CENTURY VI. 265 



Experiments in consort touching foreign plants. 



574. It is reported, that earth that was brought 

 out of the Indies and other remote countries for bal 

 last of ships, cast upon some grounds in Italy, did 

 put forth foreign herbs, to us in Europe not known ; 

 and, that which is more, that of their roots, barks, 

 and seeds, contused together, and mingled with 

 other earth, and well watered with warm water, 

 there came forth herbs much like the other. 



575. Plants brought out of hot countries will 

 endeavour to put forth at the same time that they 

 usually do in their own climate ; and therefore to 

 preserve them, there is no more required, than to 

 keep them from the injury of putting back by cold. 

 It is reported also, that grain out of the hotter coun 

 tries translated into the colder, will be more forward 

 than the ordinary grain of the cold country. It is 

 likely that this will prove better in grains than in 

 trees, for that grains are but annual, and so the 

 virtue of the seed is not worn out ; whereas in a 

 tree it is embased by the ground to which it is 

 removed. 



576. Many plants which grow in the hotter 

 countries, being set in the colder, will nevertheless, 

 even in those cold countries, being sown of seeds 

 late in the spring, come up and abide most part of 

 the summer ; as we find it in orange and lemon 

 seeds, &c. the seeds whereof sown in the end of 

 April will bring forth excellent sallads, mingled 

 with other herbs. And I doubt not, but the seeds of 



