AND ENGLISH PHYSICIAN ENLARGED. 
201 
CHAPTER UI. 
Of Seeds. 
1. Tue seed is that part of the plant 
which is endowed with a vital faculty to 
bring forth its like, and it contains poten- 
tially the whole plant in it. 
2. As for place, let them be gathered 
from the place where they delight to grow. 
3. Let them be full ripe when they are 
gathered; and forget not the celestial har- 
mony before mentioned, for I have found 
by experience that their virtues are twice as 
great at such times as others: “There is 
“an appointed time for every thing under 
the sun.” 
4. When you have gathered them, dry 
them a little, and but a little in the sun 
before you lay them up. 
5. You need not be so careful of keeping 
them so near the fire, as the other before- 
mentioned, because they are fuller of 
Spirit, and therefore not so subject to 
corrupt. 
6. As for the time of their duration, it is 
palpable they will keep a good many years; 
yet, they are best the first year, and this 
I make appear by a good argument. They 
will grow soonest the first year they be set, 
therefore then they are in their prime; 
and it is an easy matter to renew them 
yearly, 
CHAPTER IV. 
Of Roots. 
1. OF roots, chuse such as are neither 
rotten nor worm-eaten, but proper in their 
taste, colour, and smell; such as exceed 
neither in softness nor hardness. 
2. Give me leave to be a little critical 
against the vulgar received opinion, which 
is, That the sap falls down into the roots in 
the Autumn, and rises again in the Spring, 
a8 men go to bed at night, and rise in the 
morning; and this idle talk of untruth is so 
grounded in the heads, not only of the vul- 
gar, but also of the learned, that a man 
cannot drive it out by reason. I pray let 
such sapmongers answer me this argument ; 
If the sap falls into the roots in the fall of 
the leaf, and lies there all the Winter, then 
must the root grow only in the Winter. But 
the root grows not at all in the Winter, 
as experience teaches, but only in the 
Summer: Therefore, If you set an apple- 
kernel in the Spring, you shall find the root 
to grow to a pretty bigness in that Summer, 
and be not a whit bigger next Spring. What 
doth the sap do in the root all that while? 
Pick straws? "Tis as rotten as a rotten 
post. 
The truth is, when the sun declines from 
the tropic of Cancer, the sap begins to con- 
geal both in root and branch; when he 
touches the tropic of Capricorn, and as- 
cends to us-ward, it begins to wax thin 
again, and by degrees, as it weaaoe But 
to proceed. 
3. The drier time you gather the roots 
in, the better they are; for they have the 
less excrementitious moisture in them. 
4, Such roots as are soft, your best way 
is to dry in the sun, or else hang them in 
the chimney corner upon @ string; as for 
such as are hard, you may dry them any 
where. 
5. Such roots as are great, will keep 
longer than such as are small; yet most of — 
them will keep a year. 
6. Such roots as are soft, it is your best 
way to keep them always near the fire, and 
to take this general rule for it: If in Win- 
ter-time you find any of your roots, herbs 
or flowers begin to be moist, as many times — 
you shall (for it is your best way to look to 
them once a month) dry them by a very — 
gentle fire; or, if you can with convenience _ 
keep them near the fire, you way: save bos 
self the labour. _ eee 
q. Te tn vain to ary rots tha 
