well versed in the art of astrology need no urine , for i my self oft times , when the urine hath been brought in a stone bottle have described what kind of urine it was , and how coloured by my figure , more especially in acute griefs , when the time of decumbiture or first falling ill have been known . concerning the casting forth of devils out of such , who are possessed , with the true way and manner how to do it according unto the authors experience and performance thereof , with some observations , whereby to know whether they are possessed or no. the occasion which first moved me to undertake the casting forth of devils was as followeth . one goodman alexander a turner by trade , living at basing-stoke in the county of southampton had a daughter , who was not onely perplexed with very strong fits , which usually took her every day near the same hour , every fit lasting above twelve hours , being very terrible to behold , during which time with many shrieks and cries , and through extream torment she was brought so low , both in body and spirit , that she could not move or wag any part of her body or limbs from the middle downward ; her father told me he had spent much money upon several doctors and others but they could do her no good , whereupon hearing by some , what great cures i had done , he came and told me what her condition was , as i have in part related , desiring me to undertake the cure . i desired to know at what hour and time her fits usually did begin , which he told me , according unto which time i did erect a scheam , and according to the rules of astrology in this book elsewhere expressed , i did find she was either bewitched or possessed : her father was very earnest with me to undertake the cure , and i could not blame him she having been in this condition , above twelve months ; and besides he made his bargain so , that it i did not effect the cure , i was to lose all my pains and charges upon which , agreement being made ; the maid was brought to my house , whereupon observing and taking notice of her kind of sits , and having made some tryal upon her by way of questions , and her answers , for she could not say , or once name god , jesus christ , or deliver us from evil , or the like but that immediately she would be tormented , falling into strange fits ; whereupon , i told her father , that she was possessed by the devil , and that it would be impossible to cure her , except the devil were first cast forth ; i also advised him , to get one godly minister or other to try what he could do by his means , and devotion ; whereupon , and not before he told me ●hat he had done that already : for the minister of the parish , whose name was mr webb one reputed to be a very honest , godly , and learned man did undertake to do it : and came to his house two several times to that purpose , but could not prevail ; notwithstanding he spent about three hours time in tryal thereof at his first coming , yet he was forced to desist : but withal , told her father , that at the next coming he would be better prepared , and accordingly he did come the second time , but could not prevaile then neither , during all the time that he was in action about this business , the maid was extreamly tormented , it being as before near three hours before he ●nded , who then said to her father , lord have mercy upon me i cannot do it , wherefore i advise you to look out farther , per adventure you may meet with one another who may have strength of faith , and a gift to do it , and likewise to cure her distemper . i confess , when i heard by her father , what the minister had done , i began to be somewhat danted , but when i considered that it would much reflect upon my reputation , to send the maid home again uncured ; and farther considering , that by prayers , and strength of faith it might be done ; more especially , where it pleased god to give any one that gift , which gift is obtained by prayer , and strength of faith : i also farther considered , that both before and since christs time devils were cast forth out of such who were possessed , as appeareth by the answer of our saviour jesus christ unto the jews , who taxed him , saying , he casteth forth divels through belzebub the prince of devils if i say our saviour cast forth divels through belzebub , by whom did your fathers cast them forth : by which words it appeareth , that the jews had done it before christs time : and further telleth them , that a kingdom divided cannot stand &c. considering these reasons aforesaid , according unto the method hereafter expressed , i did undertake and through gods blessing perform this great work , unto whom be ascribed all honour , power , and glory , with thanks-giving , for ever more , amen . before i proceed to set forth the way and manner , how i did through gods blessing perform this great work , i conceive it will be necessary to say somewhat concerning the tryal of the patient , whereby to know , whether they are possessed or no , which is as followeth , if they can without stop or starting say the lords prayer : also pronounce god , jesus , christ , and likewise say , i defie the devil and all his works , and other such like godly expressions : then 't is probable they are not at that time possessed : and then you must try them again at another time : for as we find in scripture , there are some which are possessed at certain times , and at other times the devil leaveth them . but as concerning this maid in question , the devil did never forsake her , from the time he first entred into her . also some are possessed with devils which speak within them at certain times , as instance , this maid was : others are possessed with dumb spirits which will not speak , nor yet many times suffer the patient to speak , nor yet to pray , or pronounce god , jesus christ , the holy trinity , or any other such like expressions , for fear of being tormented with fits . i have cast forth of both kinds , out of s●●h who were possessed , as shall be shewed in order . i shall first begin with this maid in question , whose fits began about nine a clock at night , and lasted until eight a clock the next morning ; during which time she was most sadly afflicted , making many kinds of noises , as sometimes crying , sehritching , howling , also sometimes using strange actions and gestures of her body , as twisting , and twyning her self about , sometimes crawling about the room with many other strange passages now from eight a clock in the morning until noon , she would resolve all questions whatsoever , and give true answers unto them as have many times been proved , more especially , if propounded by her mother , for she did not desire to talk with any other body except by accident ; during this four hours they did usually put many questions unto her , as sometimes asking , what became of any one that was dead , whether they went to hell or to heaven , and she would instantly resolve them ; and so far as they could guess she answered truly ; for those who had been evil livers she would tell all their faults and misdemeanours , and how they lived , and dyed , and what disease , and where they were buried likewise : such who were godly persons she would say they went to heaven and point upwards , although they were such whom she never saw or knew . also she would tell the names of any ones father , or grandfather , ( although they were strangers ) and where they lived and dyed , and of what disease . she would likewise during the time aforesaid resolve any question of ●est , whereof they had many tryals , i shall instance o●e example , upon a market day , one chanced to lose a sack of corn out of the market : the man having pitched his sack down in the market , and went away to set up his horse , but before he returned , his sack of corn was stole , and no body could tell what became of it : at length understanding that this maid could tell any thing that had happened for any time past , he went to the said goodman alexander the father of this maid , desiring him to use the means that so his daughter might discover what became of his corn , whereupon , the mother of this maid desired her to tell this man , who had his corn , and what became of it , and where it was at that instant : this maid said , that one , calling him by his name , had the corn , and had set it under his staires ; the man that stole it , was a porter that used to carry burthens in the market , more especially corn , when it was bought or sold . the man who lost the corn went presently to the place aforesaid , where he had his corn accordingly . i could instance many more such passages , but i suppose this one is enough for satisfaction herein . now as concerning the way and method by me used , in casting forth of both kinds of devils ; or evil spirits before mentioned ; i shall relate as followeth , ( there are three principal causes or things considerable in casting forth of devils , viz. prayer ▪ faith , and the especial gift of god thereupon , for except that you find that your faith is strong , it s in vain to undertake this business : ) first , you must heartily pray that god would be pleased to give you this great gift , and to strengthen your faith , and to enable you to perform this great work : this was the substantial matter of my prayer , as for matter of form i had none ; the room being made in readiness so close as i could , i made a fume of three substantial matters , or things which , were solary , which number three i conceived to be a most choice select number for many persons , and is attributed to the sun , it s the number of the blessed trinity , it s also the number of time , viz. past , present and to come ; also i considered , that the three wise men brought gifts unto christ , viz. gold , frankinsence , and myrrh , which gifts are all of a solary quality and vertue , and are under the dominion of the sun , whereupon i made choice of the two latter , viz. frankinsence and myrrh , but instead of gold i took rose-mary with these i made the fume , which i continued until the work was ended : i also oft times gave the maid of the distilled waters of marygolds , rosemary , and angelica , or such like solary plants , being all three under the dominion of the sun , and gathered at the right planetary hours , when i first began , i laid my hand upon the patient , but finding that she , together with the devil began to strive ▪ and so to get from me , she being marvellous strong , yet i held fast , and desired her father ( who was by me all the while i was about it ) to help me , which he did , but for the most part i held her my self , having gotten her at the best advantage i could : i often prayed , and repeated these words following , viz. by this high and mighty power and name tetragrammaton , and in the name of the blessed trinity , father , son , and holy ghost , i charge , and command the devil and unclean spirit to come forth of this maid , and to depart from her in peace , and not to molest or trouble her any more ; after this , when i saw that the unclean spirit would not come forth , i said three several times , in the name of jesus of nazareth i charge thee to come forth , yet notwithstanding , ( as yet ) the devil would not come forth : the truth is , i find that all devils or evil spirits , when once they are gotten into the possession of any one will be very unwilling to come forth of their habitation ; more especially , when they have been long setled in the body : i often gave the patient of the distilled waters before mentioned , and then pray'd again as at the first ; i also repeated those words before mentioned oftentimes , resolving not to give over until the devil was inforced to leave her , and during the space of above two hours i continued sometimes in prayer , and between whiles repeating the words over before rehearsed ; at length the devill came forth but invisible , with a great cry and hideous noise-raysing a suddain gust of wind , and so vanished , doing no harm either to her father ( who was present all the while ) nor yet to my self , or any part of the house : her father seemed to be very fearful , and sate trembling , ( and truly i do not much blame him for i believe he was never present at any such business before ) but i cheared him up so well as i could , bidding him fear nothing , and willed him to trust in god not doubting : the truth is , when i saw him so fearful i willed him to depart , telling him , that except he found that his faith was strong , and he throughly resolved to indure the danger , cries noise , and trouble of it , he might unhappily interrupt me when i was most busie ; for he knew by what the minister had done before , that we should have some strugling , but his answer was , that what ever came of it , he was resolved to live and dye with his child , rather than fail ; whereupon i went on with the work , but before i had half done my task , he hearing , and seeing how grievously his daughter was tormented , his spirits and faith began to fail him , desiring me by all means to desist , and give over ; but i being very earnest with him , and telling him of his breach of promise , and using some arguments unto him , and telling him that except he would either sit still and not any more interrupt me , or otherwise depart the room , i would not meddle any further in the cure , whereupon he resolved to indure it , and promised me once more , that he would be silent until i had finished , which accordingly he did perform ; immediately after the devil left her the maid began to speak , and he fitts never troubled her any more ; and within a few weeks after , with dyet-drinks , bathes and oyntments , this maid was perfectly recovered both of her health , and limbs ; notwithstanding , for a year past , she could not move from the middle downwards , her limbs being useless , and of no strength , except during the time of her fits , and then sometimes she would be very strong and at other times seemingly dead , someing at the mouth , sometimes she would shreek , cry , and groan , sometimes crawle about the room , as in part i have before related : i shall relate one passage more which happened , constantly in the time of her fits , there was alwayes brought unto her three pins and but one at a time , at the receipt thereof she seemed to rejoyce and smile , saying , ah and then presantly she would put the pin into her mouth , which when her father and mother perceived , they would instantly get it from her , fearing she should choak her self with it ; sometimes they were much troubled to get it from her , for she would be very unwilling to part with it ; they shewed me a box near full of them for she had three brought her every night during twelve moneths ; and that night when i cast the devil forth of her she had two brought her in my presence but no more ever afterwards ; also 't was observable , that during the time that i was imployed about this business , there was seen by my people and servants three women to walk about the house , and more especially near the window where i was imployed , which women her father did judge were three suspected witches , who had spake some words , and were afterwards prosecuted by the maids father , one of them dyed , as i was informed at the prison in winchester , and weat became of the other two i knew not , for i never inquired more after them . i shall now proceed to set forth the way and manner how i did cast forth a dumb spirit out of one who was possessed , as followeth . that which confirmed me and others of this maid now in question , of her being possessed of a dumb spirit , was in regard that she could not say or once name god , jesus christ , nor yet endure to pray , or suffer any one else either to pray , or repeat any sacred words or expressions , but that immediately she was tormented , and sometimes would fall down dead : this spirit would not answer to any question as the other speaking devil did , not yet suffer the maid : in her fits she was alwayes dumb and silent , her fits usually began about five a clock in the morning , and lasted four hours , during which time she would not utter one word , but would sometimes leap about with her arms and legs like a frog , sometimes she would play cop-head , over and over ; sometimes with all the might she had , she would knock her head against the beds-post or wall , which was nearest . also being in a chamber she would strive to get to the stairs that so she might through her self down . now the way which i used to cast forth this dumb spirit , was as followeth , in the first place the room being made so close as i could with conveniency , i made a fume of such solary ingredients as is before expressed ; which fume i continued all the time i was in this action : the time which i took to cast forth this dumb spirit , or devil , was between the hours of nine and twelve a clock upon the sabbath day : the prayers which i used , was according unto what i have already related in casting forth the speaking spirit ; and likewise i oft repeated the same wayes as aforesaid . but this dumb spirit would not come forth until the third sabbath day : notwithstanding , i was near three hours every time in action , & during all the time i was implyed in this business , she would be much afflicted ; upon the third sabbath day between the hours aforesaid , this dumb spirit came forth in a kind of vomit , no shape or form of any thing appearing , after which , by dyet drink and oyntment made of planetary herbs , antipathetical to the afflicting planet , she was soon recovered and never had any more fits after the third sabath day before mentioned . note , that dumb spirits are far more difficult to be cast forth than those which speake : and that was the only reason why i took the benefit of those hours upon each sabbath day , it being the usual hours of prayer in all churches , and congregations . i know there are some foolish people , who being ignorant of the scripture , that do , and will judge unrighteously concerning this great work , unless they are convinced , and truly i need not use any other arguments then what we find written by the holy evangelists and apostles , as first , the answer of our blessed saviour to the jews , as is before mentioned . secondly , we find that our saviour gave that especial gift unto his apostles and disciples ; and without question unto all other believing christians , who may through strength of faith do it ; as appeareth in mark chap. 16. ver . 17. and when the apostles told our saviour that they did forbid some who did undertake to do it , our saviour said , forbid them not , &c. but unto such who presume to do it who wanted faith and did not believe : nay , although they used the very words of the apostles , yet the devil would not obey , nor yet be commanded forth by them : as you may find in the 19. chap. of the acts of the apostles , there you shall find , that one sevah a jew had seven sons who were exorcists , or conjurers , these following paul and the apostles , and hearing the words which they used , assayed to do the like , presuming to cast forth a devil out of one who was possest , saying , i adjure you by jesus , whom paul preacheth to come forth , but the evil spirit answered and said , jesus i know , and paul i know , but who are ye ? and the man in whom the evil spirit was , fell upon them , heat them and tore all the cloathes from their backs , and without question put them into a great fright , for we find , that they all seven ran out of the house wounded , and naked , and glad ( i warrant you ) that they escaped so , this act of theirs was noised abroad , and also known throughout all the city of ephesus , and fear fell on them all , insomuch , that i believe never any jew durst to attempt any such thing afterwards unto this day ; for st. mark saith plainly , these signes shall only follow those that believe in christ jesus : in his name shall they cast out devils ; wherefore , unto those who believe not in christ jesus , it plainly appears they shall not do it . and whosoever doth , or shall undertake this business , his faith and belief must be strong without doubting , otherwise he may fail in the performance , for although some ceremonies may be used herein as i have before related , yet without gods especial blessing upon the words , wayes , and means used , together with strength of faith , believing , no man can prevail herein , as plainly appeareth by those seven exorcists , or conjurers aforesaid . concerning all kinds of agues , and quotidian infirmities , with the astrological way of cure. there are three kinds of agues , viz. qutidian / tertian , and quarta● ; of all which kinds i have cured many : and to my knowledge and best remembrance i never failed where i have undertaken , i once cured a woman who had a tertian ague nine years , being brought so low therewith , that she was not able to go without help , she had without question as she told me , taken many things for it , but without success . i find there are many receipts by authors set forth in print , but i could never find any certainty in them : i dare say , there are so many wayes invented for the curing of agnes , as there are people sick of them : there can be no certainty in curing any of these kinds of agues , or daily fits , or griefs , except it be done by the rules of astrology , for many reasons , for some are afflicted under the planet saturn ▪ and then their fits will be most of cold : others are afflicted under mars , and then their fits will be most of heat : and some are afflicted under both planets , viz. saturn , and mars , and then their fits will be never equal both in cold and heat . secondly , sometimes the afflicting planets are weak in the heavens , and sometimes strong , which must be considered in the cure thirdly , the age and complection of the patient must be taken notice of . lastly , you must by a fi●ure discover whether any witchcraft or sorce●y hath been wrought upon the patient , or from what natural cause the sickness began i shall now briefly discover the reason of each kind of ague , or quotidian infirmity , and then set forth the way of cure as followeth , i shall begin with the quotidian ague , which usually assaulteth the patient daily , near one and the same hour , at which time as also in tertians and quartans the sick usually is troubled with wind and cold watery flegmatick matter setled at the stomack , which at the first beginning of the fits causeth a shivering , after which followeth a fevorish burning hot fit ; also i find , that not only the quotidian ague , but also there are many other infirmities , as appoplexies , convultions , palpitations , risings in the throat and stoppings at the breast and stomack and some kinds of evils which daily begin to afflict the patient near the same hour : now upon observation upon all these kinds of daily agues or infirmities before mentioned . i constantly find , that the sign ascending , at or near the beginning of each fit , together with its lords doth exactly personate the sick , and without doubt was their proper ascendant at their birth , by vertue of which ascendant , together with the sixth and twelfth houses , and their lords afflicted , i always discovered the grief , with its cause and termination : the truth is , except a figure be set for either the time of decumbiture , or first fit , or some other strong fit , there can be no true discovery made from what cause it began , and if the true cause be not known , there can be no certainty in cure ; for although the moon in acute and the sun in chronick sicknesses by the planets afflicting , doth generally discover each distemper with its cause , yet in these particular infirmities as quotidian griefs before mentioned , i find by experience , that the fits have constantly kept their course , and have been very strong when neither sun or moon have been afflicted , wherefore it appears , that the sign or constellation under which the patient was born ( which sign we usually call the ascendant ) doth wholly reflect upon the patient both at the beginning and durance of their daily fits aforesaid ; and truly i find even as in quotidian agues , and other infirmities aforesaid , so likewise in evils ▪ the ascendant doth usually personate the sick , more especially when the fits are usually near one hour , or at the time when the patient undergoeth any strong pain or torment more then other ; for such is the subtilty of the devil , that he knowing each bodies ascendant , can thereby the better instruct the witch how to frame the image , that so it may thereby work the stronger upon the patient when the sign ascendeth , and by that means the witch may by the rules of astrology be the more easie discovered , and oft-times are thereby detected , for it s well known unto many , that in a philosophical way when a talesman is framed for the destruction of vermine , as instance , the scorpions , the way to make it is when the sign scorpio ascends , &c. concerning the tertian ague . the tertian ague usually keepeth one hour , as the quotidian ague doth , only there is one days respite between , now i find , that in tertian , and quartan agues the moon is much to be regarded , for , from the time of the first fit , which may probably be called the time of decumbiture , the place of the moon in the zodiack must be observed , and so by account according unto the critical figure of sixteen equal parts ( what the critical figure is , and how framed , i have shewed more at large elsewhere ) each fit doth answer unto the intercedental , iudical , and critical dayes and times , and so the second fit maketh the intercedental time ; the third fit the iudical time , the fourth , the second intercedental time , the fifth the crsis , and so you may go round the zodiack : after which the grief is chronick , and may unhappily continue a long time , if not cured . note , that notwithstanding by account , according unto the critical figure , of its equal parts there is but 22. deg . 30. min. allotted for two dayes motion of the moon , whereas usually she moveth 24. deg . at the least ; yet if we consider the beginning , and duration of each ague fit , and likewise what degrees are alotted unto the orbs or influence of the moon ; it will sufficiently satisfie those degrees in question . now as in the quotidian ague so in this , if you fear sorcery or witchcraft , and make doubt of the true cause of the ague , a figure set for the time of the first , or any other fit , more especially when it s very strong will be needful , which to do i have shewed elsewhere . concerning the quartan ague . the quartan ague usually gives two dayes respite between every fit and as in the tertian ague so in this , the moon hath an especial influence upon both , all ague fits cometh sometimes sooner , and sometimes later , according as the moon is swift or slow in motion more especially , when evilly aspected of the infortunes . the degrees of the moons motion which by account are numbred between each quartan ague fit are 45. deg . making a semi-quartile aspect to the place she was in at the decumbiture , or first fit : and so the second fit may be called the judical time . the third fit the crisis or mortal time consisting of 90. deg . making a square aspect to the place she was in at the decumbiture aforesaid ; in quartan agues the critical figure is divided but into eight parts ; the intercedental time being left out as useless , in regard the fits are at such known distance from each other ; it seems hypocrites and galen never used any other division in their times : but since we find by experience , that at the intercedental time many have departed , as i have shewed else where , especially in perperacute griefs all quartan agues are under the dominion of saturn , and usually , if the moon be evilly aspected of him , at the time of any quartan ague fit , then it will be more violent and strong ; although these quartan agues are usually of long continuance , yet they are seldom mortal ; the reason is ( i judge ) because there is usually two dayes respite between every fit , whereby nature hath time to rally up its forces against the incounter . what i have written concerning agues , and quotidian infirmities is from my own daily practice and experience , for i never met with any author either in print or by manuscript which did shew the reasons of each kind of ague , nor yet any certain way of cure : i shall in the next place set forth the certain way of cure , as followeth . the way to cure each kind of ague according unto the rules of astrology : there being no certainty in any other way , as i have oftentimes experienced . in the first place ( according unto the rules in this book elsewhere expressed ) you must erect a scheam either for the time of the first fit if that may be had , or for any other strong fit ; you must be careful so to vary the ascendant , that it , together with its lord may exactly personate the sick , for if you take a wrong ascendant which you may easily do for many reasons , as first the difference in clocks , secondly , the swiftness or slowness of the moons motion , thirdly some men and women being strong hearted will not yield to lie down in bed so soon as others who are more weak and faint hearted , &c. wherefore if you fail in the ascendant no true judgment can be given ▪ except in ordinary , natural , acute , and chronick griefs , or where there is no suspition of sorcery or witchcraft , for then judgment may be given by the sun or moon afflicted , as is shewed elsewhere : when your scheam is erected , and the figure radical as aforesaid , you must take notice , whether the lord of the ascendant , or first house be in the twelfth house or whether the lord of the twelfth be in the ascendant , or whether one planet be lord of the ascendant , and twelfth , and an infortune , or if the lord of the twelfth afflict the lord of the ascendant , or whether the lord of the twelfth afflict the moon , in acute griefs which are under a moneths standing , or the sun in chronick griefs , then you may conclude that the quotidian fits of any kind ▪ and likewise the tertian and quartan fits of any ague are more than natural ; and that either fascination , witchcraft , or sorcery , have been wrought upon the patient ; such is the subtilty of these wretches , that many times they are not mistrusted , much more discovered , except by the rules of astrology , described as i have shewed elsewhere , and who more bold and forward to visit and frequent neighbours , and oft-times are imployed both for nurses , and tenders upon those whom they have bewitched , and yet not mistrusted , and were there no wayes to afflict them , there could be no cure wrought upon such whom they daily visit or are imployed as tenders upon : for by their wretched ways , they would soon infect them again : example , once a friend and neighbour of mine , after she was delivered of her child fell into strange fits , whereupon , some thought she had taken great cold , others thought , some one thing and some another , at length her fits grew so strong , and the woman so weak , that her husband thought at every fit she would have departed , whereupon , he was advised to come unto me ; but to prevent his coming , the tender or nurse being a lusty you●g hussie would needs perswade him to send her with the water , which he did , at her first coming she seemed to be very merry and jocund alwayes laughing , i askt her why she was so merry , considering her dame was so bad , she told me for no harm , i believe she thought to have fooled me , as she had done others ( but she was greatly mistaken ) for having viewed the urine , i demanded of her to tell me whether she had any fits , and when her first fit began , which she readily told me , not thinking that i could thereby discover her villany ; i quickly found by the figure , that sorcery or witchcraft had been wrought upon the sick , and by a female body , much resembling her person ; for either the lord of the twelfth house , more especially of that is the afflicting planet or the sign where the sun is , do●h usually personate the witch ; whereupon i told her that i could send no answer by her , in regard , i must first speak with her master ; at which answer she seemed somewhat danted , but replyed , she would speedily send him , and so went away , but when she came home , she clean contrary to my message told him , that she had order to gather herbs and make his wife dyet-drink , and none but she must give her any thing to help her ; whereupon , the man marvelling much at this message came to me on purpose to know the truth , why none but she must be trusted , and brought his wifes brother with him whereupon i told him , what i found by the figure , his brother presently replyed , that to his knowledge , both her mother and grandmother were both suspected for witches , and one of them dyed in reading-goal , being committed by the justice with intent to bring her unto tryal : having made this discovery upon her , i advised him speedily to put her away , and to take another nurse or tender who was of better repute , which he did ; after which , by such wayes and means as were agreeable to her distemper , according as i have declared at large elsewhere , she was soon recovered . i shall now proceed to set forth the astrological way of cure , for there is no certainty in any other way ( notwithstanding , sometimes the patient is cured by other means , ( as i shall declare in the sequel ) more especially when the original of the fits , either of agues or other quotidian infirmities before mentioned , be from sorcery , or witchcraft , for then in the first place , you must by the rules before going indeavour to afflict the witch , otherwise she will continually renew the grief so fast as you cure , more especially ▪ where the witch is not suspected . secondly , you must be careful that such herbs which are used for the cure , be gathered at the right planetary hours , with the numbers of herbs according as they are attributed unto each planet : what herbs are to be used herein , together with the time of gathering , administring , and the numbers of herbs are set down elsewhere . the true way of curing all kinds of agues , and other quotidian fits must be by antipathy , not omitting , as in these , so in all other cures , to take a select number of herbs to fortify the heart and vital spirits . there are four things considerable to be done in curing all kinds of agues , besides the afflicting of the witch , in case of sorcery , or witchcraft , first , dyet drink ; secondly , cataplasms laid to the hand wrests . thirdly , a vomit , to be given at the coming of the fit : fourthly , to let blood if the ague have been of longe continuance fifthly , to cause the patient to wear one or more solary plants : the way which i alwayes used , is as followeth , having by the figure found under what planet the patient is most afflicted , as instance mars , then take herbs under venus ; if under saturn , then take herbs under jupiter ; if both saturn and mars afflict , as sometimes 't will fall out , then let your herbs be under jupiter and venus ; but if saturn and mars be strong in the heavens , and more strong than the fortunes jupiter and venus , then their own herbs will do it ; alwayes provided , that one of the smallest numbers of herbs under one or both the fortunes , together with herbs of the sun be used together with the rest ; but if the infortunes be weak , then the smallest number attributed unto them , and the greater number of the fortunes together with a select number of herbs under the sun will do it , for the dyet-drink you may together with the herbs , aforesaid , add raisons , currants , liquorish , aniseed , sweet fennel-seed , or coryander-seed , to make the dyet-drink nutrative , as also more pleasant and good to expel wind : the dyet-drink is made by way of decoction and given to the patient three times a day viz. morning , afternoon , and night : i have cured many only by dyet-drink and herbs , suitable as aforesaid , laid to the hand-wrests , made up by way of cataplasm : the herbs which you lay to the hand-wrests must be shred very small and pounded in a morter with raisons and white salt , you may add a little venus-turpentine to make it hold together , you must use the quantity of two walnuts , it must be laid on hot and bound fast to the hand-wrest : if the patient doth not mend after one or two fits tryal , then you must give the patient a vomit , just when the fit doth begin as followeth : take one dram of stibium more or less according unto the strength and age of the patient , beat it into a very fine powder with a pestel and morter , then warm a quarter of a pint of white wine and put the powder into it , keep this in a glass twenty four hours and shake it often , and when the ague is ready to come put forth the wine into so much new milk , but leave the dregs behind and give it the patient blood warme and let them take posset drink after every vomit , if the patient doth not amend after one or two fits tryal , then you must let the patient blood , for after the patient hath been afflicted above a moneth 't will get into the blood also , if need require you must give the patient another vomit , more especially , if the ague have been of long continuance , and i have sometimes been inforced to let blood more than once ; you must ●●ill give them dyet drink until they are well ; if you heed well what i have written you need not doubt of curing all kind of agues , although of long continuance , as also from what cause soever it had its beginning . by the rules aforesaid i cured a woman who had a tertian ague nine years , as aforesaid . another way whereby to cure all kinds of agues astrologically ; together with other infirmities which are in the blood or vital spirits , as i have oftentimes proved , is as followeth . vvhen you let the patient blood , take a small thimble full of sympathetical powder , and the like quantity of the powders of such herbs which are sutable to the cure , as aforesaid , mix them well together and put a small quantity of the blood into this powder , and be careful that it take no cold , for both the powder and blood must be put together warm , and let the patient wear it next their skin , you must be careful that the herbs used , be gathered at the right planetary hours according unto their numbers as formerly mentioned , by this way , i have cured both agues and other infirmities . there is yet another way whereby to cure agues . this way is performed only by a certain writing which the patient weareth . now whether there were any such words passed between our saviour and the jews as the writing mentioneth who can tell , for without question there were many memorable actions , things , and words , said , and done by our blessed saviour which are not recorded in holy writ , and we find words in scripture , tending unto that purpose : the words are as followeth . when jesus went up to the cross to be crucified the jews asked him , saying , art thou afraid , or hast thou the ague ? jesus answered and said , i am not afraid , neither have i the ague . all those which beareth the name of jesus about them shall not be afraid , nor yet have the ague , amen , sweet jesus , amen , sweet jehova , amen . i have known many who have been cured of the ague by this writing only worn about them ; and i had the receipt from one whose daughter was cured thereby , who had the ague upon her two years . concerning several kinds of madness , with the true astrological way of cure , as followeth . i shall not enter upon any large discourse hereof nor yet take notice of authors , who without question have written learnedly hereupon my intent being only to write what i find by my own daily practice and experience herein : according unto which i find , that there are several causes of madness , and several kinds of madness i mean in relation to their actions and behaviour , whilst they are in this condition : first , concerning the cause , for except it be known , its impossible , except by accident to work a cure , which for to find , you must erect a figure , either for the time of the first fit , or any other more than ordinary strong fit , and to be sure , so to vary your ascendant , that it together with its lord may exactly personate the sick , and then by the rules of art , examine whether the grief be natural or otherwise , from witchcraft or sorcery : if natural , then from what original cause , as whether from love , loss of honour , friends , estate , or any other , more than ordinary vexation , and such like ; for then the distemper will be wholly in the animal and vital spirits , for we may be assured , that whatsoever the external or internal sences do comprehend , which proceed from the brain : the vital spirits ▪ which proceedeth from the heart doth immediately put into action be it mirth or sorrow : in curing these kinds of madness , you must heed the complexion and temper of the patient ; for as in drunkenness , so in madness , you will assuredly discover their elementall , qualities , and natural conditions : if choler abounds , then they will be violent in their actions . and very apt to quarrel . if they are by nature sanguine , then they will be inclined unto mirth , as singing , dancing , and the like . and such who are by nature melancholy , and mad , usually are given unto sadness , sighing and much silence , seldom pleased . and those who are by nature flegmatick , mad , are usually sluggish and idle , not careing to do any thing , except forced thereunto , and much given to sleep , they will lye in bed two or three days together , if not disturbed the way to cure all these kinds of distempers before mentioned must be by decoctions , made of such herbs under such planets which are antipathetical unto each several complexion before mentioned ; not omitting oyntments to the heart and brain , and fumes to the head , if the brain be moist and suffumigation if dry if the patient have been long distempered , then 't will get into the blood , and then 't will be convenient sometimes to let them blood ; and then if you take a small quantity of the sympathetical powder and mix it with so much powder of the herbs proportionable for the cure , it will mightily help forward the cure , you must order it and wear it as directed in the cureing of agues : there are several other kinds and causes of madness as followeth , sometimes height of blood will ascend up to the head and so disturb their brain , which will cause madness , the cureing whereof is by oft letting blood , and dyet drink made suitable by antipathy unto their complexion , as aforesaid ; for if we should apply herbs which are by nature hot , although good in general for the brain , to a cholerick mad body , it will rather increase , then mittigate their fury , but in all cures you must ever remember to fortify the heart and vital spirits : the sympathetical powder in this kind of madness , mixt and ordered as aforesaid , is most proper ; the truth is , this kind of madness is easily cured by any drug-doctor , for their general way is to cure by blood letting , and purgation , which kind of physick is proper for this distemper . ●here is another kind of madness which cometh by being costive & bound in body , of which i have cured many , and i always found by the figure , that the chief significators of the distemper were in earthy signs : for the time being , these who are taken in this condition will be as mad , as any according unto their natural complexion , be it choler , sanguine , melancholy , or fiegmatick ; at the first they will be ill only in head and stomack , but after some time it will make them light headed , and forgetful ; and by reason of that great stop in natures course , it will more and more cause inordinate vapours to ascend up to the head and brain , and at length bring madness , insomuch , that they are not able to discover their own condition nor yet their friends ; i have known some who have dyed in this condition , before their grief was perfectly known , or at least , were so far gone that doctors could not help them . i had once a maid ( who was a farmers daughter , living in the parish of goring in the county of oxon ) brought tyed and bound fast in a cart with cords , who was only mad by reason of this condition , her friends not knowing what she ayled , some thought it might be through love , others thought she was either bewitched or possessed ; some thought one thing , and some another : the truth is , she looked very gastly and wild but being by nature of a sanguine complection , she would hoop , hollow , sing , and dance day and night if she might be suffered : having by a figure discovered the cause of her distemper , i bargained with her father what to have for the cure , i quickly with suppositer and glister brought her to stool , and within three days she grew sensible and quiet , and in a week was perfectly recovered . i have known sometimes that an afright hath caused madness ; in this condition applications must be chiefly to the brain , not omitting dyet drink , made suitable by antipathy to their complexion : i have known some females who have been mad only by the stop of their monethly course ; the cure is by herbs proper to help such infirmities , as you shall find in this book . i have known some women , who have fell mad after they have been delivered of their child ; occasioned sometime from great cold taken , or disorderly dyet and sometimes by witchcraft as i have already declared , occasioned by the tender , or nurse ; for their bodies being open and weak , any infirmities may the easier be wrought upon them by such wretches , and yet the cause undiscovered and the patient many times dyeth . the worst kind of madness that i know is occasioned from sorcery or witchcraft ; and i believe there are multitudes of this kind in beathlaem , and elsewhere , that lye many years in this condition ; for except the witches power be taken off and staid , it s in vain to administer physick ; more especially , where the witch sometimes may have admittance to come to the patient : others may perhaps be possessed , and then the devil must be cast forth ; for ( as i have said already , except the true cause of each kinds of madness be discovered , its impossible to cure without a miracle , except by accident ; now to cure this kind of madness which cometh from witchcraft : in the first place , you must by the rules of art , endeavour to afflict the witch , and then by herbs antipathetical unto the afflicting planet and complection of the patient you must make dyet-drinks oyntments , and glisters , not omitting some ingredients suitable , as figs , raisons , currants , liquorish , aniseeds , or any other seeds good to expel wind , &c. & sometimes when the body is bound , which most mad people are very subject unto ; you must make choyce of such herbs amongst your numbers which are purging and losening . note that i alwayes found in my practice , that the afflicting planet and complexion of the patient were usually one , as instance , cholerick people are commonly afflicted of mars , and melancholy under saturn ; for such is the subtilty of the devil , and the witches , that they strike most upon that humour whereunto they find the nature of men and women most prone , and apt to receive impression if these rules which i have inserted , be well observed and followed , there is no one mad body whatsoever , but may ( through gods blessing ) be recovered : to my knowledge i have not failed these many years where i have undertaken ; notwithstanding , some whom i have cured have been mad many years : but i must needs say , the longer they are mad before a right means is used , the more difficult the cure is , and somewhat the more time it will require to perfect their cure : for according unto that saying in philosophy , custom produceth a second nature , &c. finis . to all such who are students , and well-willers unto this most excellent science of astrology , i presume , that no sooner are these following books come forth , but some will be ready to say , what needs this treatise , since we have so many books of this nature extant , written both so learned and copious even in our own language that one would think , nothing more could be written of this subject ? but yet we know , that in all arts and sciences whatsoever , no man can so curiously and exactly write of any matter or thing , of what nature soever , but that something might be added thereunto ; and were it but only a confirmation of what have been written formerly by other authors , yet it s but reasonable , that such persons who have been practitioners and students in this art , should likewise have liberty to write their knowledge and experience herein : and although in general we keep close unto one intire method and rule , as in our introduction appears , compared with others , even as with young scholars , so in this science , there must be beginning or entrance at the first , after which , each industrious student and practitioner may increase in knowledge , and so make farther progress and discoveries herein ; and having attained thereunto some perfection , may do well to communicate their knowledge unto others , that so this art may continually be inlarged : we find that in all ages this art hath still increased , by means of those worthies who have been students and practitioners therein , whose books are extant of this nature : i confess , in some material matters and circumstances i differ from many authors , yet i keep close unto the principles of art , giving sufficient reasons for what i write ; those that read my books , being compared with other authors may follow that way and method ( which by tryal ) doth manifest its self to be most effectual : i do not intend by this my vvriting , in the least , to disparage other vvorthy authors , but do highly praise and extol those excellent works vvritten by our learned and ingenious countrey-men , vvho have taken much pains in demonstrating the art ; only as i have already said , vvhere there is a continuance of practice each ingenious person may vvithout doubt add something to the increase of knovvledge ; and i question not , but that each practitioner and young student vvill gain somevvhat by my labours herein . and as for such vvho are vvell learned in this art , although my vvriting may not adde much unto their knovvledge herein , yet in point of vvisdom and love to the art and artists i presume they vvill take vvhat i have vvritten in good part , and pass by my failings ( if any ) vvith silence : but as to the envious , they shall not much trouble me , considering their persons vvill be sufficiently revvarded , as being to themselves most destructive . but unto such vvho are loving and true lovers of the art , i vvish a blessing upon their studies and that they may increase in knovvledge , vale. books sold by obadiah blagrave , at the printing press in little brittain . alstedii aencyclopedia 2. vol. fol. aretius in n●vum testamentum fol. agu●nii commentaria , in psalmos . fol. biblia junii & trimelii , fol. beza in novum testamentum , greek & latine . fabricius in psalm●s , fol. marloret in novum testamentum , in psalm●s , & in is●aiah . junii opera , 2. vol. fol. causins holy court in five tomes , fol. the c●mpleat statesman , fol. car●i's commentary on job , in twelve several vollumes . q●arta . allius chain of scripture , a chronology from the creation of the world , to the death of jesus christ , q●art● . the pilgrim , by j. hall , twelves . gee , of magistracy , octavo . sr. kenelm digby , of bodys , and of mans soul ; to discover the immortality of reasonable souls : with two discourses of the powder of sympathy , and of the vegetation of plants . culpepers translation of riverius , fol. culpepers translation of bartholinus anatomy , fol. culpepers translation of the london dispensatory . culpepers english phisitian . culpepers directory for midwives . culpepers last legacy to his wife , being his choyce secrets . blagraves's astrological practice of physick , aristotles problems in english . ramsey of the nature of poysons . wits interpreter , the english parnassus ; or a sure guide to those admirable accomplishments that compleat our english gentry in the most acceptable qualifications of discourse or writing , octavo . blounts accademy of eloquence . the accademy of complements . the history of the seven champions of christend on . quintus curtius in latin or english . erasmi adagia , fol. clerks phrasalogia puerilis . octavo . sydelii manuale , gr. & latin. octavo . turnerii orationes , octavo . testamentum latinum , octavo . testamentum graecum , octavo . ho●les easie entrance into the latin tongue . translation of aesop . corderius colloquies . sententiae pueriles confabulatiunculae . cato . terence . a true & exact history of the island of barbados illustrated with a mapp of the island, as also the principall trees and plants there, set forth in their due proportions and shapes, drawne out by their severall and respective scales : together with the ingenio that makes the sugar, with the plots of the severall houses, roomes, and other places that are used in the whole processe of sugar-making ... / by richard ligon, gent. ligon, richard. 1657 approx. 446 kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from 85 1-bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : 2005-10 (eebo-tcp phase 1). a48447 wing l2075 estc r5114 12703788 ocm 12703788 65999 this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons 0 1.0 universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase 1, no. a48447) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set 65999) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, 1641-1700 ; 360:21) a true & exact history of the island of barbados illustrated with a mapp of the island, as also the principall trees and plants there, set forth in their due proportions and shapes, drawne out by their severall and respective scales : together with the ingenio that makes the sugar, with the plots of the severall houses, roomes, and other places that are used in the whole processe of sugar-making ... / by richard ligon, gent. ligon, richard. [13], 122, [3] p., [6] leaves of plates : ill., maps, plans printed for humphrey moseley ..., london : 1657. reprinted in 1673. errata: p. [3] at end. reproduction of original in huntington library. imperfect: frontispiece, plans, and maps lacking in filmed copy. page 84, plans, and maps photographed and inserted at end. created by converting tcp files to tei p5 using tcp2tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the 25,363 texts created during phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 january 2015. anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p5, characters represented either as utf-8 unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng botany -barbados -pre-linnean works. sugar -manufacture and refining -barbados. barbados -description and travel. 2004-10 tcp assigned for keying and markup 2004-11 aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images 2005-01 emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread 2005-01 emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-04 pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a trve & exact history of the island of barbados . illustrated with a mapp of the island , as also the principall trees and plants there , set forth in their due proportions and shapes , drawne out by their severall and respective scales . together with the ingenio that makes the sugar , with the plots of the severall houses , roomes , and other places , that are used in the whole processe of sugar-making ; viz , the grinding-room , the boyling-room , the filling-room , the curing-house , still-house , and furnaces ; all cut in copper . by richard ligon gent. london , printed for humphrey moseley , at the prince's armes in st. paul's church-yard : 1657. to my most honoured , and highly esteemed friend , dr brian duppa , l d b p of salisbvrie . honour'd sir , the first and last time you gave me the favour to kisse your hands , since my return from the southern and western parts of the world , you were pleased to make some enquiries of me , concerning the iland of barbados , a place you much desired to be satisfied in : but , by reason my stay was but short , i could give you but a sleight and scant relation , of the many particulars you were desirous to be informed in ; so that for the present , i rather poynted at , then gave a home-satisfaction , to what was most fit to be known , of the beauties and riches of that place . whereupon you were pleased to impose on me a task , ( very unfit for me to undertake , being one altogether unlettered ) to deliver in writing , the sum of all i knew , concerning that iland . though i were sufficiently conscious of mine own inabilities ; yet , my obedience to your commands , led me on , to give you a private satisfaction , in a thing you so earnestly desired , which was all i aimed at : but , upon perusall of it , you were pleased to give me a far greater encouragement , then i expected , with your allowance for the publishing of it , for the common benefit of those , who intend to spend their times , and venture their fortunes upon such undertakings ▪ so that i wanted but means or friends , for the putting it forth ; but , those two being absent , it has layne in the dark this two years . you were then likewise pleased , to cast your eyes upon some pieces of limning , which i had done since my return , ( by my memory only ) of the trees , plants , and fruits , which i had seen growing upon that place ; things in themselves of infinite beauty , but losing much of their life and lustre , by my ill handling ; yet , you were pleased to afford them an approbation , beyond their value , which gave me an ambition , to do somewhat in that kinde , more like a master ; and to that purpose , was designing a piece of landscape , and one of story , wherein i meant to expresse the postures of the negres , in their severall kinds of sports and labours ; and with it , the beauties of the vegetables , that do adorn that place , in the highest perfection i could : but presently after , being cast into prison , i was deprived both of light and lonelinesse , two main helpers in that art ; and so being disabled to discern or judge of colours , i was compelled to expresse my designes in black and white : so that now you will finde exposed to your view , a piece of wild grotesco , or loose extravagant drolorie , rather than a regular piece of story or landscape . rough drawn , and unproportionably stell'd , though it be , i here present it ; which , though it be but as a drop to the ocean , or a mite to the treasury of your knowledge ; yet , in obedience to your commands , which have a powerfull operation on me , i could do no lesse then give you an account of what i had done , howweak and unperfect soever . and so begging pardon for the faults committed , both in the language , and ill contrivance of my discourse , i humbly take my leave , and rest . honoured sir , your most humble servant : r. ligon . upper bench prison , july 12th 1653. the letter of the bishop of sar. to me then in prison , after he had perused my book . sir , yov can best tell , with what pleasure you past over your voyage to the barbadoes : but , whatsoever it was , your dangers at sea , and your long sicknesse on land , had been enough to sour it , had not the condition of the times made any place more acceptable , than your native country . but , the pleasure which you have given me , in reading this narrative , is without all these mixtures : for , without any hardship at all , i have in a few daies gone the same voyage , view'd the iland , weigh'd all the commodities and incommodities of it ; and all this with so much pleasure , that i cannot , without great injustice , forbear telling you , that though i have read formerly many relations of other parts of the world , i never yet met with so exact a piece , as this of yours . your diligence hath been great in so short a time , to make these observations ; but , your expressions of them are such , as shew , that no ingenious art hath scap't you . you say , that in your younger time , you acquainted your selfe with musick and painting ; and had you not said so , the reading of this book would have made me say it for you ; for , it is so musically made up , and all the descriptions so drawn to the life , that i know no painting beyond it . and for the question you put to me , whether you should publish it or no , i desire you would make no doubt of it ; for first , i know none that hath written of this argument before ; and next , i am perswaded , that having read this description of yours , none that come after will venture upon it . only , i have one request to you , that your kindnesse to me , ( who without any designe , gave you the occasion of doing it ) may not lead you into such an insufferable errour , as to choose me out as a fit person to inscribe it to , who am so much in the shade , that i must not own my selfe . i am willing to believe , that though honour be at this time at a very low ebb , and , by the iniquity of the times , is much falne within the banks ; yet , the channell is not so drie , but you may meet there with some noble person , that may with more advantage , take you and your book into the same cock-boat with him , and keep you this winter both from cold and hunger . and therefore , in great earnestnesse i desire you , to look over your catalogue of friends ; and , though you cannot finde one that loves you better , yet , to make choice of him , that can protect you better . and so with my prayers for you , that your afflictions here may be so managed by you , as to lead you to joyes hereafter , i rest . your most affectionate friend , br. sar. richmond , septemb. 