jTredtlfcof BO DIES. Chap. 25. 



and its lightncfic maketh it fall laft, becaufc it requircth leaft 

 water co lultain it. 



To give the caufcs of the figures of divers mixts, and parti- 

 cularly of ibmc pretious ftones, ( which feem to becaft by na- 

 ture in cxacteft moulds ) would oblige us to enter into the 

 particular manner of their generation : which were exceeding 

 hard, if not impoffible, for us to do, by reafon thac Authours 

 have not left us the circumftanccs upon which we m;ght ground 

 our judgement concerning them, Co particularly defcribed as 

 were necefiary ; nor our felves have met with the commodity 

 of making fuch experiences, and of fearching fo into their beds 

 as were requifice, to determine folidcly the reafons of them. 

 And indeed I conceive that oftentimes the relations which o- 

 thers have recorded of their generation, would rather miire- 

 Icade then afTift us : fince it is very familiar in many men, to 

 msgnifie the exadftncflc of nature in framing cffedts they phanfie 

 to themielves, when to make their wonder appear more juft ; 

 they will not foil to fet off their ftory, with all advantagious 

 circumttancc.sand help out what wanteth a little or cometh but 

 near the mark. 



. 4. But to come clofer to our purpofe ; that is, to the figures of 



The fame do- living things . we fee that roots in the earth are all of them fi- 

 8 lirccl almoft in the fame faflilon : for the heat refiding in the 

 middett of them, puHieth every way, and thereupon, Ibmc of 

 them do become round, but others more long then round, ac- 

 cording to the temper of the ground, or to the feafon of the 

 yeare, or to the weather that happeneth : and this, not onely 

 in divers kinds of roots, but even in fevcrall of the fame kind. 

 That part of the plant which mounteth upwards is for the moft 

 part round and long ; the caufe whereof is evident, for the 

 juice which is in the middle of it working upwards ( becaufe 

 the hardnefle of the bark will not let it out at the fides) and 

 corning in more and more abundance ( for the reafons we have 

 above delivered ) encrcafeth that part equally every way but 

 upwards ; and therefore, it muft be equally thick and broad, 

 and confequently round : but the length will exceed either of 

 the other dimenfions ; becaufe the juice is driven up with a 

 greater force and in more quantity then it is to the fides. Yet 



the 



