288 NATURAL HISTORY. 



vessels be not very great, you must make some holes 

 in the bottom, to give some refreshment to the roots ; 

 which otherwise, as it seemeth, will decay and suffo 

 cate. 



620. The ancient cinnamon was, of all other 

 plants, while it grew, the driest, and those things 

 which are known to comfort other plants, did make 

 that more steril ; for in showers it prospered worst ; 

 it grew also amongst bushes of other kinds, where 

 commonly plants do not thrive, neither did it love 

 the sun. There might be one cause of all those 

 effects; namely, the sparing nourishment which 

 that plant required. Query, how far cassia, which 

 is now the substitute of cinnamon, doth participate 

 of these things ? 



621. It is reported by one of the ancients, that 

 cassia, when it is gathered, is put into the skins of 

 beasts newly flayed ; and that the skins corrupting 

 and breeding worms, the worms do devour the pith 

 and marrow of it, and so make it hollow, but meddle 

 not with the bark, because to them it is bitter. 



622. There were in ancient time vines of far 

 greater bodies than we know any, for there have 

 been cups made of them, and an image of Jupiter. 

 But it is like they were wild vines ; for the vines that 

 they use for wine, are so often cut, and so much 

 digged and dressed, that their sap spendeth into the 

 grapes, and so the stalk cannot increase much in bulk. 

 The wood of vines is very durable, without rotting. 

 And that which is strange, though no tree hath the 

 twigs, while they are green, so brittle, yet the wood 