5th . 1653. to my much honoured and ingenuous cousin , mr richard ligon , upon his relation of his voyage to the barbadoes . since you vouchsafe me sight , i needs must fall , to actuall sin 'gainst your originall , should i not more then tacitely expresse it 's worth , as well as mine owne thankfulnesse . omissive duties , and committed facts in man , you know , an equall guilt contracts . and ( though your judge should know the severall arts , both what the colledge and the court imparts : and jurates ought to be like the twelve signes , such asterismes , where sol himselfe confines ) a common suffrage nerethelesse may aim , ( not to give verdict ) b●t the gift proclaim . that judgment let me enter . they indite , that here 's vast profit , mixt with high delight ; that what 's suppos'd a narrative , will be to him that reads , a naturall history . for in that horison , your pen doth misse , nor heaven , earth , sea , nor ought that in them is . not a new star can scape your observation , nor the least insect passe your contemplation . nor use you shortnesse , nor prolixity ; but first describe , then speak its property . me thinks , as pliny , you are their relator ; and are as adam too , their nomenclator . for , to your insects , birds , and vegetives , you give not known , but due appellatives . their rich descriptions , when you paint , i see colours so lively , and such symmetry : but that i 've seen the hand , that guides the quill , a pencill use , 't were scarce in limning skill . and when you descant richly , thus , i see compos'd in severall parts , and all agree , how chords and discords too , you do devise , from sympathies , and from antipathies . your fuges and poynts into a canon twine , all true to th' ground , that is your main designe : and all concentring to so sweet an ayre , would ravish philomels , make swans despair . your skill above fam'd orpheus i advance , since thus your creatures play , his did but dance . to such as only seek their benefit , you do infallibly discover it : you shew therein , 3000l . will clear no lesse then 7000l . a year . and that not in a jugling chymick sense , but drawn from reason and experience . the scite , clime , food , the customs , laws , and trade , to each inquisitor is open laid . your georgick strain seemes to extract the marrow of marcus , cato , columel , and varro ; as if that there you had the grouth and age of a palmeto , to improve each page ▪ and with so great an art and industry , as if you 'd studied nought but husbandry . when of your vegetives you make relation , you rather make than speak of a plantation , your leaves affording shape , taste , and delight to th'sense , the fruit gives to the appetite . if pythagorean doctrine were divine , i would be transmigrated to your pine. the cane or mine , ( that makes that spot of ground as rich , as any 'twixt the poles is found ) is here so full and happily exprest : you candy that , which does preserve the rest : and its ingenio seemes to be a lecture ( as 't is describ'd ) o' th art of architecture . the texture of the whole you 've move so nice , your fine spun thread , warpt , wooft with artifice . it seemes a landscape inrich tapestry , embroidered with natures novelty , attireing all in such a lovely dresse , rich , genuine , and full of courtlinesse : that as great brittain sometimes i have seen , so you 've barbadoes drawn just like a queen . george walshe . a true and exact history of the iland of barbadoes . having been censur'd by some ( whose judgements i cannot controll , and therefore am glad to allow ) for my weakenesse and indiscretion , that having never made proofe of the sea's operation , and the severall faces that watry element puts on , and the changes and chances that happen there , from smooth to rough , from rough to raging seas , and high going billowes , ( which are killing to some constitutions , ) should in the last scene of my life , undertake to run so long a risco from england to the barbadoes ; and truly i should without their help conclude my selfe guilty of that censure , had i not the refuge of an old proverb to fly to , which is , ( need makes the old wife trot : ) for having lost ( by a barbarous riot ) all that i had gotten by the painfull travells and cares of my youth ; by which meanes i was stript and rifled of all i had , left destitute of a subsistance , and brought to such an exigent , as i must famish or fly ; and looking about for friends , who are the best supporters in so staggering a condition , found none , or very few , whom griefs and afflictions had not deprest , or worne out , banishment absented , or death devour'd ; so that in stead of these neere and native comforters , i found my selfe a stranger in my owne country , and therefore resolv'd to lay hold on the first opportunity that might convoy me to any other part of the world , how far distant soever , rather then abide here . i continued not many weekes in this expectation , when a friend , as willing to shift his ground as i , gave me an overture which i accepted , and so upon the sixteenth day of june 1647. we embark'd in the downes , on the good ship called the achilles ; a vessell of 350 tunnes the mr. thomas crowder of london ; and no sooner were we all aboard , but we presently weighed anchor , and put to sea ; in so cold weather as at that time of the yeere , i have not felt the like ; and continued so till wee came to falmouth harbour : where wee put in , and rested for a night ; but in our passage thither , were very uncertaine upon what coast wee were , by reason of the unsteadinesse of the windes , and cloudinesse of the weather ; so that i perceived more troubles and doubts in the seamen in that short passage , than in all the voyage after . but , the weather clearing up , the master and mates drew out severall plots and landscapes : which they had formerly taken upon the coast of france and england , ( which are of great use in the narrow seas , ) by which they were well assured where they were ; for there they seldome use loggline , or backstaffe , but attend onely the tides ▪ compasse , and card ; nor is there any use of other directors in so narrow a roome . we were ( as i remember ) about 10. dayes sayling to falmouth , and had with us a small ship of about 180. tunnes , called the nonesuch ; of which captaine middleton was owner , a very good seaman , and a planter in barbados : but himselfe then remaining in london . the next day we put to sea , and continued our course to the south-west , ( with somewhat a scant wind , ) partly to avoid the high going billowes of the bay of biskey : but chiefely to stand aloofe from pirats and pickaronoes : which are very frequent upon the coasts of spaine , and barbarie ; and as we past along , i perceiv'd a difference in the way of our ships : for in slack windes , our consort the none-such would runne us out of sight in foure or five houres sayle ; but in strong and stiffe windes , wee did the like with her . so that i guest the larger the sayles , the swifter the waye ; provided , they were alike built in the modell of their keeles , but i leave that to be resolved by the seamen , or that admirable architect of moving-horses , mr. pe●t . about the latitude of 45. degrees , wee met with a ship comming from guinny , but bound for london ; the captains name was blague , a very civill gentleman who halde us , came aboard us , and invited divers gentlemen that were there aboard his ship : which was a friggot of about 400. tunnes , her loading gold and elephants teeth ; the man was exceeding civill to us , and gave to every gentleman of our company , a present of such rarities as he brought from guinny , and binny . we stayed together almost a whole day , the weather being very calme , and almost no wind at all ; in the evening , a fresh breese began to blow , which serv'd us both in our severall wayes , and so saluting each other with our ordinance wee took leave . about this time , our consort the none-such parted with us , she directly for the carribby ilands , we for st. jago , one of the ilands of cape verd ; where wee were to trade for negros , horses , and cattell ; which we were to sell at the barbados . so , keeping our course about 80. leagues from the coast of spaine and barba●ie , the first land wee discovered , was the i le of porto santo ; which lyeth in 33. degrees to the noreward ; which wee left of our larboard side : when presently after , we had sight of the maderas , which we sayld close by , and had a full view of the place ; so rocky , and mountainous , and the ground so miserably burnt with the sun , as we could perceive no part of it either hill or valley , that had the least appearance of green , nor any tree bigger then a small hathorne and very few of those . between this and three inconsiderable ilands called the deserts , which appeared to us like the tops of large buildings ; no unevennesse or risings and fallings , but levell as the toppe of a large church or barne ; but burnt worse then the other , so that instead of the fresh and lively greenes , other countreys put on at this time of the yeare : these were apparell'd with russets , or at best phyliamorts . but it fell out that this yeere the summer was there hotter then usually , and the sea men that were with us , gave us to understand , that they never had seen it so burnt as now , and that the leeward part of it was , at other times , exceeding fruitfull and pleasant , abounding with all sorts of excellent fruits , corne , wine , oyle , and the best sugars ; with horses , cattell , sheep , goates , hogges , poultrey ; of all sorts , and the best sorts of sea-fish . these ilands lye neere 33. degrees to the noreward . having past between these ( leaving the maderas on of our starboard side ) wee found a constant trade-wind to carry us to the southward , when the next iland that came in our view , was bona vista ; but at such a distance , as we could hardly discerne colours , but the generall landscape of the hills seemed to one very beautifull , gently rising and falling , without rockes or high precipices . this iland is famous , for excellent salt , and for horses , which in one property , excell all that ever i have seene ; their hooves being to that degree of hardnesse , and toughnesse , that we ride them at the barbados , downe sharp and steepie rocks , without shooes ; and no goates goe surer upon the sides of rockes and hills then they ; and many of them very strong and clean limb'd . this iland , wee left ten leagues , or thereabouts on our larboard side , and next to it , the i le of may ; famous for store of excellent salt. the last of those ilands was palma ; a land so high , as after wee first discovered it ; which was in the morning ; wee thought to have reacht it that night , but found our selves farre short of it , next morning , though wee had a full gaile all that night : so much is the eye deceived in land which lyes high . this iland is about 28 degrees to the noreward , and from it to the iles of cape verd about 13 degrees a long way to bee silent , for there is no land between and therefore i purpose to entertaine you with some sea delights ; for there is no place so void and empty , where some lawfull pleasure is not to bee had , for a man that hath a free heart , and a good conscience . but these sea-pleasures are so mixt with cruelties , as the trouble of the one , abates much the delight of the other , for here wee see the great ones , eate up the little ones , as they doe at land , and with as little remorse ; yet laying that consideration aside the chase affords some pleasure to the eyes : for some kinds of fishes shew themselves above water , for a long while together . i have seen 20 porpisces very large of that kinde , crosse the prow of our ship , one behind another in so steady and constant a course , in chase of some other fishes ; as i have seen a kennell of large hounds , in windsor forrest , in the chase of a stag ; one following another directly in a track ; and the onely difference i finde is , these doe not spend their mouthes , but what they want in that is supplyed by the goodnesse of their noses ; for they never are at a fault , but goe constantly on . the dolphins likewise pursue the flying fish , forcing them to leave their knowne watry elements , and flye to an unknowne one , where they meet with as mercilesse enemies ; for there are birds that attend the rising of those fishes ; and if they bee within distance , seldome fayle to make them their owne . these birds , and no other but of their kinde , love to straggle so far from land ; so that it may be doubted , whether the sea may not bee counted their naturall home ; for wee see them 500 leagues from any land , at sun setting ; and so it is not possible they should recover land that night ; and on the waves they cannot rest , without great hazzard . i have seen them sometimes light , and sit upon the waves , but with such caution : for feare of being taken in by a fish , as her rest is very unsafe ; unlesse when she is covered by the nights dark wings . this bird , is a kinde of sea hawke , somewhat bigger then a lanner , and of that colour ; but of a far freer wing , and of a longer continuance ; and when she is weary , she finds resting places , if the seas be calme ; for then the ●urtles lye and sleep upon the waves , for a long time together ; and upon their backs they sit , and sleep securely ; and there , mute , prune , and oyl their feathers ; rouse , and doe all their offices of nature , and have roome enough for all , for some of those turtles are a yeard broad in the back : wee took one with our long boate , as he lay sleeping on the water , whose body afforded all the gentlemen , and officers of the ship , a very plentifull meal ; and was the best meat wee tasted , all the time wee were at sea. there are of these kinds of fishes but two sorts , that continue in the mayne ; the loggerhead turtle , and the hawkes bill turtle , of which sorts , the latter is the best , and of that kind ours was that wee took . there is a third kind , called the green turtle which are of a leffer magnitude , but far excelling the other two , in wholesomnesse , and rarenesse of taste ; but of them hereafter for i have no mind to part so leightly , with the forenamed birds of prey : for having been bred a faulconer in my youth , i cannot but admire the admirable swiftnesse of wing these birds make . they mount sometimes upon the trayne , to so loftie a pitch : as , if a faucon were there , shee might be allowed a double cancellere in her stooping to her game : they doe it at one entire downe come . her ordinary flying for her own pleasure , and not for prey ▪ is commonly more free then the best haggard faulcon , that i have ever seen ; but the continuance of it makes it the more admirable . at the times they grow hungry , they attend the dolphins , who are their spaniels ; and where they perceive the water to move , they know they are in chase , of the flying fish ; and being neere them , they rise like coveys of partridges by 12 and 16 in a covey , and flye as far as young partridges , that are farkers , and in their flight these birds make them their quarry . these frighted fishes , sometimes in the night have crost our ship , and being stopt by the shroudes , have falne downe ; and with their bodieswe have baited hookes , and taken their pursuers the dolphins ; which we have found very excellent meat , being drest by a good hand , with wine , spice , and sweet herbs , which we never wanted . so here we have excellent hauking , no ●eare of losing our hauke , by going out at cheik , or to a village to poult , and yet eate of the quarrie , and sometimes of the spaniells , which is an advantage the best faulconers misse at land. as for the hunting here , we only see the chase , but suffer the hounds to flesh themselves upon the quarrie , or it may be , a royall fish , such a one as may fill a dish to furnish neptunes table , & by that meanes we are cosen'd of our quarry . so that as i ever thought on land , i find the same at sea , hawking to be the better sport . i had almost forgot , to tell what kind of fish this flying fish is , which is the cause of such excellent sport , both in himselfe and others , he is just like a pilchard , but his fins larger , both in breadth & length , & as long as they are wett , so long he flyes ; and for their mortall enemies the birds , they continue with us from 33. degrees til we come to 15. and then leave us . at which time and place , another kinde undertakes us , not much bigger then a castrill ; and as near that colour as may bee , but of another manner of flying : for these flye close to the water , and turne about every wave ; so that wee often lose sight of them , by interposing of the waves , and think somtimes that a wave has overwhelmed her . the pleasure she gives the eye , is by the giddinesse of her flying , and often seems to be lost : and yet ( contrary to our expectation ) appears againe . but i will trouble you no longer with the inhabitants of the plyant aire , but dive into the deep , to try what pleasure that element affords to give you delight . there is a fish called a sharke , which he as is a common enemy to saylers and all others that venture , in calmes , to commit their naked bodies to the sea ( for he often bites off legs , sometimes armes , and now and then swallowes the whole body , if the fish bee great ) : so when the saylers take them , they use them accordingly . sometimes by putting out their eyes , and throwing them over bord ; sometimes by mangling and cutting their bodies , finns , and tayles , making them a prey to others , who were mercilesse tyrants themselves ; and in this kind of justice they are very accurate . many of these fishes we took ; some by striking with harping irons , some with fishgigs , some with hookes ; and amongst the rest , one very large , which followed the ship foure houres , before wee went about to take him ; and perceived before him , a little fish which they call the pilot fish ; this little guide of his , swims sometimes a yeard before him , sometimes more or lesse , at his pleasure ; and in his greatest-adversity often cleaves to him , and like a deare friend , stickes ●losest when hee needs him most : for when he is taken , this little fish , never fayles to fasten himselfe to his head , or some part neere that , and resolves to dye with him . the experience of this wee found not only in this great fish , but in all the rest wee had formerly taken , for wee never took the one without the other . and the engine wee took this great sharke with , was a large hook , baited with a piece of beef ; which he received into his mouth , his belly being turned upwards , for his mouth being short of his snout a good deale , he could not take it conveniently , his back being upward , by reason his snout drove the line afore it , but as soon as wee perceived the baite to be swallowed , we gave a sudden pull , which fastned the hook so , as we were sure the weight of his body would not teare it out , wee drew him up , and laid him in the wast of the ship , where none durst abide , but the seamen who dare doe any thing . wee had aboard divers mastive dogges , and amongst them , one so large and fierce , as i have seldome seen any like him ; this dogge flew to him with the greatest courage that might be , but could take no hold of him , by reason of his large roundnesse and sliminesse ; but if by chance he got hold of one of his ●innes , the sharke would throw him from ●ide to side of the ship , as if he had been nothing ; and doubtlesse if he had encountred him in his own element , the sea , he would have made quick work with him . divers of this kind wee took , but none so large ; he was about 16 foot long , and 10 foot about the middle . other fishes were took , as the bonito , the spanish maquerell , the albucore , dolphin , &c. which wee found excellent meate , but especially the albucore , which is a fish of such a shape , as it pleased me much to look on . those wee took were not much above a yard long , with forked tayles , the gristles very firme and strong , and the body neer that , no bigger then a mans wrist ; but suddenly growing upward to such a greatnesse , as i have seldome seen any like him , and so strong withall , as a sayler a very strong man , holding one of them fast by the gill , when this fish mov'd but his tayle to get loose , gave such a spring , as he had like to have put his arme out of joynt . these kind of fishes , in a cleare sun-shine evening , delight themselves and us , by trying which of them can leap highest above water , so that t is a pretty pastime , to see fishes so large , and gloriously colour'd , shew themselves so far above their naturall element , whose shapes and colours gave such variety . but this sport we saw not often . i will trouble you no more , with mentioning the variety of shapes and colours of fishes , till i come to st. jago ; onely one , and that a very small one ; for his body is not much bigger then a large pomegranate , and yet his faculties are such , as may draw more eyes to look on him and more mindes to consider him , then the vast whale : for though it be true , that his large body , appearing above the surface of the water being in calmes a smooth leavell superficies , and suddenly appearing , is one of the strangest and most monstrous sights that can be in nature ; ( and the more admirable , when he is incounted by his two mortall enemies , the sword and theshal fishes . for to shake them off , he leapes more then his owne length , above water , and in his fall , beats the sea with such violence , as the froth and foame is seen a quarter of an houre after , white , as when t is beaten by a strong west wind against a rock ; and at other times , spouts out the water in great quantities ; the height of an ordinary steeple . ) yet this great master-piece of nature , is not in my opinion so full of wonder , nor doth raise the consideration to such a height : as this little fish the ●arvill , who can when he pleases , enjoy himselfe with his neighbour fishes , under water ; and when he putts on a resolution to trie his fortune in another element , the ayer , he riseth to the top of the sea , let the billow go never so high , and there without the help of a say●er , raises up his maine mast , spreads his sayles , which he makes of his own sinewes , fits his rudder and ballast , and begins his voyage ; but to what coast he is bound , or what trafique he intends , himselfe and he that made him onely can tell . fishes there are none to prey on , nor flies , and therefore t is not for food he travailes ; i have seen them 500 leagues from any land , if his voyage be to any port , he must have a long time and much patience to get thither ; if to sea , hee 's there already ; in one thing he hath the advantage of any ship that ever sayled : for he can go neerer the wind by a poynt , then the most yare friggot that ever was built . which shewes how farre nature can exceed art. another advantage he has , that in the greatest tempest , he never feares drowning . compasse , nor card he needs not , for he is never out of his way ; whether then his voyage be for pleasure or profit we are yet to seeke . but before wee arive at our next harbour , st jago , one of the iles of cape verd , and now revolted from the king of spayne , to the portugall ; let me tell you , one little observation i made of the ships way ; which in slacke windes , and darke nights , wee saw nothing under water , but darkenes ▪ but in stiffe windes , and strong gayles , wee saw perfectly the keele of the ship ; and fishes playing underneath , as lighted by a torch , and yet the nights of equall darkenes . which put me in mind of a poynt of philosophy i had heard discourst of , among the learned ; that in the ayer , rough hard bodies , meeting with one another , by violent stroakes , rarifie the ayer , so as to make fire . so here , the ship being of a hard substance , and in a violent motion , meeting with the strong resistance of the waves : ( who though they bee not hard , yet they are rough , by reason of their saltnes , ) doe cause a light , though no fire , and i may guesse , that that light would bee fire , were it not quencht by the sea , in the instant it is made ; which in his owne element , hath the greater power and predominancie . but before wee came to st jago , wee were to have visited a small iland called soll ; by the intreatie of a portugall wee carried with us , whose name was bernardo mendes de sousa ; who pretended , to have a great part of the iland ( if not the whole ) to bee his owne ; but for that , it lay somewhat out of our waye , and wee could not recover it , by reason the winde was crosse ; and partly for that wee were enformed by some of the saylers , who told us it was uninhabited by any , but goats , dogs , and the like ; and wee guest , hee would ( out of a vaine glorie ) shew us something that he call'd his . but the master , who well knew the condition of the place , would not lose so much tyme to no purpose . which gave some discontentment to the portugall , which hee exprest in his countenance , by a sullen dogged looke , till wee came to st jago . but that was but a whetstone , to sharpen a worse humour hee was big with ; for though our merchants redeem'd him out of prison in london , intending him a mayne director in the whole voyage ; whose credulous eares hee highly abused , by telling them , that the padre vagado ( chiefe governour of st jago ) was his brother , and that by the power hee had with him , to lay all trade open , for negroes , horses , and cattle , which were there contrabanded goods ; by which perswasion , they gave him the power and command of the ship and goods . but hee intended nothing lesse then the performance of that trust , but instead of it , meant to make prey of both , and of our liberties , and probably lives to boote , if wee had not bin verie wary of him . the first thing wee perceiv'd in him , was a strange looke hee put on , when wee came nere the iland ; which caused us to suspect some great and bad designe hee was bent on , ( for being iolly and very good companie all the voyage , to change his countenance when wee were nere the place where wee hop'd to enjoy our selves with happinesse and contentment , was a presage of some evill intent to bee put in practice , which howerly wee expected ; and were all at gaze what part of it was first to bee acted ; which hee ( more speedily then hee needed ) discovered , and it was thus . our water , being a good part spent in our passage thither , and wee being to make new and large provisions for the remaynder of our voyage , carrying horses and cattle with us : which wee were to take in there ; hee commanded the master by the power he had over him , to send a shoare all the emptie caske hee had aboard ; with intent to detayne them ; and so make us comply , by little and little to his ends . but the master absolutely denied the landing our great caske , but told him he would send our quarter caskes , in our long boate , and so by making often returnes , to fill our pipes & buts . but finding himself at a losse in this designe , thought good to keepe us from any water at all ; and so appointed our men , to dig in the valley under the padres house , where he was well assured no springs of water were to be found . but some of our men , who spoke good spanish , by their enquiries heard , that there was a very good well on the other side of the hill , under the castle , and were brought to the sight of it by some of the country people ; which when he perceiv'd we had knowledge of , he was much out of countenance , and used his best eloquence to make us beleeve he had never heard of that well . so finding that this practice would not serve his turne , he tryed another : and that was was to command our master , to carrie a shoare , that part of the cargosoone that was consign'd for that place , which was cloath , bayes , stuffes of severall kindes , linen cloath , hats with broad brims , such as spaniards use to weare , and were made in london purposely to put off there , and these goods being valued , when they were receiv'd at land , there should be a returne made , in horses , and cattle . but as we had cause to suspect him for the cask , so wee had for the cargo , and so return'd him this answer , that we would not land any of our goods , without receiving the like valew in cattle ; and so by parcells to receive the one , and deliver the other , on which message , we sent the purser of our ship , that spoke good spanish ; but bernardo , being vext to the height that his plot was discovered , kept him prisoner . we sent another to demand him which was like wise detayned , then we sent 3 or 4 more and some of the soldiers of the castle gave fire upon them , soe that wee resolv'd to weigh anchor and put to sea for a weeke or tenne dayes and returne in the night ( the weather being darke and fitt for our purpose ) and surprise the padres house with 50 musketeers which we could muster verie well of the gentlemen and other passengers in the ship , and some of the saylers , and take the padre vagago , and bernardo mendes de sousa , and carrie them to the barbados . but the padre not knowing of this designe in bernardo , sent to us a verie kind message inviting himselfe aboard our ship , receiving hostages from us , and soe upon treatie with him aboard , settled a trade , and got our prisoners releast ; whereupon we were invited to his house or rather his rocke , for it was most part of it form'd in a rocke , with a sleep and verie high precipice . but i am mislead into this digression by this wicked portugall , whose unlucky countenance before we came to the iland , gave me the occasion to say somewhat of him , and his miscariage in the iland , before i came at it . but when we came within sight of it , it appeared to us full of high & steep rocks , ( the highest of which were meere stone , without any soyleat all ) and they of so great a height , as we seldome saw the tops , whilst we lay before it ; being interposed by mists , and clouds : which rise and darken the skie in the time of the turnado . but the day we had the first sight of it , being very cleare ; and we being at a competent distance , had a perfect view of it ) . but those of the second altitude , appear'd not so white , but had a grayish colour , as if covered with light and sandy earth . but the lowest of those , seem'd rather hills , than rockes ; but yet so russet , as we were in doubt whether grasse did ever grow on them . but when we came within distance of discerning colours perfectly ; wee expected the vallies , as it opened to us , would have afforded our eyes a richer prospect , with more variety of colours , but we found very little or no amendment , onely the trees of coconuts , with some other that were large and beautiful , whose tops ( giving amply proportionable shadowes to their roots ) held their greennesse and were extreame beautifull . but the time of our stay there , being the turnado , when the sunne ( being in his returne from the tropique of cancer , to that of capricorne , to visit and refresh the southern world , ) became zenith to the inhabitants of that part of the world ; which is about the beginning of august : at which time the raines fall in abundance , and is accompted winter , to those parts where the zenith is , and we staying there 19 or 20 dayes , ( the raine falling a good part of that time , ) wee perceived the valleys to put on new liveries : so fresh , so full of various greens , intermixt with flowers of severall kinds , some growing on stalkes , some on trees , so full of varietie , of the most beautifull colours , as if nature had made choyce of that place to shew her master piece . so that , having feasted our eyes with this delighted object , we desired to try whether their smel was as pleasant and odoriferous , as their beauty was admirable ; and to satisfie our selves of this curiosity , would willingly have gone a shoare but wee were advised to stay a little , till we were better assured of our portugall bernardo . which stay , gave us time to take a view of the harbour or bay , which they call the pry , and is about a league over from land to land . and , as i guest , somewhat more ; from the poynts of land , to the bottome ; and , as we enter , we leave a small iland on our larboard side . this bay or pry , lies to the leeward of the iland ; by reason whereof we found so great , so insufferable heate , as you will hardly imagine that bodyes comming out of cold climates , could indure such scorching without being suffocated . i had in a cabinet two pieces of hard waxe , in the hold of the ship both mel●ed and clave together ; and the cement of that cabinet , that was made to hold the inke , melted and became flat . so that finding the ayer so torridly hot , i thought good to make triall of the water ; and i leapt into the sea , which appeared to my sense no more colder than the ayer ; than the queens bath ( at ba●he ) is hotter in june here in england . at the bottome , or inward part of the pry , there appeared to us , a faire round rising hill , neere halfe the bredth of the pry , not much unlike the how at pl●mouth , with a valley on either side ; and on the brow of the hill towards the right hand , a very high and steep precipice of a rocke ; in which stood the house of the padre vagado , fixt on the top of the rocke . a house fit enough for such a master ; for though he were the chiefe commander of the iland : yet by his port and house he kept he was more like a hermite then a governour . his familie consisting of a mollotto of his own getting , three negroes , a fidler , and a wench . himselfe a man grave enough to be wise , but certainly of no great learning ; for upon the differences between bernardo and us , colonel modiford writ him a letter in latin , which he did his best endeavour to answer but fell two bowes short in substance and language , and though his quarrell were to us , yet he revenged himselfe on priscian , whose head he broke 3 or 4 times in his letter . the first time we saw him , was at his own house , by his own invitation : to which almost inaccessible habitation , when we had climed with infinite difficulty ; and indeed so painfull and violent was our motion : ( our leggs finding the motion of elevation , much more violent then of distention , ) as we were almost scalded within , and the torrid heat of the sun , being then our zenith , did so scald us without , as we were in fitter condition to be fricased for the padres dinner , then to eat any dinner our selves . being painfully and pipeing hot , arriv'd at this exalted mansion ; we found none to entertaine us but bernardo ; whose countenance was not so well reconcil'd to himselfe , as to give us a hearty welcome . he told us that the padre was gone forth about some affaires of the iland , but would returne time enough to dinner . and whilst we were staying there , expecting his comming , we thought good not to be idle , for the structure of that fabricke , did not minister to our eyes much of delight . onely that it had a faier prospect to sea . so we walkt along upon that round hill , enquiring what we could of the place ; and were inform'd that there had been formerly a very stately town , beautified with faire buildings , and streets so contrived , as to make the best use of such a prospect ; but burnt and demolisht by sr. francis drake , in the time of the warres , between queen elizabeth , and the king of spaine , which made us give more reverence to the place ; for that some of our countreymen had there sacrificed their lives for the honour of our nation . about the houre that our stomacks told us , it was full high time to pay nature her due , we lookt about us , and perceived at a good distance , a horse comming towards us , with a man on his back , as hard as his heels could carry him ; and within a very little time , made a sudden stop at the padres house , from whose backe ( being taken by two negroes , ) was set on the ground a great fat man , with a gowne on his back , his face not so black as to be counted a mollotto , yet i believe full out as black as the knight of the sunne ; his eyes blacker if possible , and so far sunk into his head , as with a large pinne you might have prick't them out in the nappe of his necke . upon his a lighting we perceived him very much discomposed , for the pace he rid , was not his usuall manner of riding , as by our enquiry afterwards we understood ; and that he very seldom rid at all , but his business having held him over long , caus'd him to take horse , who intended to come a foot ; and being m●●●nted , ( and he none of the best horsemen , ) was made subject to the wil of his horse ; which being a barbe , & very swift of foot , comming towards the place where he was kept , ranne with such violence , as it was a wonder his burthen had not been cast by the way ; for the horse having a bit in his mouth , and the stirrops being extreame short , as the manner of their riding there is , if he had ever checkt him with the bridle , that he had been put to bound , he had undoubtedly layd him on the ground . but the rider that thought of nothing more , then holding fast by the pummell with both handes , was miraculously preserv'd . in this great discomposure , he was taken off by two negroes , and set on his owne legs : but in such a trance , as for some minutes , he was not in a condition to speake to us : so sensible an impression had the feare of falling made in him . but being at last come to himselfe , he made his addresse to us , and in his language bid us welcome , begining to excuse his too long stay : to redeeme which fault , he had put himselfe in such a hazard , as in his whole life he had not knowne the like . we answered , that it argued a great respect and civilitie to us , that he would expose his gravitie , which was accustomed to a moderate pace , to such a swiftnes of motion , as might in any kinde indanger his health , or hazard his person . but he being a man much reserv'd , and slow of language , said no more ; but brought us into his house ; which was upon a levell at the entrance , but the other side of the rooms a steep precipice , and some of the roomes like galleries-such as are in the meanest innes upon london-way . there were not in the house above 4 roomes , besides two galleries and a kitchin ; and those all on a flower ; and the flowers of earth , not so much as made levell , nor soeeven as to deserve sweeping ; and the most of them were justly dealt withall : for they had no more then they deserv'd , both above and below ; for the cobwebs serv'd for hangings , and frying pans and gred-irons for pictures . by this equipage , you may guesse what the trading is of this iland , when the governour is thus accoutred ; but by and by , a cloath was layde , of calico , with 4 or 5 napkins of the same , to serve a dozen men . the first course was set on the table , usherd in by the padre himselfe , ( bernardo , the mollotto , and negroes following after , ) with every one a dish of fruite , 6 in all ; the first was millions , plantines the second , the third bonanos , the 4 of guavers , the 5 of prickled peares , the 6 the custard apple : but to fill up the table , and make the feast yet more sumptuous , the padre sent his mollotto , into his own chamber , for a dish which he reserv'd for the close of all the rest ; three pines in a dish , which were the first that ever i had seene , and as farre beyond the best fruite that growes in england , as the best abricot is beyond the worst slow or crab. having well refresht our selves with these excellent fruites , we dranke a glasse or two of red sack ; a kinde of wine growing in the maderas ; verie strong , but not verie pleasant ; for in this iland , there is made noe wine at all ; nor as i thinke any of grapes , so neere the line upon ilands in all the world . having made an end of our fruite , the dishes were taken away , and another course fetcht in ; which was of flesh , fish , and sallets ; the sallets being first plac't upon the table ▪ which i tooke great heed of , being all novelties to me , but the best and most favourie herbs that ever i tasted , verie well season'd with salt , oyle , and the best vinagre . severall sorts we had , but not mixt , but in severall dishes , all strange , and all excellent ▪ the first dish of flesh , was a leg of young sturke , or a wilde calfe , of a yeare old ; which was of the colour of stags flesh , and tasted very like it , full of nerves and sinewes , strong meat and very well condited : boyld tender , and the sauce of savorie herbes , with spanish vinagre . turkyes and hens we had roasted ; a gigget of young goate , fish in abundance of severall kindes , whose names i have forgotten , snappers , grey and red ; cavallos , carpions , &c : with others of rare colours and shapes , too many to be named in this leafe ; some fryed in oyle , and eaten hot , some souc't , some marinated : of all these we tasted , and were much delighted . dinner being neere halfe done , ( the padre , bernardo , and the other black atendants , waiting on us ; ) in comes an old fellow , whose complexion was raised out of the red sack ; for neare that colour it was : his head and beard milke white , his countenance bold and cheerfull , a lute in his hand , and plaide us for a noveltie , the passame sares galiard ; a tune in great esteeme , in harry the fourths dayes ; for when sir john fal●taff makes his amours to mistresse doll tear-sheet , sneake and his companie , the admired fidlers of that age , playes this tune , which put a thought into my head , that if time and tune be the composits of musicke , what a long time this tune had in sayling from england to this place . but we being sufficiently satisfied with this kind of harmonie , desired a song ; which he performed in as antique a manner ; both favouring much of antiquitie ; no graces , double relishes , frillos , grops or piarro torte's , but plaine as a packstaffe ; his lute too , was but of tenne strings , and that was in fashion in king davids dayes ; soe that the raritie of this antique piece , pleas'd me beyond measure . dinner being ended , and the padre well neere wearie of his wayting , we rose , and made roome for better companie ; for now the padre , and his blacke mistresse were to take their turnes ; a negro of the greatest beautie and majestie together : that ever i saw in one woman . her stature large , and excellently shap't , well favour'd , full eye'd , & admirably grac't ; she wore on her head a roll of green taffatie , strip't with white and philiamort , made up in manner of a turban ; and over that a sleight vayle , which she tooke off at pleasure . on her bodie next her linen , a peticoate of orange tawny and skye colour ; not done with straite stripes , but wav'd ; and upon that ▪ a mantle of purple silke , ingrayld with straw colour . this man●le was large , and tyed with a knot of verie broad black ribbon , with a rich jewell on her right shoulder , which came under her left arme , and so hung loose and carelesly , almost to the ground . on her legs , she wore buskins of wetched silke , deckt with silver lace , and fringe ; her shooes , of white leather , lac't with skie colour ; and pinkt between those laces . in her eares , she wore large pendants , about her n●ck ; and on her armes , fayre pearles . but her eyes were her richest iewells : for they were the largest , and most orientall , that i have ever seene , seing all these perfections in her onely at passage , but not yet heard her speake ; i was resolv'd after dinner , to make an essay ▪ what a present of rich silver silke and gold ribbon would doe , to perswade her to open her lips : partly out of a curiositie , to see whether her teeth were exactly white , and cleane , as i hop'd they were ; for 't is a generall opinion , that all negroes have white teeth ; but that is a common error , for the black and white , being so neere together , they set off on another with the greater advantage . but looke neerer to them , and you shall find those teeth , which at a distance appear'd rarely white , are yellow and foul . this knowledge wrought this curiositie in me , but it was not the mayne end of my enquirie ; for there was now , but one thing more , to set her off in my opinioni , the rarest black swanne that i had ever seen , and that was her language , & gracefull delivery of that , which was to unite and confirme a perfection in all the rest . and to that end i took a gentleman that spoke good spanish with me , and awaited her comming out , which was with far greater majesty , and gracefulness , then i have seen queen anne , descend from the chaire of state , to dance the measures with a baron of england , at a maske in the banquetting house . and truly , had her followers and friends , with other perquisits ( that ought to be the attendants on such a state and beautie ) wayted on her , i had made a stop , and gone no farther . but finding her but slightly attended , and considering she was but the padres mistres , & therefore the more accessible , i made my addresses to her , by my interpreter ; & told her , i had some trifles made by the people of england , which for their value were not worthy her acceptance , yet for their novelty , they might be of some esteem , such having bin worn by the great queens of europe , & intreated her to vouchsafe to receive them . she with much gravity , and reserv'dness , opened the paper ; but when she lookt on them , the colours pleased her so , as she put her gravity into the loveliest smile that i have ever seen . and then shewed her rowes of pearls , so clean , white , orient , and well shaped , as neptunes court was never pav'd with such as these ; & to shew whether was whiter , or more orient , those or the whites of her eyes , she turn'd them up , & gave me such a look , as was a sufficient return for a far greater present , and withall wisht , i would think of somewhat wherein she might pleasure me , and i should finde her both ready and willing . and so with a gracefull bow of her neck , she took her way towards her own house ; which was not above a stones cast from the padres . other addresses were not to be made , without the dislike of the padre , for they are there as jealous of their mistrisses , as the italians of their wives . in the afternoon we took leave , and went aboard ; where we remained three or four days ; about which time , some passengers of the ship , who had no great store of linnen for shift , desired leave to go ashoare and took divers women along with them , to wash their linnen . but ( it seem'd ) the portugalls , and negroes too , found them handsome and fit for their turnes , and were a little rude , i cannot say ravisht them ; for the major part of them , being taken from bridewell , turnboule street , and such like places of education , were better natur'd then to suffer such violence ; yet complaints were made , when they came aboard , both of such abuses , and stealing their linnen . but such a praise they gave of the place , as we all were desirous to see it : for , after the raine , every day gave an increase to the beauty of the place , by the budding out of new fruits and flowers . this was the valley on the left side of the hill , more spacious and beautifull by much than that on the right hand , where the padre dwelt . the next day , a dozen gentlemen of our company , resolv'd to go and see this so much admired valley , and when our saylers with their long boat went to fetch water , ( as dayly they did , ) we went along with them : and landed there , in as high going billows , as i have ever seen , so near the land . much adoe we had , to be carried to land though on mens backs , and yet the grapple came as near the shoare as they durst bring it , for bulging against the bottome . no sooner were vve landed , but the captaine of the castle , with one souldier vvith him ; came tovvards us , vvith a slovv formall pace ; vvho desired to speake vvith one of us alone . colonel modiford , being the chiefe man in the company , went with an interpreter to meet him ; and being at the distance of speech , desired to know his pleasure ; which he told him vvas this . that he understood divers of our vvomen had bin ashoare , the day before ; and received some injury , from the people of the iland , and that it vvas conceiv'd , vve were come arm'd to take revenge on those that did the affront . he therefore advised us , either to make speedy returne to the boate that brought us : or to send back our svvords and pistols , and commit our selves to his protection ; and if one of those vvere not presently put in act , vve should in a very short time have all our throats cut. we told him vve had no intention of revenge for any vvrong done , and that the only cause of our landing , vvas to see the beauty of the place vve had heard so much commended , by our people that were ashore , of which they had given a very large testimony , both of the pleasantness and fruitfulness of it , and that our visit vvas out of love , both to the place and people . but for sending our weapons back to the boate , vve desired his pardon ; for this reason , that the billovvs going so very high at that time , vve could not send them to the boat vvithout being dipt in the sea vvater , vvhich vvould spoyle them ; and the most of them , being rich svvords , and pistols , vve vvere loath to have their beauty covered vvith rust , vvhich the salt vvater vvould be the occasion of . we desired rather , that he would command a souldier of his , to stay with a man of ours , and keep them safe , till our returne ; which he being content to doe , we committed our selves to his protection , who put a guard upon us of 10 souldiers , part portugalls part negroes ; the most part of either kind , as proper men as i have seen , and as handsomely cloathed . their garments made with much art , and all seem'd to be done by the tayler ; the coverings for their heads , were not unlike helmits ; of blew and white strip't silke , some tawny , and yellow , others of other sorts of colours ; but all of one fashion , their doublets close to their bodies , with cassocks , made of the fashion of the kings guard : loose sleeves , which came to their elbowes ; but large and gathered so as to sit loose from their armes ; with foure large skirts , reaching down to the middle of their thighs ; but these of a different colour from their suits , their breeches indifferently large , comming down below the knee ; and the upper part , so wrought with whalebones within , as to keep them hollow , fromtouching their backs ; to avoid heat , which they were much troubled with ; upon their leggs , buskins of the colour of their suits , yet some made a difference : their shooes colour'd for the most part ; some white , but very few blacke . their weapons , as swords , pistols , muskets , pikes , and partisans , kept very bright , and worne comelily and gracefully ; which argued a decencie in the commander , as their awfull respect did of his austeritie . being now under a guard , we marcht into this valley , one of the delightfullest places that i have ever seen , for besides the high and loftie trees , as the palmeto , royall , coco , cedar , locust , masticke , mangrave ▪ bully , redwood , pickled yellow wood , cassia , fistula , calibash , cherry , figgtree , whose body is large inough for timber , cittrons , custard apple , gnavers , macow , cipres , oranges , limons , lymes , pomegranat , a●otto , prickled apple , prickled peare , papa , these and more may be accounted wood : and yet a good part of them bearing excellent fruit ; but then there are of a lesser sort , that beare the rarest fruit ; whose bodyes cannot be accompted wood , as the plantine , pine , bonano , milon , water milon , &c. and some few grapes , but those inconsiderable , by reason they can never make wine : because they have no winter , and so by that meanes , they can never ripe together , but one is green , another ripe , another rotten , which reason will ever hold , that no wine can be made on ilands , where there is no winter : or within twenty degrees of the line on either side . i have heard that wine is made in the east indies , within lesse then fifteen degrees ; but t is of the palme tree ; out of whose body , they draw both wine and oyle ; which wine will not keep above a day , but no wine of grapes , for the reasons afore said , other kinds of trees , we found good to smell to , as mirtle , jesaman , tamarisk , with a tree somewhat of that bignesse , bearing a very beautifull flower . the first halfe next the stalke , of a deep yellow or gold colour ; the other halfe , being the larger , of a rich scarlet : shap'd like a garnation , & when the flowers fall off , there grows a cod , with 7 or 8 seeds in it , divers of which , we carried to the barbados , and planted there : and they grew and multiplied abundantly , and they call them there , the st. jago flower , which is a beautifull , but no sweet flower . from these woods of pleasant trees , we saw flying divers birds , some one way , some another , of the fairest , and most beautifull colours , that can be imagined in nature : others whose colours and shapes come short of these , did so excell in sweetnesse , and loudness of voyce , as our nightingals in england , are short of them , in either of those two properties ; but in variety of tunes , our birds are beyond them , for in that they are defective . in this valley of pleasure , adorn'd as you have heard , we march't with our guard , faire and softly , near a quarter of a mile ; before we came to the much praised fountaine ; from whence we fetcht our water . the circle whereof , was about 60 foot , the diameter about 20 from the ground to the top of the well , ( which was of freestone , ) 3 foot and a halfe ; from thence within , downe to the surface of the water , about 15 foot . the spring it selfe , not so much to be praised for the excellency of the taste , though cleare inough , as for the nymphs that repaire thither . for whilst we stayed there seeing the saylers full their casks ; and withall contemplating the glory of the place : there appeard to our view , many pretie young negro virgins , playing about the well . but amongst those ; two , that came downe with either of them a naturall pitcher , a calibash upon their arme , to fetch water from this fountaine . creatures , of such shapes , as would have puzzelld albert durer , the great mr of proportion , but to have imitated ; and tition , or andrea de sarta , for softnes of muscles , and curiositie of colouring , though with a studied diligence ; and a love both to the partie and the worke . to expresse all the perfections of nature , and parts , these virgins were owners of , would aske a more skillfull pen , or pencill then mine ; sure i am , though all were excellent , their motions were the highest , and that is a beautie no painter can expresse , and therefore my pen may well be silent ; yet a word or two , would not be amisse , to expresse the difference between these , and those of high africa ; as of morcoco , guinny , binny , cut●how , angola , aethiopia , and mauritania , or those that dwell nere the river of gambia , who are thick lipt , short nos●d , and commonly low foreheads . but these , are compos'd of such features , as would marre the judgment of the best paynters , to undertake to mend . wanton , as the soyle that bred them , sweet as the fruites they fed on ; for being come so neere , as their motions , and graces might perfectly be discern'd , i guest that nature could not , without help of art , frame such accomplisht beauties not onely of colours , and favour , but of motion too , which is the highest part of beautie . if dancing had bin in fashion in this iland , i might have been perswaded , that they had bin taught those motions , by some who had studied that art. but considering the padre's musique to be the best the iland afforded , i could not but cast away that thought , and attribute all to pure nature ; innocent , as youthfull , their ages about 15. seing their beauties so fresh and youthfull , withall the perfections i have named , i thought good to trie , whether the uttering of their language , would be as sweet and harmonious , as their other partes were comely . and by the helpe of a gentleman that spoke portugall , i accosted them ; and began to praise their beauties , shapes , and manner of dressings ; which was extreamly prettie . their haire not shorne as the negroes in the places i have named , close to their heads ; nor in quarters , and mases , as they use to weare it , which is ridiculous to all that see them , but themselves : but in a due proportion of length , so as having their shotenings by the naturall curles , they appeared as wiers , and artificiall dressings to their faces . on the sides of their cheeks , they plat little of it , of purpose to tie small ribbon ; or some small beads , of white amber , or blew bugle , sometimes of the rare flowers that grow there ; their eares hung with pendants , their necks and armes adorn'd with bracelets of counterfeit pearles , and blew bugle ; such as the portugalls bestow on them , for these are free negroes , and weare upon the small of one of their legs , the badge of their freedome ; which is a small peece of silver , or tinne , as big as the stale of a spoone ; which comes round about the leg : and by reason of the smoothnes , and lightnes , is no impediment to their going . their cloathes , were petticoates of strip't silk , next to their linen , which reach to their midle leg : and upon that a mantle , of blew taffitie , tied with a ribbon on the right shoulder : which coming under the left arme , hung downe carelesly somewhat lower then the petticoate , so as a great part of the naturall beautie , of their backes and necks before , lay open to the view , their breast round , firme , and beautifully shaped . upon my addresses to them , they appeard a little disturb'd ; and whispered to one another , but had not the confidence to speake aloud i had in my hat , a piece of silver and silke ribbon , which i perceiv'd their well shap't eyes , often to dart at ; but their modesties would not give them confidence to aske . i tooke it out , and divided it between them , which they accepted with much alacritie ; and in returne , dranke to one another my health in the liquor of the pure fountaine , which i perceiv'd by their wantons miles , and jesticulations , and casting their eyes towards me : vvhen they thought they had exprest enough they vvould take in their countenances , and put themselves in the modestest postures that could be , but vve having brought a cafe of bottles , of english spirits , vvith us ; i cald for some , and drunke a health to them , in a small dramme cup ; and gave it to one of them ; vvhich they smelt to , and finding it too strong for their temper , pour'd some of it into one of their calibashes : and put to it as much vvater , as vvould temper it to their palats ; they dranke againe , but all this vvould not give them the confidence to speake , but , in mute language , and extream prety motions , shewed , they wanted neither wit nor discretion , to make an answer . but it seem'd , it was not the fashion there , for young maides to speak to strangers , in so publick a place . i thought i had been sufficiently arm'd with the perfections i found in the padre's mistresse , as to be free from the darts of any other beauty of that place , and in so short a time : but i found the difference between young fresh beauties , and those that are made up with the addition of state and majesty : for though they counsell and perswade our loves ; yet , young beauties force , and so commit rapes upon our affections . in summe , had not my heart been fixed fast in my breast , and dwelt there above sixty years , and therefore loath to leave his long kept habitation , i had undoubtedly left it between them for a legacy . for , so equall were there beauties , and my love , as it was not , nor could be , particular to either . i have heard it a question disputed , whether if a horse , being plac'd at an equall distance , between two bottles of hey , equally good ; and his appetite being equally fix'd upon either : whether that horse must not necessarily starve . for , if he feed on either , it must argue , that his appetite was more fixt on that ; or else , that bottle was better than the other . otherwise , what should move him to chose one before the other ? in this posture was i , with my two mistresses ; or rather , my two halves of one mistresse : for , had they been conjoyned , and so made one , the poynt of my love had met there ; but , being divided , and my affection not forked , it was impossible to fix , but in one centre . in this doubtfull condition , i took my leave , with an assurance , that i should never finde two such parallel paragons , in my whole search through the world : and the reason of their so great likenesse and lustre , was , they were sisters and twins ; as i was after informed by a hermite , that came often to visit us , when we came on land , as we often did , and not far off from his cell . but you will think it strange , that a man of my age and gravity , should have so much to do with beauty and love : but i have three arguments to protect me . the first is , i have in my younger dayes , been much inclined to painting , in which art , colour , favour , and shape is exercised ; and these beauties , being a proper subject of all these perfections , ( being in themselves perfect ) i could not but consider them with a studied diligence . next , i had been long at sea , without setting foot on any land ; and that hath a property , to make all land-objects beautifull ; and these being in the highest degree paramount , could not but surprise my fancy . besides , the place being extream beautifull and lovely , could not but secretly harbour in it the spirit of love , a passion not to be governed . and therefore i hope , you will pardon my wilde extravagancy . but the main reason of this flying out , is , i had little else to say : for the iland , being a place of very little or no traffick , could not afford much of discourse . cattle they have very good , and large , which they sell at very easy rates ; and likewise horses , of excellent shapes and mettle ; but they are contrabanded goods , and whosoever deales in them , ( without speciall license ) forfeits both ship and goods , if they have power to compell them . but i believe , they have not , being partly informed by the hermite , who came often to us , to hear newes , and beg somewhat of us ; which being obtained , he would not stick to impart somewhat of the weaknesse of the iland , that would have cost him dear , if it had been known to the padre . and some of that which he enformed us , was , that the forts , and block-houses , on either side the prye , on which we saw the appearance of ordnances , good store , and large ; but we understood by him , that those forts were neither regular , nor the guns brasse or iron , but such as henry the eighth took bulloyne with ; and this we found by experience to be true : for , upon our first difference with barnardo , and the padre , we weyed anchor , and removed our selves out of the distance of the castle , which stood in the bottom of the prye ; and expected to have been shot at from those forts and block-houses , but saw no fire given ; and if they had been furnish'd with such artillery as would have reach'd us , we should certainly have heard from them . we also enquired of our intelligencer , the hermite , what trades or manufactures were practised there ; but were answered , that they were few , and inconsiderable ; sugar , sweet-meats , and coco-nuts , being the greatest trade they had . yet by the padres leave , we carried away with us 50 head of cattle , and 8 horses , which barnardo made us pay double for ; the usuall price being 25 s. a piece , for which he made us pay 50 s. and for horses , 10 l. a piece , which others have had for 4 or 5 l. but he was content , we should rate our commodities accordingly , and so we were no great losers by the exchange . having dispatch'd our businesse , we got leave to go ashoar , upon the little iland , at the entrance of the prye , there to cut and pull grasse , for our horses and cattle , which we made up into hay ; a work quickly done , where so much sun-shine was our helper . it being perfectly dried , we stowed it in the ship , which was our last work , and so wayed anchor , and hoysed saile , steering our course for the barbadoes , leaving bernardo ( according to his own desire ) behinde us ; having but 2 degrees to the southward to varie , in the running of 620 leagues westward . st. jago lying in 15. and the barbadoes in 13 degrees and 30 minutes , to the northward of the line . there are seven more ilands , which are called the ilands of cape verd : viz. s. michaels , st. vincents , st. anthonies , st. lucia , bravo , fogo , and soll : some of which are much larger , but none so considerable , as this of st. jago . as we lay at anchor in the entrance of the prye , we perceived at sun-set , between the sun and us , the iland called fogo ; which was at such a distance , as none of us could discern it all the day , till that houre ; and then the iland interposing between the sun and us , we saw it perfectly , shap'd like the neather half of a sugar loafe , the upper half being cut off eeven ; and in the midst of the top of that , a smoak and fire rising out , from which we guest it took its name . about the tenth of august , we put out to sea ; and as we sayled , we left the iland of our starbord-side , and did not part with the sight of it , till we discern'd a little town , near to the shoar , which , we were told , was the best in the iland , and a place meant for the chief port , for all traffick in the iland ; but by means of a great mischiefe , that ships were subject to in that harbour , it was almost totally deserted : for the sea there , was so rocky in the bottome , and those rocks so thick together , and sharp withall , as they cut the cables off neer to the anchor , and so the anchor often left in the bottom . there was a dutchman that lay there but three daies , and in that little stay , lost two anchors . from this iland to the barbadoes , we account 620 leagues ; which , by reason of the constancy of the windes , which blow seldome in any other point , than nore-east and by-east , they have usually sayled it in 16 or 17 daies . but we , for that it was the time of tornado , when the windes chop about into the south , were somewhat retarded in our passage , and made it twenty two daies ere we came thither ; and many have made it a far longer time . for , in the time of tornado , the clouds interpose so thick , and darken the skie so much , as we are not able to make an observation for a fortnight together ; and so being doubtfull of our latitude , dare not make the best use of our sayles and way , for fear of slipping by the island ; and being past it , can hardly beat it up again , without putting out into the main , and so by painfull traverses , recover our selves to the eastward of the iland , and then fall back again , by the due latitude upon it , at 13 degrees and 30 minutes . besides this paines , and losse of time , when we misse the iland , we many times run hazards , by falling upon the leeward ilands , in the night , of which the bay of merixo is well stor'd . in this long reach , ( which may be call'd a voyage it selfe ) i had only two things to make the way seem short ; the one was pleasure , the other businesse ; that of pleasure , was , to view the heavens , and the beauty of them , which were objects of so great glory , as the inhabitants of the world , from 40 degrees to either pole , can never be witnesse of . and this happens at the time , when the turnado is with those of that latitude , where we were . for the clouds being exhal'd in great quantities , some thick and grosse , some thin and aeriall , and being hurl'd and roll'd about with great and lesser curles , the sun then and there being far brighter , then with us here in england , caused such glorious colours to rest upon those clouds , as 't is not possible to be believed , by him that hath not seen it , nor can imagination frame so great a beauty : and the reason is , the neernesse and propinquity of the place we are in , which makes us see the glory of the sun , and of those stars too , which move in that horizon , much more perfectly , then at a further distance . the proof of this i found , by looking on the stars , that appear large and bright to us in england , which being seen there , do not only lose much of their light , but of their magnitude . for instance ; there is little star , called auriga , neer the charles wain , which in england i have seen very perfectly , in bright nights ; but at that distance , i could never see it in the clearest night , though i have often attempted it . and upon my return to england , i found it as i left it ; which argues , that it was no decay or impediment in my sight , that made me lose it , but only the distance of place . i deny not , but a better sight then mine , may see this star auriga at the barbadoes ; but then , so good a sight may see it more perfectly in england than i can ; and so the comparison holds . but another reason , to prove the celestiall bodies brighter at neerer distance , is , that the moon being neer the full , ( at which time it gives a plentifull light ) i have observed in the night , ( the sun having been set two hours , or thereabouts ) and at such a time , as the clouds being in a fit position , to reflect the beams which the moon then gives , to the place where you are , you shall see a perfect rain-bow in the night . but this does not happen at all times , though there be clouds , for the beams to rest on ; but only to such as are in an angle , where these beams reflect , and meet in a just point . divers new constellations we found , to the southward , which in our horizon are never seen ; and amongst them , one , which we call the cruser●s , which is made up of foure stars , which stand almost square , or rather like the clawes of a birds foot ; and the sea-men told us , that two of them point at the south pole , as the painters of the charles wain , do to the north star. but the south pole cannot be seen by us , that come from the northern parts , till we be under the line , and then we see both north and south ; as we do the sun in morning and evening , at six and six . and thus much for pleasure . now for businesse , it was only this : to inform my selfe , the best i could , of the account the master and his mates kept , of the ships way , both for compasse , card , and logline , together with the observations at noon , by that excellent and usefull instrument , the back-staffe , by which we know to a mile , the latitude we are in ; and if we had an instrument , to finde out the longitude as perfectly , every man might guid a ship , that could but keep an account . to the knowledge of this great secret , of the ships course , divers gentlemen of our company applyed themselves very diligently ; for the master was not froward , to communicate his skill to all that were of his messe . and to such a proficiency we were grown , as to lay a wager with the boat-swain , a very good seaman , upon the first sight of the iland of barbadoes . he laid , we should not see it till the afternoon , or late in the evening . we , that we should make it before noon . whether it were chance , or our skilfulnesse , i know not , but we won the wager , which was a couple of very fat hens , which we caused to be drest , and eat them in sight of the iland , with a double joy : first , that we had won the wager ; next , that we were grown so neer our wished harbour . being now come in sight of this happy iland , the neerer we came , the more beautifull it appeared to our eyes ; for that being in it selfe extreamly beautifull , was best discern'd , and best judg'd of , when our eyes became full masters of the object . there we saw the high , large , and lofty trees , with their spreading branches , and flourishing tops , seem'd to be beholding to the earth and roots , that gave them such plenty of sap for their nourishment , as to grow to that perfection of beauty and largenesse . whilst they , in gratitude , return their cool shade , to secure and shelter them from the suns heat , which , without it , would scorch and drie away . so that bounty and goodnesse in the one , and gratefulnesse in the other , serve to make up this beauty , which otherwise would lie empty & waste . and truly these vegetatives , may teach both the sensible and reasonable creatures , what it is that makes up wealth , beauty , and all harmony in that leviathan , a well governed common-wealth : where the mighty men , and rulers of the earth , by their prudent and carefull protection , secure them from harmes ; whilst they retribute their paynes , and faithfull obedience , to serve them in all just commands . and both these , interchangeably and mutually in love , which is the cord that bindes up all imperfect harmonie . and where these are wanting , the roots dry , and leaves fall away , and a generall decay , and devastation ensues . witnesse the woefull experience of these sad times we live in . being now come to the distance of two or three leagues , my first observation was , the forme of the iland in generall , which is highest in the middle ; by which commodity of situation , the inhabitants within , have these advantages ; a free prospect to sea , and a reception of pure refreshing ayer , and breezes that come from thence ; the plantations overlooking one another so ; as the most inland parts , are not bard nor restrained the liberties of their view to sea , by those that dwell between them and it . for as we past along neer the shoare , the plantations appear'd to us one above another : like severall stories in stately buildings , which afforded us a large proportion of delight . so that we begg'd of the master , to take down those of his sayles , that gave the ship the greatest motion , that we might not be depriv'd on a sudden , of a sight we all were so much pleased with but our cattle and horses ( who were under hatches ; and therefore no partners of this object ▪ ) having devoured all their fodder , and were now ready to come to that necessity , as the next thing to be thought on , was to plane deale boards , and feed them with the shavings ; which deadly hunger , caused such lowing and bellowing of the poor cattle , as their cry stopped the masters eares , so as the smoothest , and most perswasive language , we could use : could not force a passage , but with all the haste he could , put into carlils bay ; which is the best in the iland , where we found riding at anchor , 22 good ships , with boates playing two and fro , with sayles and oates , which carried commodities from place to place : so quick stirring , and numerous : as i have seen it below the bridge at london . yet notwithstanding all this appearance of trade , the inhabitants of the ilands , and shipping two were so grieviously visited with the plague , ( or as killing a disease , ) that before a month was expired after our arivall , the living were hardly able to bury the dead . whether it were brought thither in shipping : ( for in long voyages , diseases grow at sea , and takes away many passengers , and those diseases prove contagious , ) or by the distempers of the people of the iland : who by thei ll dyet they keep , and drinking strong waters , bring diseases upon themselves , was not certainly known . but i have this reason to beleeve the latter : because for one woman that dyed , there were tenne men ; and the men were the greater deboystes . in this sad time , we arriv'd in the iland ; and it was a doubt whether this disease , or famine threatned most ; there being a generall scarcity of victuals throughout the whole iland . our intention at first , was not to stay long there , but onely to sell our goods , cattle , and horses ; and so away to antigoa ; where we intended to plant : but the ships being ( for the most part ) infected with this disease , and our selves being unprovided of handes for a new plantation ( by reason of the miscarying of a ship , which set ou● before us from plimouth , a month before , with men victuals , and all utensell's fitted for a plantation , we were compelled to stay longer in the iland than we attended . besides , the ship we came in , was consigned to another part in africa , called cu●chew , to trade for negroes . but during the time of our stay there , we made enquires of some small plantation to rest us on , til the times became better , and fitter for our remove ; with intent to make use of those few hands we had , to settle that , till we had supplies , and new directions from england . and so upon discourse with some of the most knowing men of the iland , we found that it was farre better , for a man that had money , goods , or credit , to purchase a plantation there ready furnisht , and stockt with servants , slaves , horses , cattle , assinigoes , camels , &c. with a sugar worke , and an ingenio : than to begin upon a place , where land is to be had for nothing , but a triviall rent , and to indure all hardships , and a tedious expectation , of what profit or pleasure may arise , in many yeers patience : and that , not to be expected , without large and frequent supplies from england ; and yet fare , and labour hard . this knowledge , was a spurre to set on colonel modiford , who had both goods and credit , to make enquiry for such a purchase , which in very few dayes he lighted on ; making a visit to the governonr mr. phillip bell , met there with major william hilliard , an eminent planter of the iland , and a councellor , who had been long there , and was now desirous to sucke in some of the sweet ayre of england : and glad to find a man likely to performe with him , took him home to his house , and began to treate with him , for halfe the plantation upon which he lived ; which had in it 500 acres of land , with a faire dwelling house , an ingenio plac't in a roome of 400 foot square ; a boyling house , filling roome , cisterns , and still-house ; with a carding house , of 100 foot long , and 40 foot broad ; with stables , smiths forge , and rooms to lay provisions , of corne , and bonavist ; houses for negroes and indian slaves , with 96 negroes , and three indian women , with their children ; 28 christians , 45 cattle for worke , 8 milch cowes , a dosen horses and mares , 16 assinigoes . after a months treaty , the bargaine was concluded , and colonel modiford was to pay for the moity of this plantation , 7000 l ; to be payed , 1000 l in hand , the rest 2000 l. a time , at sixe and sixe months , and colonel modiford to receive the profit of halfe the plantation as it rose , keeping the account together , both of the expence and profit . in this plantation of 500 acres of land , there was imployed for sugar somewhat more then 200 acres ; above 80 acres for pasture , 120 for wood , ●0 for tobacco , 5 for ginger , as many for cotton wool , and 70 acres for provisions ; viz. corne , potatoes , plantines , cassavie , and bonavist ; some few acres of which for fruite ; viz. pines , plantines , milions , bonanoes , gnavers water milions , oranges ; limons , limes , &c. most of these onely for the table . upon this plantation i lived with these two partners a while , but with colonel modiford ▪ three years ; for the other went for england , and left colonel modiford to manage the imployment alone ; and i to give what assistance i could for the benefit of both : which i did , partly at their requests , and partly at the instance of mr. thomas kendall , who reposed much confidence in me , in case colonel modiford should miscarry in the voyage . i only speak thus much , that you may perceive , i had time enough to improve my selfe , in the knowledge of the managment of a plantation of this bulk ; and therefore , you may give the more credit in what i am to say , concerning the profit and value of this plantation , which i intend as a scale , for those that go upon the like ; or to varie it to greater or lesse proportions , at their pleasure . and indeed , i wanted no tutridge , in the learning this mystery ; for , to do him right , i hold collonell modiford as able , to undertake and perform such a charge , as any i know . and therefore i might ( according to my ability ) be able to say something , which i will , as briefly as i can , deliver to you , in such plain language as i have . but before i come to say any thing of the iland , as it wa● when i arrived there , i will beg leave , to deliver you a word or two , what hath been told me by the most ancient planters , that we found there , and what they had by tradition from their predecessors . for , few or none of them that first set foot there , were now living . about the year a ship of sir william curteens , returning from ternambock in brasill , being driven by foul weather upon this coast , chanc'd to fall upon this iland , which is not far out of the way , being the most windwardly iland of all the ●arribbies , ( ●obago only excepted ; ) and anchoring before it , stayed some time , to informe themselves of the nature of the place ; which they found by tryalls in severall parts , to be so overgrown with wood , as there could be found no champions , or sa●annas for men to dwell in ; nor found they any beasts to inhabit there , only hogs , and those in abundance : the portugalls having long before , put some ashoar for breed , in case they should at any time be driven by foul weather , to be cast upon the iland , they might there finde fresh meat , to serve them upon such an extremity : and the fruits and roots that grew there , afforded them so great plenty of food , as they multiplyed abundantly . so that the natives of the leeward ilands , that were at the distance of sight , comming thither in their cannoas , and periagos , and finding such game to hunt , as these hogs , and the flesh so sweet and excellent in tast , they came often thither a hunting , and stayed sometimes a month together , and so returned again at pleasure , leaving behinde them certain tokens of their being there , which were , pots , of severall sizes , in which they boyled their meat , made of clay , so finely tempered , and turned with such art , as i have not seen any like them , for finenesse of mettle , and curiosity of turning , in england . this information i received from the planters in barbadoes . but being here a prisoner , in the upper bench prison , my chance was to meet with an antient captain , and one of those that first landed on the iland ; and had the managing of a good part of the iland , under william late earle of pembrok , before my lord of carlile begg'd it of king james . this captain canon ( for so was his name ) inform'd me for certain , that this was a grosse mistake in the planters , and that no indians ever came there : but those pots were brought by the negres , which they fetcht from angola , and some other parts of africa ; and that he had seen them make of them at angola , with the greatest art that may be . though i am willing to believe this captain , who delivered upon his knowledge , that the negres brought some pots thither , and very finely and artificially made ; yet , it does not hinder any man from believing , that the indians brought some too ; and who knowes , which were the most exactly made . for , 't is certain , that from some part of the iland , you may see ( in a clear day ) st. vincents perfectly : and if we can see them , why may not they see us ; and they will certainly venture to any place they see , so far as they know they can reach before night , setting out very early in the morning . but i leave you to credit which of these you please , either , or both . but i have a great inclination to believe , the indians have been there , for this reason , that the iland of st. vincents , lying in the same climate with this of ●arbado●s , the clay may be of the same nature and qualitie ; and they , having the skill to bring their clay to so fine a temp●● , as to burn and not break , may shew us the way , to temper ours of the barbadoes so , as we may make bricks to burn , without chopping or cracking ; which those of angola , being far off , and it may be , their clay of different temper , cannot help us in . and it is no hard matter , to procure an indian or two , to come from that iland , and give us direction , which would be of infinite use and advantage , to our buildings in barbadoes . but this digression must not lead me out of the way of my businesse . this discovery being made , and advice given to their friends in england , other ships were sent , with men , provisions , and working tooles , to cut down the woods , and clear the ground , so as they might plant provisions to keep them alive , which , till then , they found but straglingly amongst the woods . but having clear'd some part of it , they planted potatoes , plat●●nes , and mayes , with some other fruites ; which , with the hogs-flesh they found , serv'd only to keep life and soul together . and their supplies from england comming so slow , and so uncertainly , they were often driven to great extremities : and the tobacco that grew there , so earthy and worthlesse , as it could give them little or no return from england , or else-where ; so that for a while they lingred on in a lamentable condition . for , the woods were so thick and most of the trees so large and massie , as they were not to be falne with so few hands ; and when they were laid along , the branches were so thick and boysterous , as required more help , and those strong and active men , to lop and remove them off the ground . at the time we came first there , we found both potatoes , maies , and bona●●●s , planted between the boughes , the trees lying along upon the ground ; so far short was the ground then of being clear'd . yet , we found indico planted , and so well ordered , as it sold in london at very good rates ; and their cotten wool , and fustick wood , prov'd very good and staple commodities . so that having these foure sorts of goods to traffick with , some ships were invited ( in hope of gain by that trade ) to come and visit them , bringing for exchange , such commodities as they wanted , working tools , iron , steel , cloaths , shirts , and drawers , hose and shoes , hats , and more hands . so that beginning to taste the sweet of this trade , they se● themselves hard to work , and lived in much better condition . but when the canes , had been planted three or four years , they found that to be the main plant , to improve the value of the whole iland : and so , bent all their endeavours to advance their knowledge in the planting , and making sugar : which knowledge , though they studied hard , was long a learning . but i will forbear to say any thing of that , till i bring in the plants ; where you shall finde not only the colour , shape , and qualitie of this plant , but the worth and value of it , together the whole processe of the great work of sugar-making , which is the thing i mainly aime at : but , in my way to that , i will give you a sleight description or view , of the iland in generall : and first , of the scituation , # it were a crime , not to believe , but that you are well verst in the knowledge of all parts of the known habitable world ; and i shall seem impertinent ; if i go about to inform you of the scituation of this iland . but , because there have been some disputes between seamen , whether it lie in bare 13 degrees , or in 13 degrees and 30 minutes , i shall easily be led by the most voices , of the most able seamen , to give for granted , that carlile bay , which is the harbour where most of them put in , is 13 degrees and 30 minutes from the line , to the northern latitude . this bay is , without exception , the best in the iland , and is somewhat more then a league over ; and from the points of land to the bottom of the bay , is twice as much . upon the most inward part of the bay , stands the town , which is about the bignesse of hou●slo , and is called the bridge ; for that a long bridge was made at first over a little nook of the sea , which was rather a bog then sea. a town ill scituate ; for if they had considered health , as they did conveniency , they would never have set it there ; or , if they had any intention at first , to have built a town there , they could not have been so improvident , as not to forsee the main inconveniences that must ensue , by making choice of so unhealthy a place to live in . but , one house being set up , another was erected , and so a third , and a fourth , till at last it came to take the name of a town ; divers store-houses being there built , to stow their goods in , for their convenience , being neer the harbour . but the main oversight was , to build their town upon so unwholsome a place . for , the ground being somwhat lower within the land , than the sea-banks are , the spring-tides flow over , and there remains , making a great part of that flat , a kinde of bog or morost , which vents out so loathsome a savour , as cannot but breed ill blood , and is ( no doubt ) the occasion of much sicknesse to those that live there . at the time of our arrivall , and a month or two after , the sicknesse raign'd so extreamly , as the living could hardly bury the dead ; and for that this place was neer to them , they threw the dead carcases into the bog , which infected so the water , as divers that drunk of it were absolutely poysoned , and dyed in few houres after ; but others , taking warning by their harmes , forbare to taste any more of it . the ground on either side the bay , ( but chiefly that to the eastward ) is much firmer , and lies higher ; and , i believe , they will in time , remove the town upon that ground , for their habitations , though they suffer the store-houses to remain where they are , for their convenience . but the other scituation , may be made with some charge as convenient as that , and abundantly more healthfull . three bayes there are more of note in this iland ; one , to the eastward of this , which they call austin's bay , not in commemoration of any saint , but of a wilde mad drunken fellow , whose lewd and extravagant carriage , made him infamous in the iland ; and his plantation standing neer this bay , it was called by his name . the other two are to the west of carlile bay ; and the first is called mackfields bay , the other spikes bay ; but neither of these three are environ'd with land , as carlile bay is : but being to the leeward of the iland , and good anchorage , they seldome are in danger ; unlesse in the time of turnado , when the wind turnes about to the south ; and then , if they be not well ●oor'd , they are subject to fall foul on one another , and sometimes driven aground . for , the leeward part of the iland being rather shelvie then rockie , they seldome or never are cast away . # the length and breadth of this iland , i must deliver you only upon trust ; for , i could not go my selfe about it , being full of other businesse , but i had some speech with the antientest , and most knowing surveyer there , one captain swann , who told me , that he once took an exact plot of the whole iland , but it was commanded out of his hands by the then governour , sir henry hunks , who carried it into england ▪ since which time , neither himselfe , nor any other , to his knowledge , had taken any ; nor did he believe , there was any extant . i desired him yet that he would rub up his memory , and take a little paines in the survey of his papers , to try what could be found out there , that might give me some light in the extent of the iland , which he promised to do ; and within a while after , told me , that he had found by some papers , that lay scattered in his study , the length of it ; but for the breadth , it was very uncertain , by reason of the nooks and corners that reach'd out into the sea , so that it must of necessity be broad in some places , and narrow in others . i desired then to know , how many miles the broadest , and how few the narrowest parts might be . he told me , that he guest , the broadest place could not be above seventeen miles , nor the narrowest under twelve ; and that the length , he was assured , was twenty eight miles . out of these uncertain grounds , it was a hard matter to conclude upon any certainties ; and therefore the evenest way i can go , is , upon a medium , between twelve and seventeen ; and , i will be as modest as i can in my computation ; and take but 14. which is lesse then the medium , and multiply 14. which is supposed to be the breadth , by 28. which is assured to be the length , and they make 392 square miles in the iland . beyond this , my enquiries could not reach , and therefore was compell'd to make my estimate upon this bare supposition . but , for the forme of the superficies of the iland , i am utterly ignorant ; and for the upright , i have given it you in my first view of the iland , that it rises highest in the middle . # when the sun is in the aequinoctiall , or within 10 degrees of either side , we finde little change in the daies length ; for at six and six the sun rises and sets : but when he is neer the tropick of capricorn , and is 37 degrees from us , we finde a difference ; for then , the day is somewhat shorter , and we perceive that shortning , to begin about the end of october ; the crepusculum being then not much longer then at other times , which is not halfe the length , as 't is with us in england . at the time of new 〈◊〉 , we finde both her corners equally high , when the sun is neer us ; but when it is at the distance of 37 degrees to the southward , we finde some difference ; for then it hangs not so equall , but one end is higher then the other , by reason of the position we are in . eight months of the year , the weather is very hot , yet not so scalding , but that servants , both christians , and slaves , labour and travell tenne hours in a day . as the sunne rises , there rise with him coole breezes of wind , and the higher and hotter the sunne shines , the stronger and cooler the breezes are , and blow alwaies from the nore east , and by east , except in the time of the turnado : and then it sometimes chops about into the south , for an hour or two , and then returnes againe to the same poynt where it was . the other foure months it is not so hot , but is neer the temper of the aire in england , in the middle of may , and though in the hot seasons we sweat much , yet we doe not finde that faintnesse , that we finde here , in the end of july , or beginning of august . with this great heat , there is such a moysture , as must of necessity cause the ayer to be very unwholsome . we are seldome drye or thirsty , unlesse we overheat our bodyes with extraordinary labour , or drinking strong drinks ; as of our english spirits , which we carry over , of french brandy , or the drinke of the iland , which is made of the skimmings of the coppers , that boyle the sugar , which they call kill-divell . and though some of these be needfull if they be used with temper ; yet the immoderate use of them , over-heats the body , which causes costivenesse , and tortions in the bowels ; which is a disease very frequent there ; and hardly cur'd , and of which many have dyed , but certainely , strong drinks are very requisit , where so much heat is ; for the spirits being exhausted with much sweating , the inner parts are left cold and faint , and shall need comforting , and reviving . besides , our bodyes having bin used to colder clymates , finde a debility , and a great fayling in the vigour , and sprightliness we have in colder climats ; our blood too , is thinner and paler than in our own countreys . nor is the meat so well relisht as in england ; but flat and insipid , the hogges flesh onely excepted , which is indeed the best of that kinde that i thinke is in the world . our horses and cattle seldome drinke , and when they do , it is in very small quantities ; except such as have their bodies over heated with working . this moysture of the ayre , causes all our knives , etweese , keyes , needles , swords , and ammunition , to rust ; and that in an instant for take your knife to the grindstone , and grind away all the rust ; which done , wipe it dry , and put it up into your sheath , and so into your pocket , and in a very little time , draw it out ; and you shall find it beginning to rust all over ; which in more time , will eate deep into the steele , and spoyle the blade . our locks too , that are not often made use of , will rust in the wards , and so become uselesse , and clocks , and watches will seldome or never go true ; and all this occasion'd by the moystnesse of the ayre . and this we found at fe● : for before we came neere this iland , we perceiv'd a kind of weather , which is neither raine nor mist , and continued with us sometimes four or five dayes together , which the seamen call a heysey weather , and rises to such a height , as though the sunne shine out bright , yet we cannot see his body , till nine a clock in the morning , nor after three in the afternoone . and we see the skie over our heads cleare : a close and very unhealthull weather , and no pleasure at all in it . this great heat and moysture together , is certainely the occasion that the trees and plants grow to such vast height , and largenesse as they are . # there is nothing in this iland so much wanting , as springs and rivers of water ; there being but very few , and those very smal & inconsiderable . i know but only one river , and that may rather be term'd a lake , then a river ; the springs that runne into it , are never able to fill it , they are so small ; outfall to sea it has none ; but at spring tides , the sea comes in and fills it ; and at nepe tides , it cannot runne out againe , the sea-banks being higher than it . but some of it issues out through the sands , and leaves behind it a mixt water , of fresh and salt : at the time the tide comes in , it brings with it some fishes , which are content to remaine there ; being better pleased to live in this mixt water , then in the salt. colonel humphrey walrond , who is owner of the land of both sides , and therefore of it ; has told me , that he has taken fishes there , as bigge as salmons , which have been overgrown with fat , as you have seen porpisces ; but extreamely sweet and firme . but it has not been often , that such fish , or any other , have bin taken in that place , by reason the whole lake is filled with trees and roots . so that no net can be drawn , nor any hook laid ; for they will wind the lines about the roots , and so get away ; or the lines break in pulling up , being fastned to the roots . this river , or lake , reaches not within the land above twelve score yards , or a flight shot at most ; and there is no part of it so broad , but you may cast a coyte over it . the spring tides there , seldome rise above four or five foot upright : there come from the sea into these small bibling rivolets , little lobsters , but wanting the great clawes afore , which are the sweetest and fullest of fish , that i have seen ; chicester lobsters are not to be compared to them . but the water which the people of this iland most relye upon , is raine water ; which they keep in ponds , that have descents of ground to them , so that what falls on other ground , may runne thither . and the place in which the pond is set , must be low , and claye in the bottome : or if it be not naturally of clay , it must be made so . for if it finde any leake to the rocky part , it gets between those clifts , and sinks in an instant . about the end of december , these ponds are fill'd ; and with the help it hath by the weekly showrs that fall , they continue so , yet sometimes they feele a want . this pond water , they use upon all occasions , and to all purposes ; to boyle their meat , to make their drink , to wash their linnen , for it will beare soape . but one thing seem'd to me a little loathsome , and that was the negroes washing themselves in the ponds , in hot weather ; whose bodies have none of the sweetest savours . but the planters are pleased to say , that the sunne with his virtuall heat , drawes up all noysome vapours , and so the waters become rarified , and pure againe . but it was a great satisfaction to me , that a little rivulet was neere us , from whence we fetcht dayly , as much as served us , both for meat , and drink . in these ponds , i have never seen any small fish , fry , or any thing that lives or moves in it , except some flies that fall into it ; but the water is clear and well tasted . and because their cattle shall not be in danger of miring or drowning , the best husbands raile in a part of the pond , where it is of a competent depth , for the water to stand , and pave that in the bottom with stone ; and so the cattle neither raise the mud , nor sink in with their feet ; and so the water comes clear to them . water they save likewise from their houses , by gutters at the eves , which carrie it down to cisterns . and the water which is kept there , being within the limits of their houses , many of which are built in manner of fortifications , and have lines , bulwarks , and ba●tians to defend themselves , in case there should be any uproar or commotion in the iland , either by the christian servants , or negre slaves ; serves them for drink whilst they are besieged ; as also , to throw down upon the naked bodies of the negres , scalding hot ; which is as good a defence against their underminings , as any other weapons . if any tumult or disorder be in the iland , the next neighbour to it , discharges a musket , which gives the alarum to the whole iland ; for , upon the report of that , the next shoots , and so the next , and next , till it go through the iland : upon which warning , they make ready . # bread , which is accounted the staffe , or main supporter of mans life , has not here that full taste it has in england ; but yet they account it nourishing and strengthening . it is made of the root of a small tree or shrub , which they call ●assavie ; the manner of his grouth i will let alone , till i come to speak of trees and plants in generall . his root only , which we are now to consider , ( because our bread is made of it ) is large and round , like the body of a small still or retort ; and as we gather it , we cut sticks that grow neerest to it , of the same tree , which we put into the ground , and they grow . and as we gather , we plant . this root , before it come to be eaten , suffers a strange conversion ; for , being an absolute poyson when 't is gathered , by good ordering , comes to be wholsome and nourishing ; and the manner of doing it , is this : they wash the outside of the root clean , and lean it against a wheel , whose sole is about a foot broad , and covered with latine , made rough like a large grater . the wheel to be turned about with a foot , as a cutler turnes his wheel . and as it grates the root , it falls down in a large trough , which is the receiver appointed for that purpose . this root thus grated , is as rank poyson , as can be made by the art of an apothecary , of the most venomous simples he can put together : but being put into a strong piece of double canvas , or sackcloth , and prest hard , that all the juice be squeezed out , and then opened upon a cloath , and dried in the sun , 't is ready to make bread . and thus 't is done . they have a piece of iron , which i guesse is cast round , the diameter of which , is about twenty inches , a little hollowed in the middle , not unlike the mould that the spectacle makers grinde their glasses on , but not so much concave as that ; about halfe an inch thick at the brim or verge , but thicker towards the middle , with three feet like a pot , about six inches high , that fire may be underneath . to such a temper they heat this pone , ( as they call it ) as to bake , but not burn . when 't is made thus hot , the indians , whom we trust to make it , because they are best acquainted with it , cast the meal upon the pone , the whole breadth of it , and put it down with their hands , and it will presently stick together : and when they think that side almost enough , with a thing like a battle-dore , they turn the other ; and so turn and re-turn it so often , till it be enough , which is presently done . so they lay this cake upon a flat board , and make another , and so another , till they have made enough for the whole family . this bread they made , when we came first there , as thick as a pancake ; but after that , they grew to a higher degree of curiosity , and made it as thin as a wafer , and yet purely white and crispe , as a new made wafer . salt they never use in it , which i wonder at ; for the bread being tastlesse of it selfe , they should give it some little seasoning . there is no way it eats so well , as in milk , and there it tasts like almonds . they offer to make pie-crust , but very few attain to the skill of that ; for , as you work it up with your hand , or roll it out with a roller , it will alwaies crackle and chop , so that it will not be raised to hold any liquor , neither with , nor without , butter or eggs . but after many tryalls , and as often failings , at last , i learnt the secret of an indian woman , who shew'd me the right way of it , and that was , by searsing it very fine , ( and it will fall out as fine , as the finest wheat-flower in england ) if not finer . yet , this is not all the secret , for all this will not cure the cracking . but this is the main skill of the businesse : set water on the fire in a skillet , and put to it as much of this fine flower , as will temper it to the thicknesse of starch or pap ; and let it boyl a little , keeping it stirring with a slice ; and mix this with the masse of flower you mean to make into pye-crust , which being very well mingled , and wrought together , you may add what cost you will of butter and eggs , and it will rise and stand nere as well as our past in england . but those that have not cows , & cannot make butter upon the place , but must make use of such as is brought from england or holland , were better leave it out , & be content to eat their pie-crust drie . yet i make a main difference , between butter that is brought from either of those places , in respect of the times it is brought . for , if a ship set out from england in november , and that ship arive at the barbadoes at the middle , or neer the end of december , when the sun is at the farthest distance , the butter may come thither in very good condition ; and being set in cool places , may retain the taste for a while : but , if the ship set out in spring or summer , that brings this butter , it is not then to be endured , it is so restie and loathsome . nor can cheese be brought from thence without spoyle , at that time of the year , except you put it in oyle . neither are candles to be brought , for the whole barrell will stick together in one lump , and stinck so profoundly , as neither rats nor mice will come neer them , much lesse eat of them . for which reason , the planters , who are much troubled with this annoyance , as also , for that these candles cannot be taken out of the barrell whole , nor will stand in the candlestick without drooping , and hanging down ; they burn for the most part wax lights , which they make themselves , of wax they fetch from africa , and have it at a reasonable rate , there being no bees in the barbadoes . but i am too apt to flie out in extravagant digressions ; for , the thing i went to speak of , was bread only , and the severall kinds of it ; and having said as much of the bread of cassavie as i know , i will give you one word of another kinde of bread they make , which is a mixt sort of bread , and is made of the flower of mayes and cassavie mixt together ; for the maies it selfe will make no bread , it is so extream heavy and lumpish : but these two being mixt , they make it into large cakes , two inches thick ; and that , in my opinion , tasts the likest to english bread of any . but the negres use the mayes another way , which is , toasting the ears of it at the fire , and so eating it warm off the eare . and we have a way , to feed our christian servants with this maies , which is , by pounding it in a large morter , and boyling it in water , to the thicknesse of frumentie ; and so put in a tray such a quantity , as wil serve a messe of seven or eight people ; give it them cold , and scarce afford them salt with it . this we call lob-lollie . but the negres , when they come to be fed with this , are much discontented , and crie out , o! o! no more lob-lob . the third sort of bread we use , is only potatoes , which are chosen out of the dryest and largest they can chose : and at the time we first came , there was little else used , at many good planters tables in the iland . and these are all the sorts of bread that i know growing upon the place . the next thing that comes in order , is drink , which being made of severall materialls , afford more variety in the description . the first , and that which is most used in the iland , is mobbie , a drink made of potatoes , and thus done . put the potatoes into a tub of water , and , with a broom , stir them up and down , till they are washt clean ; then take them out , and put them into a large iron or brasse pot , such as you boyl beefe in , in england ; and put to them as much water , as will only cover a quarter part of them ; and cover the top of the pot with a piece of thick canvas doubled , or such cloth as sacks are made with , covering it close , that the steam go not out . then make a little fire underneath , so much only as will cause these roots to stew ; and when they are soft , take them out , and with your hands , squeeze , break , and mash them very small , in fair water ; letting them stay there , till the water has drawn and suckt out all the spirit of the roots , which will be done in an houre or two . then put the liquor and roots into a large wollen bag , like a jelly-bag , poynted at the bottom ; and let it run through that , into a jar , and within two hours it will begin to work . cover it , and let it stand till the next day , and then 't is fit to be drunk . and as you will have it stronger or smaller , put in greater or lesser quantities of roots ; some make it so strong , as to be drunk with small quantities but the drink it selfe , being temperately made , does not at all flie up into the head , but is a sprightly thirst-quenching drink . if it be put up in small casks , as rundlets , or firkins , it will last foure or five daies good , and drink much more sprightly then out of the jar. i cannot liken it to any thing so neer , as rhenish-wine in the must ; but it is short of it in the strength of the spirit , and finenesse of the tast . there are two severall layers , in which these roots grow ; one makes the skins of the potatoes white , the other red : and where the red roots grow , the mobbie will be red like claret-wine ; the other white . though this be the drink most generally used in the iland , yet i cannot commend the wholsomnesse of it ▪ for , the most part of the roots have a moyst quality in them , and are the cause of hydropicke humours . mr. phillip bell , then the governour of the iland told me that when he was governour of the i le of providence , that there chanc'd some spaniards to land there , and tast●ng of this drinke , wondred that any of those that continually drinke it were alive ; so unwholsome and hydropicke he conceived this drinke to be . another drinke they have which is accounted much wholesomer , though not altogether so pleasant , and that is perino ; a drink which the indians make for their own drinking , and is made of the cassavy root , which i told you is a strong poyson ; and this they cause their old wives , who have a small remainder of teeth to chaw and spit out into water , ( for the better breaking and macerating of the root ) . this juyce in three or four hours will worke , and purge it selfe of the poysonous quality . having shewed , you in the making of bread , that the moysture being prest out , which is accounted the poysonous quality that root has , by drying and baking , it is made usefull and wholsome , and now having the juyce and root both used , and both these put into water , which is moyst , i know not which way to reconcile these direct contraryes , but this ; that the poyson of the old womens breath and teeth having been tainted with many severall poxes , ( a disease common amongst them , though they have many and the best cures for it , ) are such opposites to the poyson of the cassavie , as they bend their forces so vehemently one against another , as they both spend their poysonous qualities in that conflict ; and so the relict of them both , becomes lesse unwholsome ; and the water , which is in it selfe pure , casts out the remainder of the ill qualities they leave behind : which is manifested by the extraordinary working , which is farre beyond that of beere , wine , or sider with us in europe . this drink will keep a month or two , being put into barrels , and tasts the likest to english beere of any drink we have there . # grippo is a third sort of drinke , but few make it well ; it was never my chance to taste it , which made me the lesse curious to enquire after it . # punch is a fourth sort , & of that i have drunke ; it is made of water & sugar put together , which in tenne dayes standing will