12 



A DISCOURSE 



unfruitful, yet wanting salacity to conceive, vigour to produce, and sen- 

 sibly eluding all our pains ; so there are others which are perpetually 

 pregnant, and this is likewise a good prognostic. 



Upon these, and such like hints, in proposals of transplanting spices 

 and other exotic rarities from either Indies, the curious should be stu- 

 dious to procure the natural mould in which they grow, (and this might 

 be effected to good proportion, by the ballasting of ships,) either to plant 

 or nourish them in, from the seed, till they were of age, and had gained 

 some stability of roots and stem, and become acquainted with the genius 

 of our climate ; or for essays of mixtures, to compose the like. 



By the goodness, richness, hungriness, and tincture of the water 

 straining through grounds, and by the weight and sluggishness of it, 

 compared with the lighter, conjecture also may be made, as in part we 

 have shewed already. 



To conclude: there are almost none of our senses but may of right 

 pretend to give their verdict here. 



And first, we judge by the odour or smell, containing, as my lord 

 Verulam affirms, the juice of vegetables already, as it were, concocted 

 and prepared ; so as after long droughts, upon the first rains, good and 

 natural mould will emit a most agreeable scent, and in some places (as 

 Alonzo Barba, a considerable Spanish author, testifies) approaching the 

 most ravishing perfumes ; on the contrary, if the ground be disposed to 

 any mineral, or other ill quality, it sends forth arsenical and very noxious 

 steams, as we find in our marshes and fenny grounds. 



2dly, By the taste, and that with good reason, all earths abounding 

 more or less in their peculiar salts, as well as plants ; some sweet and 

 more grateful ; others bitter, mordacious, or astringent ; some flat and 

 insipid ; all of them to be detected by percolation of untainted water 

 through them ; though there be who affirm that the best earth, like the 

 best water and oil, has neither odour nor taste. 



3dly, By the touch, if it be tender, fatty, detersive, and slippery ; or 

 more asperous, gritty, porous, and friable ; likewise if it stick to the fin- 

 gers like bird-lime, or melt and dissolve on the tongue like butter. 



