266 NATURAL HISTORY. 



clove-trees, and pepper seeds, &c. if they could come 

 hither green enough to be sown, would do the like. 



Experiments in consort touching the seasons in which 



plants come forth. 



577. There be some flowers, blossoms, grains, 

 and fruits, which come more early, and others 

 which come more late in the year. The flowers 

 that come early with us are primroses, violets, ane- 

 monies, water-daffodillies, crocus vernus, and some 

 early tulips. And they are all cold plants ; which 

 therefore, as it should seem, have a quicker percep 

 tion of the heat of the sun increasing than the hot 

 herbs have ; as a cold hand will sooner find a little 

 warmth than an hot. And those that come next 

 after are wall-flowers, cowslips, hyacinths, rosemary 

 flowers, &c. and after them pinks, roses, flower-de- 

 luces, &c. and the latest are gilly-flowers, holyoaks, 

 larksfoot, &c. The earliest blossoms are the blos 

 soms of peaches, almonds, cornelians, mezerions, &c. 

 and they are of such trees as have much moisture, 

 either watery or oily. And therefore crocus ver- 

 nus also, being an herb that hath an oily juice, 

 putteth forth early ; for those also find the sun sooner 

 than the drier trees. The grains are, first rye and 

 wheat, then oats and barley, then peas and beans. 

 For though green peas and beans be eaten sooner, 

 yet the dry ones that are used for horse meat, are ripe 

 last ; and it seemeth that the fatter grain cometh 

 first. The earliest fruits are strawberries, cher 

 ries, gooseberries, currants ; and after them early 



