NATURAL HISTORY. 



CENTURY VI. 



Experiments in consort touching curiosities about 



fruits and plants. 



OUR experiments we take care to be, as we have 

 often said, either &quot; experimenta fructifera,&quot; or &quot; luci- 

 fera ;&quot; either of use, or of discovery : for we hate im 

 postures, and despise curiosities. Yet because we 

 must apply ourselves somewhat to others, we will 

 set down some curiosities touching plants. 



501. It is a curiosity to have several fruits upon 

 one tree ; and the more, when some of them come 

 early, and some come late, so that you may have 

 upon the same tree ripe fruits all summer. This is 

 easily done by grafting of several cions upon several 

 boughs of a stock, in a good ground plentifully fed. 

 So you may have all kinds of cherries, and all kinds 

 of plums, and peaches, and apricots, upon one tree ; 

 but I conceive the diversity of fruits must be such 

 as will graft upon the same stock. And therefore 

 I doubt, whether you can have apples, or pears, or 

 oranges, upon the same stock upon which you graft 

 plums. 



502. It is a curiosity to have fruits of divers 

 shapes and figures. This is easily performed, by 

 molding them when the fruit is young, with molds 