be very strong , and fit for labourers . # a fifth , is made of wilde plumbs , which grow here in great abundance , upon very large trees , which being prest , and strayned , give a very sharpe , and pognant flaver ; but there is not much of it made , because of the trouble of making it , and they are not there very indulgent to their palats . # but the drinke of the plantine , is farre beyond all these ; gathering them full ripe , and in the height of their sweetnesse , we pill off the skin , and mash them in water well boyl'd ; and after we have let them stay there a night , we straine it , and bottle it up , and in a week drink it ; and it is very strong and pleasant drinke , but it is to be drunk sparingly , for it is much stronger then sack , and is apt to mount up into the head . the seaventh sort of drink is that we make of the skimming of sugar , which is infinitely strong , but not very pleasant in taste ; it is common , and therefore the lesse esteem'd ; the value of it is halfe a crown a gallon , the people drink much of it , indeed too much ; for it often layes them asleep on the ground , and that is accounted a very unwholsome lodging . # the eighth sort of drink is beveridge , made of spring water● white sugar , and juyce of orenges , and this is not onely pleasant but wholsome . # the last and best sort of drinke that this iland or the world affords , is the incomparable wine of pines ; and is certainly the nectar which the gods drunke ; for on earth there is none like it ; and that is made of the pure juyce of the fruit it selfe , without commixture of water , or any other creature , having in it selfe , a naturall compound of all tastes excellent , that the world can yield . this drink is too pure to keep long ; in three or four dayes it will be fine ; 't is made by pressing the fruite and strayning the liquor , and it is kept in bottles . having given you a taste of the bread , and drinke this iland affords , which will serve any mans palate , that is not over curious ; i could tell you what we have of both sorts that is brought to us from other parts of the world ; as biskets , both fine and coorse , barrels of meale close put up ; which comes to us very sweet from england , and holland ; of which we make bread , pye-crust , and puddings . and for drink good english beer , french and spanish wines , with others , some from the maderas , some from fiall , one of the ilands of asores ; so we cannot justly complaine of want , either of bread or drink , and , from england , spirits , some of anniseeds , some of mint , some of wormwood , &c. and from france , brandy , which is extreame strong , but accounted very wholsome . # having given you a just account , as neere as my memory will serve of the bread and drinke of this iland : the next thing is the severall sortes of meat we have there ; and because hogges flesh is the most generall meat , and indeed the best the iland affords , i will begin with that , which is ( without question ) as good , as any can be of that kind : for their feeding being as good , as can grow any where , the flesh must needs be answerable ; fruit , the nuts of locust , pompians of a rare kind , almost as sweet as milions , the bodies of the plantines , and bonanoes , sugar-canes , and mayes , being their dayly food . when we came first upon the iland , i perceiv'd the sties they made to hold them , were trees , with the ends lying crosse upon one another , and the inclosure they made , was not large enough to hold the numbers of hogges were in them , with convenient distance to play and stirre themselves for their health , and pleasure ; so that they were in a manner pesterd , and choakt up , with their own stinke , which is sure the most noysome of any other beast , and by reason of the suns heat much worse ; i have smelt the stinke of one of those sties downe the wind , neer a mile , through all the wood : and the crouding and thrusting them so close together , was certainly the cause of their want of health , which much hindred their growth ; so that they were neither so large , nor their flesh so sweet , as when they were wild , and at their own liberty , and choyce of feeding . for i have heard major hilliard say : that at their first comming there , they found hogges , that one of them weighed ( the intrals being taken out , and the head off ) 400 weight . and now at the time of my being there , the most sort of those , that were in ours and our neighbours styes , were hardly so big as the ordinary swine in england . so finding this decay in their grouth , by stowing them too close together , i advised collonell modiford to make a larger stye , and to wall it about with stone ; which he did , and made it a mile about , so that it was rather a park than a stye ; and set it on the side of a drie hill , the greatest part rock , with a competent pond of water in the bottom ; and plac'd it between his two plantations , that from either , food might be brought , and cast over to them , with great convenience : and made several divisions in the park , for the sowes with pigg , with little houses standing shelving , that their foulnesse by gutters might fall away , and they lie drie ; other divisions for the barrow-hoggs , and some for boars . this good ordering caused them to grow so large and fat , as they wanted very little of their largnesse when they were wilde . they are the sweetest flesh of that kinde , that ever i tasted , and the lovliest to look on in a dish , either boyl'd , roasted , or bak'd : with a little help of art . i will deceive a very good palate , with a shoulder of it for mutton , or a leg for veal , taking off the skin , with which they were wont to make minc't pies , seasoning it with salt , cloves , and mace , and some sweet herbs minc't . and being bak'd , and taken out of the oven , opening the lid , put in a dramme-cup of kill-devill ; and being stirr'd together , set it on the table ; and that they call'd a calvesfoot pie ; and , till i knew what it was made of , i thought it very good meat . when i came first upon the iland , i found the pork drest the plain waies of boyling , roasting , and sometimes baking : but i gave them some tastes of my cookery , in hashing , and fricaseing this flesh ; and they all were much taken with it ; and in a week , every one was practising the art of cookery . and indeed , no flesh tasts so well in collops , hashes , or fricases , as this . and when i bak't it , i alwaies laid a side of a young goat underneath , and a side of a shot ( which is a young hog of a quarter old ) a top . and this , well seasoned , and well bak'd , is as good meat , as the best pasty of fallow-deer , that ever i tasted . in the coolest time of the year , i have made an essay to powder it , and hang it up for bacon : but there is such losse in 't , as 't is very ill husbandry to practise it ; for , it must be cut through in so many places , to let the salt in , as when 't is to be drest , much goes to waste . and therefore i made no more attempts that way . but a little corning with salt , makes this flesh very savoury , either boyled or roasted . about christmas , we kill a boar , and of the sides of it , make three or four collers of brawne ; for then the weather is so cool , as , with some art , it may be kept sweet a week : and to make the souc't drink give it the speedier and quicker seasoning , we make it of mobbie , with store of salt , limons , and lymes , sliced in it , with some nutmeg , which gives it an excellent flaver . beef , we have very seldome any , that feeds upon the soyle of this place , except it be of gods killing , ( as they tearme it ) ; for very few are kill'd there by mens hands ; it were too ill husbandry , for they cost too dear , and they cannot be spared from their work , which they must advance by all the means they can . such a planter as collonell james drax ( who lives like a prince ) may kill now and then one ; but very few in the iland did so when i was there . the next to swines-flesh in goodnesse , are turkies , large , fat , and full of gravie . next to them , pullen or donghill-foule ▪ and last of all , muscovia-ducks , which being larded with the fat of this porke , ( being seasoned with pepper and salt ) are an excellent bak'd-meat . all these , with their eggs and chickens , we eat . turtle-doves the have of two sorts , and both very good meat ; but there is a sort of pidgeons , which come from the leeward ilands at one time of the year , and it is in september ; and stay till christmas be past , and then return again : but very many of them nere make returnes , to tell newes of the good fruit they found there : for , they are so fat , and of such excellent tastes , as many foulers kill them with guns , upon the trees ; and some of them are so fat , as their weight with the fall , causes them to burst in pieces . they are good roasted , boylld , or bak'd , but best cut in halves , and stewed ; to which cookery , there needs no liquor , for their own gravie will abundantly serve to stew them . rabbets we have , but tame ones , and they have but faint tastes , more like a chicken then a rabbet . and though they have divers other birds , which i will not forget to recount in their due times , and place ; yet , none for food for the table , which is the businesse i tend at this present . other flesh-meat , i do not remember . now for fish , though the iland stands as all ilands do , invironed with the sea , ( and therefore is not like to be unfurnish't of that provision ) yet , the planters are so good husbands , and tend their profits so much , as they will not spare a negres absence so long , as to go to the bridge and fetch it . and the fishermen seeing their fish lie upon their hands , and stink , ( which it will do in lesse then six hours ) forbear to go to sea to take it ; only so much as they can have present vent for , at the taverns at the bridge ; and thither the planters come , when they have a minde to feast themselves with fish , to mr. jobsons , or joan fullers , where they have it well drest ; for they were both my pupills . butter they seldome have , that will beat thick ; but in stead of that , we are fain to use vinegar and spice , and much of it fryed in oyle , and eaten hot ; and some marinated , and souc't in pickle , and eaten cold . collonell humphrey walrond has the advantage of all the planters in the iland , for , having a plantation neer the sea , he hath of his own a sain● to catch fish withall , which his own servants and slaves put out to sea , and , twice or thrice a week , bring home all sorts of such small and great fishes , as are neer the shoar ; amongst which , some are very large , and excellently well tasted . for , he being a gentleman , that had been bred with much freedome , liberty , and plenty , in england , could not set his mind so earnestly upon his profit , as to forget his accustomed lawfull pleasures , but would have his table well furnish'd , with all sorts of good meat the land and sea afforded ; and as freely bid his friends welcome to it . and i , as the poorest of his friends , in a lingring sicknesse , and neer death , found such a charity with him , as i shall never forget to pay my thanks for , to the last hour of my life ; and i shall account it as a a great happinesse , ( if ever it fall in the compasse of my power ) to be servicable to him or his , as any thing that can befall me in the world . amongst other fishes that were taken by his saine , ( as the snappers , red and grey , cavallos , maquerells , mullets , cony-fish , with divers others , firme and excellent sweet fish ) he took four , that were about a yard long at the least , all at one draught , and , to that length , bigger grown then salmonds , of the rarest colour that ever i beheld ; from the back-finne , which is the middle of the fish , to the end of the tail , the purest grasse-green that ever i saw , and as shining as satine : but the finns and tai●●dapled or spotted with as pure a hair-colour , and from the back-finn to the head , pure hair colour-dapled with green ; the scales as big for the most part , as a halfe-crown piece of silver . this fish is no fish of prey , but lives by what he finds in the bottom of the sea , as i perceived by what was in his maw . an excellent sweet fish ; i dressed them severall waies , and all proved excellent . there is one fish wanting to this iland , whose kindes are very frequent upon most of the charibby and lucaick-ilands ; and that is the green turtle , which is the best food the sea affords , and the greatest store of them ; but i have seen very few of that kind in the barbadoes , and those neither fat nor kindly ; and the reason is , there are no shelves nor sands to lay their eggs , or to ayre themselves on : for , these fishes delight to be on the sands , and can remain there twelve hours , all the time the tyde is out ; and then suffer themselves to be carried away by the return of the next tide . they take infinite numbers of them , by turning them on their backs with staves , where they lie till they are fetcht away . a large turtle will have in her bodie halfe a bushell of eggs , which she laies in the sand , and that being warm , they are hatcht in the heat . when you are to kill one of these fishes , the manner is , to lay him on his back on a table , and when he sees you come with a knife in your hand to kill him , he vapours out the grievousest sighes , that ever you heard any creature make , and sheds as large tears as a stag , that has a far greater body , and larger eyes . he has a joynt or crevis , about an inch within the utmost edge of his shell , which goes round about his body , from his head to his tail , on his belly-side ; into which joynt or crevis , you put your knife , beginning at the hea● , and so rip up that side , and then do as much to the other ; then lifting up his belly , which we call his calipee , we lay open all his bowells , and taking them out , come next to his heart , which has three distinct poynts , but all meet above where the fat is ; and if you take it out , and lay it in a dish , it will stir and pant ten hours after the fish is dead . sure , there is no creature on the earth , nor in the seas , that enjoyes life with so much sweetnesse and delight , as this poor fish the turtle ; nor none more delicate in taste , and more nourishing , then he . next to the flesh and fish this iland affords , 't is fit to consider what quelquechoses there are to be found , that may serve to furnish out a table of such viands , as are there to be had ; which are eggs severall waies , viz pocht , and laid upon sippits of bread , soakt in butter and juice of limes , and sugar , with plumpt currens strewed upon them , and cloves , mace , and cinamon beaten , strewed on that , with a little salt . eggs boyl'd and roasted , fryed with collops , of the fat of pork well powdered . buttered eggs , an amulet of eggs , with the juice of limes and sugar , a froize , and a tansey ; custards , as good as any at my lord mayors table ; chees-cakes , puffes , second porrage , which is creame boyl'd to a height , with yelke of egges , and season'd with sugar , and spice , jelly which we make of the flesh of young piggs , calves feet , and a cocke , and is excellent good , but must presently be eaten for it will not last . creame alone , and some done severall wayes , of which there is great varietie , having lymons , lymes , and oranges readie at hand ; and some wherein we put plantines , gnavers and bonanoes , stew'd , or preserv'd with sugar , and the same fruits also preserv'd and put in dishes by themselves , without creame ; and for a whetstone , to pull on a cup of wine , we have dryed neats tongues , brought from new and old england ; and from holland , westalia bacon , and caviare ; as also pickl'd herring , and maquerell , which we have from new england , and from virginie botargo of which sort i have eaten the best at colonel draxes that ever i tasted . the fruits that this iland affords , i have already named , and therefore it will be needlesse to name them twice ; you may take your choyce , whether you will have them set on the table before or after meat ; they use as they doe in italie , to eate them before meat . the victualls brought from forraine parts are these , beef which we have from holland , from old & new england , virginie , and some from russia ; and yet comes to us sweet . porke from all these places , with the most sorts of salt fish ; as ling , haberdine , cod , poor-john , pickled marquerels , pickled herrings , all very good . sturgeon from new england , but so ill cookt , as 't is hardly to be eaten ; for they want the skill both of boyling & seasoning it ; they first overboyle it , & next over salt it , & so the fish being over tender by boyling , the salt frets and eats upon it all the way ; for when we come to open it , being carried farre from the bridge , & shaken in the carriage : there is scarce a whole peece , but the sturgeon and pickle all in a mash , & so vehemently salt , as i could never eate any of it , but at colonel wallronds plantationit it is lesse broken . pickled turtle , we have from the leeward ilands , but so uncleanly ordered , as we could hardly finde in our hearts to eate it ; for they gather the salt and sand together , for haste , upon the iland where it is taken up , as ; though we wash it never so wel , yet the grit cracks in our teeth ; it has a taste being salted , almost as ill as puffins , which we have from the iles of silly , but this kind of food , is onely for servants ; sometimes the negroes get a little , but seldome the one or the other did eate any bone meat , at our first comming thither . but now at my comming away from thence , it was much better'd , for by the care and good husbandry of the planters , there was greater plenty , both of the victuals they were wont to eate , as potatoes , bonavist , loblolly , as also of the bone meat , viz. porke , salt fish ; and powder'd beefe , which came thither by sea , from forraine parts , in so much as the negroes were allowed each man two maquerels a weeke and every woman one ; which were given out to them on saturday in the evening , after they had their allowance of plantines , which was every one a large bunch , or two little ones , to serve them for a weeks provision ; and if any cattle dyed by mischance , or by any disease : the servants eat the bodies , and the negroes the skinnes , head , and intrails which was divided amongst them by the overseers ; or if any horse , then the whole bodies of them were distributed amongst the negroes , and that they thought a high feast , with which , never poor soules were more contented ; and the drinke to the servants with this dyet , nothing but mobbie , and sometimes a little beveridge ; but the negroes nothing but faire water . and now i think , i have given you a just account of the victuals that feeds the masters , the servants , and the slaves of this iland : and now you see the provision the iland affords , give me leave to shew you what feasts they can ( when they will ) make for their friends , upon their plantations , which that i may the better doe , i will make two bills of fare ; the one for an inland plantation , the other for a plantation neer the sea , of such meat and such plenty of that , as i have seen and eaten of , at either of those plantations ; and for the inland plantation , i will make choyce of colonel james draxes , at whose table i have found well drest , these following meates ; for the first course whereof there hath been two messes of meat and both equally good , and this feast is alwayes when he kils a beef , which he feeds extreamely fat , giving him a dozen acres of bonavist to go loose in , and due times of watering . first then ( because beefe being the greatest rarity in the iland , especially such as this is ) i will begin with it , and of that sort there are these dishes at either messe , a rompe boyl'd , a chine roasted , a large piece of the brest roasted , the cheeks bak'd , of which is a dish to either messe , the tongue and part of the tripes minc't for pyes , season'd with sweet herbs finely mi●c't , suet , spice and currans ; the legges , pallets and other ingredients for an olio podrido to either messe , a dish of marrow bones , so here are 14 dishes at the table and all of beef : and this he intends as the great regalio , to which he invites his fellow planters ; who having well eaten of it , the dishes are taken away , and another course brought in , which is a potato pudding , a dish of scots collips of a legge of porke , as good as any in the world , a fricacy of the same , a dish of boyl'd chickens , a shoulder of a young goate drest with his bloud and tyme , a kid with a pudding in his belly , a sucking pig , which is there the fattest whitest & sweetest in the world , with the pognant sauce of the brains , salt , sage , and nutmeg done with claret wine , a shoulder of mutton which is there a rare dish , a pasty of the side of a young goate , and a side of a fat young shot upon it , well season'd with pepper and salt , and with some nutmeg , a loyne of veale , to which there wants no sauce being so well furnisht with oranges , lymons , and lymes , three young turkies in a dish , two capons , of which sort i have seen some extreame large and very fat , two henns with egges in a dish , four ducklings , eight turtle doves , and three rabbets ; and for cold bak't meats , two muscovie ducks larded , and season'd well with pepper and salt : and these being taken off the table , another course is set on , and that is of westphalia or spanish bacon , dried neats tongues , botargo , pickled oysters , caviare , anchoves olives , and ( intermixt with these ) custards , creams , some alone , some with preserves of plantines , bonano gnavers , put in , and those preserv'd alone by themselves , cheese-cakes , puffes , which are to be made with english flower , and bread ; for the cassavie will not serve for this kind of cookerie ; sometimes tansies , sometimes froizes , or amulets , and for fruite , plantines , bonanoes , gnavers , milions , prickled peare , anchove peare , prickled apple , custard apple , water milions , and pines worth all that went before . to this meat you seldome faile of this drink , mobbie , beveridge , brandy , kill-divell , drink of the plantine , claret wine , white wine , and renish wine , s●erry , canary , red sack , wine of fi●ll , with all spirits that come from england ; and with all this , you shall finde as cheerfull a look , and as hearty a welcome , as any man can give to his best friends . and so much for a feast of an inland plantation . now for a plantation neer the sea , which shall be collonell walrond's , he being the best seated for a feast , of any i know : i must say this , that though he be wanting in the first course , which is beefe ; yet , it will be plentifully supplyed in the last , which is fish ; and that the other wants . and though collonell walrond , have not that infinite store of the provisions collonell drax abounds in ; yet , he is not wanting in all the kinds he has , unlesse it be sheep , goats , and beefe , and so for all the sorts of meats , that are in my bill of fare , in collonell drax his feast , you shall finde the same in collonell walronds , except these three , and these are supplied with all these sorts of fish i shall name , to wit , mulle●s , maquerells , parrat fish , snappers , red and gray , cavallos , terbums , crabs , lobsters , and cony fish , with divers sorts more , for which we have no names . and having these rare kinds of fishes , 't were a vain superfluity , to make use of all those dishes i have named before , but only such as shall serve to fill up the table ; and when he has the ordering it , you must expect to have it excellent ; his fancy and contrivance of a feast , being as far beyond any mans there , as the place where he dwells is better scituate , for such a purpose . and his land touching the sea , his house being not halfe a quarter of a mile from it , and not interposed by any unlevell ground , all rarities that are brought to the iland , from any part of the world , are taken up , brought to him , and stowed in his cellars , in two hours time , and that in the night ; as , wine , of all kinds , oyl , olives , capers , sturgeon , neats tongues , anchoves , caviare , botargo , with all sorts of salted meats , both flesh and fish for his family ; as , beefe , pork , english pease , ling , haberdine , cod , poor john , and jerkin beef , which is hufled , and slasht through , hung up and dryed in the sun ; no salt at all put to it . and thus ordered in hispaniola , as hot a place as barbadoes , and yet it will keep longer then powdred beefe , and is as drie as stock-fish , and just such meat for flesh , as that is for fish , and as little nourishment in it ; but it fills the belly , and serves the turne , where no other meat is . though some of these may be brought to the inland plantations well conditioned ; yet , the wines cannot possibly come good ; for the wayes are such , as no carts can passe ; and to bring up a but of sack , or a hogshead of any other wine , upon negres backs , will very hardly be done in a night , so long a time it requires , to hand it up and down the gullies ; and if it be carried in the day-time , the sun will heat and taint it , so as it will lose much of his spirit and pure taste ; and if it be drawn out in bottles at the bridge , the spirits flie away in the drawing , and you shall finde a very great difference in the taste and quicknesse of it . oyle will endure the carriage better then wine , but over much heat will abate something of the purity , and excellent taste it has naturally . and for olives , 't is well known , that jogging in the carriage causes them to bruise one another ; and some of them being bruised , will grow rotten , and infect the rest . so that wine , oyle and olives , cannot possibly be brought to such plantations , as are eight or ten miles from the bridge ; and from thence , the most part of these commodities are to be fetch'd . so that you may imagine , what advantage collonell walrond has , of any inland plantation , having these materialls , which are the main regalia's in a feast , and his own contrivance to boot , besides all i have formerly nam'd , concerning raw and preserv'd fruits , with all the other quelquechoses . and thus much i thought good to say for the honour of the iland , which is no more then truth ; because i have heard it sleighted by some , that seem'd to know much of it . # about a hundred sail of ships yearly visit this iland , and receive , during the time of their stay in the harbours , for their sustenance , the native victualls growing in the iland , such as i have already named ; besides what they carry away , and what is carried away by planters of the i le , that visit other parts of the world . the commodities this iland trades in , are indico , cotten-wool , tobacco , suger , ginger , and fustick-wood . # the commodities these ships bring to this iland , are , servants and slaves , both men and women ; horses , cattle , assinigoes , camells , utensills for boyling sugar , as , coppers , taches , goudges , and sockets ; all manner of working tooles for trades-men , as , carpenters , joyners , smiths , masons , mill-wrights , wheel-wrights , tinkers , coopers , &c. iron , steel , lead , brasse , pew●er , cloth of all kinds , both linnen and wollen ; stuffs , hatts , hose , shoos , gloves , swords , knives , locks , keys , &c. victualls of all kinds , that will endure the sea , in so long a voyage . olives , capers , anchoves , salted flesh and fish , pickled maquerells and herrings , wine of all sorts , and the boon beer , d' angleterre . # i had it in my thought before i came there , what kinde of buildings would be fit for a country , that was so much troubled with heat , as i have heard this was ; & did expect to find thick walls , high roofes , and deep cellers ; but found neither the one nor the other , but clean contrary ; timber houses , with low roofes , so low , as for the most part of them , i could hardly stand upright with my hat on , and no cellars at all : besides , another course they took , which was more wonder to me than all that ; which was , stopping , or barring out the winde , which should give them the greatest comfort , when they were neer stifled with heat . for , the winde blowing alwaies one way , which was eastwardly , they should have made all the openings they could to the east , thereby to let in the cool breezes , to refresh them when the heat of the day came . but they , clean contrary , closed up all their houses to the east , and opened all to the west ; so that in the afternoones , when the sun came to the west , those little low roofed rooms were like stoves , or heated ovens . and truly , in a very hot day , it might raise a doubt , whether so much heat without , and so much tobacco and kill-devill within , might not set the house a fire ; for these three ingredients are strong motives to provoke it , and they were ever there . but at last i found by them , the reasons of this strange preposterous manner of building , which was grounded upon the weakest and silliest foundation that could be : for they alledged , that at the times of rain , which was very often , the wind drave the rain in at their windowes so fast , as the houses within were much annoyed with it ; for having no glasse to keep it out , they could seldome sit or lie drie ; and so being constrained to keep out the ayer on that side , for fear of letting in the water , would open the west ends of their houses so wide , ( as was beyond the proportion of windows to repair that want ) and so let in the fire ; not considering at all , that there was such a thing as shutters for windowes ▪ to keep out the rain that hurt them , and let in the winde to refresh them , and do them good at their pleasure . but this was a consideration laid aside by all , or the most part of the meaner fort of planters ▪ but at last i found the true reason , was their poverty and indigence , which wanted the means to make such conveniences ; and so , being compelled by that , had rather suffer painfully , and patiently abide this inconvenience , than sell or part with any of their goods , to prevent so great a mischiefe : so loath poor people are to part with that , which is their next immediate help , to support them in their great want of sustenance . for , at that lock they often were , and some good planters too , that far'd very hard , when we came first into the iland . so that hard labour , and want of victualls , had so much deprest their spirits , as they were come to a declining and yielding condition . nor can this be called slothfulnesse or sluggishnesse in them , as some will have it , but a decay of their spirits , by long and tedious hard labour , sleight feeding , and ill lodging , which is able to wear out and quell the best spirit of the world . # the locust is a tree of such a growth , both for length and bignesse , as may serve for beams in a very large room : i have seen many of them , whose straight bodies are above fifty foot high , the diameter of the stem or body , three foot and halfe . the timber of this tree is a hard close substance , heavie , but firme , and not apt to bend , somewhat hard for tooles to cut ; brittle , but lasting ▪ mastick , not altogether so large as he , but of a tougher substance , and not accounted so brittle . the bully-tree wants something of the largnesse of these , but in his other qualities goes beyond either ; for , he is full out as lasting , and as strong , but not so heavie , nor so hard for tooles to work . the redwood and prickled yellow wood , good for posts or beams , and are lighter then the locust ; both are accounted very lasting , and good for building . the cedar is , without controul , the best of all ; but by reason it works smoth , and looks beautifull , we use it most in wainscot , tables , and stooles . other timber we have , as the iron-wood , and another sort , which are excellent good to endure wet and drie ; and of those we make shingles , which being such a kinde of wood , as will not warpe nor rive , are the best coverings for a house that can be , full out as good as tiles , and lie lighter upon the rafters . # we have two sorts of stone , and either will serve indifferently well in building : the one we finde on sides of small hills , and it lies as ours do in england , in quarries ; but they are very small , rough , and ill shaped , some of them porous , like honey combes ; but being burnt , they make excellent lyme , the whitest and firmest when 't is drie , that i have seen ; and by the help of this , we make the better shift with our ill shap't stone ; for this lime bindes it fast together , and keeps it firm to endure the weather . other stone we have , which we find in great rocks , and massie pieces in the ground ; but so soft , as with your finger you may bore a hole into it ; and this softness gives us the means of cutting it with two-handed sawes , which being hard , we could not so easily do , and the easinesse causes the expedition ; for by that , we the more speedily fit it for our walls , taking a just bredth of the walls , and cutting it accordingly ; so that we need very little hewing . this stone , as we cutt it in the quarry , is no harder then ordinary morter , but being set out in the weather , by pieces as we cut it , growes indifferently hard , and is able to beare all the weight that lyes on it , and the longer it lies , the harder it growes . many essayes we made , whilst i was there , for the making and burning of bricks , but never could attaine to the perfection of it ; and the reason was , the over fatnesse of the clay , which would alwaies crackle and break , when it felt the great heat of the fire in the clampe ; and by no meanes could we find the true temper of it , though we made often trialls . there was an ingenious jew upon the iland , whose name was solomon , that undertook to teach the making of it ; yet for all that , when it came to the touch his wisedome failed , and we were deceived in our expectation , i doubt not but there is a way of tempering , to make it farre better then ours in england ; for the pots which we finde in the iland , wherein the indians boyl'd their porke , were of the same kind of clay , and they were the best and finest temper'd ware of earth that ever i saw . if we could find the true temper of it , a great advantage might be made to the iland ; for the ayre being moyst , the stones often sweat , and by their moysture rot the timbers they touch , which to prevent we cover the ends of our beams and girders with boards , pitcht on both sides , but the walls being made of bricks , or but lin'd with brick , would be much the wholesomer ; and besides keep our wainescot from rotting . hangings we dare not use , for being spoyld by ants , and eaten by the cockroaches , and rats , yet some of the planters that meant to handsome in their houses , were minded to send for gilt● leather , and hang their rooms with that , which they were more then perswaded those vermine would not eate ; and in that resolution i left them . carpenters , and masons , were newly come upon the iland , and some of these very great masters in their art : and such as could draw a plot , and pursue the designe they framed with great diligence , and beautifie the tops of their dootes , windowes , and chimney peeces , very pretily ; but not many of those nor is it needfull that there should be many , for though the planters talke of building houses , and wish them up , yet when they weigh the want of those handes in their sugar worke , that must be imployed in their building , they fall backe , and put on their considering caps . i drew out at least twenty plots when i came first into the ilands which they all lik't well inough , and yet but two of them us'd , one by captaine midleton , and one by captaine standfast , and those were the two best houses , i left finisht in the iland when i came away . cellars i would not make under ground , unlesse the house be set on the side of a hill ; for though the ayre be moyst above , yet i found it by experience much moyster under ground ; so that no moyst thing can be set there , but it will in a very short time grow mouldy , and rotten ; and if for coolnesse you think to keep any raw flesh , it will much sooner taint there , then being hung up in a garret , where the sun continually shines upon it . nay the pipe-staves hoops , and heads of barrels , and hogsheads , will grow mouldy and rotten : pavements and foundations of bricks would much help this with glasse windowes , to keep out the ayre . if i were to build a house for my selfe in that place , i would have a third part of my building to be of an east and west line , and the other two thirds to crosse that , at the west end : in a north and south line , and this latter to be a story higher than that of the east and west line , so that at four a clocke in the afternoone , the higher buildings will begin to shade the other , and so afford more and more shade to my east and west building till night ; and not only to the house , but to all the walks that i make on either side that building , and then i would raise my foundation of that part of my house wherein my best roomes were three foot above ground ; leaving it hollow underneath for ventiducts , which i would have come into every room in the house , and by that means you shall feele the cool breese all the day , & in the evening , when they slacken , a coole shade from my north & south building , both which are great refreshings , in ho● countryes : and according to this modell , i drew many plots , of severall sises and contrivances , but they did not or would not understand them : at last i grew wearie of casting stones against the wind , and so gave over . # it were somewhat difficult , to give you an exact account , of the number of persons upon the iland ; there being such store of shipping that brings passengers dayly to the place , but it has been conjectur'd , by those that are long acquainted , and best seen in the knowledge of the iland , that there are not lesse then 50 thousand soules , besides negroes ; and some of them who began upon small fortunes , are now risen to very great and vast estates . the iland is divided into three sorts of men , viz. masters , servants , and slaves . the slaves and their posterity , being subject to their masters for ever , are kept and preserv'd with greater care then the servants , who are theirs but for five yeers , according to the law of the iland . so that for the time , the servants have the worser lives , for they are put to very hard labour , ill lodging , and their dyet very sleight . when we came first on the iland , some planters themselves did not eate bone meat , above twice a weeke : the rest of the seven dayes , potatoes , loblolly , and bonavist . but the servants no bone meat at all , unlesse an oxe dyed : and then they were feasted , as long as that lasted , and till they had planted good store of plantines , the negroes were fed with this kind of food ; but most of it bonavist , and loblolly , with some eares of mayes toasted , which food ( especially loblolly , ) gave them much discontent : but when they had plantines enough to serve them , they were heard no more to complaine ; for 't is a food they take great delight in , and their manner of dressing and eating it , is this : 't is gathered for them ( somewhat before it be ripe , for so they desire to have it , ) upon saturday , by the keeper of the plantine grove ; who is an able negro , and knowes well the number of those that are to be fed with this fruite ; and as he gathers , layes them all together , till they fetch them away , which is about five a clock in the after noon , for that day they breake off worke sooner by an houre : partly for this purpose , and partly for that the fire in the furnaces is to be put out , and the ingenio and the roomes made cleane ; beside ; they are to wash , shave and trim themselves against sunday . but 't is a lovely sight to see a hundred handsome negroes , men and women , with every one a grasse-green bunch of these fruits on their heads , every bunch twice as big as their heads , all comming in a train one after another , the black and green so well becomming one another . having brought this fruit home to their own houses , and pilling off the skin of so much as they will use , they boyl it in water , making it into balls , and so they eat it . one bunch a week is a negres allowance . to this , no bread nor drink , but water . their lodging at night a board , with nothing under , nor any thing a top of them . they are happy people , whom so little contents . very good servants , if they be not spoyled by the english. but more of them hereafter . as for the usage of the servants , it is much as the master is , mercifull or cruell ; those that are mercifull , treat their servants well , both in their meat , drink , and lodging , and give them such work , as is not unfit for christians to do . but if the masters be cruell , the servants have very wearisome and miserable lives . upon the arrival of any ship , that brings servants to the iland , the planters go aboard ; and having bought such of them as they like , send them with a guid to his plantation ; and being come , commands them instantly to make their cabins , which they not knowing how to do , are to be advised by other or their servants , that are their seniors ; but , if they be churlish , and will not shew them , or if materialls be wanting , to make them cabins , then they are to lie on the ground that night . these cabins are to be made of sticks , wit hs , and plantine leaves , under some little shade that may keep the rain off ; their suppers being a few potatoes for meat , and water or mobbie for drink . the next day they are rung out with a bell to work , at six a clock in the morning , with a severe overseer to command them , till the bell ring again , which is at eleven a clock ; and then they return , and are set to dinner , either with a messe of lob-lollie , bonavist , or potatoes . at one a clock , they are rung out again to the field , there to work till six , and then home again , to a supper of the same . and if it chance to rain , and wet them through , they have no shift , but must lie so all night . if they put off their cloths , the cold of the night will strike into them ; and if they be not strong men , this ill lodging will put them into a sicknesse : if they complain , they are beaten by the overseer ; if they resist , their time is doubled . i have seen an overseer beat a servant with a cane about the head , till the blood has followed , for a fault that is not worth the speaking of ; and yet he must have patience , or worse will follow . truly , i have seen such cruelty there done to servants , as i did not think one christian could have done to another . but , as discreeter and better natur'd men have come to rule there , the servants lives have been much bettered ; for now , most of the servants lie in hamocks , and in warm rooms , and when they come in wet , have shift of shirts and drawers , which is all the cloths they were , and are fed with bone meat twice or thrice a week collonell w●lrond seeing his servants when they came home , toyled with their labour , and wet through with their sweating , thought that shifting of their linnen not sufficient refreshing , nor warmth for their bodies , their pores being much opened by their sweating ; and therefore resolved to send into england for rug-gownes , such as poor people wear in hospitalls , that so when they had shifted themselves , they might put on those gowns , and lie down and rest them in their hamocks : for the hamocks being but thin , and they having nothing on but shirts and drawers , when they awak'd out of their sleeps , they found themselves very cold ; and a cold taken there , is harder to be recovered , than in england , by how much the body is infeebled by the great toyle , and the sun's heat , which cannot but very much exhaust the spirits of bodies unaccustomed to it . but this care and charity of collonell walrond's , lost him nothing in the conclusion ; for , he got such love of his servants , as they thought all too little they could do for him ; and the love of the servants there , is of much concernment to the masters , not only in their diligent and painfull labour , but in fore seeing and preventing mischiefes that often happen , by the carelessnesse and slothfulnesse of retchlesse servants ; sometimes by laying fire so negligently , as whole lands of canes and houses too , are burnt down and consumed , to the utter ruine and undoing of their masters : for , the materialls there being all combustible , and apt to take fire , a little oversight , as the fire of a tobacco-pipe , being knockt out against a drie stump of a tree , has set it on fire , and the wind fanning that fire , if a land of canes be but neer , and they once take fire , all that are down the winde will be burnt up . water there is none to quench it , or if it were , a hundred negres with buckets were not able to do it ; so violent and spreading a fire this is , and such a noise it makes , as if two armies , with a thousand shot of either side , were continually giving fire , every knot of every cane , giving as great a report as a pistoll . so that there is no way to stop the going on of this flame , but by cutting down and removing all the canes that grow before it , for the breadth of twenty or thirty foot down the winde , and there the negres to stand and beat out the fire , as it creeps upon the ground , where the canes are cut down . and i have seen some negres so earnest to stop this fire , as with their naked feet to tread , and with their naked bodies to tumble , and roll upon it ; so little they regard their own smart or safety , in respect of their masters benefit . the year before i came away , there were two eminent planters in the iland , that with such an accident as this , lost at least 10000 l. sterling , in the value of the canes that were burnt ; the one , mr. james holduppe , the other , mr. constantine silvester : and the latter had not only his canes , but his house burnt down to the ground . this , and much more mischiefe has been done , by the negligence and wilfulnesse of servants . and yet some cruell masters will provoke their servants so , by extream ill usage , and often and cruell beating them , as they grow desperate , and so joyne together to revenge themselves upon them . a little before i came from thence , there was such a combination amongst them , as the like was never seen there before . their sufferings being grown to a great height , & their daily complainings to one another ( of the intolerable burdens they labour'd under ) being spread throughout the iland ; at the last , some amongst them , whose spirits were not able to endure such slavery , resolved to break through it , or die in the act ; and so conspired with some others of their acquaintance , whose sufferings were equall , if not above theirs ; and their spirits no way inferiour , resolved to draw as many of the discontented party into this plot , as possibly they could ; and those of this perswasion , were the greatest numbers of servants in the iland . so that a day was appointed to fall upon their masters , and cut all their throats , and by that means , to make themselves not only freemen , but masters of the iland . and so closely was this plot carried , as no discovery was made , till the day before they were to put it in act : and then one of them , either by the failing of his courage , or some new obligation from the love of his master , revealed this long plotted conspiracy ; and so by this timely advertisment , the masters were saved : justice hethersall ( whose servant this was ) sending letters to all his friends , and they to theirs , and so one to another , till they were all secured ; and , by examination , found out the greatest part of them ; whereof eighteen of the principall men in the conspiracy , and they the first leaders and contrivers of the plot , were put to death , for example to the rest . and the reason why they made examples of so many , was , they found these so haughty in their resolutions , and so incorrigible , as they were like enough to become actors in a second plot ; and so they thought good to secure them ; and for the rest , to have a speciall eye over them . # it has been accounted a strange thing , that the negres , being more then double the numbers of the christians that are there , and they accounted a bloody people , where they think they have power or advantages ; and the more bloody , by how much they are more fearfull than others : that these should not commit some horrid massacre upon the christians , thereby to enfranchise themselves , and become masters of the iland . but there are three reasons that take away this wonder ; the one is , they are not suffered to touch or handle any weapons : the other , that they are held in such awe and slavery , as they are fearfull to appear in any daring act ; and seeing the mustering of our men , and hearing their gun-shot , ( than which nothing is more terrible to them ) their spirits are subjugated to so low a condition , as they dare not look up to any bold attempt . besides these , there is a third reason , which stops all designes of that kind , and that is , they are fetch'd from severall parts of africa , who speake severall languages , and by that means , one of them understands not another : for , some of them are fetch'd from guinny and binny , some from cutchew , some from angola , and some from the river of gambra . and in some of these places where petty kingdomes are , they sell their subjects , and such as they take in battle , whom they make slaves ; and some mean men sell their servants , their children , and sometimes their wives ; and think all good traffick , for such commodities as our merchants sends them . when they are brought to us , the planters buy them out of the ship , where they find them stark naked , and therefore can not be deceived in any outward infirmity . they choose them as they do horses in a market ; the strongest , youthfullest , and most beautifull , yield the greatest prices . thirty pound sterling is a price for the best man negre ; and twenty five , twenty six , or twenty seven pound for a woman ; the children are at easier rates . and we buy them so , as the sexes may be equall ; for , if they have more men then women , the men who are unmarried will come to their masters , and complain , that they cannot live without wives , and desire him , they may have wives . and he tells them , that the next ship that comes , he will buy them wives , which satisfies them for the present ; and so they expect the good time : which the master performing with them , the bravest fellow is to choose first , and so in order , as they are in place ; and every one of them knowes his better , and gives him the precedence , as cowes do one another , in passing through a narrow gate ; for , the most of them are as neer beasts as may be , setting their souls aside . religion they know none ; yet most of them acknowledge a god , as appears by their motions and gestures : for , if one of them do another wrong , and he cannot revenge himselfe , he looks up to heaven for vengeance , and holds up both his hands , as if the power must come from thence , that must do him right . chast they are as any people under the sun ; for , when the men and women are together naked , they never cast their eyes towards the parts that ought to be covered ; and those amongst us , that have breeches and petticoats , i never saw so much as a kisse , or embrace , or a wanton giance with their eyes between them . jealous they are of their wives , and hold it for a great injury and scorn , if another man make the least courtship to his wife . and if any of their wives have two children at a birth , they conclude her false to his bed , and so no more adoe but hang her . we had an excellent negre in the plantation , whose name was macow , and was our chiefe musitian ; a very valiant man , and was keeper of our plantine-groave . this negres wife was brought to bed of two children , and her husband , as their manner is , had provided a cord to hang her . but the overseer finding what he was about to do , enformed the master of it , who sent for macow , to disswade him from this cruell act , of murdering his wife , and used all perswasions that possibly he could , to let him see , that such double births are in nature , and that divers presidents were to be found amongst us of the like ; so that we rather praised our wives , for their fertility , than blamed them for their falsenesse . but this prevailed little with him , upon whom custome had taken so deep an impression ; but resolved , the next thing he did , should be to hang her . which when the master perceived , and that the ignorance of the man , should take away the life of the woman , who was innocent of the crime her husband condemned her for , told him plainly , that if he hang'd her , he himselfe should be hang'd by her , upon the same bough ; and therefore wish'd him to consider what he did . this threatning wrought more with him , then all the reasons of philosophy that could be given him ; and so let her alone ; but he never car'd much for her afterward , but chose another which he lik'd better . for the planters there deny not a slave , that is a brave fellow , and one that has extraordinary qualities , two or three wives , and above that number they seldome go : but no woman is allowed above one husband . at the time the wife is to be brought a bed , her husband removes his board , ( which is his bed ) to another room ( for many severall divisions they have , in their little houses , ) and none above sixe foot square ) and leaves his wife to god , and her good fortune , in the room , and upon the board alone , and calls a neighbour to come to her , who gives little help to her deliverie , but when the child is borne , ( which she calls her pickaninnie ) she helps to make a little fire nere her feet and that serves instead of possets , broaths , and caudles . in a fortnight , this woman is at worke with her pickaninny at her back , as merry a soule as any is there : if the overseer be discreet , shee is suffer'd to rest her selfe a little more then ordinary ; but if not , shee is compelled to doe as others doe . times they have of suckling their children in the fields , and refreshing themselves ; and good reason , for they carry burdens on their backs ; and yet work too . some women , whose pickaninnies are three yeers old , will , as they worke at weeding , which is a stooping worke , suffer the hee pickaninnie , to sit astride upon their backs , like st. george a horse back ; and there spurre his mother with his heeles , and sings and crowes on her backe , clapping his hands , as if he meant to flye ; which the mother is so pleas'd with , as shee continues her painfull stooping posture , longer then she would doe , rather than discompose her joviall pickaninnie of his pleasure , so glad she is to see him merry . the worke which the women doe , is most of it weeding , a stooping and painfull worke ; at noon and night they are call'd home by the ring of a bell , where they have two hours time for their repast at noone ; and at night , they rest from sixe , till sixe a clock next morning . on sunday they rest , and have the whole day at their pleasure ; and the most of them use it as a day of rest and pleasure ; but some of them who will make benefit of that dayes liberty , goe where the mangrave trees grow , and gather the barke of which they make ropes , which they trucke away for other commoditie , as shirts and drawers . in the afternoons on sundayes , they have their musicke , which is of kettle drums , and those of severall sises ; upon the smallest the best musitian playes , and the other come in as chorasses : the drum all men know , has but one tone ; and therefore varietie of tunes have little to doe in this musick ; and yet so strangely they varie their time , as 't is a pleasure to the most curious eares , and it was to me one of the strangest noyses that ever i heard made of one tone ; and if they had the varietie of tune , which gives the greater scope in musick , as they have of time , they would doe wonders in that art. and if i had not faln sicke before my comming away , at least seven months in one sickness , i had given them some hints of tunes , which being understood , would have serv'd as a great addition to their harmonie ; for time without tune , is not an eighth part of the science of musick . i found macow very apt for it of himselfe , and one day comming into the house , ( which none of the negroes use to doe , unlesse an officer , as he was , ) he found me playing on a theorbo , and sinking to it which he hearkened very attentively to ; and when i had done took the theorbo in his hand , and strooke one string , stopping it by degrees upon every fret , and finding the notes to varie , till it came to the body of the instrument ; and that the neerer the body of the instrument he stopt , the smaller or higher the sound was , which he found was by the shortning of the string , considered with himselfe , how he might make some triall of this experiment upon such an instrument as he could come by ; having no hope ever to have any instrument of this kind to practise on . in a day or two after , walking in the plantine grove , to refresh me in that cool shade , and to delight my selfe with the sight of those plants , which are so beautifull , as though they left a fresh impression in me when i parted with them , yet upon a review , something is discern'd in their beautie more then i remembred at parting : which caused me to make often repair thither ; i found this negro ( whose office it was to attend there ) being the keeper of that grove , sitting on the ground , and before him a piece of large timber , upon which he had laid crosse , sixe billets , and having a hand-saw and a hatchet by him , would cut the billets by little and little , till he had brought them to the tunes , he would fit them to ; for the shorter they were , the higher the notes which he tryed by knocking upon the ends of them with a sticke , which he had in his hand . when i found him at it , i took the stick out of his hand , and tried the sound , finding the sixe billets to have sixe distinct notes , one