90 
CRYPTOGAMIC KNOWLEDGE IN 1620. 
Very few remarks are necessary to introduce the following ex- 
tracts from Lord Chancellor Bacon’s “ Sylva Sylvarum, or Natural 
History,” a work which he evidently thought of great value, for 
he decided on publishing it, notwithstanding that, owing to its 
want of system, it would reflect but little honour on him, for the 
benefit it would be to the community. We farther learn that he 
considered that in his Natural History, he described the world “ as 
God made it, and not as men have made it, for that it hath nothing 
of imagination.” 
Readers of “ Grevillea ” will not require explanations of Bacon’s 
descriptions of Fungi, &c. ; nor need it be pointed out that he does 
not recognise the difference between the Mosses and the Lichens. 
Whether the perfumers use any lichen from the apple tree for 
purposes of their art I do not know ; but, if so, it is not to my 
knowledge mentioned in any of our English manuals. 
Scattered throughout the book are various Cryptogamic notes ; 
one on a lumminous tree trunk is especially interesting, but is 
too long for insertion. The following, however, which is the 
strictly Cryptogamic portion of the work, gives a vivid idea of the 
knowledge of that branch of botany when Bacon retired to 
Gorhambury to write those works which have placed him amongst 
the foremost philosophers of any age. 
Experiments in consort touching the rudiments of plants , and of the 
excrescences of plants, or super-plants. 
The Scripture saith, that Solomon wrote a Natural History, from 
the cedar of Libanus, to the moss growing upon the wall : for so 
the best translations have it. And it is true that moss is but the 
rudiment of a plant ; and, as it were, the mold of earth or bark. 
Experiment 537. — Moss groweth chiefly upon ridges of houses 
tiled or thatched and upon the crests of Avails : and that moss is of 
a lightsome and pleasant green. The growing upon slopes is 
caused, for that moss, as on the one side it cometh of moisture and 
water, so on the other side the water must but slide and not stand 
or pool. And the growing upon tiles or walls etc. is caused, for 
that those dried earths, having not moisture sufficient to put forth 
a plant, do practice germination by putting forth moss ; though 
when by age or otherwise, they grow to relent and resolve, they 
sometimes put forth plants, as wall-flowers. And almost all moss 
hath here and there little stalks besides the low thrum. 
538 — Moss groweth upon alleys, especially such as lie cold and 
upon the north ; as in divers terrases : and again, if they be 
much troden ; or if they were at the first graveled ; for whereso- 
ever plants are kept down the earth putteth forth moss. 
539. — Old ground that hath been long unbroken up, gathereth 
