284 NATURAL HISTORY. 



might be enjoyed by the contact of a middle body. 

 But this may be feigned, or at least amplified. Ne 

 vertheless I am apt enough to think, that this same 

 binarium of a stronger and a weaker, like unto mas 

 culine and feminine, doth hold in all living bodies. 

 It is confounded sometimes, as in some creatures of 

 putrefaction, wherein no marks of distinction appear : 

 and it is doubled sometimes, as in hermaphrodites : 

 but generally there is a degree of strength in most 

 species. 



609. The participles or confiners between plants 

 and living creatures, are such chiefly as are fixed, and 

 have no local motion of remove, though they have 

 a motion in their parts, such as are oisters, cockles, 

 and such like. There is a fabulous narration, that 

 in the northern countries there should be an herb 

 that groweth in the likeness of a lamb, and feedeth 

 upon the grass, in such sort as it will bare the grass 

 round about. But I suppose that the figure maketh 

 the fable ; for so , we see, there be bee-flowers, &c. 

 And as for the grass, it seemeth the plant having a 

 great stalk and top doth prey upon the grass a good 

 way about, by drawing the juice of the earth from it. 



Experiments promiscuous touching plants. 



610. The Indian fig boweth its roots down so 

 low in one year, as of itself it taketh root again, and 

 so multiplieth from root to root, making of one tree 

 a kind of wood. The cause is the plenty of the 

 sap, and the softness of the stalk, which maketh the 

 bough, being over-loaden, and not stiffly upheld, 

 weigh down. It hath leaves as broad as a little 