above another , which put me in a wonder , how he of himselfe , should without teaching doe so much . i then shewed him the difference between flats and sharpes , which he presently apprehended , as between fa , and mi● and he would have cut two more billets to those tunes , but i had then no time to see it done , and so left him to his own enquiries . i say this much to let you see that some of these people are capable of learning arts. another , of another kinde of speculation i found ; but more ingenious then he : and this man with three or foure more , were to attend mee into the woods , to cut church wayes , for i was imployed sometimes upon publique works ; and those men were excellent axe-men , and because there were many gullies in the way , which were impassable , and by that means i was compell'd to make traverses , up and down in the wood ; and was by that in danger to misse of the poynt to which i was to make my passage to the church , and therefore was faine to take a compasse with me , which was a circumferenter , to make my traverses the more exact , and indeed without which , it could not be done , setting up the circumferenter , and observing the needle : this negre sambo comes to me , and seeing the needle wag , desired to know the reason of its stirring , and whether it were alive : i told him no , but it stood upon a poynt , and for a while it would stir , but by and by stand still , which he observ'd and found it to be true . the next question was , why it stood one way , & would not remove to any other poynt , i told him that it would stand no way but north and south , and upon that shew'd him the foure cardinall poynts of the compass , east , west , north , south , which he presently learnt by heart , and promis'd me never to forget it . his last question was , why it would stand north , i gave this reason , because of the huge rocks of loadstone that were in the north part of the world , which had a quality to draw iron to it ; and this needle being of iron , and toucht with a loadstone , it would alwaies stand that way . this point of philosophy was a little too hard for him , and so he stood in a strange muse ; which to put him out of , i bad him reach his ax , and put it neer to the compasse , and remove it about ; and as he did so , the needle turned with it , which put him in the greatest admiration that ever i saw a man , and so quite gave over his questions , and desired me , that he might be made a christian ; for , he thought to be a christian , was to be endued with all those knowledges he wanted . i promised to do my best endeavour ; and when i came home , spoke to the master of the plantation , and told him , that poor sambo desired much to be a christian. but his answer was , that the people of that iland were governed by the lawes of england , and by those lawes , we could not make a christian a slave . i told him , my request was far different from that , for i desired him to make a slave a christian. his answer was , that it was true , there was a great difference in that : but , being once a christian , he could no more account him a slave , and so lose the hold they had of them as slaves , by making them christians ; and by that means should open such a gap , as all the planters in the iland would curse him . so i was struck mute , and poor sambo kept out of the church ; as ingenious , as honest , and as good a natur ▪ d poor soul , as ever wore black , or eat green . on sundaies in the afternoon , their musick plaies , and to dancing they go , the men by themselves , and the women by themselves , no mixt dancing . their motions are rather what they aim at , than what they do ; and by that means , transgresse the lesse upon the sunday ; their hands having more of motion than their feet , & their heads more than their hands . they may dance a whole day , and neer heat themselves ; yet , now and then , one of the activest amongst them will leap bolt upright , and fall in his place again , but without cutting a capre . when they have danc'd an houre or two , the men fall to wrastle , ( the musick playing all the while ) and their manner of wrastling is , to stand like two cocks , with heads as low as their hipps ; and thrusting their heads one against another , hoping to catch one another by the leg , which sometimes they do : but if both parties be weary , and that they cannot get that advantage , then they raise their heads , by pressing hard one against another , and so having nothing to take hold of but their bare flesh , they close , and grasp one another about the middle , and have one another in the hug , and then a fair fall is given on the back . and thus two or three couples of them are engaged at once , for an houre together , the women looking on : for when the men begin to wrastle , the women leave of their dancing , and come to be spectatours of the sport . when any of them die , they dig a grave , and at evening they bury him , clapping and wringing their hands , and making a dolefull sound with their voyces . they are a people of a timerous and fearfull disposition , and consequently bloody , when they finde advantages . if any of them commit a fault , give him present punishment , but do not threaten him ; for if you do , it is an even lay , he will go and hang himselfe , to avoid the punishment . what their other opinions are in matter of religion , i know not ; but certainly , they are not altogether of the sect of the saddu●es : for , they believe a resurrection , and that they shall go into their own country again , and have their youth renewed . and lodging this opinion in their hearts , they make it an ordinary practice , upon any great fright , or threatning of their masters , to hang them selves . but collonell walrond having lost three or foure of his best negres this way , and in a very little time , caused one of their heads to be cut off , and set upon a pole a dozen foot high ; and having done that , caused all his negres to come forth , and march round about this head , and bid them look on it , whether this were not the head of such an one that hang'd himselfe . which they acknowledging , he then told them , that they were in a main errour , in thinking they went into their own countries , after they were dead ; for , this mans head was here , as they all were witnesses of ; and how was it possible , the body could go without a head . being convinc'd by this sad , yet lively spectacle , they changed their opinions ; and after that , no more hanged themselves . when they are sick , there are two remedies that cure them ; the one , an outward , the other , an inward medicine . the outward medicine is a thing they call n●gre-oyle , and 't is made in barbary , yellow it is as bees wax , but soft as butter . when they feel themselves ill , they call for some of that , and annoint their bodies , as their breasts , bellies , and sides , and in two daies they are perfectly well . but this does the greatest cures upon such , as have bruises or strains in their bodies . the inward medicine is taken , when they find any weakness or decay in their spirits and stomacks , and then a dram or two of kill-devill revives and comforts them much . i have been very strict , in observing the shapes of these people ; and for the men , they are very well timber'd , that is , broad between the shoulders , full breasted , well filleted , and clean leg'd , and may hold good with albert durers rules , who allowes twice the length of the head , to the breadth of the shoulders ; and twice the length of the face , to the breadth of the hipps , and according to this rule these men are shap'd . but the women not ; for the same great master of proportions , allowes to each woman , twice the length of the face to the breadth of the shoulders , and twice the length of her own head to the breadth of the hipps . and in that , these women are faulty ; for i have seen very few of them , whose hipps have been broader then their shoulders , unlesse they have been very fat . the young maides have ordinarily very large breasts , which stand strutting out so hard and firm , as no leaping , jumping , or stirring , will cause them to shake any more , then the brawnes of their armes . but when they come to be old , and have had five or six children , their breasts hang down below their navells , so that when they stoop at their common work of weeding , they hang almost down to the ground , that at a distance , you would think they had six legs : and the reason of this is , they tie the cloaths about their children's backs , which comes upon their breasts , which by pressing very hard , causes them to hang down to that length . their children , when they are first born , have the palmes of their hands and the soles of their feet , of a whitish colour , and the sight of their eyes of a blewish colour , not unlike the eyes of a young kitling ; but , as they grow older , they become black . their way of reckoning their ages , or any other notable accident they would remember , is by the moon ; and so accounting from the time of their childrens births , the time they were brought out of their own country , or the time of their being taken prisoners , by some prince or potentate of their own country , or any other notorious accidents , that they are resolved to remember , they account by the moon ; as , so many moons since one of these , and so many moons since another ; and this account they keep as long as they can : but if any of them live long , their arithmetick failes them , and then they are at a dead fault , and so give over the chase , wanting the skill to hunt counter . for what can poor people do , that are without letters and numbers , which is the soul of all businesse that is acted by mortalls , upon the clobe of this world. some of them , who have been bred up amongst the portugalls , have some extraordinary qualities , which the others have not ; as singing and fencing . i have seen some of these portugall negres , at collonell james draxes , play at rapier and dagger very skilfully , with their stooka dos , their imbrocados , and their passes : and at single rapier too , after the manner of charanza , with such comelinesse ; as , if the skill had been wanting , the motions would have pleased you ; but they were skilfull too , which i perceived by their binding with their points , and nimble and subtle avoidings with their bodies , and the advantages the strongest man had in the close , which the other avoided by the nimblenesse and skilfulnesse of his motion . for , in this science , i had bin so well vers'd in my youth , as i was now able to be a competent judge . upon their first appearance upon the stage , they march towards one another , with a slow majestick pace , and a bold commanding look , as if they meant both to conquer ; and comming neer together , they shake hands , and embrace one another , with a cheerfull look . but their retreat is much quicker then their advance , and , being at first distance , change their countenance , and put themselves into their posture ; and so after a passe or two , retire , and then to 't again : and when they have done their play , they embrace , shake hands , and putting on their smoother countenances , give their respects to their master , and so go off . for their singing , i cannot much commend that , having heard so good in europe ; but for their voices , i have heard many of them very loud and sweet . excellent swimmers and divers they are , both men and women . collonell drax ( who was not so strict an observer of sundaies , as to deny himselfe lawfull recreations ) would sometimes , to shew me sport , upon that day in the afternoon , send for one of the muscovia ducks , and have her put into his largest pond , and calling for some of his best swimming negres , commanded them to swim and take this duck ; but forbad them to dive , for if they were not bar'd that play , they would rise up under the duck , and take her as she swome , or meet her in her diving , and so the sport would have too quick an end . but that play being forbidden , the duck would make them good sport for they are stronger ducks , and better divers by farre then ours : and in this chase , there was much of pleasure , to see the various swimmings of the negroes ; some the ordinarie wayes , upon their bellies , some on their backs , some by striking out their right legge and left arme , and then turning on the other side , and changing both their legge and arme , which is a stronger and swifter way of swimming , then any of the others : and while we were seeing this sport , and observing the diversities , of their swimmings , a negro maid , who was not there at the beginning of the sport ; and therefore heard nothing of the forbidding them to dive , put off her peticoate behind a bush , that was at one end of the pond , and closely sunk down into the water , and at one diving got to the duck , pul'd her under water , & went back againe the same way she came to the bush , all at one dive . we all thought the duck had div'd : and expected her appearance above water , but nothing could be seen , till the subtilty was discovered , by a christian that saw her go in , and so the duck was taken from her . but the trick being so finely and so closely done , i begg'd that the duck might be given her againe , which was granted , and the young girle much pleased . though there be a marke set upon these people , which will hardly ever be wip'd off , as of their cruelties when they have advantages , and of their fearfulnesse and falsnesse ; yet no rule so generall but hath his acception : for i beleive , and i have strong motives to cause me to bee of that perswasion , that there are as honest , faithfull , and conscionable people amongst them , as amongst those of europe , or any other part of the world . a hint of this , i will give you in a lively example ; and it was in a time when victuals were scarce , and plantins were not then so frequently planted , as to afford them enough . so that some of the high spirited and turbulent amongst them , began to mutinie , and had a plot , secretly to be reveng'd on their master , and one or two of these were firemen that made the fires in the furnaces , who were never without store of drie wood by them . these villains , were resolved to make fire to such part of the boyling house , as they were sure would fire the rest , and so burn all , and yet seem ignorant of the fact , as a thing done by accident . but this plot was discovered , by some of the others who hated mischiefe , as much as they lov'd it ; and so traduc't them to their master , and brought in so many witnesses against them , as they were forc't to confesse , what they meant should have been put in act the next night : so giving them condigne punishment , the master gave order to the overseer that the rest should have a dayes liberty to themselves and their wives , to doe what they would ; and withall to allow them a double proportion of victual for three dayes , both which they refus'd : which we all wonder'd at knowing well how much they lov'd their liberties , and their meat , having been lately pincht of the one , and not having overmuch of the other ; and therefore being doubtfull what their meaning was in this , suspecting some discontent amongst them , sent for three or foure of the best of them , and desir'd to know why they refus'd this favour that was offer'd them , but receiv'd such an answer : as we little expected ; for they told us , it was not sullennesse , or slighting the gratuitie their master bestow'd on them , but they would not accept any thing as a recompence for doing that which became them in their duties to due , nor would they have him think , it was hope of reward , that made them to accuse their fellow servants , but an act of justice , which they thought themselves bound in duty to doe , and they thought themselves sufficiently rewarded in the act. the substance of this , in such language as they had , they delivered , and poor sambo was the orator ; by whose example the others were led both in the discovery of the plot , and refuseall of the gratuitie . and withall they said , that if it pleas'd their master , at any time , to bestow a voluntary boone upon them , be it never so sleight , they would willingly and thankfully accept it : & this act might have beseem'd the best christians , though some of them were denied christianity ; when they earnestly sought it . let others have what opinion they please , yet i am of this beliefe ; that there are to be found amongst them , some who are as morally honest , as conscionable , as humble , as loving to their friends , and as loyall to their masters , as any that live under the sunne , & one reason they have to be so , is , they set no great value upon their lives : and this is all i can remember concerning the negroes , except of their games , which i could never learne , because they wanted language to teach me . as for the indians , we have but few , and those fetcht from other countries ; some from the neighbouring ilands , some from the maine , which we make slaves : the women who are better verst in ordering the cassavie and making bread , then the negroes , we imploye for that purpose , as also for making mobbie : the men we use for footmen , and killing of fish which they are good at ; with their own bowes and arrows they will go out ; and in a dayes time , kill as much fish , as will serve a family of a dozen persons , two or three daies , if you can keep the fish so long . they are very active men , and apt to learne any thing , sooner then the negroes ; and as different from them in shape , almost as in colour ; the men very broad shoulder'd , deep breasted , with large heads , and their faces almost three square , broad about the eyes and temples , and sharpe at the chinne , their skins some of them brown , some a bright bay , they are much craftier , and subtiler then the negroes ; and in their nature falser ; but in their bodies more active , their women have very small breasts , and have more of the shape of the europeans then the negroes , their haire black and long , a great part whereof hangs downe upon their backs , as low as their hanches , with a large lock hanging over either brest , which seldome or never curles : cloaths they scorne to weare , especially if they be well shap't ; a girdle they use of tape , covered with little smooth shels of fishes , white , and from their flanke of one side , to their flank on the other side , a fringe of blew bugle ; which hangs so low as to cover their privities . we had an indian woman , a slave in the house , who was of excellent shape and colour , for it was a pure bright bay ; small brests , with the nipls of a porphyrie colour , this woman would not be woo'd by any means to weare cloaths . shee chanc't to be with child , by a christian servant , and lodging in the indian house , amongst other women of her own country , where the christian servants , both men and women came ; and being very great , and that her time was come to be delivered , loath to fall in labour before the men , walk'd down to a wood , in which was a pond of water , and there by the side of the pond , brought her selfe a bed ; and presently washing her child in some of the water of the pond , lap'd it up in such ●ags , as she had begg'd of the christians ; and in three hours time came home , with her childe in her armes , a lusly boy , frolick and lively . this indian dwelling neer the sea-coast , upon the main , an english ship put in to a bay , and sent some of her men a shoar , to try what victualls or water they could finde , for in some distresse they were : but the indians perceiving them to go up so far into the country , as they were sure they could not make a safe retreat , intercepted them in their return , and fell upon them , chasing them into a wood , and being dispersed there , some were taken , and some kill'd : but a young man amongst them stragling from the rest , was met by this indian maid , who upon the first sight fell in love with him , and hid him close from her countrymen ( the indians ) in a cave , and there fed him , till they could safely go down to the shoar , where the ship lay at anchor , expecting the return of their friends . but at last , seeing them upon the shoar , sent the long-boat for them , took them aboard , and brought them away . but the youth , when he came ashoar in the barbadoes , forgot the kindnesse of the poor maid , that had ventured her life for his safety , and sold her for a slave , who was as free born as he : and so poor yarico for her love , lost her liberty . now for the masters , i have yet said but little , nor am able to say halfe of what they deserve . they are men of great abilities and parts , otherwise they could not go through , with such great works as they undertake ; the managing of one of their plantations , being a work of such a latitude , as will require a very good head-peece , to put in order , and continue it so . i can name a planter there , that feeds daily two hundred mouths , and keeps them in such order , as there are no mutinies amongst themi and yet of severall nations . all these are to be employed in their severall abilities , so as no one be idle . the first work to be considered , is weeding , for unlesse that be done , all else ( and the planter too ) will be undone ; and if that be neglected but a little time , it will be a hard matter to recover it again , so fast will the weeds grow there . but the ground being kept clean , 't is fit to bear any thing that country will afford . after weeding comes planting , and they account two seasons in the year best , and that is , may and november ; but canes are to be planted at all times , that they may come in , one field after another ; otherwise , the work will stand still . and commonly they have in a field that is planted together , at one time ten or a dozen acres . this work of planting and weeding , the master himselfe is to see done ; unlesse he have a very trusty and able overseer ; and without such a one , he will have too much to do . the next thing he is to consider , is the ingenio , and what belongs to that ; as , the ingenio it selfe , which is the primum mobile of the whole work , the boyling-house , with the coppers and furnaces , the filling room , the still-house , and cureing-house ; and in all these , there are great casualties . if any thing in the rollers , as the goudges , sockets , sweeps , cogs , or braytrees , be at fault , the whole work stands still ; or in the boyling-house , if the frame which holds the coppers , ( and is made of clinkers , fastned with plaister of paris ) if by the violence of the heat from the furnaces , these frames crack or break , there is a stop in the work , till that be mended . or if any of the coppers have a mischance , and be burnt , a new one must presently be had , or there is a stay in the work . or if the mouths of the furnaces , ( which are made of a sort of stone , which we have from england , and we call it there , high gate stone ) if that , by the violence of the fire , be softned , that it moulder away , there must new be provided , and laid in with much art , or it will not be . or if the barrs of iron , which are in the flowre of the furnace , when they are red hot , ( as continually they are ) the fire-man , throw great shides of wood in the mouths of the furnaces , hard and carelesly , the weight of those logs , will bend or break those barrs , ( though strongly made ) and there is no repairing them , without the work stand still ; for all these depend upon one another , as wheels in a clock . or if the stills be at fault , the kill-devill cannot be made . but the main impediment and stop of all , is the losse of our cattle , and amongst them , there are such diseases , as i have known in one plantation , thirty that have died in two daies . and i have heard , that a planter , an eminent man there , that clear'd a dozen acres of ground , and rail'd it about for pasture , with intention , as soon as the grasse was growne to a great height , to put in his working oxen ; which accordingly he did , and in one night fifty of them dyed ; so that such a losse as this , is able to undo a planter , that is not very well grounded . what it is that breeds these diseases , we cannot finde , unlesse some of the plants have a poysonous quality ; nor have we yet found out cures for these diseases ; chickens guts being the best remedy was then known , and those being chopt or minc't , and given them in a horn , with some liquor mixt to moisten it , was thought the best remedy ; yet it recovered very few . our horses too have killing diseases amongst them , and some of them have been recovered by glisters , which we give them in pipes , or large seringes made of wood , for the same purpose . for , the common diseases , both of cattle and horses , are obstructions and bindings in their bowells ; and so lingring a disease it is , to those that recover , as they are almost worn to nothing before they get well . so that if any of these stops continue long , or the cattle cannot be recruited in a reasonable time , the work is at a stand ; and by that means , the canes grow over ripe , and will in a very short time have their juice dried up , and will not be worth the grinding . now to recruit these cattle , horses , camells , and assinigos , who are all lyable to these mischances and decaies , merchants must be consulted , ships provided , and a competent cargo of goods adventured , to make new voyages to forraigne parts , to supply those losses ; and when that is done , the casualties at sea are to be considered , and those happen severall waies , either by shipwrack , piracy , or fire . a master of a ship , and a man accounted both able , stout , and honest , having transported goods of severall kinds , from england to a part of africa , the river of gambra , and had there exchanged his commodities for negres , which was that he intended to make his voyage of , caused them all to be shipt , and did not , as the manner is , shakle one to another , and make them sure ; but having an opinion of their honesty and faithfulnesse to him , as they had promised ; and he being a credulous man , and himselfe good natur'd and mercifull , suffered them to go loose , and they being double the number of those in the ship , found their advantages , got weapons in their hands , and fell upon the saylers , knocking them on the heads , and cutting their throats so fast , as the master found they were all lost , out of any possibility of saving ; and so went down into the hold , and blew all up with himselfe ; and this was before they got out of the river . these , and severall other waies there will happen , that extreamly retard the work of suger-making . now let us consider how many things there are to be thought on , that go to the actuating this great work , and how many cares to prevent the mischances , that are incident to the retarding , if not the frustrating of the whole work ; and you will finde them wise and provident men , that go on and prosper in a work , that depends upon so many contingents . this i say , to stop those mens mouths , that lie here , at home , and expect great profit in their adventures , and never consider , through what difficulty , industry , and paines it is acquired ▪ and thus much i thought good to say , of the abilities of the planters . the next thing is , of their natures and dispositions , which i found compliable in a high degree to all vertues , that those of the best sort of gentlemen call excellent ● as , civilly intreating of strangers , with communicating to them any thing within the compasse of their knowledge , that might be beneficiall to them , in any undertaking amongst them , and assisting them in it , giving them harbour for themselves and servants . and if their intentions were to buy plantations , to make diligent inquiries for such as they desired , and to drive the bargain as neer the winde for their advantages , as possibly they could , and to put themselves in some travells , in setling the businesse : or , if that could not do them service , to recommend them to any friend they had , that lay more fit and convenient for their purpose . loving , friendly , and hospitable one to another ; and though they are of severall perswasions , yet , their discretions ordered every thing so well , as there never were any fallings out between them : which to prevent , some of them of the better sort , made a law amongst themselves , that whosoever nam'd the word roundhead or cavalier , should give to all those that heard him , a shot and a turky , to be eaten at his house that made the forfeiture ; which sometimes was done purposely , that they might enjoy the company of one another ; and sometimes this shot and this turky would draw on a dozen dishes more , if company were accordingly : so frank , so loving , and so good natur'd were these gentlemen one to another ; and to expresse their affections yet higher , they had particular names one to another , as , neighbour , friend , brother , sister ▪ so that i perceived nothing wanting , that might make up a firme and lasting friendship amongst them ; though after i came away , it was otherwise . sports and exercises they never us'd any , as bowling , shooting , hunting , or hawking ; for indeed there are no places fit for the two first exercises , the countrey being so rocky , uneven and full of stumps of trees : and for the other two , they want game ; for there are no kind of wild beasts in the iland , nor any foule fit to hawk at ; besides the country is so woody , as there is no champian to flye in ; pheasants , partridges , heathpoults , quailes , or rayles , never set foot upon this ground , unlesse they were brought there ; and if so , they never liv'd and for hawkes , i never saw but two , and those the merriest stirrers that ever i saw flye ; the one of them was in an evening just at sunne setting , which is the time the bats rise , and so are to a good height ; and at a downecome , this barbary faulcon took one of them and carried it away . # if i shall begin with the largest first i must name camells , and these are very usefull beasts , but very few will live upon the iland : divers have had them brought over , but few know how to diet them . captaine higginbotham had foure or five , which were of excellent use , not only of carrying down sugar to the bridge , but of bringing from thence hogsheads of wine , beer , or vinegar , which horses cannot do , nor can carts pass for gullies , and negroes cannot carry it , for the reasons afore mentioned ; a good camell will carry 1600 l. weight , and go the surest of any beast . # we have from severall parts of the world , england , holland , bonavista , the iles of cape verd , virginie , new england , and some from one of the leeward ilands in the carribbies call'd currissa , besides some we breed and very strong and good mettled , bold and fit to charge on : these horses we use either for the ingenio , or the saddle , seldom or never for carrying sugar , the gullies being so steep . # we have from the severall places i have nam'd , but chiefly bulls , from the i le of may , and bonavista ; which are cattell , being well taught , will work the orderliest that i have seen any . with these , we have cowes , and some of them we use for the payle , and some for the ingenio , some we breed , and have speedier increase then in europe , for here a calfe will bring a calfe in fourteen months ; and if it were not for the diseases that take away our cattell , we should not need to fetch any from forraine parts . # are here of exceeding great use in the iland , in carrying our sugars down to the bridge which by reason of the gullies , the horses cannot doe : besides when the great raines fall the wayes are so deep , and full of roots , as when a horse puts in his legge between two roots , he can hardly pull it out againe , having a great weight on his back ; and if he fall , 't is hard lifting him up . whereas the assinigoes pick and choose their way , and sometimes choose out little wayes in the wood , such as they know are fit for them to passe , which horses cannot doe , because the wayes are too narrow for them , or if they were not , they would want much the wit of the assinigoes , to pick and choose their way . and if by chance the assinigoes fall , two negroes are able to help him up , and we seldome use more then two , for assistance to the christian that has the charge of the carriages . one of these assinigoes will carry 150 weight of sugar ; some of the strongest 200 weight ; our planters have been very desirous if it were possible to get mules there , for they would be of excellent use , in carrying their sugars , and working in the ingenio ; but they had got none when i was there , but they were making trialls , either to get some of those , or some large horse assinigoes , to breed with the mares of that country . # we have here in abundance , but not wild or loose , for if they were they would do more harme then their bodies are worth ; they are enclos'd , and every man knows his own , those that reare them to sell , do commonly sell them for a groat a pound ; weighing them alive ; sometimes six pence if flesh be deere . there was a planter in the iland , that came to his neighbour and said to him : neighbour i hear you have lately bought good store of servants , out of the last ship that came from england , and i heare withall , that you want provisions , i have great want of a woman servant ; and would be glad to make an exchange ; if you will let me have some of your womans flesh , you shall have some of my hoggs flesh ; so the price was set a groat a pound for the hogges flesh , and sixe pence for the womans flesh . the scales were set up , and the planter had a maid that was extreame fat , lasie , and good for nothing ▪ her name was honor ; the man brought a great fat sow , and put it in one scale : and honor was put in the other , but when he saw how much the maid outwayed his sow : he broke off the bargaine , and would not go on : though such a case as this , may seldome happen , yet 't is an ordinary thing there , to sell their servants to one another for the time they have to serve ; and in exchange , receive any commodities that are in the iland ; i have said as much already of the largeness weight and goodnesse of these hogs as is needful , and therefore i shall need no more . # we have here , but very few ; and those do not like well the pasture , being very unfit for them ; a soure tough and saplesse grasse , and some poysonous plant they find , which breeds diseases amongst them , and so they dye away , they never are fat , and we thought a while the reason had been , their too much heate with their wool , and so got them often sho●ne ; but that would not cure them , yet the ews bear alwayes two lambs , their flesh when we tried any of them , had a very faint taste , so that i do not think they are fit to be bred or kept in that countrey : other sheep we have there , which are brought from guinny and binny , and those have haire growing on them , instead of wool ; and liker goates then sheep , yet their flesh is tasted more like mutton then the other . # we have in greater plenty , and they prosper farre better then the sheep , and i find little difference in the taste of their flesh , and the goats here ; they live for the most part in the woods , sometimes in the pasture , but are alwaies inclos●d in a fence , that they do not trespass upon their neighbours ground ; for whosoever finds hog or goat of his neighbours , either in his canes , corne , potatoes , bonavist , or plantines , may by the lawes of the iland shoot him through with a gun , and kill him ; but then he must presently send to the owner , to let him know where he is . # the birds of this place ( setting two aside ) are hardly worth the pains of describing ; yet , in order , as i did the beasts , i will set them down . the biggest is a direct bussard , but somewhat lesse then our grey bussards in england , somewhat swifter of wing ; and the only good they do , is , sometimes to kill the rats . the next to him in bignesse , is the larger turtle dove , and of them , there is great store in the iland : 't is a much handsomer bird , both in shape and colour , then ours in england , and is very good meat . next to her is the lesser turtle , a far finer bird then she , but of a contrary shape ; for this is of the shape of a partridge , but her plumidge gray , and a red brown under the wings ; a pretier bird i do not know , of so few glorious colours ; her tune like the other . the next is a bird like a thrush , of a melancholly look , her feathers never smooth , but alwaies ruffled , as if she were muing , her head down , her shoulders up , as if her neck were broke . this bird has for three or four notes , the loudest and sweetest , that ever i heard ; if she had variety , certainly no bird could go beyond her ; she lookes alwaies , as if she were sick or melancholly . another there is , not much unlike a wren , but big as a thrush ; and this is a merry and jolly , as the other is sad ; and as she sits on a stick , jets , and lifts up her train , looking with so earnest and merry a countenance , as if she would invite you to come to her , and will sit till you come very neer her . this bird i never heard sing . the nex●● black-bird , with white eyes , and that so ill becomes her , as she is accounted an unhandsome bird ; her voice harsh , somewhat like our jay in england ; they go in great flocks , and are harmefull birds , for they are great devourers of corn , and blossomes of trees , and the planters wish them destroyed , though they know not which way . they are a kinde of stares , for they walk , and do not hop as other birds . one thing i observe in these birds , which i never saw in any but them , and that is , when they flie , they put their train into severall postures ; one while they keep it straight , as other birds ; sometimes they turn it edge-waies , as the tail of a fish , and by and by put it three square , with the covering feather a top , and the sides downwards . the next is of the colour of a feldefare , but the head seemes too big for her body , and for that reason they call her a counsellor ; her flying is extream wanton ; and for her tune , 't is such as i have not heard any like her , not for the sweetnesse , but the strangenesse of it ; for she performes that with her voice , that no instrument can play , nor no voice sing , but hers ; and that is , quarter notes , her song being composed of five tones , and every one a quarter of a note higher then other . mr. john coprario , a rare composer of musick , and my dear friend , told me once , that he was studying a curiosity in musick , that no man had ever attempted to do ; and that was , of quarter notes ; but he not being able to go through with it , gave it over : but if he had liv'd to have gone with me to the barbadoes , this bird should have taught him . under this size , there are none considerable ; sparrowes , haysocks , finches , yellow hamers , titnies , and divers others of that sort , for which i have no names . but the last and strangest of all , is , that which we call the huming bird , much lesse then a wren , not much bigger then a humble bee , her body long , her wings small and sharp , of a sullen sad green , no pleasant colours on her ; her manner of feeding is , just as a bee , putting her bill into a blossome or a flower , tastes as lightly as a bee , never sitting , but purring with her wings , all the time she staies with the flower ; and the motion of her wings are as nimble and swift , as a bee : we have no way to take her , but by shooting sand out of a gun at her , which mazes her for the present , that you may take her up ; but there is no way to keep her alive , her feeding being such , as none can give her but her selfe . now for the birds that live upon the outward verge of the iland , i have not much to say . sometimes teals come to our ponds , three or four couple together , but never go away ; for when we see them , we take a gun , and comming neer , shoot them , and the report of the gun frights , and makes those that are alive flie away , and fetch one turn , and come back to see their fellowes dead , and alight to them , and so we shoot and shoot again till all be kill'd ; for they will alwaies come back to see their dead friends . the like we do with those birds we call oxen and kine , which come to us in like manner . small swallowes we have now and then , but somewhat different from ours in colour . but there is a bird they call , a man of war , and he is much bigger than a heron , and flies out to sea upon discoveries , ( for they never light upon the sea ) to see what ships are comming to the iland ; and when they return , the ilanders look out , and say , a ship is comming , and finde it true . i have seen one of them , as high as i could look , to meet us twenty leagues from land ; and some others , almost as big as ducks , that in an evening came in a flock of twenty , or there about , and they made divers turnes about the ship , a little before sun-setting ; and when it grew dark , they lighted upon the ribs of the ship , and with little nooses of packthred , the saylers caught them ; they were very fat and good . though the bat be no bird , yet she flies with wings , and alwaies a little before sunsetting , at which time they come out of holes , chimneys , and hollow trees , and will raise them to a great height , feeding themselves with flies that they finde in the aire , at that time of the evening . # having done with beasts and birds , we will enquire what other lesser animalls or insects there are upon the iland , of which , snakes are the chiefe , because the largest ; and i have seen some of those a yard and a halfe long . the only harme they do , is to our pigeon houses , and milk-panns ; so that if we leave any hole in the bottom of the house , where they can come in , they will get to the nests , and devour the young pigeons , if they be not over big . and yet 't is strange to see , what great morsells they will swallow ; slide they will up against a wall , if it be but perpendicular ; but if it be declining outward , they cannot get up , but will fall back ten foot high , if they be hindred by any stooping of the wall ; for which reason we make jetties , neer the top of such roomes , as we will keep them out of ; they have climbed six foot high upon the outside of a wall , come in at a window , down on the inside , skim our milk-pannes , and away again : till we took one of them there , we knew not by what means our pannes were thus skim'd . they never sting any body , nor is there any venomous beast in the iland . the next to these are scorpions , of which , some of them are as big as ratts , smooth , aud coloured like a snake , somewhat blewer , their bellies inclining to yellow , very nimble and quick to avoid their pursuers : yet , the snakes will now and then take them , between whom there is a great conflict , before the quarrell be decided ; for , the scorpions that are large , are very strong , and will maintain the fight sometimes halfe an houre ; i have seen them wrastle together a good part of that time : but in conclusion , the snakes get the better , and devour the other . these scorpions were never known to hurt man or beast . toads or frogs we have none . lizards we had in great plenty , but the cats kill them so fast in the houses , as they are much lessened in their number . this little animal loves much to be where men are , and are delighted to stand and gaze in their faces , and hearken to their discourse . these with us , i think , are different from those of europe ; the bodies of ours are about four inches long , the tail neer as much , headed not much unlike a snake ; their colour , when they are pleased , a pure grasse-green on the back , blewish toward the side , and yellowish on the belly ; four leggs , and those very nimble : when they see at distance some of their own kinde , that they are angry with ▪ they swell a little bigger , and change their colour , from green to russet or hair-colour , which abates much of their beauty ; for , their green is very plea●ant and beautifull : cold they are as frogs . next to these are cockroches , a creature of the bignesse and shape of a beetle ; but of a pure hair-colour , which would set him off the better , if he had not an ugly wabling gate , but that makes him unhandsome . he appears in the evening when 't is dark , and will , when he pleases , flie to your bed , when he findes you sleeping , and bite your skin , till he fetch blood , if you do not wake ; and if you take a candle to search for him , he shifts away and hides himselfe , as the pu●nices do in italy . the negres , who have thick skins , and by reason of their hard labour , sleep foundly at night , are bitten so , as far as the breadth of both your hands together , their skins are rac't , as if it were done with a currie-comb . next to these tormentors , are musketos , who bite and sting worse then the gnats and stouts , that sting cattle in england , ( and are commonly felt in marish ground ) . and next to them meriwings , and they are of so small a sise , and so thin and aereall , as you can hardly discern them , but by the noise of their wings , which is like a small bugle horn , at a great distance : where they sting , there will rise a little knob , as big as a pease , and last so a whole day ; the mark will not be gone in twenty four hours . caterpillars we have sometimes in abundance , and they do very great harme ; for , they light upon the leaves of our potatoes , which we call slips , and eat them all away , and come so low , as to eat of the root too : and the only remedy we have , is , to drive a flock of turkies into the place where they are , and they will devour them . the harmes these vermine do us , is double ; first , in the slips , which is the food we give our horses , and is cast into the rack ; and in our potatoes , being the root of these slips , which we our selves feed upon . flies we have of so many kindes , ( from two inches long with the great hornes , which we keep in boxes , and are shewed by john tredescan amongst his rarities ) to the least atome , as it would be a weary work to set them down ; as also the sudden production of them , from nothing to maggets , from maggets to flies ; and there is not only a race of all these kindes , that go on in a generation , but upon new occasions , new kindes ; as , after a great downfall of rain , when the ground has been extreamly moistned ; and softned with the water , i have walk'd out upon a drie walk ( which i made my selfe ) in an evening , and there came about me an army of such flies , as i had never seen before , nor after ; and they rose , as i conceived , out of the earth : they were as big bodied as bees , but far larger wings ; harme they did us none , but only lighted on us ; their colour between ash-colour and purple . the next of these moving little animalls are ants , or pismires , and those are but of a small sise , but great in industry ; and that which gives them means to attain to their ends , is , they have all one soul. if i should say , they are here or there , i should do them wrong ; for they are every where , under ground , where any hollow or loose earth is , amongst the roots of trees , upon the bodies , branches , leaves , and fruit of all trees , in all places without the houses and within , upon the sides , walls , windowes , and roofes without ; and on the floores , side-walls , sealings , and windowes within ; tables , cupbords , beds , stooles , all are covered with them , so that they are a kind of ubiquitaries . the cockroaches are their mortall enemies , and though they are not able to do them any mischiefe , being living , ( by reason they are far stronger and mightier then a hundred of them , & if they should force any one of them with multitudes , he has the liberty of his wings to make his escape ) yet , when they finde him dead , they will divide him amongst them into atomes ; and to that purpose , they carry him home to their houses or nests . we sometimes kill a cockroach , and throw him on the ground , and mark what they will do with him ; his body is bigger then a hundred of them , and yet they will finde the means to take hold of him , and lift him up ; and having him above ground , away they carry him , and some go by as ready assistants , if any be weary ; and some are the officers that lead and shew the way to the hole into which he must passe ; and if the van curriers perceive , that the body of the cockroach lies crosse , and will not passe through the hole , or arch , through which they mean to carry him , order is given , and the body turned endwise , and this done a foot before they come to the hole , and that without any stop or stay ; and this is observable , that they never pull contrary waies . those that are curious , and will prevent their comming on their tables , cupbords , or beds , have little hollowes of timber , fill'd with water , for the feet of these to stand in ; but all this will not serve their turne ; for they will some of them , goe up to the sieling , and let themselves fall upon the teasters of the beds , cupbords , and tables . to prevent them from comming on our shelves where our meat is kept , we hang them to the roofe by ropes , and tarre those roapes , and the roofes over them , as also the strings of our hamacks , for which reason we avoid them better in hamacks then in beds . sometimes when we try conclusions upon them ; we take the carpet off the table , and shake it , so that all the ants drop off , and rub down the leggs and feet of those tables , ( which stood not in water ) and having done so : we lay on the carpet againe , and set upon it a sallet dish , or trencher , with suger in it , which some of them in the room will presently smell , and make towards it as fast as they can , which is a long journey ; for he must begin at the foot of the table , and come as high as the inside of the carpet , and so go down to the bottome and up of the outside of the carpet , before he gets on the table , and then to the sugar , which he smels to ; and having found it , returnes againe the same way , without taking any for his paines , and enformes all his friends of this bootie ; who come in thousands , and tenne thousands , and in an instant , fetch it all away ; and when they are thickest upon the table , clap a large book , ( or any thing fit for that purpose ) upon them , so hard as to kill all that are under it , and when you have done so , take away the book , and leave them to themselves , but a quarter of an houre , and when you come againe , you shall find all those bodies carried away . other trials we make of their ingenuity , as this . take a pewter dish , and fill it halfe full of water , into which put a little gally pot fill'd with sugar , and the ants will presently find it , and come upon the table ; but when they perceive it inviron'd with water , they try about the brims of the dish , where the gally pot is neerest , and there the most venturous amongst them , commits him selfe to the water , though he be conscious how ill a swimmer he is , and is drown'd in the adventure : the next is not warn'd by his example , but ventures too ; and is alike drown'd : and many more , so that there is a small foundation of their bodies to venture on ; and then they come faster then ever , and so make a bridge of their own bodies , for their friends to passe on ; neglecting their lives for the good of the publique ; for before they make an end , they will make way for the rest , and become masters of the prize ; i had a little white sugar which i desired to keep from them , and was devising which way to doe it , and i knockt a nayle in the beam of the roome , and fastned to it a brown thread , at the lower end of which thread , i tyed a large shell of a fish ; which being hollow i put the sugar in ; and lockt the door , thinking it safe ; but when i returned , i found three quarters of my sugar gone , and the ants in abundance , ascending and descending , like the angels on jacobs ladder , as i have seen it painted , so that i found no place safe , from these more then busie creatures . another sorts of ants there are , but nothing so numerous or harmfull as the other , but larger by farre ; these build great nests , as bigge as bee hives , against a wall , or a tree , of clay and lome , sometimes within doors , and in it severall little mansions , such as bees make for themselves , but nothing so curious ; these the cockroaches and lizards meet withall , way-laying them neere their nests , and feed upon them : which to prevent they make from thence , many and severall galleries that reach some of them sixe or seaven yards severall waies , of the same earth they doe their nests ; so that for such a distance as that , they are not to be perceiv'd , by any of their enemies , and commonly , their avenues go out amongst leaves , or mosse , or some other covert , that they may not be perceiv'd ; but the most of these are in the woods ; for we have destroyed their nests , and their galleries within doors so often , as they are weary of building , and so quit the house , i can say nothing of these , but that they are the quickest at their work of building , of any little creatures that ever i saw . spiders we have , the beautifullest and largest that i have seen , and the most curious in their webs ; they are not at all poysonous . one sort more of these harmefull animals there are , which we call chegoes ; and these are so little that you would hardly think them able to doe any harme at all , and yet these will do more mischiefe then the ants , and if they were as numerous as harmefull , there were no induring of them ; they are of a shape , not much unlike a louse , but no bigger then a mite that breeds in cheese , his colour blewish : an indian has laid one of them , on a sheet of white paper , and with my spectacles on i could hardly discern him ; yet this very little enemy , can and will do much mischiefe to mankind . this vermine will get thorough your stocken , and in a pore of your skinne , in some part of your feet , commonly under the nayl of your toes , and there make a habitation to lay his off spring , as bigge as a small tare , or the bagge of a bee , which will cause you to go very lame , and put you to much smarting paine . the indian women have the best skill to take them out , which they do by putting in , a small poynted pinn● , or needle , at the hole where he came in , and winding the poynt about the bagge loosen him from the flesh , and so take him out . he is of a blewish colour , and is seene through the skinne , but the negroes whose skinns are of that colour ( or neer it ) are in ill case , for they cannot finde where they are ; by which meanes they are many of them very lame : some of these chegoes are poysonous , and after they are taken out , the orifice in which they lay , will fester and rankle for a fortnight after they are gone . i have had tenne taken out of my feet in a morning , by the most unfortunate yarico an indian woman . some kind of animals more there are in the woods , which because i never saw i cannot speak their formes : some of them i guesse are no bigger than crickets ; they lye all day in holes and hollow trees , and as soon as the sun is downe , they begin their tunes , which are neither singing nor crying , but the shrillest voyces that ever i heard : nothing can be so neerely resembl'd to it , as the mouths of a pack of small beagles at a distance ; and so lively , and chirping the noyse is , as nothing can be more delightfull to the eares , if there were not too much of it , for the musick hath no intermission till morning , and then all is husht . i had forgotten amongst my fishes to mention crabs ; but because this kind of them live upon the land , i might very well overslip them and now bring them in , amongst these animals : they are small crabs , such as women sell by dozens in baskets in the streets , and of that colour raw and alive , as these are boyl'd , which is of a reddish colour . these crabs are comming from the sea all the year long , ( except in march ) they hide themselves in holes , and in houses , and sometimes in hollow trees ; and into every part of the iland they come , sometimes we meet them going up stairs in the night , sometimes in our low rooms , sometimes in our gardens , where they eat the berbs . we hold them not good meat : but the negres will often upon sundaies go a crabbing , and think them very great dainties when they are boyled . these crabs in march come all out of their holes , and march down towards the sea in such multitudes , as to cover a great part of the ground where they go , and no hedge , wall , or house can stop them , but they will over . as we ride , our horses tread on them , they are so thick on the ground . and they have this sense , to go the nearest way to the sea , from the place where they are , and nothing can stop or stay them , but death . 