24 The ordering of the Garden of Pleafure. 



your feedes in the lees of red Wine, you (hall haue the flowers of thofe plants to be of 

 a purple colour. If you will haue Lillies or Gilloflowers to be of a Scarlet red colour, 

 you mall put Vermillion or Cynaber betweene the rinde and the fmall heads growing 

 about the roote : if you will haue them blew, you (hall diflblue Azur or Byfe between 

 the rinde and the heads : if yellow, Orpiment : if greene, Vardigreafe, and thus of 

 any other colour. Others doe aduife to open the head of the roote, and poure into it 

 any colour diflblued, fo that there be no fretting or corroding thing therein for feare 

 of hurting the roote, and looke what colour you put in, iuft fuch or neare vnto it fhall 

 the colour of the flower bee. Some againe doe aduife to water the plants you would 

 haue changed, with fuch coloured liquor as you defire the flower to be of, and they 

 fliall grow to be fo. Alfo to make Rofes to bee yellow, that you mould graft a white 

 Rofe (fome fay a Damaske) vpon a Broome ftalke, and the flower will be yellow, fup- 

 poling becaufe the Broome flower is yellow, therefore the Rofe will be yellow. Some 

 affirme the like, if a Rofe be grafted on a Barbery bufli, becaufe both the bloflome and 

 the barke of the Barbery is yellow, &c. In the like manner for fents, they haue fet 

 downe in their writings, that by putting Cloues, Muske, Cinamon, Benzoin, or any 

 other fuch fweete thing, bruifed with Rofe water, betweene the barke and the body of 

 trees, the fruit of them will fmell and tafte of the fame that is put vnto them ; and if 

 they bee put vnto the toppe of the rootes, or elfe bound vnto the head of the roote, 

 they will caufe the flowers to fmell of that fent the matter put vnto them is of : as alfo 

 to fteep the feeds of Rofes, and other plants in the water of fuch like fweet things, and 

 then to fowe them, and water them morning and euening with fuch like liquor, vntill 

 they be growne vp ; befides a number of fuch like rules and directions fet downe in 

 bookes fo confidently, as if the matters were without all doubt or queftion : when- 

 as without all doubt and queftion I will aflure you, that they are all but meere idle 

 tales & fancies, without all reafon or truth, or ftiadow of reafon or truth : For fents and 

 colours are both fuch qualities as follow the eflence of plants, euen as formes are alfo ; 

 and one may as well make any plant to grow of what forme you will, as to make it of 

 what fent or colour you will ; and if any man can forme plants at his will and pleafure, 

 he can doe as much as God himfelfe that created them. For the things they would 

 adde vnto the plants to giue them colour, are all corporeall, or of a bodily fubftance, 

 and whatfoeuer mould giue any colour vnto a liuing and growing plant, muft be fpi- 

 rituall : for no folide corporeall fubftance can ioyne it felfe with the life and eflence 

 of an herbe or tree, and the fpirituall part of the colour thereof is not the fame with 

 the bodily fubftance, but is a meere vapour that rifeth from the fubftance, and feedeth 

 the plant, whereby it groweth, fo that there is no ground or colour of reafon, that 

 a fubftantiall colour mould giue colour to a growing herbe or tree: but for fent 

 (which is a meere vapour) you will fay there is more probability. Yet confider alfo, 

 that what fweete fent foeuer you binde or put vnto the rootes of herbes or trees, muft 

 be either burie.d, or as good as buried in the earth, or barke of the tree, whereby the 

 fubftance will in a fmall time corrupt and rot, and before it can ioyne it felfe with the 

 life, fpirit, and eflence of the plant, the fent alfo will perim with the fubftance : For no 

 heterogeneall things can bee mixed naturally together, as Iron and Clay ; and no other 

 thing but homogeneall, can be nourifhment or conuertible into the fubftance of man 

 or beaft : And as the ftomach of man or beaft altereth both formes, fents, and colours 

 of all digeftible things ; fo whatfoeuer fent or colour is wholfome, and not poyfonfull 

 to nature, being receiued into the body of man or beaft, doth neither change the bloud 

 or skinne into that colour or fent was receiued : no more doth any colour or fent to 

 any plant ; for the plants are onely nourifhed by the moifture they draw naturally vn- 

 to them, be it of wine or any other liquor is put vnto them, and not by any corporeal 

 fubftance, or heterogeneall vapour or fent, becaufe the earth like vnto the ftomach 

 doth foone alter them, before they are conuerted into the nature and fubftance of the 

 plant. Now for the laft part I vndertooke to confute, that no man can by art make all 

 flowers to fpring at what time of the yeare hee will ; although, as I haue here before 

 (hewed, there are flowers for euery moneth of the yeare, yet I hope there is not any 

 one, that hath any knowledge in flowers and gardening, but knoweth that the flowers 

 that appeare and mew themfelues in the feuerall moneths of the yeare, are not one and 

 the fame, and fo made to flower by art ; but that they are feuerall forts of plants, which 



will 



