CHYPTOGAMIC KNOWLEDGE IN 1620. 
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moss : and therefore husbandmen use to cure their pasture grounds 
when they grow to moss, by tilling them for a year or two : which 
also dependeth upon the same cause ; for that the more sparing 
and starving juice of the earth, insufficient for plants, doth breed 
moss. 
540. — Old trees are more mossy far than young; for that the 
sap is not so frank as to rise all to the boughs, but tireth by the 
way, and putteth out moss. 
541. — Fountains have moss growing upon the ground about 
them ; 
Muscosi fontes ; 
The cause is, for that the fountains drain the water from the 
ground adjacent, and leave but sufficient moisture to breed moss: 
and besides the coldness of the water conduceth to the same. 
542. — The moss of trees is a kind of hair ; for it is the juice 
of the tree that is excerned and doth not assimilate. And upon 
great trees the moss gathereth a figure like a leaf. 
543. — The moister sort of trees yield little moss ; as we see in 
asps, poplars, willows, beeches etc. which is partly caused for the 
reason that hath been given, of the frank putting up of the sap 
into the boughs ; and partly for that the barks of those trees are 
more close and smooth, than those of oaks and ashes ; whereby 
the moss can hardlier issue out. 
544. — In clay-grounds all fruit trees grow full of moss, both 
upon body and boughs ; which is caused partly by the coldness 
of the ground, whereby the plants nourish less ; and partly by the 
toughness of the earth, whereby the sap is shut in, and can not get 
up to spread so frankly as it should do. 
545. — We have said heretofore, that if trees be hide-bound they 
wax less fruitful and gather moss ; and that they are holpen by 
hacking &c. And therefore by the reason of contraries, if trees be 
bound in with cords, or some outward bands, they will put forth 
more moss : which I think happeneth to trees that stand bleak, 
and upon the cold winds. It should also be tried whether, if you 
cover a tree somewhat thick upon the top after his polling, it will 
not gather more moss. I think also the watering of trees with 
cold fountain water will make them grow full of moss. 
546. — There is a moss the perfumers have which cometh out of 
apple trees, that hath an excellent scent. Query, particularly for 
the manner of the growth, and the nature of it. And for this ex- 
periment’s sake, being a thing of price, I have set down the last ex- 
periments how to multiply and call on mosses — 
Next unto moss, 1 will speak of mushrooms; which are likewise 
an imperfect plant. 
The mushrooms have two strange properties ; the one that they 
yield so delicious a meat ; the other, that they come up so hastily, 
as in a night ; and yet they are unsown. And therefore such as 
are upstarts in state, they call in reproach mushrooms. It must 