't is the time i guesse they go to breed . # having past through all the reasonable and sensitives creatures of this iland , i come now to say somewhat of the vegetables , as of trees : and of those there are such infinite varieties , as to mention all , were to loose my selfe in a wood ; for , it were impossible for any one in the time i stayed there , ( though he studied nothing else ) to give an account of the particulars . and therefore i will onely mention such , as for beauty or use , are of most and greatest esteem in the iland . # and for that there is none of more use than the physick-nut , i will begin first with that , which though the name seem to promise health , yet , it has poyson lodg'd secretly within , and that poyson may bring health , being physically applyed , and in fit times and seasons . the reason why i think it poysonous , is , because cattle will not brouse , nor feed on the leaves , nor willingly come neer the shade . this tree will grow to be eighteen foot high , but we have a way to employ it ; as for beauty and use , there are none such in the iland . this tree ( which is of the height as i have told you ) has many springs , of four , five , and six foot long ; we lop them one after another , and as we take off the branches , cut stakes of them , about foure foot and a halfe long , and stick them in the ground an inch deep , and no more , close to one another in the manner of paliffadoes ; and so , with a rail of either side , to keep them eeven , and here and there a spur or braket on either side , to keep them steedy for a month ; by which time , they will not only gather roots to strengthen them , and hold them up , but leaves to cover their tops , and so even and smooth they fall , as to cover the tops of themselves , at least two foot and a halfe downward : and will in a month more , be so firmly rooted in the earth , as you may remove your railes and brakets , to assist those that are planted after them , in other places . these leaves being large , smooth , and beautifully shap't , and of a full green , appear to your eyes like so much green satin , hang'd on a rail or line , so eeven and so smooth they hang naturally . the stems will grow apace , but more in their bignesse then their height , ( for you may if you please , keep them at this height , by cutting off the tops ) and in a while they will not only touch , but imbody themselves one into another ; and then they become as strong and usefull a fence , as any can be made , so close , as to keep in conies , and keep out rats ; for , neither cattle nor vermine love to come neer it . and as it is a beautifull and usefull fence , for gardens and orchards , and to keep in conies , turkies , muscovia ducks , and dung-hill foul , that cannot flie over , ( having one wing clipt ) so it serves us for singular use , in fencing about all our pastures , or what other ground we would enclose : for , our fences being all made of faln trees , with the ends laid crosse one upon another , and many of those trees such wood , as were apt to rot and decay , by extream moisture , and violent heat ; and the planters having found the most of them were rotten and decayed , and to make new fences of that kind impossible , by reason the timbers and trees that grew very neer that place , were imployed in making those fences , ( for as they made them , the timber stood in their way , and no more adoe but cut them down , and lay them in their places without further removing ) and removes of so great trees as they were , not to be done with few and weak hands : so that they were come to a great strait , and knew not which way , nor how , to renew these fences ; some of the pastures having no lesse then three thousand two hundred sixty eight trees to encompasse them . at last , they thought upon this way , of making new fences , which is the most commodious that can be imagined . and so they gather'd all the physick-nuts they could , and sowed them , and made large nurseries of them , which as soon as they grew to any strength , they remov'd , and planted them so , as making a sleight hedge between the old fence and the pasture , that cattle might not tread them down , being young and tender , they planted them between ; and in four years time they grew so strong , as they were of sufficient ability to defend themselves , and became a very sufficient fence to keep in or out the strongest bulls in the pasture . and then , all the wood of the old fence being drie , and fit for the furnaces , was cut in short pieces , cleft , and sent home by the assinigos ; and part was gathered together , and made into charcoals , for fewell at home , and for the smiths forge , for we have there no sea-coales . besides this , there is another use of this plant , and that is physicall : take five of the kernells , and eat them in a morning fasting , and they are a vomit and purge ; but the body must be strong that takes so many : three will serve a body that is easie to work on : i my selfe took five of them , and they gave me twelve vomits , and above twenty stooles , which was too great an evacuation in a hot country , where the body is weak , and the spirits exhausted by continuall sweating . but i saw a stronger man there take them before me , and they wrought moderately with him ; but , finding a weaker constitution to work on , they had the more powerfull operation . this nut , as it growes on the tree , is like a white pear-plumb , and of a yellowish colour , with a pulpe on it , as much as a plumb ; but that being taken off , there remains a stone , of a blackish colour , and within that , a kernell , and in that kernell , in the parting it in two halves , as our hazle nuts in england , will part in the middle longwise , you shall finde a thin filme , which lookes of a faint carnation , which colour is easily discerned , the rest of the kernell being so perfectly white ; take out that filme , and you may eat the nut safely , without any operation at all , and 't is as sweet , as a jordan-almond . this filme is perfectly discern'd , when the nut is new gathered ; but i have look'd on them which have been longer kept , after i brought them into england , and i finde the carnation colour quite gone , but the kernell retaines still his operation , both in vomit and purge . the leaves are shap'd not much unlike a vine leafe , but thrice as big , and much thicker , and fuller green . # the poysoned tree , though i cannot commend for her vertues , yet for her beauties i can . she is almost as large every way as the locust , but not of that manner of growing ; her leaves full out as large and beautifull , as the lawrells , and so like , as not to be known assunder . the people that have lived long there , say , 't is not wholsome to be under the shade of this tree . the fellers , as they cut them down , are very carefull of their eyes ; and those that have cipers , put it over their faces ; for if any of the sap flie into their eyes , they become blinde for a month . a negre had two horses to walke , which were left with him by two gentlemen ; and the horses beginning to fight , the negre was afeard , and let them go ; and they running into the wood together , struck at one another , and their heeles hitting some young trees of this kind , struck the poysonous juice into one anothers eyes , and so their blindnesse parted the fray , and they were both led home stone blind , and continued so a month , all the hair and skin pilling off their faces . yet , of this timber we make all , or the most part , of the pots we cure our sugar in ; for , being sawed , and the boards dried in the sun , the poyson vapours out . and as this tree's poyson is in her sap , so the mantionell's is in her fruit , which they account as high a poyson , as that of the cassavie . the fruit is like an apple john , and 't is said to be one of those poysons , wherewith the indian caniballs invenome their arrowes . # and now i have nam'd the cassavie , 't is fit it come in the rank of poysons , though with good ordering it makes bread . 't is rather a shrub then a tree , the sprigs , few of them bigger then a broom-staffe , crooked and ill shap'd ; but no matter for that , for the leaves are so thick , as to cover them ; and they grow in tufts or bunches , and ever an odd one , as , 5. 7. 9. or 11. every leafe an inch broad , and six or seven inches long ; dark green , and turning backward from the foreside . their roots i have set down already , their bignesse , and manner of growth , with the use of them . # coloquintida is as beautifull a fruit , as any you can see , of the bignesse of an ostrages egge ; a fruit of so ill a taste , as a spoonfull of the liquor mars a whole pot of pottage ; the rinde smooth , with various greens , interlac'd with murries , yellowes , and faint carnations . # next to this shall be the cassia fistula , which is a tree that will grow the most , in the least time , of any that ever i knew : i set one of the seeds , ( which is but a small seed ) and in a yeers time , it grew to be eight foot high , and as large and big in the stem , as an ordinary rattoon you walk withall : the leaf of this tree is like that of an ash , but much longer , and of a darker colour ; the fruit , when 't is ripe , just of the colour of a black pudding , and shap'd as like , but longer . i have seen of them above 16 inches long ; the pulp of it is purgative , and a great cooler of the reins . # now because we will have all , or as many of the poysonous and physicall trees and plants together as we can , that they may not trouble another leafe , we will put in a plant amongst the trees , and that is so like a sugar cane as hardly to be discern'd , the one from the other : and this plant hath this quality , that whosoever chews it , and sucks in any of the juyce , will have his tongue , mouth , and throat , so swell'd as to take away the faculty of speech for two dayes , and no remedy that i know but patience . # tamarine trees were but newly planted in the iland , at the time i came away , and the palme tree ( so much admir'd for her two rare vertues of oyle and wine ) was newly begun to be planted , the plant being brought us from the east indies , but the wine she brings may rather be called a pleasant drink , then to assume the name of wine : 't is thus gather'd , they cut the bark in such a part of the tree , where a bottle may fitly be plac't , and the liquor being received into this bottle , it wil keep very good for a day and no longer but is a very delicious kind of liquor . # the poysonous trees and plants being past over : 't is now fit to mention such as will make amends , and put our mouths in taste , but not too suddenly to fall upon the best , i will begin with the most contemptible fruits which are in the iland , the fig tree and cherry-tree , which have savory names , but in their natures neither usefull , nor well tasted . the fig tree being very large , but beares a small fruit , and those of so meane a condition , as i never saw any one eate of them , and the leaves not at all of the shape of our fig leaves , nor the fifth part so large , the body of the tree i have seen as large as ; an ordinary elme here in england . # the cherry tree is not altogether so large , the fruit as useless and insipid : but the colour something resembling a cherry , and the shape not much unlike ; which caused the planters to call it by that name . the next to these shall be fruites , rather for sauce then meat , to whet our appetites to those that follow after ; and these are the citrons , oranges , lymons , lyme . the citron is a small tree , though she beare a great fruit ; and so ill matcht they are , as the fruit pulls it down to the ground , and most of the fruit touches , and beares upon the ground ; the stalk of a dark colour , the leafe shap't like that of the limon , but of a very dark green : these fruits we had in great abundance , when first we came there , but were all cast away , by reason we had none but muscavado suger , and that is not fit to preserve with ; besides there were very few then that had the skill to do them . # the orange trees do not prosper here , nor are the fruits so kindly as those of bern udos : large they are and full of juice , but not so delicious as those of that iland ; besides they are very full of seeds , and their rinds neither so deep , and pure an orange tawny , nor so thick , and therefore not so fit to preserve : the trees seldome last above seven years in their prime , and then decay . the limon tree is much better shap't and larger , but this fruit is but here and there , stragling in the iland . i have seen some of the fruit large , and very full of juice , with a fragrant smell : the leaves both of these and the orange trees , i shall not need to mention being so well known in england . # the lime tree is like a thick hollybush in england , and as full of prickles : if you make a hedge of them , about your house , 't is sufficient proofe against the negres ; whose naked bodies cannot possible enter it , and it is an extraordinary sure fence against cattell ; it commonly growes seven or eight foot high , extreamly thick of leaves and fruit , and of prickles ; the leaves not unlike those of a limon tree , the fruit so like as not to be discerned , at the distance of three yeards , but only that 't is less , but in the taste of the rinde and juice , extreamly different , much fitter for sauce then the limon , but not so good to eate alone . # the prickled apple , growes on a tree extreamly thick leav'd , and those leaves large , and of a deep green , shap't not much unlike the leafe of a wallnut tree in england : this fruit is shap't like the heart of an oxe , and much about that bigness ; a faint green on the outside , with many prickles on it , the tast very like a musty limon . # the next in order , shall be the prickled peare , much purer in taste and better form'd ; the fruit being not unlike in shape to a greenfield-peare , and of a faint green , intermixt with some yellow neare the stalk ; but the body of a mixt red , partly crimson , partly stammell , with prickled spots of yellow , the end of it growing somewhat larger then the middle , at which end , is a round spot of a murrey colour , the bredth of an inch , and circular with a centre in the middle , and a small circle about it , and from that circle within , lines drawn to the utmost 〈◊〉 of that round murrey spot , with faint circles betweene the small circle and the largest , upon that murrey spot . these lines and circles , of a colour no more different in lightnesse from the murry , then only to be discerned , and a little yellower colour . # the pomegranate is a beautifull tree the leaves small , with a green mixt with olive colour , the blossome large , well shap't , and of a pure scarlet colour ; the fruit not so large there , as those we have from spaine . the young trees being set in rowes , and planted thick make a very good hedge , being clipt eeven a top with garden shears . the fruit is very well known to you and therefore i shall need say nothing of that , and these are all the remarkable fruits that grow on trees , and are proper to this iland , that i can remember , though i believe there are many more . the prickled peare depiction of prickly pear (fruit) the blossom of the pomegranate depiction of pomegranate (blossom) page . 70. # the gnaver growes on a tree , bodied and leav'd like a cherry-tree , but the leaves somewhat larger and stiffer ; the fruit of the bignesse of a small limon , and neer that colour , onely the upper end somewhat blunter then the limon ; the rinde about the thicknesse of the rinde of a limon , but soft , and of a delicate taste ; it holds within a pulpie substance , full of small seeds , like a fig , some of them white within , and some of a stammell colour . these seeds have this property , that when they have past through the body , wheresoever they are laid down , they grow . a planter , & an eminent man in the iland , seeing his daughter by chance about her naturall businesse , call'd to her : plant even , daughter , plant even . she answered : if you do not like 'em , remove 'em , father , remove ' em . these fruites have different tastes , some rank , some sweet ; so that one would give a reason of this variety , which was , according to the severall constitutions they had past through , some having a milder , some a stronger savour . this tree doth much harm in our plantations ; for the cattle eating of them , let fall their loads every where , and so they grow in aburdance , and do much harm to the pastures , and much pains and labour is taken to destroy them . they are the best fruites preserv'd of any , the seeds being taken out , and the rinde only preserved . i have been told by some planters in the iland , that coco-trees grow there , and they are such men as i give credit to , but i never saw any ; yet , i may venture to tell what shapes they bear , having been well acquainted with them at the iland of st. jago , where there grew very many of them . they seldome are above 80. or 90 foot high , some a 100. the branches of these come out in severall parts of the tree , leaving spaces between the heights ; but the greatest quantity is at top , and that top alwaies stoops a little ; but the nuts grow where the lower boughes break out . these nuts are of severall sises , the most of them as big as a large foot-ball , with a green skin without , and between that and the shell , a pulpy substance , which when it is drie , is like the rinde of the mangrave tree , of which they make roaps , or ( to bring the resemblance a little neerer ) like hemp kurds . this nut-shell is neer half an inch thick , which we commonly cut at one end , a hole as big as a thirty shilling piece , and we finde the shell full of a clear and pure tasted liquor , very delicious , but not very wholsome . this shell is li●'d within with a substance as thick as it selfe , a white colour , and tastes sweeter then the best french walnut , and of that softnesse . the colour of the leaves of this tree , are like the olive leaves . the custard apple growes on a tree full of branches and large leaves , and is a lively and lusty tree to look on ; the fruit , when 't is ripe , as big as the largest pomewater , but just of the colour of a warden . when 't is ripe , we gather it , and keep it one day , and then it is fit to be eaten . we cut a hole at the lesser end , ( that it may stand the firmer in the dish ) so big , as that a spoon may go in with ease , and with the spoon eat it . never was excellent custard more like it selfe , then this to it ; only this addition , which make it transcend all custards that art can make , though of naturall ingredients ; and that is , a fruity taste , which makes it strange and admirable . many seeds there are in it , but so smooth , as you may put them out of your mouth with some pleasure . 't was never my luck to see any of those trees , that bear the anchovie-pears , nor to taste of the fruit , and therefore can give you no account of that tree ; only to let you know , that there is such a tree in the iland . # the macow is one of the strangest trees , the iland affords ; the body and branches being stuck all over with prickles , of the finest formes that i have seen . they are black as jet , or ebony polish'd ; the sises , from one to seven inches long , sharp at the point , with proportionable increasings , from that part where it growes to the tree or bough , and wav'd , as i have seen some swords , from the point to the hilts , the finest naturall pick tooths that can grow . i brought a large bundle with me , but had them pickt out of my box by the way . this tree is about the largenesse of an ordinary willow , the leaves of that colour and shape , but extreamly stiffe and hard . it bears at top a large tuffe of fruit , which we call apples , but they are not a fruit to be eaten ; their colour as their leaves , willow-green , and just such for shape as the cyprus tree bears . sure , nature found this tree to some great purpose , she is so arm'd ; for neither man nor beast can touch her , without being wounded . she is well shap'd , her body straight , her branches well proportion'd , her top round . # next to this in colour are date-trees , but the leaves somewhat longer . the shape of this tree i cannot give you , having never seen any old enough to bear the name of a tree , but sprigs rising from the root , at least ten foot high . # the mangrave is a tree of such note , as she must not be forgotten ; for , though she be not of the tall and lusty sort of trees , yet , she is of great extent ; for , there drops from her limbs a kinde of gum , which hangs together one drop after another , till it touch the ground , and then takes root , and makes an addition to the tree . so that if all these may be said to be one and the same tree ▪ we may say , that a mangrave tree may very well hide a troop of horse . the bark of this tree being well ordered , will make very strong roaps , and the indians make it as fine as flax , and spin it into fine thred , whereof they make hamocks , and divers other things they wear : and i have heard , the linnen they wear is made of this bark , as also their chaires and stooles . # the calibash tree bears leaves of the fullest and richest green , of any that i know , and the greatest plenty of leaves ; her fruit not for food , it is for the most part as big as that of the coco , round as a ball , green as the leaves of the same tree , smooth and shining , and their manner of growing is so close to the body , and the largest of the boughes , as to touch them so , that till it be pull'd or cut off , we cannot perceive any stalk it has . of this round ball , we make dishes , bowls and caps ; for , being hollow within , as the coco-nut , we employ them for severall uses , as they are of different sises ; some for dishes , some for cups , some for basons , and some of the largest to carry water in , as we do goards , with handles a top , as that of a kettle , for they are smoother , and much stronger then they . these look very beautifully on the tree , and to me the more beautifull , by how much they were the more strange ; for , by their firm and close touching the trees , without any appearance of stalks , they seem to cleave , rather then grow to the trees . # one , and but one tree in this iland have i seen , that bears an english name , and that is the bay tree , whose leaves are so aromatick , as three or four of them will amply supply the place of cloves , mace , and cinamon , in dressing any dish of meat where that is required . it differs nothing in shape or colour from ours in england . the cedar is without question the most usefull timber in the iland ; for being strong , lasting , and not very heavy , 't is good for building ; but by reason of the smoothnesse and fairnesse of the grain , there is much of it us'd in wainscots , chairs , stooles , and other utensils within dores ; but , as they grow , i never saw any of them beautifully shap'd , the leaves just like those of the ash in england , but somewhat bigger . # the mastick is a tree very tall , but the body slender , and therefore nature hath provided means to support her ; for , she has spurs or brackets above seven foot from the ground , which are fixt or engrafted in the body ; and some of the spurs reach out from the tree to the root , so broad , as that tables have been made of a round form , above three foot and a halfe diameter . some trees have two , some three of these spurrs . this tree has commonly a double top , one side being somewhat higher then the other . the fruit is like none of the rest , 't is of a stammell colour , and has neither skin nor stone ; but it is more like a cancre then a fruit , and is accounted unwholsom , and therefore no man tastes it : 't is , i believe , the seed of the tree , for we see none other . the leaves of this tree grow of such a height , as till they fall down , we can give no judgment of them . the timber of of this tree is rank'd amongst the fourth sort , three being better then it . i have seen the bodies of these trees neer sixty foot high . # the bully tree is lesse then the mastick , and bears a fruit like a bullis in england ; her body streight , and well shap't ; her branches proportionable , her timber excellent and lasting . # redwood is a handsome tree , but not so loftie as the mastick , excellent timber to work , for it is not so hard as some others , which is the cause they seldome break their tooles in working it , and that is the reason the work-men commend it above others . 't is a midling tree for sise , the body about two foot and a halfe diameter . # this is accounted as good as the red-wood in all respects , and is a strong and lasting timber , good for building , and for all uses within doors . # iron wood is called so , for the extream hardnesse ; and with that hardnesse it has such a heavinesse , as they seldome use it in building ; besides , the workmen complain that it breaks all their tools . 't is good for any use without doores , for neither sun nor rain can any waies mollifie it . 't is much used for coggs to the rollers . # lignum vitae they use now and then for the same purpose , when the other is away ; but having no bowling in that country , little is used : they send it commonly for england , where we employ it to severall uses ; as , for making bowles , cabinets , tables , and tablemen . # the locust is a tree , not unfitly to be resembled to a tuscan pillar , plain , massie , and rurall , like a well lim'd labourer ; for , the burden it bears being heavy and ponderous , ought to have a body proportionably built , to bear so great a weight . that rare architect , vitruvius , taking a pattern from trees , to make his most exact pillars , rejects the wreathed , vined , and figured columnes ; and that columna atticurges , mentioned by himselfe , to have been a squared pillar ; and those that are swell'd in the middle , as if sick of a tympany or dropsie ; and chuses rather the straightest , most exact , and best sis'd to bear the burthen that lies on them . so , looking on these trees , and finding them so exactly to answer in proportion to the tuscan pillars , i could not but make the resemblance the other way : for , pillars cannot be more like trees , then these trees are like tuscan pillars , as he describes them . i have seen a locust ( and not one , but many ) that hath been four foot diameter in the body , neer the root , and for fifty foot high has lessened so proportionably , as if it had taken pattern by the antient remainders , which philander was so precise in measuring , which is a third part of the whole shaft upward , and is accounted as the most gracefull diminution . the head to this body is so proportionable , as you cannot say , 't is too heavy or too leight ; the branches large , the sprigs , leaves , and nuts so thick , as to stop all eye-sight from passing through , and so eeven at top , as you would think you might walk upon it , and not sink in . the nuts are for the most part three inches and a halfe long , and about two inches broad , and somewhat more then an inch thick ; the shell somewhat thicker then a halfe crown piece , of a russet umbre , or hair colour ; the leaves bigger than those that grow upon the ash in england : i shall not mention the timber , having given it in my buildings . the kernells are three or four in every nut , and between those , a kinde of light pulpie substance , such as is in a hazle-nut , before the kernell be grown to the full bignesse : in times of great famine there , the poor people have eaten them for sustenance : but , of all tastes , i do not like them . # another locust there is , which they call the bastard-locust . this lookes fair , but will not last . there is a tree called the palmeto , growing neer the sea-coast , which being a sandy light ground , does not afford that substance of mould , to make a large tree ; nor shall you finde in that low part of the iland , any considerable trees fit for building , which is a main want and hinderance to them that would build there ; for , there is no means to transport any from the high lands , by reason of the unpassableness of the wayes ; the body of this tree i have seen about 45 or 50 foot high , the diameter seldome above 15 or 16 inches , the rind of a pure ash colour , full of wrinkles , the leaves about two foot and a halfe long , in bunches , just as if you took twenty large flaggs , with their flat sides together , and tied them at the broader ends . with these bunches they thatch houses , laying every bunch by himselfe on the lathes , somewhat to overhang one another , as tiles do . this is a very close kind of thatch , keeps dry and is very lasting , and looking up to them on the inside of the room , they are the prettiest becomming figures that i have seen of that kind , these leaves grow out no where but at the tops of the trees . # another kind of palmeto there is , which as it has an addition to the name , has likewise an addition to the nature : for i beleive there is not a more royall or magnificent tree growing on the earth , for beauty and largeness , not to be paralell'd ; and excels , so abundantly in those two properties and perfections , all the rest , as if you had ever seen her , you could not chuse but fall in love with her ; i 'm sure i was extreamly much , and upon good and antique authority : for if xerxes strange lydian love the plantane tree , was lov'd for her age , why may not i love this for her largeness ? i beleive there are more women lov'd for their largeness then their age , if they have beauty for an addition , as this has ; and therefore i am resolv'd in that poynt , to go along with the multitude , who run very much that way : but how to set her out in her true shape and colour , without a pencill , would aske a better pen then mine ; yet i will deliver her dimensions as neer truth as i can , and for her beauty much will arise out of that . but first i will beg leave of you to shew her in her infancy , which is about tenne or twelve years old , at which time she is about seventeen foot high , her body and her branches , and that part which touches the ground , not unlike an inkhorne , which i have seen turn'd in ivory , round at the bottome and bellied like that part which holds the inke ; and the stem or body of the tree , growing less , as that part which holds the pens , but turn'd by a more skilfull workman ; and some of this body , part tawny , part purple , with rings of white and green mixt , that go about her ; and these rings at sixe inches distance . this stem , to be about sixe foot and a halfe high , upon which growes the bottome of the stalks , thinne as leaves of parchment , enwrapping one another so close as to make a continued stem , of the same bigness , for two foot and a halfe above the other , every one of those filmes or skins , bearing a stalk , which lessens so insensibly , from the skinne to the poynt as none but the greater former of all beauty can make the like . these stalks or branches , are of severall lengths , those that are the most inward , are the highest ; and every one of those stalks adorn'd with leaves , beginning a little from the filmes to the poynt , and all these leaves like cylinders , sharp at either end , and biggest in the middle : that part of the stem which is the enwrappings of the filmes of a pure grasse green , shining as parchment dyed green , and slickt with a slick-stone , and all the branches with the leaves , of a full grass green spreading every way , and the highest of them eight foot above the green stem , the other in order to make a well shap't top , to so beautifull a stem . the branches sprout forth from the middle , or intrinsick part of the tree , one at once ; and that wrapt up so close as t is rather like a pike then a branch with leaves , and that pike alwayes bends toward the east ; but being opened by the suns heat spreads the leaves abroad , at which time the outmost or eldest branch or sprig below withers and hangs down , and pulls with it the filme that beares it , and so both it and the filme which holds it up turne of a ruslet colour and hang down like a dead leafe , till the wind blowes them off ; by which time the pike above is become a branch , with all its leaves opened ; then comes forth another pike , and then the next outmost branch and filme below , falls away as the former , and so the tree growes so much hig●er ▪ as that branch took roome , and so a pike and a dead leafe , a pike and a dead leafe , till she be advanc't to her full height which will not be till 100 years be accomplished : about thirty or forty years old , she will bear fruit , but long before that time , changes her shape , her belly being lessened partly by the multiplicity of roots , she shoots down into the earth ( nature foreseeing how great a weight they were to beare , and how great a stress they were to suffer , when the winds take hold of so large a head , as they were to be crown'd with ) and partly by thrusting out sustenance and substance , to raise and advance the stem or body ( for out of this belly which is the storehouse of all this good it comes ) so that now she becomes taper , with no more lessning then a well shap't arrow , and full out as straight , her body then being of a bright ash colour , with some dapples of green , the filmes a top retaining their smoothness and greenness , only a little variation in the shape , & that is a little swelling neer the place that touches the stem or body , not much unlike an urinall , so that the swelling that was in the body , is now raised up to the filmes or skinns above . but at this age , the branches stand not so upright , as when the tree was in her minority , but has as great beauty in the stooping and declension , as she had in the rising of her branches , when her youth thrusts them forth with greater violence and vigour , and yet they had then some little stooping neer the poynts . and now there is an addition to her beauty by two green studds , or supporters , that rise out of her sides , neer the place where the filmes joyne to the tree , and they are about three foot long , small at the place from whence they grow , but bigger upwards , purely green and not unlike the iron that glasiers use to melt their sawder with . depiction of royal palm the yonge palmeto royall a scale of 8 foote page . 76. depiction of royal palm the olde palmeto royall this plant here exprest is of the least magnitude being buta foot in diametre , and the height som what less then 100 tymes his owne diametre ; but there have bin some growing upon the iland , which have bin two foot diametre , and have bin 150 tymes theyr owne diametre , which is 300 foot high . a scale of 30 feet page . 78. but , i doubt , i have tir'd you with naming so many trees , and therefore i will give over ; but , with this rule , that which way soever i have travelled , ( from the place i dwelt ) either east , west , north , or south , ( but four miles distant ) i have still found trees , such as i had never seen before , and not one of those i have named , and many of them extreamly large and beautifull . and the neerer the middle of the iland , the larger the trees , and the leaves : so that from trees of a hundred foot high , to a diminution of twenty ; and from leaves of eighteen inches long , with a proportionable breadth to that length , to the smal ones of halfe an inch , which most of the trees bear that are neer the bridge , and , i think , neer the sea , every where you shall finde many , and the most such . and the reason i have given before ; the land in the highest part of the iland , being very rich mould , and that neer the sea being a sandy light earth . and in the parting 's or twists of the branches of those trees , ( which i have not named ) such excrescences grow out , as are strange for their formes , and no doubt medicinable in their natures ; such as is our misleto , or polypodium , and much larger , and more frequent ; but we want skilfull men , to find out their vertues . # there are ( besides the bay-leaves , which , as i told you , might serve for cloves , mace , and cinamon ) two sorts of spices , ginger , and red-pepper : the ginger being a root which brings forth blades , not unlike in shape to the blades of wheat , but broader and thicker , for they cover the ground so , as you cannot see any part of it . they are of a popinjay colour , the blossome a pure scarlet . when 't is ripe ▪ we dig up the roots , ( cutting off the blades ) and put them into the hands of an overseer , who sets many of the young negres to scrape them , with little knives , or small iron spuds , ground to an edge . they are to scrape all the outward skin off , to kill the spirit ; for , without that , it will perpetually grow . those that have ginger , and not hands to dresse it thus , are compell'd to scald it , to kill the spirit ; and that ginger is nothing so good as the other , for it will be hard as wood , and black ; whereas the scrapt ginger is white and soft , and has a cleaner and quicker taste . # there is of this kinde two sorts , the one so like a childs corall , as not to be discerned at the distance of two paces ; a crimson and scarlet mixt , the fruit about three inches long , and shines more then the best polisht corall . the other , of the same colour , and glistering as much , but shap't like a large button of a cloak ; both of one and the same quality ; both so violently strong , as when we break but the skin , it sends out such a vapour into our lungs , as we fall all a coughing , which lasts a quarter of an hour after the fruit is removed ; but , as long as we are garbling it , we never give over . this spice the spaniards love , and will have it in all their meat , that they intend to have picant ; for a greater hough goo is not in the world . garlick is faint and cool to it . it growes on a little shrub , no bigger then a goosbery-bush . having inflam'd this leafe with a burning heat , it is , fit to apply a cooler , lest it fall on fire ; and that is such a one , as is cold in the third degree , a cucumber ; of which kind we have excellent good , from the beginning of november to the end of february ; but after ▪ that , the weather growes too hot . they serve as sallets cold , with oyle , vinegar , and pepper ; and hot , being stewed , or fryed , of which we make sawce for mutton , pork , turkeyes , or muscovia ducks . geese i never saw but two in the iland , and those were at the governours house . # millons we have likewise for those foure months ; but before or after , the weather is too hot . they are for the most part larger than here in england . i have seen them cut four inches thick ; they eat moister then here they do , which makes them the lesse wholsome . we take no other care ( after the seeds are put into the ground ) but to weed them . i have seen of them sixteen inches long . # the water millon there , is one of the goodliest fruites that growes . i have seen of them , big as a cloakbag , with a suit of clothes in it ; purely green , engrayl'd with straw colour ; and so wanton nature is , in disposing those figures , as though they be upon all parts of the fruit ; yet , they vary and flow so infinitely , as no inch of square or circle is to be found upon the rinde , that is like one another , and the whole rinde as smooth as polisht glasse . where they put out upon the ground , there they lie ; for the vine they grow by , has not strength to remove them . this fruit within is not unlike an apple for colour ; but for taste , not like any fruit i know in england , waterish , and wallowish ; yet the people there eat strange quantities of it , two or three pieces , big , as if cut round about a twelve-penny loafe , an inch thick : they hold it rarely cooling to the body , and excellent for the stone . the seeds are of themselves so strong a purple , as to dye that part of the fruit it touches , of the same colour ; and till they do so , the fruit is not full ripe : they account the largest , best . extreamly full of seeds they are , which in the eating slip out with such ease , as they are not at all troublesome . # grapes we have in the iland , and they are indifferently well tasted , but they are never ripe together ; some may be pickt out to make wine , but it will be so small a quantity , as it will not be worth the while . there is alwaies some green , some ripe , some rotten grapes in the bunch . depiction of plantain the plantine a scale of : 8 : foote blossomd page 80 # the wilde plantine growes much as the other does , but the leaves not so broad , and more upright , the fruit not to be eaten ; of a scarlet colour , and almost three square . i know no use of this fruit or leaves , but to look on . # the bonano differs nothing from the plantine , in the body and leaves but only this , that the leaves are somewhat lesse , and the bodie has here and there some blackish spots , the blossome no bigger then a large bud of a rose ; of a faint purple , and ash colour mixt , the stalk that bears it , adorn'd with small blossomes , of ●everall colours ; when they fall off , there comes out of the fruit , which does not turne back as the plantines do , but stand outright like a bunch of puddings , all neere of a length , and each of them between four and five inches long . this fruit is of a sweeter taste then the plantine ; and for that reason the negroes will not meddle with them , nor with any fruit that has a sweet taste ; but we find them as good to stew , or preserve as the plantine , and will looke and taste more like quince . this tree wants little of the beauty of the plantine , as she appears upon the ground , in her ful growth ; and though her fruit be not so usefull a food for the belly , as that of the plantine , yet she has somewhat to delight the eyes , which the other wants , and that is the picture of christ upon the crosse ; so lively exprest , as no limner can do it ( with one colour ) more exactly ; and this is seen , when you cut the fruit just crosse as you do the root of ferne , to find a spread eagle : but this is much more perfect , the head hanging down , the armes extended to the full length , with some little elevation ; and the feet cross one upon another . this i will speak as an artist ; let a very excellent limner , paint a crucifix , only with one colour , in limning ; and let his touches be as sharp , and as masterly as he pleases , the figure no bigger then this , which is about an inch long , and remove that picture at such a distance from the eye , as to loose some of the curiosity , and dainty touches of the work , so as the outmost stels , or profile of the figure , may be perfectly discern'd , and at such a distance ; the figure in the fruit of the bonano , shall seem as perfect as it : much may be said upon this subject by better wits ▪ and abler souls then mine : my contemplation being only this , that since those men dwelling in that place professing the names of christians , and denying to preach to those poor ignorant harmless souls the negroes , the doctrine of christ crucified , which might convert many of them to his worship , he himselfe has set up his own crosse , to reproach these men , who rather then they will loose the hold they have of them us slaves , will deny them the benefit and blessing of being christians . otherwise why is this figure set up , for these to look on , that never heard of christ , and god never made any thing useless or in vaine . depiction of banana tree the bonano with the fruit ripe the blossom a scale of 8 feet page . 82. diagram of sugar cane mill (ground plan) an index to the platforme or superficies of an ingenio , that grinds or squeezes the sugar . a the ground-plat , upon which the posts or pillars stand , that bear up the house , or the intercolumniation between those pillars . b the pillars or posts themselves . c the wall between the mill-house and boyling-house . d the circle or circumference , where the horses and cattle go , which draw the rollers about . e the sweeps , to which the horses and cattle are fastned , that draw about the rollers , f the frame of the ingenio . g the brackets or butteresses , that support that frame . h the dore , that goes down stairs to the boyling-house . i the cistern , into which the liquor runs from the ingenio , immediately after it is ground , and is carried in a pipe under ground to this cistern , where it remaines not above a day at most . k the cistern that holds the temper , which is a liquor made with ashes , steept in water , and is no other than the lye we wash withall in england . this temper , we straw in the three last coppers , as the sugar boyles , without which , it would never corn , or be any thing but a syrope ; but the salt and tartarousnesse of this temper , causes it to turn , as milk does , when any soure or sharp liquor is put into it ; and a very small quantity does the work . l the boyling-house , . the five black rounds are the coppers , in which the sugar is boyled , of which , the largest is called the clarifying copper , and the least , the tatch . m the cooling cistern , which the sugar is put into , presently after it is taken off the fire , and there kept till it be milk-warm ; and then it is to be put into pots made of boards , sixteen inches square above , and so grow taper to a point downward ; the pot is commonly about thirty inches long , and will hold thirty or thirty five pounds of sugar . n the dore of the filling-room . o the room it selfe , into which the pots are set , being fild , till the sugar grow cold and hard , which will be in two daies and two nights , and then they are carried away to the cureing-house . p the tops of the pots , of sixteen inches square , and stand between two stantions of timber , which are girded together in severall places , with wood or iron , and are thirteen or fourteen inches assunders ; so that the tops of the pots being sixteen inches , cannot slip between , but are held up four foot from the ground . q the frame where the coppers stand , which is raised above the flowre or levell of the room , about a foot and a halfe , and is made of dutch bricks , which they call klinkers , and plaister of paris . and besides the coppers , there are made small gutters , which convey the skimmings of the three lesser coppers , down to the still-house , whereof the strong spirit is made , which they call kill-devill , and the skimmings of the two greater coppers are conveyed another way , as worthlesse and good for nothing . r the dore that goes down the stairs to the fire-room , where the furnaces are , which cause the coppers to boyl ; and though they cannot be exprest here , by reason they are under the coppers ; yet , i have made small semi-circles , to let you see where they are , behinde the partition-wall , which divides the fire-room from the boyling-house ; which wall goes to the top of the house , and is mark'd with the letter ( c ) as the other walls are . s a little gutter made in the wall , from the cistern that holds the first liquor , to the clarifying copper , and from thence is conveyed to the other coppers , with ladles that hold a gallon a piece , by the hands of negres that attend that work day and night , shifting both negres and cattle every four hours , who also convey the skimmings of the three lesser coppers down to the still-house , there to be twice distill'd ; the first time it comes over the helme , it is but small , and is called low-wines ; but the second time , it comes off the strongest spirit or liquor that is potable . t all windowes . u the fire-room , where the furnaces are , that make the coppers boyl . w the still-house . x the cistern that holds the skimmings , till it begin to be soure , till when , it will not come over the helme . y the two stills in the still-house . z the semi-circles , that shew where about the furnaces stand . place this after folio 84. the superfities or plottforme of the ingenio that grinds or squeeses the canes which make the suger a scales of 40 foote diagram of sugar cane mill (elevation) the upright of the ingenio or mill that squeeses or grinds the suger canes ● a. the foundation or plates of the house which must be of massey and lasting timber . b. the frame of the ingenio c. the planks that be are up the rollers d. the suporter or propp that beares upp those planks e. the rollers themselves f. the shaft that is grafted into the midle roller which turnes both the other g. the swepes that come over all the worke and reach to the circle where the horses and cattle draw . h. the bracketts that keepe the frame from shakeing whereof there must be 8. i. the sides of the house which are strong posts or studds whic● beare up the house and are plact att ten foote distance with bracke● above and below to strengthen them forbearing up the plates of the house aboue . k. the out brackets that keepe the posts from starting orbuc● l. the great beame to which the shaft of the midle roller is let in by a goudg in a sockett and goes cross the midle of the house m. the brackets that support the great beame and likewise all the roofe of the house n. the roofe or cover of the house . a scale of 40 foote diagram of sugar curing house (floor plan, first floor) the first storie of the cureing house where the potts stand which hold the suger and is 8. foote a inches from the ground haveing 14. steps to rise of 7. inches to a stepp . in this storie is 924 potts and they use to have another storie above this which will hold above 600. potts more the index of the cureing house . a. the roome where they knock out the suger when it is cured , or made into whites , and is called the knocking roome ; when they knock it out for muscavados , they finde the midle of the pott well coloured , but the upper and nether parts , of a bro●●er , colour the topp frothy and light , the bottom verie browne and full of molosses , both which they sett aside to be boyld againe with the mosses in the cisterns of which they make penneles , which though it be a worse kinde of suger in the spending yet you will hardly know it from the second sort of muscove suger b. the two dores c. the passages betweene the potts upon the flour above d. the great passage in the midle of the rome from end to end e. the topps of the potts which are . 16. inches square and hang betweene stantions of timber borne up by verie strong and massy studs or posts , and girded or bract togither with iron plates or wood , the length of the potts are 26. or 28. inches long made taper downeward , and hold about 30. pound of suger . f. the walls of the roome which is 100. foot long and 40. foot broade within , they have some tymes a storie of potts aboue this . a scale of 40. foote diagram of sugar curing house (floor plan, ground floor) the ground roome of the cureing house of the place where the gutters ly which . convey the molosses to the cisterns the index to the ground roome . a. the knocking roome . b. the dores c. the vacuitie betweene the gutters d. the cisterns of which there are 4. which hold the moloses till they boyle it which comonly they doe one day in a weeke . e. all the gutters that convay the molosses downe to the cisterns . f. the walls of the roome which are to be accompted two foot thick , 〈◊〉 there are seldome any windows in the cureing house , for the moyst ayer is an enemy to the cure of the suger rather bring panns of well kindled coales into the roome espetially in moyst and raynie wether . page 84 depiction of queen pine the queene pine. page 84 at the time we landed on this iland , which was in the beginning of september , 1647. we were informed , partly by those planters we found there , and partly by our own observations , that the great work of sugar-making , was but newly practised by the inhabitants there . some of the most industrious men , having gotten plants from fernambock , a place in brasill , and made tryall of them at the barbadoes ; and finding them to grow , they planted more and more , as they grew and multiplyed on the place , till they had such a considerable number , as they were worth the while to set up a very small ingenio , and so make tryall what sugar could be made upon that soyl . but , the secrets of the work being not well understood , the sugars they made were very inconsiderable , and little worth , for two or three years . but they finding their errours by their daily practice , began a little to mend ; and , by new directions from brasil , sometimes by strangers , and now and then by their own people , ( who being covetous of the knowledge of a thing , which so much concerned them in their particulars , and for the generall good of the whole iland ) were content sometimes to make a voyage thither , to improve their knowledge in a thing they so much desired . being now made much abler to make their queries , of the secrets of that mystery , by how much their often failings , had put them to often stops and nonplusses in the work . and so returning with more plants , and better knowledge , they went on upon fresh hopes , but still short , of what they should be more skilfull in : for , at our arrivall there , we found them ignorant in three main points , that much conduced to the work ; viz. the manner of planting , the time of gathering , and the right placing of their coppers in their furnaces ; as also , the true way of covering their rollers , with plates or bars of iron : all which being rightly done , advance much in the performance of the main work . at the time of our arrivall there , we found many sugar-works set up , and at work ; but yet the sugars they made , were but bare muscavadoes , and few of them merchantable commodities ; so moist , and full of molosses , and so ill cur'd , as they were hardly worth the bringing home for england . but about the time i left the iland , which was in 1650. they were much better'd ; for then they had the skill to know when the canes were ripe , which was not , till they were fifteen months old ; and before , they gathered them at twelve , which was a main disadvantage to the making good sugar ; for , the liquor wanting of the sweetnesse it ought to have , caused the sugars to be lean , and unfit to keep . besides , they were grown greater proficients , both in boyling and curing them , and had learnt the knowledge of making them white , such as you call lump sugars here in england ; but not so excellent as those they make in brasill , nor is there any likelyhood they can ever make such : the land there being better , and lying in a continent , must needs have constanter and steadier weather , and the aire much drier and purer , than it can be in so small an iland , as that of barbadoes . and now , seeing this commodity , sugar , hath gotten so much the start of all the rest of those , that were held the staple commodities of the iland , and so much over-top't them , as they are for the most part sleighted and neglected . and , for that few in england know the trouble and care of making it , i think it convenient , in the first place , to acquaint you , as far as my memory will serve , with the whole processe of the work of sugar-making , which is now grown the soul of trade in this iland . and leaving to trouble you and my self , with relating the errours our predecessors so long wandred in , i will in briefe set down the right and best way they practised , when i left the iland , which , i think , will admit of no greater or farther improvement . but , before i will begin with that , i will let you see , how much the land there hath been advanc'd in the profit , since the work of sugar began , to the time of our landing there , which was not above five or six years : for , before the work began , this plantation of major hilliards , of five hundred acres , could have been purchased for four hundred pound sterling ; and now the halfe of this plantation , with the halfe of the stock upon it , was sold for seven thousand pound sterling and it is evident , that all the land there , which has been imployed to that work , hath found the like improvment . and , i believe , when the small plantations in poor mens hands , of ten , twenty , or thirty acres , which are too small to lay to that work , be bought up by great men , and put together , into plantations of five , six , or seven hundred acres , that two thirds of the iland will be fit for plantations of sugar , which will make it one of the richest spots of earth under the sun. and now , since i have put my selfe upon this discovery , i think it fit to let you know the nature of the plant , the right way of planting it , the manner of growth , the time of growing to ripenesse , the manner of cutting , bringing home , the place where to lay them , being brought home , the time they may lie there , without spoile , the manner of grinding or squeezing them , the conveyance of the liquor to the cisterns , how long it may stay there without harme , the manner of boyling and skimming , with the conveyance of the skimmings into the cisterns , in the still-house , the manner of distilling it , which makes the strongest spirits that men can drink , with the temper to be put in ; what the temper is , the time of cooling the sugar before it be put into the pots ; the time it staies in the cureing house , before it be good muscavado sugar . and last , the making of it into whites , which we call lump-sugar . first then , it is fit to set down , what manner of place is to be chosen , to set this sugar-work , or ingenio , upon ; and it must be the brow of a small hill , that hath within the compasse of eighty foot , twelve foot descent , viz. from the grinding place , which is the highest ground , and stands upon a flat , to the still house , and that by these descents : from the grinding place to the boyling house , four foot and a halfe , from thence to the fire-room , seven foot and a halfe ; and some little descent to the still house . and the reason of these descent● are these ; the top of the cistern , into which the first liquor runs , is , and must be , somewhat lower than the pipe that convaies it , and that is a little under ground . then , the liquor which runs from that cistern must vent it selfe at the bottom , otherwise it cannot run all out ; and that cistern is two foot and a halfe deep : and so , running upon a little descent , to the clarifying copper , which is a foot and a halfe above the flowre of the boyling house , ( and so is the whole frame , where all the coppers stand ) ; it must of necessity fall out , that the flowre of the boyling house must be below the flowre of the mill house , four foot and a halfe . then admit the largest copper be a foot and a halfe deep , the bottom of the copper will be lower then the flowre of the boyling-house , by a foot ; the bottom of the furnaces must be three foot below the coppers ; and the holes under the furnaces , into which the ashes fall , is three foot below the bottom of the furnaces : a little more fall is required to the still-house , and so the account is made up . upon what place the sugar-work is to be set , i have drawn two plots , that expresse more than language can do , to which i refer you . and so i have done with the ingenio , and now to the work i promised , which i shall be briefe in . when i first arrived upon the iland , it was in my purpose , to observe their severall manners of planting and husbandily there ; and because this plant was of greatest value and esteem , i desired first the knowledge of it . i saw by the growth , as well as by what i had been told , that it was a strong and lusty plant , and so vigorous , as where it grew , to forbid all weeds to grow very neer it ; so thirstily it suck't the earth for nourishment , to maintain its own health and gallantry . but the planters , though they knew this to be true , yet , by their manner of planting , did not rightly pursue their own knowledge ; for their manner was , to dig small holes , at three foot distance , or there about , and put in the plants endwise , with a little stooping , so