CENTURY V. 221 



461. It is reported, that cucumbers will prove 

 more tender and dainty, if their seeds be steeped a 

 little in milk ; the cause may be, for that the seed 

 being mollified with the milk, will be too weak to 

 draw the grosser juice of the earth, but only the 

 finer. The same experiment may be made in arti 

 chokes and other seeds, when you would take away 

 either their flashiness or bitterness. They speak 

 also, that the like effect followeth of steeping in 

 water mixed with honey ; but that seemeth to me 

 not so probable, because honey hath too quick a 

 spirit. 



462. It is reported, that cucumbers will be less 

 watery, and more melon-like, if in the pit where 

 you set them, you fill it, half way up, with chaff or 

 small sticks, and then pour earth upon them : for 

 cucumbers, as it seemeth, do extremely affect mois 

 ture, and over-drink themselves, which the chaff or 

 chips forbiddeth. Nay, it is farther reported, that 

 if, when a cucumber is grown, you set a pot of water 

 about five or six inches distance from it, it will, in 

 twenty-four hours, shoot so much out as to touch 

 the pot ; which, if it be true, is an experiment of a 

 higher nature than belongeth to this title : for it 

 discovereth perception in plants, to move towards 

 that which should help and comfort them, though 

 it be at a distance. The ancient tradition of the vine 

 is far more strange : it is, that if you set a stake or 

 prop some distance from it, it will grow that way 

 which is far stranger, as is said, than the other ; for 

 that water may work by a sympathy of attraction, 



