CENTURY VIII. 43 



of ee;o-s and milk do clarify ; and it is certain that in 



&O ^ 



Egypt they prepare and clarify the water of Nile, 

 by putting it into great jars of stone, and stirring it 

 about with a few stamped almonds ; wherewith they 

 also besmear the mouth of the vessel ; and so draw it 

 off, after it hath rested some time. It were good to 

 try this clarifying with almonds in new beer or must, 

 to hasten and perfect the clarifying. 



Experiment solitary touching plants without leaves. 



769. There be scarce to be found any vegetables 

 that have branches and no leaves, except you allow 

 coral for one. But there is also in the deserts of S. 

 Macario in Egypt, a plant which is long, leafless, 

 brown of colour, and branched like coral, save that 

 it closeth at the top. This being set in water within 

 house, spreadeth and displayeth strangely ; and the 

 people thereabout have a superstitious belief, that in 

 the labour of women it helpeth to the easy deliver 



ance. 1 



Experiment solitary touching the materials of glass. 



770. The crystalline Venice glass is reported to be 

 a mixture in equal portions of stones brought from 

 Pavia by the river Ticinum, and the ashes of a weed, 

 called by the Arabs kail, which is gathered in a desert 

 between Alexandria and Rosetta ; and is by the Egyp 

 tians used first for fuel ; and then they crush the ashes 

 into lumps like a stone, and so sell them to the Vene 

 tians for their glass-works. 2 



1 Sandys, p. 85. The word long is, as we see on referring to Sandys, an 

 erratum. It ought to be low. 



2 Ib. p. 90. 



