230 NATURAL HISTORY. 



in ditches new cast ; for if the ground lie fallow and 

 unsown, they will not come : so as it should seem to 

 be the corn that qualifieth the earth, and prepareth 

 it for their growth. 



483. This observation, if it holdeth, as it is very 

 probable, is of great use for the meliorating of taste 

 in fruits and esculent herbs, and of the scent of 

 flowers. For I do not doubt, but if the fig-tree do 

 make the rue more strong and bitter, as the ancients 

 have noted, good store of rue planted about the fig- 

 tree will make the fig more sweet. Now the tastes 

 that do most offend in fruits, and herbs, and roots, 

 are bitter, harsh, sour, and waterish, or flabby. It 

 were good therefore to make the trials following. 



484. Take wormwood, or rue, and set it near 

 lettuce, or coleflory, or artichoke, and see whether 

 the lettuce, or the coleflory, &c. become not the 

 sweeter. 



485. Take a service-tree, or a cornelian-tree, or 

 an elder-tree, which we know have fruits of harsh 

 and binding juice, and set them near a vine, or fig- 

 tree, and see whether the grapes or figs will not be 

 the sweeter. 



486. Take cucumbers or pumpions, and set them 

 here and there, amongst musk-melons, and see whe 

 ther the melons will not be more winy, and better 

 tasted. Set cucumbers, likewise, amongst radish, 

 and see whether the radish will not be made the more 

 biting. 



487. Take sorrel, and set it amongst rasps, and 

 see whether the rasps will not be the sweeter. 



488. Take common briar, and set it amongst 