that each plant brought not forth above three or foure sprouts at the most , and they being all fastned to one root , when they grew large , tall , and heavy , and stormes of winde and rain came , ( and those raines there , fall with much violence and weight ) the rootes were loosened ▪ and the canes lodged , and so became rotten , and unfit for service in making good sugar . and besides , the roots being far assunder , weedes grew up between , and worse then all weeds , wit hs , which are of a stronger grouth then the canes , and do much mischiefe where they are ; for , they winde about them , and pull them down to the ground , as disdaining to see a prouder plant than themselves . but experience taught us , that this way of planting was most pernicious , and therefore were resolved to try another , which is , without question , the best , and that is , by digging a small trench of six-inches broad , and as much deep , in a straight line , the whole length of the land you mean to plant , laying the earth on one side the trench as you make it ; then lay two canes along the bottom of the trench , one by another , and so continue them the whole length of the trench , to the lands end , and cover them with the earth you laid by ; and at two foot distance , another of the same , and so a third , and fourth , till you have finish'd all the land you intend to plant at that time : for , you must not plant too much at once , but have it to grow ripe successively , that your work may come in order , to keep you still doing ; for , if it should be ripe altogether , you are not able to work it so ; and then for want of cutting , they would rot , and grow to losse : by planting it thus along , two together , every knot will have a sprout , and so a particular root , and by the means of that , be the more firmer fixt in the ground , and the better able to endure the winde and weather , and by their thick growing together , be the stronger to support one another . by that time they have been in the ground a month , you shall perceive them to appear , like a land of green wheat in england , that is high enough to hide a hare ; and in a month more , two foot high at least . but upon the first months growth , those that are carefull , and the best husbands , command their overseers to search , if any weeds have taken root , and destroy them , or if any of the plants fail , and supply them ; for where the plants are wanting , weeds will grow ; for , the ground is too vertuous to be idle . or , if any wit hs grow in those vacant places , they will spread very far , and do much harm , pulling down all the canes they can reach to . if this husbandry be not used when the canes are young , it will be too late to finde a remedy ; for , when they are grown to a height , the blades will become rough and sharp in the sides , and so cut the skins of the negres , as the blood will follow ; for their bodies , leggs , and feet , being uncloathed and bare , cannot enter the canes without smart and losse of blood , which they will not endure . besides , if the overseers stay too long , before they repair these void places , by new plants , they will never be ripe together , which is a very great harm to the whole field , for which there is but one remedy , and that almost as ill as the disease , which is , by burning the whole field , by which they lose all the time they have grown : but the roots continuing secure from the fire , there arises a new spring altogether ; so that to repair this losse of time , they have only this recompence , which is , by burning an army of the main enemies to their profit , rats , which do infinite harm in the iland , by gnawing the canes , which presently after will rot , and become unservicable in the work of sugar . and that they may do this justice the more severely , they begin to make their fire at the out-sides of that land of canes they mean to burn , and so drive them to the middle , where at last the fire comes , and burnes them all ; and this great execution they put often in practice , without assises or sessions ; for , there are not so great enemies to the canes , as these vermine ; as also to the houses , where they lay up their stores of corn and other provisions ; and likewise in dwelling houses for their victualls . for , when the great down-falls of rain come , which is in november and december , and in the time of the turnado , they leave the field , and shelter themselves in the dwelling houses where they do much mischiefe . the canes with their tops or blades , doe commonly grow to be eight foot high ; the canes themselves , are commonly five or sixe foot , ( i have seen some double that length but 't is but seldome ) the bodyes of them , about an inch diametre , the knots about five or six inches distant one from another , many times three or four inches , some more , some lesse , for there is no certaine rule for that ; the colour of the blades , and tops , pure grass green ; but the canes themselves , when they are ripe of a deep popinjay ; and then they yeeld the greater quantity , and fuller , and sweeter juyce . the manner of cutting them is with little hand-bills , about sixe inches from the ground ; at which time they divide the tops , from the canes , which they do with the same bills , at one stroake ; and then holding the canes by the upper end : they strip off all the blades that grow by the sides of the canes , which tops and blades , are bound up in faggots , and put into carts , to carry home ; for without these , our horses and cattle are not able to work , the pasture being so extreame harsh and sapless , but with these they are very well nourisht , and kept in heart . the canes we likewise binde up in faggots , at the same time , and those are commonly brought home upon the backs of assinigoes , and we use the fashion of devo●shire , in that kind of husbandry , ( for there we learnt it ) which is small pack-saddles , and crookes , which serve our purposes very fitly , laying upon each crook a faggot and one a top , so that each assinigo carries his three faggots ; and being accustomed to go between the field and the place where they are to unload , will of themselves make their returnes , without a guide ; so understanding this little beast is in performing his duty . the place where they unload , is a little platforme of ground , which is contiguous to the mill-house , which they call a barbycu ; about 30 foot long , and 10 foot broad ; done about with a double rayle , to keep the canes from falling out of that room ; where one , or two , or more , ( who have other work to do in the mill house , ) when they see the assinigoes comming , and make a stop there , are ready to unloade them , and so turning them back againe , they go immediately to the field , there to take in fresh loading ; so that they may not unfitly be compar'd to bees ; the one fetching home honey , the other sugar : being laid on the barbycu , we work them out cleane , and leave none to grow stale , for if they should be more then two dayes old , the juyce will grow sower , and then they will not be fit to worke , for their soureness will infect the rest ; the longest time they stay , after they are cut , to the time of grinding , is from saturday evening , to munday morning , at one or two a clock ; and the necessity of sunday comming between , ( upon which we do not work ) causes us to stay so long , which otherwise we would not doe . the manner of grinding them , is this , the horses and cattle being put to their tackle : they go about , and by their force turne ( by the sweeps ) the middle roller ; which being cog'd to the other two , at both ends , turne them about ; and they all three , turning upon their centres , which are of brass and steele go very easily of themselves , and so easie , as a mans taking hold , of one of the sweeps , with his hand will turne all the rollers about with much ease . but when the canes are put in between the rollers , it is a good draught for five oxen or horses ; a negre puts in the canes of one side , and the rollers draw them through to the other side , where another negre s●ands , and receives them ; and returnes them back on the other side of the middle roller , which drawes the other way . so that having past twice through , that is forth and back , it is conceived all the juyce is prest out ; yet the spaniards have a press , after both the former grindings , to press out the remainder of the liquor , but they having but small works in spaine , make the most of it , whilst we having far greater quantities , are loath to be at that trouble . the canes having past to and againe , there are young negre girles , that carry them away , and lay them on a heap , at the distance of six score paces or there abouts ; where they make a large hill , if the worke have continued long : under the rollers , there is a receiver , as big as a large tray ; into which the liquor falls , and stayes not there , but runs under ground in a pipe or gutter of lead , cover'd over close , which pipe or gutter , carries it into the cistern , which is fixt neer the staires , as you go down from the mill-house to the boyling house . but it must not remaine in that cisterne above one day , lest it grow sower ; from thence it is to passe through a gutter , ( fixt to the wall ) to the clarifying copper , as there is occasion to use it , and as the work goes on , and as it clarifies in the first copper , and the skumme rises , it is conveyed away by a passage , or gutter for that purpose ; as also of the second copper , both which skimmings , are not esteem'd worth the labour of stilling ; because the skum is dirtie and grosse : but the skimmings of the other three coppers , are conveyed down to the still-house , there to remaine in the cisterns , till it be a little sower , for till then it will not come over the helme . this liquor is remov'd , as it is refin'd , from one copper to another , and the more coppers it passeth through , the finer and purer it is , being continually drawn up , and keel'd by ladles , and skim'd by skimmers , in the negres hands , till at last it comes to the tach , where it must have much labour , in keeling and stirring , and as it boyles , there is thrown into the four last coppers , a liquor made of water and wit hs which they call temper , without which , the sugar would continue a clammy substance and never kerne . the quantities they put in are small , but being of a ●art quality it turnes the ripeness and clamminesse of the sugar to cruddle and separate : which you will find , by taking out some drops of it , to candy , and suddenly to grow hard ; and then it has inough of the fire . upon which essay they presently poure two spoonfulls of sallet oyle into the tach , and then immediately it gives over to bubble or rise . so after much keeling , they take it out of the tach , by the ladles they use there , and put it into ladles that are of greater receipt , with two handles , and by them remove it into the cooling cisterne , neer the stayers that goes to the fire roome : but as they remove the last part of the liquor out of the tach , they do it with all the celerity they can ; and suddenly cast in cold water , to coole the copper from burning , for the fire in the furnace , continues still in the same heat : and so when that water is removed out againe by the ladles , they are in the same degree carefull , and quick , as soon as the last ladle full is taken out , to throw in some of the liquor of the next copper to keep the tach from burning , and so fil● it up out of the next , and that out of the third , and that out of the fourth , and that out of the clarifying copper , and so from the cistern , and so from the mill-house or ingenio . and so the work goes on , from munday morning at one a clock , till saturday night , ( at which time the fire in the furnaces are put out ) all houres of the day and night , with fresh supplies of men ▪ horses , and cattle . the liquor being come to such a coolnesse , as it is fit to be put into the pots , they bring them neer the cooler , and stopping first the sharp end of the pot ( which is the bottom ) with plantine leaves , ( and the passage there no bigger , then a mans finger will go in at ) they fill the pot , and set it between the stantions , in the filling room , where it staies till it be thorough cold , which will be in two daies and two nights ; and then if the sugar be good , knock upon it with the knuckle of your finger , as you would do upon an earthen pot , to trie whether it be whole , and it will give a sound ; but if the sugar be very ill , it will neither be very hard , nor give any sound . it is then to be removed into the cureing house , and set between stantions there : but first , the stopples are to be pull'd out of the bottom of the pots , that the molosses may vent it selfe at that hole , and so drop down upon a gutter of board , hollowed in the middle , which conveyeth the molosses from one to another , till it be come into the cisterns , of which there is commonly foure , at either corner one ; and there remains , till it rise to a good quantity , and then they boyl it again , and of that they make peneles , a kinde of sugar somewhat inferiour to the muscavado ; but yet will sweeten indifferently well , and some of it very well coloured . the pots being thus opened at the bottoms , the molosses drops out , but so slowly , as hardly to vent it selfe in a month ▪ in which time , the sugar ought to be well ●ur'de ; and therefore they thought fit , to thrust a spike of wood in at the bottom , that should reach to the top , hoping by that means , to make way for the molosses to have the speedier passage : but they found little amendment in the purging , and the reason was this , the spike as it went in , prest the sugar so hard , as it stopt all pores of passage for the molosses . so finding no good to come of this , they devis'd another way , and that was by making an augure of iron , which instrument cuts his way , without pressing the sugar , and by that means the molosses had a free passage , without any obstruction at all . and so the sugar was well cur'd in a month . as for the manner of using it , after it is cur'd , you shall finde it set down in my index , to the plot of the cureing house . and this is the whole processe of making the muscavado-sugar , whereof some is better , and some worse , as the canes are ; for , ill canes can never make good sugar . i call those ill , that are gathered either before or after the time of such ripenesse , or are eaten by rats , and so consequently rotten , or pull'd down by withes , or lodg'd by foule weather , either of which , will serve to spoil such sugar as is made of them . at the time they expect it should be well cur'd , they take the pots from the stantions in the curing-house , and bring them to the knocking room , which you shall finde upon the plot of the cureing house ; and turning it upside down , they knock the pot hard against the ground , and the sugar comes whole out , as a bullet out of a mold ; and when it is out , you may perceive three sorts of colours in the pot , the tops somewhat brownish , and of a frothy light substance ; the bottom of a much darker colour , but heavy , grosse , moist , and full of molosses ; both which they out away , and reserve to be boyl'd again , with the molosses for peneles : the middle part , which is more then two thirds of the whole pot , and lookes of a bright colour , drie and sweet , they lay by it selfe , and send it down daily upon the backs of assinigoes and camells , in leather baggs , with a tarr'd cloth over , to their store-houses at the bridge , there to be put in caskes and chests , to be ship't away for england , or any other parts of the world , where the best market is . though this care be taken , and this course used , by the best husbands , and those that respect their credits , as , collonell james drax , collonell walrond , mr. raynes , and some others that i know there ; yet , the greater number , when they knock out their sugars , let all go together , both bottom and top , and so let the better bear out the worse . but , when they come to the merchant to be sold , they will not give above 3 l. 10 s. for the one ; and for the other , above 6 l. 4 s. and those that use this care , have such credit with the buyer , as they scarce open the cask to make a tryall ; so well they are assured of the goodnesse of the sugars they make ; as , of collonell james drax , collonell walrond , mr. raines , and some others in the iland that i know . i have yet said nothing of making white sugars , but that is much quicker said than done : for , though the muscavado sugar , require but a months time to make it so , after it is boyl'd ; yet , the whites require four months , and it is only this . take clay , and temper it with water , to the thicknesse of frumenty , or pease-pottage , and poure it on the top of the muscavado sugar , as it stands in the pot , in the cureing-house , and there let it remain four months ; and if the clay crack and open , that the aire come in , close it up with some of the same , either with your hand , or a small trowell . and when you knock open these pots , you shall finde a difference , both in the colour and goodnesse , of the top and bottom , being but to such a degree , as may be rank'd with muscavadoes ; but the middle , perfect white , and excellent lump-sugar , the best of which will sell in london for 20 d. a pound . i do not remember i have left unsaid any thing , that conduces to the work of sugar-making , unlesse it be , sometimes after great rains , ( which moisten the aire more then ordinary ) to lay it out upon fair daies in the sun , upon cloaths , or in the knocking room , and sometimes to bring in pans of coals , well kindled , into the cureing-house . if i have omitted any thing here , you shall finde it supplyed in the indexes of my plots . as for distilling the skimmings , which run down to the still-house , from the three lesser coppers , it is only this : after it has remained in the cisterns , which my plot shewes you in the still-house , till it be a little soure , ( for till then , the spirits will not rise in the still ) the first spirit that comes off , is a small liquor , which we call low-wines , which liquor we put into the still ▪ and draw it off a gain ; and of that comes so strong a spirit , as a candle being brought to a 〈◊〉 distance , to the bung of a hogshead or but , where it is kept , the ●pirits will ●●ie to it , and taking hold of it ▪ bring the fire down to the vessell , and set all a fire , which immediately breakes the vessell , and becomes a flame , burning all about it that is combustible matter . we lost an excellent negre by such an accident , who bringing a jar of this spirit , from the still-house , to the drink-room , in the night , not knowing the force of the liquor he carried , brought the candle somewhat neerer than he ought , that he might the better see how to put it into the funnell , which conveyed it into the butt . but the spirit being stirr'd by that motion , flew out , and got hold of the flame of the candle , and so set all on fire , and burnt the poor negre to death , who was an excellent servant . and if he had in the instant of firing , clapt his hand upon the bung ; all had been saved ; but he that knew not that cure , lost the whole vessell of spirits , and his life to boot . so that upon this misadventure , a strict command was given , that none of those spirits should be brought to the drink-room ever after in the night , nor no fire or candle ever to come in there . this drink , though it had the ill hap to kill one negre , yet it has had the vertue to cure many ; for when they are ill , with taking cold , ( which often they are ) and very well they may , having nothing under them in the night but a board , upon which they lie , nor any thing to cover them : and though the daies be hot , the nights are cold , and that change cannot but work upon their bodies , though they be hardy people . besides , comming home hot and sweating in the evening , sitting or lying down , must needs be the occasion of taking cold , and sometimes breeds sicknesses amongst them , which when they feel , they complain to the apothecary of the plantation , which we call doctor , and he gives them every one a dram cup of this spirit , and that is a present cure . and as this drink is of great use , to cure and refresh the poor negres , whom we ought to have a speciall care of , by the labour of whose hands , our profit is brought in ; so is it helpfull to our christian servants too ; for , when their spirits are exhausted , by their hard labour , and sweating in the sun , ten hours every day , they find their stomacks debilitated , and much weakned in their vigour every way , a dram or two of this spirit , is a great comfort and refreshing to them . this drink is also a commodity of good value in the plantation ; for we send it down to the bridge , and there put it off to those that retail it . some they sell to the ships , and is transported into forraign parts , and drunk by the way . some they sell to such planters , as have no sugar-works of their owne , yet drink excessively of it , for they buy it at easie rates ; halfe a crown a gallon was the price , the time that i was there ; but they were then purposing to raise the price to a deerer rate . they make weekly , as long as they work , of such a plantation as this 30 l. sterling , besides what is drunk by their servants and slaves . and now for a close of this work of sugar , i will let you see , by way of estimate , to what a revenue this iland is raised ; and , in my opinion , not improbable . if you will be pleased to look back to the extent of the iland , you shall find , by taking a medium of the length and breadth of it , that there is contained in the iland 392 square miles ; out of which we will substract a third part , which is the most remote part of the iland from the bridge , where all , or the most part of trade is , which by many deep and steep gullies interposing , the passage is in a manner stop'd : besides , the land there is not so rich and fit to bear canes as the other ; but may be very usefull for planting provisions of corn , yeams , bonavista , cassavie , potatoes ; and likewise of fruites , as , oranges , limons , lymes , plantines , bonanoes ; as also , for breeding hoggs , sheep , goats , cattle , and poultry , to furnish the rest of the iland , that want those commodities . for which reasons , we will substract a third part from 392. and that is 130. and so the remaining ● is 262 square miles ; the greatest part of which may be laid to sugar-works , and some to be allowed and set out for small plantations , which are not able to raise a sugar-work or set up an ingenio , by reason of the paucity of acres , being not above twenty , thirty , or forty acres in a plantation ; but these will be fit to bear tobacco , ginger , cotten-wool , maies , yeames , and potatoes ; as also for breeding hoggs . but most of these will in short time , be bought up by great men , and laid together , into plantations of five , sixe , and seven hundred acres . and then we may make our computation thus , viz. a mile square will contain 640 acres of land , and here we see is 262 acres , being ● of the iland . so then , we multiply 262. by 640. and the product will amount unto 167680. now we will put the case , that some of those men that have small plantations , will not sell them , but keep them for provisions , which they may live plentifully upon ; for those provisions they raise , will sell at good rates ; for which use , we will set out thirty thousand acres . so then we substract 30000 acres from 167680 , and there will remain 137680 acres , to be for sugar-works ; out of which , ● may be planted with canes , the other ● for wood , pasture , and provisions , which must support the plantations , according to the scale of collonell modiford's plantation , as i said before . now these two fifts are , as you see 55072 acres , and an acre of good canes will yield 4000 pound weight of sugar , and none will yield lesse then 2000 weight ; but we will take a medium , and rest upon 3000 weight , upon which we will make our computation , and set our price upon the sugar , according to the lowest rates , which shall be 3 d. per pound , as it is muscavado , to be sold upon the iland , at the bridge . in fifteen months the canes will be ripe , and in a month more , they will be well cur'd , and ready to be cast up , and stowed in the ware-house . so here , we make our computation upon the place , and say , 3000 threepences is 37 l. 10 s. ten acres of which is 375 l. sterling . so then we say , if 10 acres of canes will produce 375 l. what shall 55072. which is the number of acres contained upon the ● of the land , allotted for sugar plantations , upon which the canes must grow : and by the rule of 3. we finde , that it amounts to 2665200. in sixteen months : now add four months more to the time of cureing , and making it into whites , which is that we call lump-sugar in england , and then the price will be doubled to 4130400. out of which we will abate ● for waste , and what is cut off from the tops and bottoms of the pots , which will be good muscavadoes ; but we will abate for that , and waste ● which is 1032600. and that we will substract from 4130400. and there remaines 3097800. which is the totall of the revenue of sugars , that grow on the barbadoes for twenty months , and accounted there , upon the iland , at the bridge . but if you will run the hazards of the sea , as all marchants doe , and bring it for england , it will sell in london , for 12 d. the pound , and so 't is doubled againe ; and then it will amount to 6195600 ▪ and in two months time more it will be in england . now you see what a vast revenew this little spot of ground can produce in 22 months time ; and so i have done with this plant , onely one touch more , to conclude with all ; as musitians , that first play a preludium , next a lesson , and then a saraband ; which is the life and spirit of all the rest . so having played you a short preludium , to this long and tedious lesson of sugar and sugar-making , i do think fit to give you a saraband , with my best touches at last ; which shall be only this , that as this plant has a faculty , to preserve all fruits , that grow in the world , from corruption and putrifaction ; so it has a vertue , being rightly applyed , to preserve us men in our healths and fortunes too . doctor bu●ler one of the most learned and famous physitians that this nation , or the world ever bred , was wont to say that ▪ if sugar can preserve both peares and plumbs , why can it not preserve as well ●ur lungs ? and that it might work the same effect on himselfe , he alwayes dranke in his claret wine , great store of the best refin'd sugar , and also prescribed it severall wayes to his patients , for colds , coughs , and catarrs ; which are diseases , that reign much in cold climats , especially in ilands , where the ayre is moyster then in continents ; and so much for our health . now for our fortunes , they are not only preserv'd , but made by the powerfull operation of this plant . colonell james drax , whose beginning upon that iland , was founded upon a stock not exceeding 300 l. sterling , has raised his fortune to such a height , as i have heard him say , that he would not look towards england , with a purpose to remaine there , the rest of his life , till he were able to purchase an estate , of tenne thousand pound land yearly ; which he hop'd in few years to accomplish , with what he was then owner of ; and all by this plant of sugar . colonell thomas modi●ord , has often told me , that he had taken a resolution to himselfe , not to set his face for england , till he made his voyage , and imployment there , worth him a hundred thousand pounds sterling ; and all by this sugar plant . and these , were men of as piercing sights , and profound judgments , as any i have known in that way of management . now if such estates as these , may be raised , by the well ordering this plant , by industrious and painfull men , why may not such estates , by carefull keeping , and orderly and moderate expending , be preserv'd , in their posterities , to the tenth generation ; and all by the sweet negotiation of sugar ? one vegetable we have on the iland , which will neither become the name of a tree , nor a plant ; and that is a withe ; which is in some respect , the harmefullest weed that can grow ; for it pulls downe all that it can reach to , canes , and all other small plants , it makes nothing of ; if it be suffer'd to look up in a garden , it will wind about all herbs and plants that have stalks , pull them down and destroy them ; or if it find the way into any orchard , it will clime up by the bodies of the trees , into the branches , and there inwrap them so , as to draw them ( as it were ) into a purse , ( for out of the maine stalk , hundreds of smal sprigs will grow ; ) and if any other tree be so neer as to touch it , it will find the way to it , and pull the tops of them together , and utterly disfigure the trees , and hinder the growth of the fruit ; and if you cut the maine stalk below , neer the root in hope to kill it , the moysture above in the branches , will thrust down a vine into the ground , and get a new root : nay this is not all the mischiefe , for it will reach the highest timber , and involve and enwrap so the branches , as to hinder their growths , and many times fasten one tree to another , that one shall hinder the growth of another . a couple of colonel d●axes axemen , were felling a tree , and about the time it began to bend , that they perceiv'd which way it would fall , got cleare on the other side , and thought themselves safe : but this being fastned to another , by strong withes , pull'd a great branch of that tree after it , which fell upon the fellers , and bruised them so , as they hardly scap'd with their lives . cleere a passage of tenne foot broad , that goes between a wood and a land of canes overnight , and come next morning , and you shall find the way crost all over with wit hs , and got neere the canes ; so that if you had left your visit till the next day , they had gotten into the canes , and then it would be too late to help ; for when they are mixt with them , you cannot destroy the one without the other , for wheresoever they touch ground they get new roots , and so creep into every place , and as they go pull down all . these harmefull wit hs , have , with all these vices , some virtues . they serve for all uses , where roaps or cords are required , as for binding our wood and canes into faggots , or what else roapes are needfull for ; and without them we were in ill condition , for we have not any wood fit to make hoops for hogsheads , barrels , tubbs , or what not ; and we can have them of what length and bignesse we please , and they are for that use very good . severall kinds of these wit hs there are , some that beare fruit , somewhat bigger then the cod of a beane , which being divided longwise with a sharp knife , you shall perceive the most various and beautifullest colours that can be , and so well matcht , as to make up a very great beauty . fell a dosen acres of wood , going on in a straight line , and when the ground is cleered , the side of that wood you left standing , will be likewise in the same strait line , and in a few years these wit hs will mount , to the tops of the trees , which are for the most part , eighty or 100. foot high , and from that top to the ground , on the outside of the wood , all will be cover'd with leaves , and those are broad , green , and shining , so that if you be absent from the place two or three years , and look to find a wood , you find a faire green curtaine , 300 paces long , and 80 foot high , which is as pretty a deceptio visus , as you can find any where ▪ and this is one of the pleasantest vis●os in the iland , the same things are done in the mouths or entrances of caves , where you shall find a cave large enough to hold 500 men , and the mouth of it , cover'd with a green curtaine , 40 foot high , and 200 foot long ; and so close a curtaine it is ( the vines being wrapt and interwove one into another ) as without putting it aside , you can hardly have light to read by . these caves are very frequent in the iland , and of severall dimensions , some small , others extreamly large and capacious : the run-away negres , often shelter themselves in these coverts , for a long time and in the night range abroad the countrey , and steale pigs , plantins , potatoes , and pullin , and bring it there ; and feast all day , upon what they stole the night before ; and the nights being darke , and their bodies black , they scape undiscern'd . there is nothing in that countrey , so usefull as liam hounds , to find out these theeves . i have gone into divers of those caves , to trye what kind of ayre is to be found there ; and have felt it so close , and moyst with all , as my breath was neer stopt ; and i doe beleive , if i should remaine there but one night , i should never come out againe . i have often wondred , why such vast caves and rocks should not afford some springs of water ; the ayre which touches them , being so very moyst ; for we see in england , where rocks are , springs of water issue out ; and sometimes ( when wet weather is ) the moysture hangs upon the rocks in drops , and so runns down and finds a way to vent it selfe , into small bibling springs ; but here it does not so , though the ayre be much moyster than in england ; but certainly the reason is the extraordinary drinesse , and spunginesse of the stone ; which sucks up all moysture that touches it ; and yet it is never satisfied . i had it in my thoughts , to make an essay , what sir francis bacons experiment solitarie , touching the making of artificiall springs would doe ; but troughs of that stone , being of so dry and spungy a quality , would never have been fit for it , besides we have no brakes growing there , which is one of the materials us'd in that experiment . another sort of wit hs we have , but they are made of the gum of trees , which falls from the boughes , drop after drop , one hanging by another , till they touch ground ; from whence they receive some nourishment , which gives them power to grow larger , and if it happen that three or four of them , come down so nere one another as to touch and the wind twist them together , they appeare so like ropes , as they cannot be discern'd five paces off , whether it be a rope or a withe . i have seen of these of severall sises , from the smallest whip cord to the greatest cable of the soveraine ; and the most of those timber trees i have named , has them ; some four , some five , some halfe a dozen , hanging down like bell ropes , from the branches to the ground , which was a sight of much rarity to me at first comming . # aloes we have growing here , very good , and 't is a beautifull plant ; the leaves four inches broad , ¼ of an inch thick , and about a foot and a halfe long ; with prickles on each side , and the last sprout which rises up in the middle , beares yellow flowres , one above another , and those flowres are higher then any of the leaves , by two foot ; these thick leaves we take , and cut them through , and out of them issue the aloes , which we set in the sun , and that will rarifie it , and make it fit to keep . but it is the first comming which we save ; for , if we let it run too long , the second running will be much worse ; but , before that comes , we throw away the leafe . the leaves of this plant , ( which we call semper vivens in england , and growes neer the fire in kitchins , hung up to a beam , with an oyl'd clout about the root ) with the inner bark of elder , and some other ingredients , boyl'd in sallet-oyle , is the best medicine in the world for a burn or a scald , being presently applyed ; and for that the medicine is beyond all that ever was , for that cure , i will set it down , and 't is this . take semper vivens , plantine leaves , and the green rinde of elder , of each alike quantity , and boyl them in sallet-oyle , so much as will draw out all that tincture by boyling ; then strain the oyle well out , and put it on the fire again , and put to it a small quantity of spirit of wine , and so much yellow wax , as will bring it to the consistance of a liniment . one other plant we have , and that is the sensible plant , which closes the leavs upon any touch with your hand , or that end of your staff by which you hold , and in a little time will open again . # there are very few flowers in the iland , and none of them sweet ; as , the white lilly , which growes in the woods , and is much a fairer flower then ours ; as also a red lilly , of the same bignesse ; but neither of them sweet . the st. jago flower is very beautifull , but of a nauseous savour . one more we have , and that must not be forgotten for the rarity , because it opens , when all else close , when the sun goes down ; and for that reason we call it , the flower of the moon : it growes in great tuffs , the leaves almost in the form of a heart , the point turning back , the flower somewhat bigger then a primrose , but of the purest purple that ever i beheld . when this flower falls off , the seed appears , which is black , with an eye of purple ; shap'd , and of the sise of a small button , so finely wrought , and tough withall , as it might serve very well to trim a suit of apparell . i know no herbs naturally growing in the iland , that have not been brought thither from other parts , but purcelane ; and that growes so universally , as the over-much plenty makes it disesteemed ; and we destroy it as a weed that cumbers the ground . rosemary , time , winter savory , sweet marjerom , pot marjerom , parsley , penniroyall , camomile , sage , tansie , lavender , lavender-cotten , garlick , onyons , colworts , cabbage , turnips , redishes , marigolds , lettice , taragon , southernwood . all these i carried with me in seeds , and all grew and prospered well . leek-seed i had , which appeared to me very fresh and good ; but it never came up . rose trees we have , but they never bear flowers . there is a root , of which some of the negres brought the seeds , and planted there , and they grew : 't is a very large root , drie , and well tasted ; the manner of planting it is , to make little hills , as big as mole-hills , and plant the seed a top , and as soon as it puts forth the stalks they turn down to the ground , on either side , and then as they touch it , they thrust up a stalk , not unlike an asparagus , but of a purple colour . these being gathered , and eaten as a sallet , with oyle , vinegar , and salt , will serve an ordinary pallet , where no better is to be had : but the root truly is very good meat , boyl'd with powdred pork , and eaten with butter , vinegar , and pepper . most of these roots are as large , as three of the biggest turnips we have in england . we carried divers of them to sea , for our provision , which stood us in good stead , and would have serv'd us plentifully in our great want of victualls ; but the rats ( of which we had infinite numbers aboard ) rob'd us of the most part . # that part of the iland which lies to the windeward , and is part east , part north , the stormes and stiffe windes comming from those points , have so wash'd away all earthly substance , as there remaines nothing but steep rocks ; and the sea being very deep on that side , the anchors will hardly touch the bottom , though the cables be long ; so that what ship soever rides on that side , comes at her owne perill . contrarily , if any ship be under sail , on the leeward side , and goes but so far out , as to lose the shelter of the iland , it is certain to be carried away down to the leeward ilands , and then it will be a very hard work to beat it up again , without putting out into the main . so that there can hardly be any safe landing , but where the harbours and baies are , which lie to the southwest ; and those places are so defensible by nature , as with small costs , they may be very strongly fortified . but they have been much neglected by the proprietor , for which reason , ( and some others ) the planters refused to call him by that name . there was a gentleman in the iland , who pretended to be a souldier , and an ingeneer , that undertook to fortifie all the landing places , and to furnish them with such store of artillery , as should be sufficient to defend them ; provided , he might have the excise paid to him for seven years , which was promised by the governour and assembly . whereupon he went to work , and made such a fort , as when abler ingeneers came upon the iland , they found to be most pernicious ; for , commanding all the harbour , and not of strength to defend it selfe , if it were taken by an enemy , might do much harm to the land-ward . so that at my comming from thence , they were pulling it down , and instead of it , to make trenches , and rampiers , with pallisadoes , horn-works , curtains , and counter-scarfes ; and having left a very good fortification of standing wood , round about the iland , near the sea , these were thought as much as needed for their defence , against the landing of any forraign forces , and for their strength within . # they built three forts , one for a magazine , to lay their amonition , and powder in ; the other two , to make their retreats upon all occasions . at my comming from thence , they were ab●e to muster ten thousand foot , as good men , and as resolute , as any in the world , and a thousand good horse ; and this was the strength of the iland about the time i came away . # they govern there by the lawes of england , for all criminall , civill , martiall , ecclesiasticall , and maritime affairs . this law is administred by a governour , and ten of his councill , four courts of ordinary justice , in civill causes , which divide the land in four circuits ; justices of peace , constables , churchwardens , and tithing-men : five sessions in the year , for tryall of criminall causes , and all appeals from inferiour courts , in civill causes . and when the governour pleases to call an assembly , for the supream court of all , for the last appeales , for making new lawes , and abolishing old , according to occasion , in nature of the parliament of england , and accordingly consists of the governour , as supream , his councill , in nature of the peers , and two burgesses chosen by every parish for the rest . the iland is divided into eleven parishes no tithes paid to the minister , but a yearly allowance of a pound of tobacco , upon an acre of every mans land , besides certain church-duties , of mariages , christenings , and burialls . a standing commission there was also , for punishing adultery and fornication , though rarely put in execution . something would be said concerning the seasons of the year ; but it is little , & therfore wil be the least troublesome . four months in the year , the weather is colder then the other eight , & those are november , december , january , & february ; yet they are hotter than with us in may. there is no generall fall of the leafe , every tree having a particular fall to himself ; as if two locusts stands at the distance of a stones cast , they have not their falls at one time ; one locust will let fall the leaves in january , another in march , a third in july , a fourth in september ; and so all months one kinde of trees , having their severall times of falling : but if any month falls more leaves then other , 't is february ; for so in my nicest observation i found it . the leaves we finde fallen under the trees , being the most of them large and stiffe , when they were growing , and having many veines , which go from the middle stalk , to the uppermost extent of the leafe , when the thin part of the leafe is rotten and consum'd , those veines appear like anatomies , with the strangest works and beautifullest formes that i have seen , fit to be kept as a rarity , in the cabinets of the greatest princes . as also the negres heads , which we finde in the sands , and they are about two inches long , with a forehead , eyes , nose , mouth , chin , and part of the neck ; i cannot perceive any root by which they grow , but find them alwaies loose in the sand ; nor is it a fruit that falls from any tree , for then we should finde it growing ; black it is as jet , but from whence it comes , no man knowes . # mines there are none in this iland , not so much as of coal , for which reason , we preserve our woods as much as we can . we finde flowing out of a rock , in one part of the iland , an unctuous substance , somewhat like tarre , which is thought to have many vertues yet unknown ; but is already discovered , to be excellent good to stop a flux , by drinking it ; but , by annointing , for all aches and bruises ; and so subtle it is , as being put into the palm of the hand , and rub'd there , it will work through the back . another gummy substance there is , black , and hard as pitch , and is used as pitch ; 't is called mountjack . having given you in my bills of fare , a particular of such viands , as this iland afforded , for supportation of life , and somewhat for delight too , as far as concernes the table ; yet , what are you the better for all this , when you must be scorch't up from morning till night with the torrid heat of the sunne ; so as in that twelve hours , you hardly can finde two , in which you can enjoy your selfe with contentment . or how can you expect to find heat , or warmth in your stomack , to digest that meat , when the sunne hath exhausted your heat and spirits so , to your outer parts , as you are chill'd and numb'd within ? for which reason , you are compell'd to take such remedies , as are almost as ill as the disease ; liquors so strong , as to take away the breath as it goes down , and red pepper for spice , which wants little of the heat of a fire-coale ; and all these will hardly draw in the heat , which the sun draws out ; and part of this deficiency is occasioned by the improvidence , or inconsideration of the inhabitants , who build their dwellings , rather like stoves , then houses ; for the most of them , are made of timber , low rooft keeping out the wind , letting in the sun , when they have means to have it otherwise ; for i will undertake to contrive a house so , as no one shall have just cause to complaine of any excessive heat ; and that which gives this great remedy , shall bring with it the greatest beauty that can be look't on . the palmetoes , which being plac't ( as i will give you directions in my plot ) in convenient order , shall interpose so between the sun and house , as to keep it continually in the shade ; and to have that shade at such a distance , as very little heat shall be felt , in any time of the day : for shades that are made by the highest tre●s , are undoubtedly the coolest , and freshest , by reason it keeps the heat farthest off . besides this , there are many advantages to be made , in the contrivance of the house ; for i see the planters there , never consider which way they build their houses , so they get them up ; which is the cause that many of them , are so insufferably hot , as neither themselves , nor any other , can remaine in them without sweltring . first then , we will consider what the errours are in their contrivances , that we may be the better able to shew the best way to mend them ; a single house that is built long-wise , and upon a north and south line , has these disadvantages : the sun shines upon the east side-walls from six a clock till eight , so as the beams rest flat upon that side , for two hours . and the beames resting upon a flat or oblique line ( as that is , ) gives a greater heate , then upon a diagonall , which glaunces the beams aside . as a tennis ball , strook against the side walls of the court , glauncing , hi●s with lesse force , then when it feels the full resistance of the end wall , where t is met with a flat oblique line : so the sun beames , the more directly they are oppos'd by any flat body , the more violently they burne . this side-wall being warm'd ; the sun gets higher , and shines hotter , and then the rafters become the oblique line , which is thinner , and lesse able to resist the beames ; and the covering being shingles , receives the heat quicker , and re●aines it longer , than tiles would do , so that for the whole forenoon , that side of the roofe , receives as much heat , as the sun can give , and so passes over to the other side , giving it so much the more in the afternoon , as is increast by warming the house and aire all the morning before , and so the oven being heat on both sides , what can you expect , but that those within , should be sufficiently bak● : and so much the more , for that the wind is kept out , that should come to cool it , by shutting up all passages , that may let it in , which they alwayes doe , for feare the raine come with it ; and letting in the sun at the west end , where and when , it shines hottest . therefore this kind of building is most pernitious to those that love their health , which is the comfort of their lives : but you will say , that a double house will lessen much of this heat , by reason that the west side is not visited by the sun in the morning nor the east in the afternoon ; i doe confesse that to be some little remedy , but not much , for the double roofes being open to the sun , in oblique lines , a great part of the forenoon ; and being reflected from one side to another , when it comes to the meridian ( and before and after , at least two hours , ) with the scorching heat it gives to the gutter , which is between them , and is in the middle of the house from end to end , will so warme the east side of the house , as all the shade it has in the afternoon will not cool it , nor make it habitable ; and then you may guesse in what a temper the west side is . whereas , if you build your house upon an east and west line , you have these advantages , that in the morning , the sun never shines in or neere an oblique line , ( which is upon the east end of your house , ) above two hours , and that is from six to eight a clock ; and as much in the afternoon , and not all that time neither ; and upon the roofe it can never shine in an oblique line , but glancing on both sides , cast off the heat very much ; i do confesse that i love a double house , much better then a single , but if it have a double cover , that is , two gable ends , and a gutter between , though it be built up an east and west line : yet the sun ( which must lye upon it all the heat of the day ) will so multiply the heat , by reflecting the beames from inside to inside , and so violently upon the gutter , from both , which you know must be in the middle of the house , from end to end , as you shall feele that heat above , too sensibly in the ground stories below , though your sieling be a foot thick , and your stories sixteen foot high . therefore if i build a double house , i must order it so , as to have the division between either room of a strong wall , or of dorique pillers archt from one to another ; and , in each intercolumniation , a square stud of stone , for the better strengthening and supporting of the arches above ; for i would have the roomes archt over with stone , and the innermost poynts of the arches , to test upon the pillars , and the whole house to be cover'd with couples and rafters , and upon that shingles , the ridge pole of the house : running along over the pillars so that the covering is to serve both arches , that covers your rooms : by which meanes there is but one gable end , which will glaunce off the scorching beames of the sun of either side , as , with the help of the arches underneath , there will be little heat felt in the roomes below . but then a maine care must be had , to the side walls , that the girders be strong , and very well dove-tayld , one into another , upon the dorique pillars , or partition walls ; and well erampt with iron , or else the rafters being of that length , will thrust out the side walls by reason the arches will hinder the couplets , from comming so low as to keep the rafters steady , from opening at the bottom . for prevention of this great mischiefe , it will be very needfull , to have strong butteresses without , and those being plac't just against the couples , will be of main concern to the side-walls . if you make the breadth of your house fifty foot , allowing two foot to the partition , and two foot to either of the side-walls above , ( but more below ) which is six foot in all , you will have remaining forty four foot , which being equally divided , will afford twenty two foot for the breadth of either room ; you may for the length allow what you please . but this i speak by permission , and not by direction . but , i will send you a plot with this , and an index annexed to it , of such a house as i would build for pleasure and convenience , if i were to live there , and had mony enough to bestow ; and i believe , with such conveniences and advantages , for shade and coolnesse , as few people in those western parts , have studied , or ever thought on . and now i have as neer as i can , delivered the sum of all i know of the iland of barbadoes , both for pleasures and profits , commodities and incommodities , sicknesses and healthfulnesse . so that it may be expected what i can say , to perswade or disswade any , that have a desire to go and live there . but before i give a full answer to that , i must enquire and be enformed , of what disposition the party is , that hath this designe ; if it be such a one as loves the pleasures of europe , ( or particularly of england ) and the great varieties of those , let him never come there ; for they are thing he shall be sure to misse . but , if he can finde in himselfe a willingnesse , to change the pleasures which he enjoyed in a temperate , for such as he shall finde in a torrid zone , he may light upon some that will give him an exchange , with some advantage . and for the pleasures of england , let us consider what they are , that we may be the better able to judge , how far they are consistent with the climate of barbadoes , and what gainers or losers they will be by the exchange , that make the adventure ; and by the knowledge and well weighing of that , invite or deter those , that are the great lovers and admirers of those delights , to come there , or stay away . and amongst the sports and recreations that the people of england exercise most for their healths , without dores , they are coursing , hunting , and hawking . and for the greyhound , though he be compleat in all his shapes that are accounted excellent , headed like a snake , neckt like a drake , back't like a beam , sided like a breme , tail'd like a rat , footed like a cat , deep breasted , with large phillets and gaskins , excellently winded , with all else may style him perfect , and of a right race : yet , what of all this , if the country afford no game to course at ; or if there were , that would amount to nothing ; for , in the running of twelve score yards , they will either bruise their bodies against stumps of trees , or break their necks down the steep falls of gullies , which are there too common . and for the huntsman and his hounds , they will finde themselves at a dead fault , before they begin ; for , upon this soyle , no stag , with his lofty well shap't head , and active body , has ever set his nimble feet ; and herds of vallow deer , were never put to make a stand upon this ground ; the nimble roe-buck , nor the subtle fox , the badger , otter , or the fearfull hare , have ever run their mases in these woods . and then , what use of hounds ? onely one kinde are usefull here , and those are liam hounds , to guide us to the runaway negres , who , as i told you , harbour themselves in woods and caves , living upon pillage for many months together . and for the faulconer , though his hawk have reach'd such excellencies , as may exalt her praise as high , as her wings can raise her body ; yet , she must be taken down to a bare lure . and the painfull and skilfull faulconer , who has applyed himselfe solely to the humour of the brave bird he carries , who must be courted as a mistresse , be she never so froward , and like a coy mistresse , will take check at any thing , when her liberty gives her license ; and though by a painfull and studied diligence , he have reclaimed her so , as to flie at what , and when , and where , and how she is directed ; and she , by her own practice and observation , has learnt to know , which spaniell lies , and which tells truth , that accordingly she may sleight the one , and regard the other ; and with this , has all other qualities that are excellent , in so noble and heroick a bird : yet , this painfull diligence in the faulconer , this rare perfection in the hawk , will be of little use , where there is neither champion to flie in , brookes to flie over , nor game to flie at . no mountie at a hieron , to cause the lusty jerfaulcon to raise her to a losse of her self , from the eyes of her keeper , till by many dangerous thorows , she binde with her quarrie , and both come tumbling down together . no teem of ducks , or bunch of teales , to cause the high flying haggard make her stooping , and strike her quarrie dead . and for the ostringer , though his well-man'd goshauk , or her bold mate the tarcell , draw a covert nere so well ; yet , no eye of phesants will spring , or porch in these woods . the eagle and the sacre sure , here ever misse their prey . since bustard and the barnacle , are never in the way . no tarcel drawes a covert here , no lanner sits at mark ; no merline flies a partridge neer , no hobbie dares a lark . another pleasure , the better sort of the people of england take delight in , which , in my opinion , may be rather call'd a toyle then a pleasure , and that is race-horses , forcing poor beasts beyond their power , who were given us for our moderate use . these exercises are too violent for hot countries , and therefore we will forget them . shooting and bowling may very well be used here ; but at butts onely , and in bares , or close allies , for the turfe here will never be fine enough for a green , nor the ground soft enough , for an arrow to fall on . amongst all the sports without dores , that are used in england , these two are onely sufferable in the barbadoes . but for the sports within the house , they may all be used there , as , all sorts of gaming , viz. chesse , tables , cards , dice , shovel-abord , billiards ; and some kinds of dances , but none of those that are laborious , as high and loftie capers , with turnes above ground ; these are too violent for hot countries . some other kindes of pleasures they have in england , which are not so fully enjoyed in the barbadoes , as , smooth champion to walk or ride on , with variety of landscapes , at severall distances ; all there being hem'd in with wood , and those trees so tall and lofty , as to hinder and bar the view so much , as ( upon a levell or plain ) no horison can be seen . but upon the sides of hills , which look toward the sea , your eye may range as far that way , as the globicall roundnesse of that watry element will give way to ; but that once seen , the eye is satisfied , and variety in that object there is none ; for no shipping passe that way , but such as arive at the iland . 