

The Garden of pleafant F/owers. i 7 i 



mixed or ftriped together very variably, quickly fading as I (aid before : the feede is 

 enc lol"ed in fmall cods, fo thinne and tranfparent, that one may ealily fee, and tell the 

 feeds as they lye, which are of a brownilh red colour : the roote is fmall, blackifh and 

 round, wrapped in a thicke skinnc or huske, made like vnto a net, or fomewhat like 

 vnto the roote of the cloth of gold Crocus : when the plant is in flower, it is found to 

 haue two rootes one aboue another, whereof the vppermoit is firmc and found, and 

 the vndermoft loofe and fpongie, in like manner as is found in the rootes of diuers Or- 

 chides or Satyrions, Bce-rlowers anil the like, and without any good tafte, or fwcct- 

 nelFe at all, although Clulius faith otherwifc. 



Sifyrinchium Mauritanicum. The Barbary Nut. 



There is another of this kinde, not differing from the former in any other notable 

 part, but in the flower, which in this is of a delayed purplifh red colour, hauing in each 

 of the three lower leaues a white fpot, in ftead of the yellow in the former, but are as 

 foone fading as they. 



The Place. 



The former doe grow very plentifully in many parts both of Spaine and 

 Portugall, where Guillaume Boel, a Dutch man heretofore remembrcd 

 often in this Booke, found them ; of the fundry colours fpecified, whereas 

 Clulius inakcth mention but of one colour that he found. 



The ether was found in that part of Barbary, where Fez and Morocco do 

 ftand, and brought firft into the Lowe-Countries : but they are both very 

 tender, and will hardly abide the hard Winters of thefe colder regions. 



The Time. 

 The firft flowreth in May and lune, the laft not vntill Auguft. 



The Names. 



The name Sifyrinchium is generally impofed vpon this plant, by all au- 

 thors that haue written thereof, thinking it to bee the right Sifyrinchium of 

 Theophraftus : but concerning the Spanifli name Noze//ia, which Clufius 

 faith it is called by in Spaine, I haue beene credibly enformed by the afore- 

 named Boel, that this roote is not fo called in thofe parts ; but that the fmall 

 or common ftript Crocus is called Nozelha, which is fweete in tafte, and 

 delired very greedily by the Shepheards and Children, and that the roote 

 of this Sijyrinchium or Spanifh Nut, is without any tafte, and is not eaten. 

 And againe, that there is not two kindes, although it grow greater, and 

 with more flowers, in thofe places that are neare the Sea, where both the 

 walhing of the Sea water, and the moirture and ayre of the Sea, caufeth the 

 ground to bee more fertile. This I thought good, from the true relation 

 of a friend, to giue the world to vnderftand, that truth might expell errour. 



The Vertues. 



Thefe haue not beene knowne to bee vfed to any Phylicall purpofe, but 

 wholly neglected, vnleffe fome may eate them, as Clulius reporteth. 



CHAP. 



