oSz A new and comphat Defer ipt ton Book lif. 
they plow with two or three Dxen or Buffalos 5 but in 
Gilan and other Countries, where they meet with a ftiff 
Clay, it is as much as eight or ten Oxen can do to 
draw their Ploughs which are very larger Rice, Wheat 
and Barley, are almoft the only Kinds of Grain grow- 
ing in Perjia % Oats they have none, and little or no 
Rye. Their Seafons are not the fame in the North as 
in the South, but when they are Sowing in one Part of 
the Country, they are reaping in another, and in fome 
Places, it is not more than three Months between Seed- 
time and Harvdu 
Their Land never lies fallow, but it is fown once 
every Year, at lead, it is fo meliorated and enriched by 
being flowed, and the Heat of the Sun afterwards 
working on the Mud, that it is never out of Heart. As 
to the Rice, it muff be conftantly fupplied with Wa- 
ter till the Harveft ; but for other Grain, the Land is 
only flowed before the fowing, to render it .prolitick. 
Their Kitchen Gardens are well lurniflied with moft of 
the Roots and Salads we have in Europe •, they have no 
iefs than twenty feveral Sorts of Melons during the 
Seafon they laft, which is about four Months, the com- 
mon People make them their conftant Food, thofe 
which come to Maturity firfl: in the Spring are round 
and fmall, thofe that ripen in the latter Parc o fthe Sca- 
fon are the bell and larged, fome of them weigh eight 
or ten Pounds^ and are as fweet as Sugar itfelf ; at 
the Tables of Perfons of Quality they have them all 
the Year round, there being a Way to preferve them 
under Ground till the Seafon returns again, and it is 
faid, fome Perfons will eat eight or ten Pound of Me- 
lons at a Meal, without being fick. The bed Melons 
grow in Chorajfan near Tartary, and they are carried 
as far as Ifpahan for the Shah’s Ufe, and as Prefents 
to their Friends. Cucumbers are another Fruit much 
eaten by the common People, one Sort of them has 
fcarce any Seeds in it, and is eaten without paring or 
dreffing, and is not reckoned unwholfome. 
. 7. Of Grapes they have feveral Kinds, and fome of 
them are fo large, that a Angle Grape is a Mouthful. 
They make their Wine at Ifpahan of the Kifmifh’s, 
a little round Grape, and without any Stone that can 
be perceived, but much the bed Wines are made at 
Shiraz. They keep their Grapes all Wintetj and let 
them hang a confiderable Time on the Vine, wrapped 
up in Linnen Bags •, the Air is fo dry, that it preferves 
all kinds of Fruit as long as they can defire. Dates 
are reckon’d one of the mod delicious Fruits in this 
Country, they are no where fo good as in Perfta, the 
Pulp which enclofes the Stone is a clammy Subdance, 
as fweet as Honey ; they are laid on Heaps when they 
are ripe, and melting, candy or preferve themfelves with- 
out Sugar. Foreigners are adviied to eat moderately of 
them, becaufe they Heat the Blood, and occafions UL 
cers in thofe who are not ufed to them, and fometimes 
weaken the Sight, but have no ill Effedls upon the Na- 
tives j the Tree which bears them is flender, but very 
tall, and like other Palms, has no Branches but on the 
Top, and the Fruit grows in Cluders of thirty or forty 
Pounds Weight ^ the Tree does not bear ti|l it is fifteen 
Years old, but continues bearing above a hundred 
Years. There are in Perjia mod of the Fruits which are 
to be had in Europe, and they would be in much grea- 
ter Perfeftion, if they knew any Thing of Gardening, but 
they underdand neither grafting, inoculating, or the Art 
of managing Dwarf-trees j all their Trees run up very 
high, and are loaded with Wood. They have excel- 
lent Apricots of feveral Kinds, v/hich are in Seafon one 
after' the other, and their Nectarines and Peaches weigh 
fixteen or eighteen Ounces a-piece ; there Is an Apricot 
red within, which is call’d, the Egg of the Sun ; thefe 
are dried and exported in vad Quantities ; they are boil- 
ed in Water, which is thickened by the Juice of the 
Fruit, and makes a perfedl Syrup without Sugar. , 
Apples and Pears grow chiefly in the North Part of 
Perjia, they have alfo Pomegranates of feveral Kinds, 
with Oranges, Qiiinces, and Prunes, and fuch Variety of 
Fruits, that Sir John Chardin fays, he has feen above fifty 
Sorts at an Entertainment, fome of which grew three 
hundred Leagues from the Place. The Pidachio Nuts are 
almod peculiar to Perfia,md are tranfported all the World 
over •, here are alio Small-nuts, Filberds and Almords 
_ Olives grow in Hyrcania, near the Cafpian Sea, but they 
neither knov; hoW to prefetve them, nor draw Oik ia 
the bed Manner from them. They have alfo PJantatl 
ons of Sugar and Tobacco. 