't is true , that woods made up of such beautifull trees as grow there , are pleasant things to look on , and afford a very plentifull delight to the eyes ; but when you are so enclos'd , as hardly to look out , you will finde too quick and too full a satiety in that pleasure . but as the woods are cut down , the landscapes will appear at farther distances . now for the beauty of the heavens , they are as far transcending all we ever saw in england , or elsewhere 40 degrees without the line , on either side , as the land-objects of the barbadoes are short of ours in europe . so he that can content himselfe with the beauties of the heavens , may there be sufficiently satisfied . but we mortalls , that till and love the earth , because our selves are made up of the same mold , take pleasure sometimes to look downward , upon the fruites and effects of our own labours ; and when we finde them thrive by the blessings of the great creator , we look up to give thanks , where we finde so great a glory , as to put us into astonishment and admiration . now for the smelling sense , though we have the blossomes of the orange , limon , lyme , cittron , pomgranate , with the smell of that admirable fruit the pine , and others : yet when we consider the infinite variety of the flowers of england , both for beauty and savour , there is no comparison between them ; and the flowers there , are very few in number , and in smell , not to be allowed in competition with ours of england : for , since the differences between the houses of york and lancaster have been laid aside , no red nor white rose have grown there ; but the lillies have taken up the quarrell , and strive in as high a contest there , as the roses have done in england ; for , they are the fairest and purest , that i have ever seen , both red and white , but no sweet smell . he that could transplant the flowers of england to the barbadoes , would do a rare work , but i fear to little purpose : for , though the virtuall beams of the sun , give growth and life to all the plants and flowers it shines on ; yet , the influence is at severall distances , and so the productions varie ; some flowers must be warmed , some toasted , and some almost scalded ; and to transpose these , and set them in contrary places , were to strive against nature . 't is true , that the herbs of england grow and thrive there , by reason they are stronger , and better able to endure that change ; but flowers , that are of a more tender , nature , will not endure so great heat as they finde there . but to repair this sense , some will say , that perfumes brought out of europe , will plentifully supply us : but that will not at all avail us , for what with the heat and moisture of the aire , it is all drawn out , as by my own experience i found it to be most true , though i lapp'd them close up in papers ; and put them in drawers of a cabinet , where no aire could finde passage , they were so close and for past●lls , they lost both their smell and taste . as for musick , and such sounds as please the ear , they wish some supplies may come from england , both for instruments and voyces , to delight that sense , that sometimes when they are 〈◊〉 out with their labour , they may have some refreshment by their ears ; and to that end , they had a purpose to send for the musick , that were wont to play at the black ●●yars , and to allow them a competent salary , to make them live as happily there , as they had done in england : and had not extream weaknesse , by a miserable long sicknesse , made me uncapable of my undertaking , they had employed me in the businesse , as the likeliest to prevail with those men , whose persons and qualities were well known to me in england . and though i found at barbadoes some , who had musicall mindes ; yet , i found others , whose souls were so 〈◊〉 upon , and so rive●●ed to the earth , and the profits that arise out of it , as their souls were lifted no higher ; and those men think ▪ and have been heard to say , that three whip sawes , going all at once in a frame or pit , is the best and sweetest musick that can enter their ears ; and to hear a cow of their own low , or an assinigo bray ▪ no sound can please them better . but these mens souls were never lifted up so high , as to hear the musick of the sphears , nor to be judges of that science , as 't is practised here on earth ; and therefore we will leave them to their own earthly delights . for the sense of feeling , it can be applyed but two waies , either in doing or suffering ; the poor negres and christian servants , finde it perfectly upon their heads and shoulders , by the hands of their severe overseers ; so that little pleasure is given the sense , by this coercive kind of feeling , more then a plaister for a broken pa●e ; but , this is but a passive kinde of feeling : but take it in the highest , and most active way it can be applyed , which is upon the skins of women , and they are so sweaty and clammy , as the hand cannot passe over , without being glued & dimented in the passage or motion ; and by that means , little pleasure is given to , or received by the agent or the patient : and therefore if this sense be neither pleased in doing nor suffering , we may decline it as uselesse in a country , where down of swans , or wool of beaver is wanting . now for the sense of tasting , i do confesse , it receives a more home satisfaction , then all the rest , by reason of the fruites that grow there ; so that the epicure cannot be deceived , if he take a long journy to please his palate , finding all excellent tastes the world has , comprehended in one single fruit , the pine. and would not any prince be content to reduce his base coyne , into ingoti of pure gold . and so much shall serve touching the barbadoes . some men i have known in england , whose bodies are so strong and able to endure cold , as no weather fits them so well as frost and snow ; such iron bodies would be fit for a plantation in russia : for , there is no traceing hares under the line , nor sliding on the ice under either tropick . others there are that have heard of the pleasures of barbadoes , but are loath to leave the pleasures of england behind them . these are of a sluggish humour , and are altogether unfit for so noble an undertaking ; but if any such shall happen to come there , he shall be transmitted to the innumerable armie of pismires , and ants , to sting him with such a reproof , as he shall with himselfe any where rather then amongst them . so much is a sluggard detested in a countrey , where industry and activity is to be exercised . the dwarfe may come there , and twice a year vie in competition with the giant : for set them both together upon a levell superficies , and at noone , you shall not know by their shadowes who is the tallest man. the voluptuous man , who thinks the day not long enough for him to take his pleasure . nor the sleepie man who thinks the longest night too short for him to dreame out his delights , are not fit to repose and solace themselves upon this iland ; for in the whole compasse of the zodiacke , they shall neither find st. barnabies day , or st. lucies night , the sun running an eeven course , is there an indifferent arbiter of the differences which are between those two saints , and like a just and cleere sighted judge , reconciles those extreams to a medium , of 12 and 12 houres , which equality of time is utterly inconsistent to the humours and dispositions of these men . but i speak this , to such as have their fancies so aereall , and refin'd as not to be pleased with ordinary delight ; but think to build and settle a felicity here : above the ordinary levell of mankind . such spirits , are too volatile to fixe on businesse ; and therefore i will leave them out , as useless in this common-wealth . but such as are made of middle earth : and can be content to wave those pleasures , which stand as blocks , and percullisses , in their way ; and are indeed , the main remoras in their passage to their profits . such may here find moderate delights , with moderate labour , and those taken moderately will conduce much to their healths , and they that have industry , to imploy that well , may make it the ladder to clyme to a high degree , of wealth and opulencie , in this sweet negotiation of sugar , provided they have a competent stock to begin with ; such i mean as may settle them in a sugar-work , and lesse then 14000 l. sterling , will not do that : in a plantation of 500 acres of land , with a proportionable stock of servants , slaves , horses , camels , cattle , assinigoes , with an ingenio , and all other houseing , thereunto belonging ; such as i have formerly nam'd . but one wil say , why should any man that has 14000 l. in his purse , need to runne so long a risco , as from hence to the barbadoes : when he may live with ease and plenty at home ; to such a one i answer , that every drone can sit and eate the honey of his own hive : but he that can by his own industry , and activity , ( having youth and strength to friends , ) raise his fortune , from a small beginning to a very great one , and in his passage to that , doe good to the publique , and be charitable to the poor , and this to be accomplished in a few years , deserves much more commendation and applause . and shall find his bread , gotten by his painfull and honest labour and industry , eate sweeter by much , than his that onely minds his ease , and his belly . now having said this much , i hold it my duty , to give what directions i can , to further any one that shall go about to improve his stock , in this way of adventure ; and if he please to hearken to my directions , he shall find they are no impossibilities , upon which i ground my computations : the greatest will be , to find a friend for a correspondent , that can be really honest , faithful and industrious , and having arriv'd at that happinesse , ( which is the chiefest , ) all the rest will be easie ; and i shall let you see that without the help of magick or inchantment , this great purchase of 14000 l. will be made with 3000 l. stock , and thus to be ordered . one thousand pound , is enough to venture at first , because we that are here in england , know not what commodities they want most in the barbadoes , and to send a great cargo of unnecessary things , were to have them lye upon our hands to losse . this 1000 l , i would have thus laid out : 100 l. in linnen cloth , as canvas and kentings , which you may buy here in london , of french marchants , at reasonable rates ; and you may hire poor journy-men taylers , here in the citty , that will for very small wages , make that canvas into drawers , and petticoats , for men and women negres . and part of the canvas , and the whole of the kentings , for shirts and drawers for the christian men servants , and smocks and peticoates for the women . some other sorts of linnen , as holland or dowlace , will be there very usefull , for shirts and smocks for the planters themselves , with their wives and children . one hundred pounds more , i would have bestow'd , part on wollen cloath , both fine and coorse , part on devonshire carsies , and other fashionable stuffes , such as will well endure wearing . upon monmoth capps i would have bestowed 25 l. you may bespeak them there in wales , and have them sent up to london , by the waynes at easie rates . forty pound i think fit to bestow on irish ruggs such as are made at killkennie , and irish stockings , and these are to be had at st. james's faire at bristow ; the stockings are to be worne in the day , by the christian servants , the ruggs to cast about them when they come home at night , sweating and wearied , with their labour ; to lap about them , when they rest themselves on their hamacks at night , than which nothing is more needfull , for the reasons i have formerly given . and these may either be shipt at bristow , if a ship be ready bound for barbadoes , or sent to london by waynes which is a cheap way of conveyance . fifty pound i wish may be bestowed on shooes , and some bootes , to be made at northampton and sent to london in dry fates , by carts ; but a speciall care must be taken , that they may be made large , for they will shrink very much when they come into hot climats . they are to be made of severall sises , for men women and children ; they must be kept dry and close , or else the moistnesse of the ayre will cause them to mould . gloves will sell well there , and i would have of all kinds , and all sises , that are thinne ; but the most usefull , are those of tann'd leather , for they will wash and not shrinke in the wetting , and weare very long and soople ; you may provide your selfe of these , at evill , ilemister and ilchester , in somerset shire ; at reasonable rates . fifteen pound i would bestow in these commodities . in fashionable hats and bands , both black and coloured , of severall sises and qualities , i would have thirty pounds bestowed . black ribbon for mourning , is much worn there , by reason their mortality is greater ; and therefore upon that commodity i would bestow twenty pound ; and as much in coloured , of severall sises and colours . for silkes and sattins , with gold and silver-lace , we will leave that alone , till we have better advice ; for they are casuall commodities . having now made provision for the back , it is fit to consider the belly , which having no ears , is fitter to be done for , then talkt to ; and therefore we will do the best we can , to fill it with such provisions , as will best brook the sea , and hot climates : such are beefe , well pickled , and well conditioned , in which i would bestow 100 l. in pork 50 l. in pease for the voyage , 10 l. in fish , as ling , haberdine , green-fish , and stock-fish , 40 l. in bisket for the voyage , 10 l. cases of spirits 40 l. wine 150 l. strong beer 50 l. oyle olive 30 l. butter 30 l. and candles must not be forgotten , because they light us to our suppers , and our beds . the next thing to be thought on , is utensills , and working tooles , such are whip-sawes , two-handed sawes , hand-sawes , files of severall sises and shapes ; axes , for felling and for hewing ; hatchets , that will fit carpenters , joyners , and coopers ; chisells , but no mallets , for the wood is harder there to make them : adzes , of severall sises , pick-axes , and mat-hooks ; howe 's of all sises , but chiefly small ones , to be used with one hand , for with them , the small negres weed the ground : plains , gages , and augurs of all sises ; hand-bills , for the negres to cut the canes ; drawing-knives , for joyners . upon these utensills i would bestow 60 l. upon iron , steel , and small iron pots , for the negres to boyl their meat , i would bestow 40 l. and those are to be had in southsex very cheap , and sent to london in carts , at time of year , when the waies are drie and hard . nailes of all sorts , with hooks , hinges , and cramps of iron ; and they are to be had at bromigham in staffordshire , much cheaper then in london ▪ and upon that commodity i would bestow 30 l. in sowes of lead 20 l. in powder and shot 20 l. if you can get servants to go with you , they will turn to good accompt , but chiefly if they be trades-men , as , carpenters , joyners , masons , smiths , paviers , and coopers . the ballast of the ship , as also of all ships that trade there , i would have of sea-coales , well chosen , for it is a commodity was much wanting when i was there , and will be every day more and more , as the wood decayes : the value i would have bestowed on that , is 50 l. which will buy 45 chauldron , or more , according to the burthen of the ship. and now upon the whole , i have outstript my computation 145 l. but there will be no losse in that ; for , i doubt not , ( if it please god to give a blessing to our endeavours ) but in twelve or fourteen months , to sell the goods , and double the cargo ; and , if you can stay to make the best of your market , you may make three for one . this cargo , well got together , i could wish to be ship't in good order , about the beginning of november , and then by the grace of god , the ship may arrive at the barbadoes ( if she make no stay by the way ) about the middle of december ; and it is an ordinary course to sail thither in six weeks : comming thither in that cool time of the year , your victualls will be in good condition to be removed into a store-house , which your correspondent ( who , i account , goes along with it ) must provide as speedily as he can , before the sun makes his return from the southern tropick ; for then the weather will grow hot , and some of your goods , as , butter , oyle , candles , and all your liquors , will take harme in the remove . the goods being stowed in a ware●house , or ware houses , your correspondent must reserve a handsome room for a shop , where his servants must attend ; for then his customers will come about him , and he must be carefull whom he trusts ; for , as there are some good , so there are many bad pay-masters ; for which reason , he must provide himselfe of a horse , and ride into the country to get acquaintance ; and halfe a dosen good acquaintance , will be able to enform him , how the pulse beats of all the rest : as also by enquiries , he will finde , what prices the goods bear , which he carries with him , and sell them accordingly ; and what valews sugars bear , that he be not deceived in that commodity , wherein there is very great care to be had , in taking none but what is very good and merchantable , and in keeping it drie in good casks , that no wet or moist aire come to it ; and so as he makes his exchanges , and receives in his sugars , or what other commodities he trades for , they lie ●eady to send away for england , as he findes occasion , the delivering of the one , making room for the other ; for ships will be every month , some or other , comming for england . if he can transport all his goods , raised upon the cargo , in eighteen months , it will be very well . this cargo being doubled at the barbadoes , that returned back , will produce at least 50 percent . and then your cargo , which was 1145 l. at setting out , and being doubled there to 2290 l. will be at your return for england 3435 l. of which i will allow for freight , and all other charges 335 l. so there remaines to account 3100 l. clear . by which time , i will take for granted , that your correspondent has bargained , and gone through for a plantation , which we will presuppose to be of five hundred acres , stock't as i have formetly laid down ▪ ( for we must fix upon one , that our computations may be accordingly ) if it be more or lesse , the price must be answerable , and the produce accordingly . and therfore as we began , we will make this our scale , that 14000 l. is to be paid , for a plantation of 500 acres stock't . before this time , i doubt not , but he is also grown so well verst in the traffick of the iland , as to give you advice , what commodities are fittest for your next cargo ; and according to that instruction , you are to provide , and to come your selfe along with it . by this time , i hope , your remaining 1855 l. by good employment in england , is raised to 2000 l. so then you have 5100 l. to put into a new cargo , which i would not have you venture in one bottom . but if it please god , that no ill chance happen , that cargo of 5100 l. having then time enough to make your best market , may very wel double , and 1000 l. over ; which 1000 l. i will allow to go out for fraight , and all other charges . so then , your cargo of 5100 l. being but doubled , will amount unto 10200 l. but this cargo being large , will require three years time to sell ; so that if you make your bargain for 14000 l. to be paid for this plantation , you will be allowed three daies of payment ; the first shall be of 4000 l. to be paid in a year after you are setled in your plantation ; 5000 l. more at the end of the year following , and 5000 l. at the end of the year then next following . and no man will doubt such payment , that sees a visible cargo upon the iland of 10200 l. and the produce of the plantation to boot . now you see which way this purchase is made up , viz. 4000 l. the first payment , 5000 l. the second , and so there remains upon your cargo 1200 l. towards payment of the last 5000 l. and by that time , the profit of your plantation will raise that with advantage ; and then you have your plantation clear , and freed of all debts . and we will account at the lowest rate , that if two hundred acres of your five hundred , be planted with canes , and every acre bear but three thousand weight of sugar , valuing the sugar but at three pence per pound , which is thirty seven pound ten shillings every acre , then two hundred acres will produce 7500 l. in sixteen months ; that is , fifteen months for the canes to grow and be ripe , and a month to cure the sugar that is made . but if you stay four months longer , your muscavado sugar , which i valued at three pence per pound , will be whites , and then the price will be doubled , and that you see is 15000 l. out of which we will abate ¼ part for waste , and for the tops and bottomes of the pots , which may be rank'd with the muscavadoes , and that is 3750 l. and then there remains 11250 l. to which we will add the value of the drink , that is made of the skimmings , at 120 l. per month , which in twenty months comes to 2400 l. and then the whole revenue will amount unto 13650 l. in twenty months . but this profit must come successively in , as the sugars are made , and they work all the year , except in november and december , when the great downfalls of rain come : and if they pave the waies , between the canes , for the slids and assinigoes to passe , they may work then too ; for , little else hinders them , but the unpassablenesse of the waies . so then you see , that upon the venturing , and well husbanding of 300 l. stock , you are setled in a revenue of 682 l. a month , of which months we will account 13 in a year , so that after your work is set in order , and that you will account the yearly revenue , you will finde it 886●6l . per annum . now let us consider , what the certain charge will be yearly , to keep the plantation in the condition we receive it , which we will suppose to be compleatly furnished , with all that is necessary thereunto : and first , of all manner of houseing , as convenient dwelling houses , the mill-house , or grinding-house where the sugar is prest out ; the boyling-house , with five sufficient coppers for boyling , and one or two for cooling , with all utensills , that belong to the mill , and boyling-house ▪ the filling room , with stantions ; the still-house with two sufficient stills , and receivers to hold the drinke , with cisterns to all these rooms , for holding liquor , and temper ; the cureing house fill'd with stantions , two stories high , and commonly in it seventeen or eighteen hundred pots for cureing ; the smiths forge , with room to lay coales , iron , and steele ; the carpenter , and joyners houses , where they lodge and lay their tools , and much of their fine worke ; with sufficient store-houses , to lay such provision ▪ as we receive from forraine parts , as beefe , pork , fish , turtle ; and also to keep our drink which is made of the sugar , to the repairing of all which , the premises with the appurtenances , we will allow no lesse then 500 l. per annum . to this , there is yet more to be added : for though we breed both negres , horses , and cattle ; yet that increase , will not supply the moderate decayes ▪ which we finde in all those ; especially in our horses and cattell , therefore we will allow for that 500 l. per annum . the next thing we are to consider is , the feeding of our servants and slaves , over and above the provisions which the plantations beare , and that will be no great matter , for they are not often fed with bone-meat ; but we will allow to the christian servants , ( which are not above thirty in number , ) foure barrels of beefe , and as much of porke yearely , with two barrels of salt fish , and 500 poore-johns , which we have from new england , foure barrels of turtle , and as many of pickled makerels , and two of herrings , for the negres ; all which i have computed , and finde they will amount unto 100 l , or there abouts ; besides the fruit which will be no great matter ; for you must be sure to have a factor , both at new england and virginia , to provide you of all commodities those places afford , that are usefull to your plantation ; or else your charge will be treble . as from new england , beefe , porke , fish , of all sorts , dried and pickled ; from virginia live-cattle , beefe and tobacco ; for theirs at barbadoes is the worst i think that growes in the world ; and for cattle , no place lyes neerer to provide themselves , and the virginians cannot have a better market to sell them ; for an oxe of 5 l. pound price at virginie , will yield 25 l. there . but to go on with our computation : for as we have given order for feeding our people , so we must for their cloathing ; and first for the christians , which we will account to be thirty in number whereof ● shall be men , and ● women , that we may make our computation the more exact ; and for the men , ( which are twenty in number , ) we will allow one for the supreame overseer , who is to receive and give directions , to all the subordinate overseers , which we allow to be five more ; and those he appoynts to go out with severall gangs , some tenne , some twenty , more or lesse , according to the ability of the overseer hee so imployes ; and these are to go out upon severall imployments , as he gives them directions , some to weed , some to plant , some to fall wood , some to cleave it , some to saw it into boards , some to fetch home , some to cut canes , others to attend the ingenio , boyling-house , still-house , and cureing-house ; some for harvest , to cut the maies , ( of which we have three crops every yeare , ) others to gather provisions , of bonavist , maies , yeames , potatoes , cassavie , and dresse it at fit times for their dinners and suppers , for the christian servants ; the negres alwayes dressing their own meat themselves , in their little pots , which is only plantines , boyl'd or roasted , and some eares of maies toasted , at the fire ; and now and then a makerell a piece , or two herrings . the prime overseer may very well deserve fifty pounds per annum , or the value in such commodities as he likes , that are growing upon the plantation ; for he is a man that the master may allow sometimes to sit at his own table , and therefore must be clad accordingly . the other five of the overseers , are to be accounted in the ranke of servants , whose freedome is not yet purchased , by their five years service , according to the custome of the iland . and for their cloathing , they shall be allowed three shirts together , to every man for shifts , which will very well last halfe a year , and then as many more . and the like proportion for drawers , and for shooes , every month a paire , that is twelve paire a year ; six paire of stockings yeerly , and three monmouth capps , and for sundayes , a doublet of canvas , and a plaine band of holland . an account of expences issuing out yearly for cloathing , for the christian servants , both men and women , with the wages of the principall overseer , which shall be 50 l. sterling , or the value in such goods as grow upon the plantation . to the five subordinate overseers , for each mans cloathing .   l. s. d. six shirts , at 4 s. a piece 1 04 0 six pair of drawers , at 2 s. 0 12 0 twelve pair of shoes , at 3 s. 1 16 0 six pair of linnen or irish stokings , at 20 d. 0 10 0 three monmouth caps , at 4 s. 0 12 0 two doublets of canvas , and six holland bands 0 15 0 sum totall for each man 5 9 0 sum totall for the five overseers 27 5 0 to the fourteen common servants .   l. s. d. six shirts to each man 1 04 0 six pair of drawers to each man 0 12 0 twelve pair of shoes , at 3 s. 1 16 0 three monmouth caps , at 4 s. 0 12 0 sum totall to each man 4 04 0 sum totall , of the fourteen servants by the year 58 16 0 now for the ten women servants , we will dispose of them , thus : four to attend in the house , and those to be allowed , as followeth in the first columne , viz. the four that attend in the house to each of them the other six that weed , and do the common work abroad yearly .   l. s. d.   l. s. d. six smocks , at 4 s. a piece 1 04 0 four smocks , at 4 s. a piece 0 16 0 three petticoats , at 6 s. 0 18 0 three petticoats , at 5 s. a piece 0 15 0 three wastcoats , at 3 s. 0 09 0 four coifs , at 12 d. a piece 0 04 0 six coifes or caps , at 18 d. a piece 0 09 0 twelve pair of shoes , at 3 s. 1 16 0 twelve pair of shoes , at 3 s. 1 16 0   sum is 4 16 0 sum is 3 11 0 sum totall of the four women that attend in the house 19 4 0 sum totall of the six common women servants 21 06 0 thirty rug gownes for these thirty servants , to cast about them when they come home hot and wearied , from their work , and to sleep in a nights , in their hamocks , at 25 s. a gown or mantle . 37 10 0 now for the negres , which we will account to be a hundred of both sexes , we will divide them equally ; the fifty men shall be allowed yearly but three pair of canvas drawers a piece , which at 2 s. a pair , is 6 s. the women shall be allowed but two petticoats a piece yearly , at 4 s. a piece , which is 8 s. yearly .       so the yearly charge of the fifty men negres , is 15 00 0 and of the women 20 00 0 sum is 35 00 0 now to sum up all , and draw to a conclusion , we will account , that for the repairing dilapidations , and decayes in the houseing , and all utensills belonging thereunto ,   l. s. d. we will allow yearly to issue out of the profits , that arise upon the plantation 500 00 00 as also for the moderate decayes of our negres , horses , and cattle , notwithstanding all our recruits by breeding all those kinds 500 00 00 for forraign provisions of victualls for our servants and some of our slaves , we will allow yearly 100 00 00 for wages to our principall overseer yearly 50 00 00 by the abstract of the charge of cloathing the five subordinate overseers yearly . 27 05 00 by the abstract of clothing , the remaining 14 men-servants yearly 58 16 00 by the abstract of cloathing four women●servants that attend in the house 19 04 00 by the abstract of the remaining six women-servants , that do the common work abroad in the fields . 21 06 00 the charge of thirty rug gowns for these thirty servants 37 10 00 by the abstract of the cloathing of fifty men-negres 15 00 00 by the abstract for the cloathing of fifty women-negres 20 00 00 sum totall of the expences is 1349 01 00 sum totall of the yearly profits of the plantation 8866 00 00 so the clear profit of this plantation of 500 acres of land amounts to yearly 7516 19 00 a large revenue for so small a sum as 14000 l. to purchase , where the seller does not receive two years value by 1000 l. and upwards ; and yet gives daies of payment . i have been believed in all , or the most part , of my former descriptions and computations , concerning this iland , and the waies to attain the profits that are there to be gathered ; but when i come to this point , no man gives me credit , the businesse seeming impossible , that any understanding man , that is owner of a plantation of this value , should sell it for so inconsiderable a sum : and i do not at all blame the incredulity of these persons ; for , if experience had not taught me the contrary , i should undoubtedly be of their perswasion . but lest i should , by an over-weening opinion , hope , that my experience ( which is only to my selfe ) should mislead any man besides his reason , which every knowing man ought to be guided and governed by , i will without strayning or forcing a reason , deliver a plain and naked truth , in as plain language , as is fitting such a subject , which i doubt not but will perswade much in the businesse . 't is a known truth there , that no man has attained to such a fortune as this , upon a small beginning , that has not met with many rubs and obstacles in his way , and sometimes fallings back , let his pains and industry be what it will : i call those fallings back , when either by fire , which often happens there ; or death of cattle , which is as frequent as the other ; or by losses at sea , which sometimes will happen , of which i can bring lively instances : if either of these misfortunes fall , it stands in an equall ballance , whether ever that man recover , upon whom these misfortunes fall : but , if two of these happen together , or one in the neck of another , there is great odds to be laid , that he never shall be able to redeem himselfe , from an inevi●able ruine ; for , if fire happen , his stock is consumed , and sometimes his house ; if his cattle die , the work stands still , and with either of these , his credit falls ; so as if he be not well friended , he never can entertain a hope to rise again . these toyls of body and minde , and these misfortunes together , will depresse and wear out the blest spirits in the world , and will cause them to think , what a happie thing it is , to spend the remainder of their lives in rest and quiet in their own countries . and i do believe , there are few of them , whose mindes are not over-ballanc'd with avarice and lucre , that would not be glad to sell good penni-worths , to settle themselves quietly in england . besides the casualties which i have named , there is yet one of neerer concern then all the rest , and that is , their own healths , than which , nothing is more to be valued ; for , sicknesses are there more grievous , and mortality greater by far , than in england , and these diseases many times contagious : and if a rich man , either by his own ill diet or distemper , or by infection , fall into such a sicknesse , he will finde there a plentifull want of such remedies , as are to be found in england . other reasons , and strong ones , they have , that induce them to hanker after their own country , and those are , to enjoy the company of their old friends , and to raise up families to themselves , with a sum which they have acquired by their toyle and industry , and often hazards of their lives , whose beginnings were slight and inconsiderable ; and what can be a greater comfort , both to themselves , and their friends , then such an enjoyment . but i speak not this to discourage any man , that has a mind to improve his estate , by adventuring upon such a purchase ; for , though the planter , by long and tedious pain and industry , have worn ou● his life , in the acquist of his fortune ; yet , the buyer , by his purchase , is so well and happily seated , as he need endure no such hardships , but may go on in the managing his businesse , with much ease , and some pleasure ; and in a dosen years , return back with a very plentifull fortune , and may carry with him from england , better remedies for his health , then they , who for a long time had neither means to provide , nor mony to purchase it ; for , though some simples grow there , that are more proper for the bodies of the natives , than any we can bring from forraigne parts , and no doubt would be so for our bodies too , if wee knew the true use of them ; yet wanting that knowledge , we are faine to make use of our own . but when able and skilfull physitians shall come , whose knowledge can make the right experiment and use of the vertues of those simples that grow there , they will no doubt finde them more efficatious , and prevalent to their healths , then those they bring from forraine parts . for certainely every climate produces simples more proper to cure the diseases that are bred there , than those that are transported from any other part of the world : such care the great physitian to mankind takes for our convenience . somewhat i have said of the diseases that raigne in generall in this iland , but have falne on no particuler , though i have felt the power and tyranny of it upon mine own body , as much as any man that has past through it to death , though it pleased the mercifull god to raise me up againe : for i have it to shew under the hand of colonell thomas modiford in whose house i lay sick , that he saw me dead without any appearance of life , three several times , not as in sounding but dying fits , and yet recover'd at last . to tell the tedious particulars of my sicknesse , and the severall drenches our ignorant quacksalvers there gave me , will prove but a troublesome relation , and therefore i am willing to decline it : only this much , that it began with a fever , and as it is the custome of that disease there to cause bindings , costivenesse , and consequently gripings , and tortions in the bowels , so it far'd with me , that for a fortnight together had not the least evacuation by seige , which put me to such torment as in all that time i have not slept ; and want of that , wore me out to such a weaknesse , as i was not then in a condition to take any remedy at all . this excessive heat within begat a new torment within me , the stone ; which stopt my passage so as in foureteen dayes together no drop of water came from me ; but contrary to my expectation , god almighty sent me a remedie for that , and such a one as all the whole world cannot afford the like : for in ten hours after i tooke it , i found my selfe not onely eas'd , but perfectly cur'd of that torment , at least for the present , for it not only broke , but brought away all the stones and gravell that stopt my passage , so that my water came as freely from me as ever , and carried before it such quantities of broken stones and gravell , as in my whole life i have not seen the like . about three weeks or a month after this , i became in the same distresse and felt the like torment , whereupon i took the same medicine ; which gave me the same help . now if it did thus to a body so worne out as mine , where nature was so decay'd as it could operate little to the cure ; what will this medicine doe , when it meets with such organs as can contribute mainly to assist it ? but i give the reader but a sooty relation of ▪ my maladies , and indeed very unfit for his eares , yet when i shal prescribe the remedy , which may happen to concerne him , i may hope to make him amends : for truly my touching upon the disease , was but to usher in the cure , which shall follow close after , and 't is briefly thus . take the pisle of a green turtle , which lives in the sea , dry it with a moderate heat , pound it in a morter to powder , and take of this as much as wil lye upon a shilling , in beere or the like , ale or white wine , and in a very short time it will doe the cure . if this secret had bin known in europe but a dosen years since , no doubt we had bin well stor'd with it by this time , for 't is to be had both at the charibby and lucayicke ilands , where these fishes abound . yet so slow was my recovery of the maine sicknesse and my relapses so frequent , as i was ever and anon , looking out to meet my familiar companion death ; my memory and intellect suffering the same decayes with my body , for i could hardly give an account of ● of the time i was sick ; but as my health increast , they return'd . in three months more , i was able to ride down to the bridge , where finding a ship bound for england , i agreed for my passage and dyet by the way ; and ( as the manner of all masters of ships is , ) he made me large promises , of plentifull provisions aboard , as beefe , porke , pease fish , oyle , bisket , beere , and some wine ; this ship had bin fifteen months out of england , and had traded at guinny and binny for gold and elephants teeth , but those commodities taking up but little room , the captaine made the barbadoes in his way home , intending to take in his full lading of sugar , and such other commodities as that iland afforded ; and so being ready to set sayle , my selfe and divers other gentlemen embarkt , upon the fifthteenth of april 1650 , at twelve a clock at night ; which time our master made choyce of , that he might the better passe undescri'd by a well known pirate , that had for many dayes layne hovering about the iland , to take any ships that traded for london , by vertue of a commission as he pretended , from the marquesse of ormond . this pirate was an irish man , his name plunquet , a man bold enough : but had the character of being more mercilesse and cruell , then became a valiant man. to confirme the first part of his character ; he took a ship in one of the habours of the iland , out of which he furnisht himselfe with such things as he wanted , but left the carcase of the vessell , to floate at large . he had there a frigot of about 500 tunns , and a small vessell to wayte on her , but the night cover'd us from being disdiscern'd by him , and so we came safely off the iland . about a fortnight after we had bin at sea , our master complain'd , that his men had abus'd him , and ( for some commodities usefull to themselves ) had truckt away the greatest part of his bisket ; so that instead of bread , we were serv'd with the sweepings and dust of the bread roome , which caused a generall complaint of all the passengers but no remedy : our pease must now supply that want , which with some physicall perswasion of the master , that it was as hearty and binding as bread , we rested satisfied , with this motto , patience upon force . the next thing wanting , was fish , an excellent food at sea ; and the want of that troubled us much , yet the same remedy must serve as for the other , patience . the next thing wanting was porke ; and the last beere , which put as clean out of all patience ; so that now our staple food of the ship , was onely beefe , a few pease , and for drink water that had bin fifteen months out of england ; finding how ill we were accommodated , we desir'd the master to put in at fiall , one of the ilands of azores , a little to refresh our selves , which iland was not much out of our way , but the master loath to be at the charge of re-victualling , and losse of time ; refus'd to hearken to us , and being a request much to his disadvantage , slighted us and went on , till he was past recovery of those ilands , and then a violent storme took us , and in that storme a sad accident , which happened by meanes of a portugall , who being a sea-man , and trusted at the helme and , who though he have a compasse before him , yet is mainely guided by the quarter master that conns the ship above , upon the quarter deck ; whose directions the portugall mistooke , being not well verst in the english tongue , and so steer'd the ship , so neer the winde , that she came upon her stayes , which caused such a fluttering of the sayles , against the masts , ( the winde being extreame violent ) as they tore all in peeces , nor was there any other sayles in the ship , all being spent in the long voyage to guinny ; nor any thread in the ship , to mend them , so that now the master ( though too late ) began to repent him of not taking our counsell to goe to fiall . but how to redeeme us out of this certaine ruine , neither the master , nor his mates could tell ; for though the winds blew never so faire , we lay still at hull ; and to make use of the tide , in the maine , was altogether vaine and hopelesse . our victualls too , being at a very low ebbe , could not last us many dayes . so that all that were in the ship , both sea-men and passengers , were gazeing one upon another , what to doe when our small remainder of provision came to an end . but the sea-men , who were the greater number , resolv'd , the passengers should be drest and eaten , before any of them should goe to the pot ; and so the next thing to be thought on was , which of the passengers should dye first , for they were all design'd to be eaten ; so they resolved upon the fattest and healthfullest first , as likely to be the best meat , and so the next , and next , as they eate cherries , the best first . in this election i thought my selfe secure , for my body being nothing but a bagg-full of hydroptique humours , they knew not which way to dresse me , but i should dissolve and come to nothing in the cooking ; at last the cooper took me into his consideration , and said that if they would hearken to him , there might be yet some use made of me ; and that was in his opinion the best ; that seeing my body was not of a consistence to satisfie their hunger , it might serve to quench their thirst . so i saying a short prayer against drought and thirst , remain'd in expectation of my doome with the rest ; so merry these kinde of men can make themselves , in the midst of dangers , who are so accustomed to them ; and certainely those men , whose lives are so frequently exposed to such hazards , do not set that value upon them as others , who live in a quiet security ; yet , when they put themselves upon any noble action , they will sell their lives at such a rate , as none shall out-bid them ; and the custome of these hazards , makes them more valiant then other men ; and those amongst them , that do found their courage upon honest grounds , are certainly valiant in a high perfection . at last , a little virgin , who was a passenger in the ship , stood up upon the quarter deck , like a she-worthy , and said , that if they would be rul'd by her , she would not only be the contriver , but the acter of our deliverance . at whose speech , we all gave a strict attention , as ready to contribute our help to all she commanded ; which was , that the ship-carpenter should make her a distaffe and spindle , and the saylers combe out some of the occome : with which instruments and materialls , she doubted not , but to make such a quantity of thread , as to repair our then uselesse sailes ; which accordingly she did , and by her vertue ( under god ) we held our lives . though such an accident as this , and such a deliverance , deserve a gratefull commemoration ; yet , this is not all the use we are to make of it , somewhat more may be considered , that may prevent dangers for the future ; and that is , the great abuse of captaines and masters of ships , who promise to their passengers , such plenty of victualls , as may serve them the whole voyage : but , before they be halfe way , either pinch them of a great part , or give them that which is nastie and unwholsome . and therefore i could wish every man , that is to go a long voyage , to carry a reserve of his own , of such viands , as will last , and to put that up safe ; for , if it be not under lock and key , they are never the neer ; for , the saylers will as certainly take it , as you trust it to their honesties : complaine to the master , and you finde no remedy . one thing i have observed , let a sayler steal any part of the ships provision , he shall be sure to have severe punishment ; but , if from a passenger , though it concern him never so neerly , his remedy is to be laughed at . these enormities are fit to be complained on at the trinity-house , that some redresse may be had ; for , the abuses are grievous . out of this danger at sea , it has pleased the god of all mercy to deliver me , as also from a grievous and tedious sicknesse on land , in a strange country ; for which , may his holy name be eternally blessed and praised , for ever and ever . i am now cast in prison , by the subtle practices of some , whom i have formerly called friends : but the eternall and mercifull god has been pleased to visit and comfort me , and to raise me up such friends , as have kept me from cold and hunger , whose charities in an age , where cruelties and tyrannies are exercised in so high a measure , may be accounted a prodigie . but , i doubt not of my release out of this restraint , by the power of him , who is able to do all in all . for , as david said to saul , that god , who had delivered him out of the paw of the lion , and out of the paw of the bear , would deliver him from that uncircumcised philistine , goliah of gath : so may i now say ; that god , which has delivered me from a sicknesse to death , on land , and from shipwrack and hazards at sea , will also deliver me from this uncircumcised philistine , the upper bench , than which , the burning fire of a feavour , nor the raging waves of the sea , are more formidable : but , we have seen and suffered greater things . and when the great leveller of the world , death , shall run his progresse , all estates will be laid eeven . mors sceptra ligonibus aequat . a table , of the severall things mentioned in this history . a view of porto sancto , madera's , and desertes . pag. 2. a view of bonavista , isle of may and palma . pag. 3. hunting and hawking at sea. pag. 4. shark and pilot fish , pag. 5. carvil , a fish that sails . pag. 6. observations upon the ship 's way , as also the treachery of bernardo , a portugall . pag. 7. the first sight of the iland of saint jago pag. 8. description of the bay there , which they call the p●y . pag. 9. the padre vadago's house and entertainment . pag. 10. our landing on the iland , and what hapned to us there . pag. 13. there are seven ilands more , which are neighbours to this . pag. 18. the first sight of the barbadoes , pag. 21. the iland first discovered by a ship of sir william curteen's pag. 23. the scituation of the iland . pag. 25. the extent and length of daies . pag. 26. temperature of the aire pag. 27. how watered . pag. 28. meat and drink for supportation of life . pag. 29. bread and drink . pag. 31. severall sorts of meat . pag. 33. the manner of killing a turtle : pag. 36. victualls brought from forraign parts . pag. 37. a feast of an inland plantation . pag. 38. the like of a plantation neer the sea. pag. 39. commodities exported and imported . pag. 40. what materialls grow on the iland , fit to build with . pag. 41. the number and nature of the inhabitants . pag. 43. a combination among the servants , to kill their masters . pag. 45. reasons why the negres can plot no massacres upon their masters . pag. 46. negres pastime upon sundaies , and their aptnesse to learne arts. pag. 48. the planters will not allow their slaves to be christians . pag. 50. observations upon the shapes of the negres . pag. 51. a plot of some negres , to burn the ingenio , and the plot discovered by some of their own country-men , who were honest and noble . pag. 53. observations upon the indians . pag. 54. somwhat of the planters themselves . pag. 55. tame beasts , which are of great use to the planters , as , camells , horses , bulls , oxen , cowes , assinigoes , hoggs , sheep , goats . pag. 58. birds of all sorts . pag. 60. animalls and insects . pag. 61. crabs that come and dwell upon the land. pag. 65. severall trees growing upon the iland , and first of the poysonous trees and plants . pag. 66. severall kinds of fruit-trees . pag. 69. trees of mixt kinds . pag. 72. timber trees of severall kinds . pag. 73. the palmet royall described . pag. 75. plants that bear fruit . pag. 79. the pine described . pag. 82. sugar canes , with the manner of planting , growth , time of ripenesse , with the whole processe of sugar-making , both muscavadoes and whites . pag. 84. the manner of distilling the skimings of the coppers , of which we make the strong drink , which the planters call kill-devill . pag. 92. an estimate of the value of the sugar made upon this iland , in twenty months . pag. 95. the wit hs described . pag. 96. caves , and the description of their largenesse . pag. 98. the use of liam-hounds ibid. alo●● growing there ibid. the flower of the moon . pag. 99. english herbs and rootes . ib. strength of the iland by nature to sea-ward . pag. 100. as also within land. ibid. how governed , and how divided . ibid. no mines in this iland . p. 101. the tar river . ib. the ill contrivance of the planters houses , as we found them , when first we came there . pag. 102. directions for better buildings . p. 103. a survey of the pleasures and profits , commodities and incommodities , sicknesse and healthfulnesse , of this iland , ballanced with those of england . p. 104. the beauties of the heavens , and how much they transcend those of farther distances from the lane. p. 106. the voluptuous nor lazy persons are not fit to inhabit on this iland . pag. 108. the value of a plantation stock't , of five hundred acres of land , whereof two hundred for canes , to be sold for 14000 l. ibid. how this purchase of 14000 l. by providence and good husbandry , may be made with 3000 l. p. 109. the yearly revenue of this plantation , being once set in an orderly course , will amount unto 8866 l. pag. 112. an estimate of the expence , that will issue out yearly to keep this plantation in good order , as you first received it , which we will presuppose to be compleatly furnished with all things . p. 113. the account ballanced , the yearly revenue will amount unto 7516 l. 19 s. p. 116. an objection answered , how it comes to passe , that plantations of so great a yearly value , can be purchased with so little mony . p. 116. somewhat of the diseases of the country , as also of the physitians . p. 118. an incomparable medicine for the stone . ibid. plunquet , a great pirate , took a ship in one of the bayes . p. 119. i embarked , and set sail for england , the fifteenth of aprill , 1650. ibid. the abuses of the captains and masters of ships , that promise large provision of victuall and drink to their passengers ; and when they need it most , fail them grossely . ibid. a storme at sea , out of which we were delivered ( under god ) by a little virgin , being a passenger in the ship. errata . page 1. line 9. for risco from , read ris●o as from . p. 3. l. 13. for one , r. us . p. 4. l. 37. fot farkers , r. forkers . p. 5. l. 16. for he as is , r. as he is . p. 8 l. 18. dele was . p. 9. l. 7 for it , r. they . p. 10. l. 4. for fell two bowes short in substance and language , r , fell the two bowes short substance and language , p. 11. l. 29. for millions , r. milons . p. 12. l. 18. for frillos , gropps , or piaro torte's , r , trillos , groppos , or piano forte's . p. 20. l. 14. for painters , r. poynters . p. 21. l. 3. for imperfect , r. in perfect . p. 23. l. 18. for ternambock , r. fernambock , p. 25. l. 35. for morost , r. morasse . p. 27. l. 4. for there rise , r. there arises . p. 29. l. 50. for put , r. pat. p 32. l. 40. for pognant , r. poynant . p. 32. l. 47. for drunk sparingly , r. drunk but sparingly . p. 3● . l. 10. for westalia , r. westfalia . p. 38. l. 31. for pognant , r. poynant . p. 38. l. 48. for millions , r. milons . p. 42. l. 26. for handsome in their houses , r. handsome their houses . p. 46. l. 38. for gambra , r. gambia . p. 48. l. 46. for sinking r. singing . p. 50. l. 35. for weary , r. wary p. 54. 4. for to due , r. to do . p. 58. l. 13. for so are , r. soar . p. 57. l. 2. for gambra . r. gambia . p. 57. l. 28. for intreating , r. in treating . p. 58. l. 26. for virginie , r. virginia . p. 60. l. 23. for the nexi s , r. the next is p. 60. l. 48. for pitnies , r. titmise . p. 62. l. ●1 . for pumises , r. puneses . p. 71. l. 9. for gnaver , r. guaver . p. 72. l. ●8 . for found , r. form'd . p. 75. l. 42 for greater , r. great . p. 77. l. 49. for ables , r. abler . p. 78. l. 19. for pedistan , r. pedistall . p. 82. l. 5. for out of the fruit , r. out the fruit , p. 83. l. 49. for leave , r. beare . p. 83. l. 50. for jet , r. jetty . p. 85. l. 35. for more , r. most . p. 90. l. 34. for wit hs , r. ashes . p. 90. l. 36. for ripenesse , r. ropeinesse . p. 105. l. 30. for porch , r. perch , p. 107. l. 45. for ingoti , r. ingots , p. 108. l. 29. for percullis , r. portcullis . p. 101. l. 26 : for gages , r. gouges . p. 112. l. 46. for 300. r. 3000. p. 113. l. 33. for fruit , r. frait ( or fraight . ) p. 120. 13. for trusted at the helme , and r. trusted at the helm , who though . finis . map of barbados a topographicall description and admeasurement of the yland of barbados in the west indyaes with the mrs . names of the seuerall plantacons notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a48447-e1340 the scituation . the extent . the length of daies . temperature of the ayre . how watered . meat and drink for supportation of life . drink of mobbie . perino . grippo . punch . plum-drinke . plantine-drinke . beveridge . wine of pines . meat of all kinds . commodities exported . commodities imported . what buildings we found at our first comming upon the iland . what materialls grow in the iland fit to build with , which may be call'd the elements of architecture . and first , for timber . stone fit for building . the number and nature of the inhabitants . negres . tame beasts that are living on the iland . camels . horses . oxen , bulls , and cowes . assinigoes . hogges . sheepe ▪ goates . birds . of lesser animals and insects . trees . physick-nut . poyson tree . cassavie . coloquintida . cassia-fistula . the poysoned cane . tamarine . fruit trees . figge tree . cherry tree . orange . limon . lime-tree . prickled apple . prickled peare . pomegranate . gnaver . coco . custard-apple . anchovie-pear . trees of mixt kinds . macow . date tree . mangrave . calibash . bay tree . timber trees . mastick . bully . redwood . prickled yellow-wood iron wood . lignum vitae . locust . bastard-locust . palmeto the lesse . palmeto royall . plants that bear fruit . ginger . red pepper cucumber . millons . water-millon . grapes . wild plantine . bonano . aloes . flowers . english herbs and roots . strength of the iland by nature to seaward . captain burrows . strength of the iland within land . how governed , & how divided . mines . [ most of this paragraph is mentioned before . ]