OmiCTIOKB FOR MAKING STROPS, te. 40> 



CHAPTER IV. 

 OJ RooU. 



1. Of roots choose neither such as are rotten or worm- 

 eaten, but proper in their ta^^te, colour and smell, buch as 

 exceed neither in softness nor hardness. 



Give me leave to be a little critical against the vul^;rar re- 

 oeived opinion, which is, that the sap falls down into the 

 root in the autumn, and rises in the spring, as men go to 

 bed at night and ra^ in the morning; and this idle talk of 

 untruth is so grounded in the heads, not only of the vulvar 

 but also of the learned, that a man cannot drive it out by 

 reason. I pray, let such sai>-mongers answer me this argu- 

 ment : If toe sap falls into the roots in the fall of the leaf, 

 and lies there all the winter, then must the root grow only 

 m the winter. But the root grows not at all in winter, as 

 experience teaclieth, but only in summer ; therefore if you 

 set an apple kernel in the spring, you shall find the root 

 STOW to a pretty bigness in the summer, and be not a whit 

 bigger next spring. What doth the sap do in the root all 

 that while ? Prick straws P Tis as rotten as a post 



2. The truth is, when the sun declines from the tropic of 

 Cancer, the sap begins to congeal both in root and branch : 

 when he touches the tropic of Capricoru, he ascends to ua- 

 ward, it begins to wax thin again, and by degrees, as it con- 

 gealed. But to proceed. 



Sh The drier time you gather the roots in, the better they 

 are, for they have the less excrementitous moisture in them. 



4. Such root* as are soft, your best way is to dry in the 

 sun, or else hang them in the chimney comer upon a string ; 

 as for such as are hard, you may dry them anywhere. 



6. Such roots as are great, will keep longer than such as 

 are small ; yet most of them will keep all the year. 



6w 8ucb roots as are soft, it is your best way to keep them 

 always near the fire, and take this general nUe for it. If in 

 winter time you find any of your herbs, roota, or flowers 

 begin to be moist, as many times you shall (for it is your 

 best wav to look to them once a month ) dry them by a very 

 gaDtle fire, or, if you can, with convenience, keep them near 

 the fire, yon may save yourself the trouble. 



7. It is in vain to dry roots that may commonly be had. 

 as parv1<»v, fennel, plantain, kc but gather them only iiir 



