CENTURY V. 235 



the like : but whether any cause be from the leaf 

 itself to concoct the dew, or whether it be only that 

 the leaf is close and smooth, and therefore drinketh 

 not in the dew, but preserveth it, may be doubted. 

 It would be well inquired, whether manna the drug 

 doth fall but upon certain herbs or leaves only. 

 Flowers that have deep sockets, do gather in the 

 bottom a kind of honey, as honey-suckles, both 

 the woodbine and the trefoil, lilies, and the like. 

 And in them certainly the flower beareth part with 

 the dew. 



497. The experience is, that the froth which they 

 call woodseare, being like a kind of spittle, is found 

 but upon certain herbs, and those hot ones ; as laven 

 der, lavender-cotton, sage, hyssop, &c. Of the cause 

 of this inquire further ; for it seemeth a secret. 

 There falleth also mildew upon corn, and smutteth 

 it ; but it may be, that the same falleth also upon 

 other herbs, and is not observed. 



498. It were good trial were made, whether the 

 great consent between plants and water, which is a 

 principal nourishment of them, will make an attrac 

 tion at distance, and not at touch only. Therefore 

 take a vessel, and in the middle of it make a false 

 bottom of coarse canvas : fill it with earth above the 

 canvas, and let not the earth be watered ; then sow 

 some good seeds in that earth ; but under the canvas, 

 some half a foot in the bottom of the vessel, lay a 

 great spunge thoroughly wet in water ; and let it 

 lie so some ten days, and see whether the seeds will 

 sprout, and the earth become more moist, and the 



