CENTURA VII. 287 



inhabitants of those countries say is a plant that 

 sleepeth. There be sleepers enough then ; for almost 

 all flowers do the like. 



616. Some plants there are, but rare, that have 

 a mossy or downy root ; and likewise that have a 

 number of threads, like beards, as mandrakes, where 

 of witches and impostors make an ugly image, giving 

 it the form of a face at the top of the root, and leav 

 ing those strings to make a broad beard down to the 

 foot. Also there is a kind of nard in Crete, being a 

 kind of phu, that hath a root hairy, like a rough- 

 footed dove s foot. So as you may see, there are of 

 roots, bulbous roots, fibrous roots, and hirsute roots. 

 And, I take it, in the bulbous, the sap hasteneth 

 most to the air and sun, in the fibrous, the sap de- 

 lighteth more in the earth, and therefore putteth 

 downward, and the hirsute is a middle between both, 

 that besides the putting forth upwards and down 

 wards, putteth forth in round. 



617. There are some tears of trees, which are 

 combed from the beards of goats : for when the 

 goats bite and crop them, especially in the mornings, 

 the dew being on, the tear cometh forth, and hangeth 

 upon their beards : of this sort is some kind of 

 laudanum. 



6 1 8. The irrigation of the plane-tree by wine, is 

 reported by the ancients to make it fruitful. It 

 would be tried likewise with roots ; for upon seeds 

 it worketh no great effects. 



619. The way to carry foreign roots along way, 

 is to vessel them close in earthen vessels, But if the 