8. Among other Trees in their Gardens, they have 
the Cyprefs, the Palm, and the Mulberry, of the lad 
there are large Plantations for their Silk Worms, which 
they dont fuffer to grow up to be great Trees, becaufe 
the Leaves are bed, when the Shoots are young. They 
root up the Trees therefore wFen theygrow^old, and 
plant their Grounds afrefn. But the Tree which is n as 
great Edeem^ as any in Perfia, is the Senna % the Body 
of this 'Free is very large, and frequently forty or fifty 
Foot high, and drait as the Mad of a Shipj having no 
Branches but on the Head of it ^ the Bark is ^f a 
bright Grey, and the Wood ferves them to make Doors, 
Rafters, and for other Ufes in Building. The Trees that 
are mod common in Perfm are the Plane-tree, the Wil- 
low, the Fir^ and the Cornel-tree j the Plane-tree the 
Perfians imagine is a Pkefervative againd the Plague, 
and other contagious Didempers, and obferve, that the 
Plague has never raged in Ifpahan fince this Tree was 
planted in their Streets and Gardens. The Trees 
alfo which bear the Gall Nut is very common in many 
Parts of Perfta, and there are Trees which yield Gum 
Madich, and Frankincenfe j that which produces Frank- 
incenfe very much refembles a Pear-tree, and abounds 
chiefly in Car mania. 
1 here are likewife Trees which produce Manna of fe- 
veral Sorts : The bed Manna has a yellowifh Cad, a 
large coarfe Grain, and comes from Chorajfan or Bac- 
tria ', there is another Sort called Tamerhk, becaufe the 
Tree it drops from is fo named, and is found in 
large Qiiantities in the Province of Suftana \ and there is 
a third Sort gathered about Ifpahan, which falls from 
a Tree much like the Tamerhk, but larger*, the Leaves 
of this Tree drop liquid Manna in Summer-time, 
which the Natives take to be the Sweat of the Tree 
congealed upon the Leaf in the Morning ; the Ground 
under it is perfedfly fat and greafy with it, and this has 
as fweet a Tade as other Manna. 
The Cotton-Tree is common all over Perfia, and 
they have another little Tree, which yields a kind of 
fllken Down, ufed for Quilting and Stuffing of Pillows j 
there is alfo a Plant, called Hannah, that bears a Seed 
which they beat to Powder, and colour their Hands 
and Feet, and fometimes rub over their Faces with it, 
apprehending it keeps their, Skin fmooth, and preferves 
their Complexion ; they fometimes bruife the Leaves of 
it, which ferves them for the fame Purpofe. 
There are found in the Defarts of Carmania, two 
little Shrubs of a poifonous Quality, the fird is called 
Galbad Samoiir, or the Flower that poifons the Wind ; 
fome People imagining that it is this occafions thofe 
killing Winds which blow in this Province in the hot 
Seafon ; the other Shrub is called Herzebre, the Trunk 
whereof is about as big as a Man’s I.eg, and grows 
about fix Foot high ; its Leaves are almod round, and 
it bears a Flower like the Sweet-Briar. There are fcarce 
any Trees to be found on the Mountains, or wild 
Fields in Perfia ; thefe are for the mod Part deditute of 
all Manner of Verdure, while in their Cities, and the 
Villages for three or four Leagues round them, the 
Streets as well as Gardens are fo well planted, that 
the Houfes are hardly to be difeerned at a Didance ; 
when you have travelled fome few Leagues, indeed you 
meet not either with Houfe, Tree, or Shrub, for 
many Miles, but all looks like a barren Defart, not- 
withdanding which, great Part of this Soil, were it wa- 
tered, would be as fruitful as the other, and aflually 
was fo fome Ages fince, when a more indudrious Ge- 
neration, than the prefent, poffeffed the Country. 
From their Trees, I pafs on to their Flowers, and 
of thefe there is a great Variety to be found in fome 
Provinces. The South Part of Peijia has much the 
fewed ; excelTive Heat being as dedrudive to them, 
as extreme Cold ; but nothing can be more beautiful 
than the Fields of Hyrcania, where are whole Groves 
