THE ART OF ANGLING. 



TO CATCH FISHES. 



TAKE Coculus Indicus, which is a poisonous 

 narcotic, called also bacc& piscatoria, fish- 

 er's berries, and pound them in a mortar, then 

 make balls of the paste which will be produced 

 (by adding a sufficient quantity of water) about 

 the size of a pea, and through them into a stand- 

 ing-water; the fish that taste of it will be very 

 soon intoxicated, and will rise and lie on the sur- 

 face of the water; put your landing-net under 

 them, and take them out. 



Coculus Indicus is a little berry, about as big as 

 a bay-berry, but more of a kidney-shape, having 

 a wrinkled outside, with a seam running length- 

 ways from the back to the navel : it is of a bitter- 

 ish taste, being the fruit of a tree described in 

 the seventh volume of the Hortus Malabaricus, 

 under the name of Naslatum, bearing leaves in 

 the shape of a heart, and bunches of five-leaved 

 white flowers, which are succeeded by their ber- 

 ries. They grow in Malabar in the East Indies. 

 They are seldom used in physic, being accounted 

 to be of a hurtful and pernicious nature, but their 

 principal use is for catching fishes : the famous 

 Cardan's celebrated receipt for this purpose, 

 runs thus ; take of the berries of the Oriental Co- 



