CENTURY IX. 461 



Experiment solitary touching the comparative magni 

 tude of living creatures. 



853. There be fishes greater than any beasts ; 

 as the whale is fur greater than the elephant : and 

 beasts are generally greater than birds. For fishes, 

 the cause may be, that because they live not in the 

 air, they have not their moisture drawn and soaked 

 by the air and sun-beams. Also they rest always in 

 a manner, and are supported by the water, whereas 

 motion and labour do consume. As for the great 

 ness of beasts more than of birds, it is caused, for that 

 beasts stay longer time in the womb than birds, and 

 there nourish and grow ; whereas in birds, after the 

 egg laid, there is no further growth or nourishment 

 from the female ; for the sitting doth vivify, and not 

 nourish. 



Experiment solitary touching exossation of fruits. 



854. We have partly touched before the means of 

 producing fruits without cores or stones. And this 

 we add farther, that the cause must be abundance of 

 jmoisture ; for that the core and stone are made of 

 a dry sap : and we see, that it is possible to make a 

 tree put forth only in blossom, without fruit, as in 

 cherries with double flowers, much more into fruit 

 without stone or cores. It is reported, that a cion of 

 an apple, grafted upon a colewort stalk, sendeth forth 

 a great apple without a core. It is not unlikely, that 

 if the inward pith of a tree were taken out, so that 

 the juice came only by the bark, it would work the 



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