140 APPENDIX C. 



the Propagation of Plants, as it was presented 

 to the Royal Society." " Peter Hondius tells 

 us (in his book entitled Dopes inemplte) that by 

 the sole application of sheep's dung he produced 

 a raddish root in his garden as big as half a 

 man's middle, which being hung up for some 

 time in a butcher's shop, people took for an 

 hog." The date of this paper is Ap. 29. 1675. 

 It is a curious mixture of valuable information 

 with the crude speculations that formed much 

 of the, so called, science of that day yet giving 

 evidence of the value of the new light that had 

 been already thrown on the path of knowledge 

 by directing the attention to experimental re- 

 search, of which it contains a record exhibiting 

 much patient investigation. It is also an inte- 

 resting document, being one of the very early 

 communications to the Royal Society, during 

 the Presidency of Lord Brouncker. A few fur- 

 ther extracts from it may be entertaining, and 

 if they induce us of the 19th century to smile 

 at the strange notions which such men as Lord 

 Bacon and John Evelyn could think worthy of 

 notice, the smile will be any thing rather than 

 a sneer, and will be quickly followed by a feel- 

 ing of gratitude to those great men, who, born 

 in days of comparative ignorance, were never- 

 theless so far beyond the times in which they 

 lived, that they could perceive and point out the 



