7 #

Of the TroduBion of net* 'Plants.

Cucumbers shall be ripe very timely.

The Quinciles fay you must take panniers or earthen vots, and put into them somefine nued earth mixed with dung, that it may be somewhat liquid, and preven-ting the ordinary season, yon must plant therein Cucumber feeds about the be-ginning of the Spring, and when the Sun stiines, or that there is any heator rain, they bring the panniers forth into the Air, and about Sun-ffcuingthey bring them into a close house j and this they do daily, still wateringthem as occasion ferveth. But after that the cold and the frost is ceased, andthe Air is more temperate, they take their panniers and digge a place forthem in some well-tilled ground, and there fee them, so that the brims there-of may be even with the earth; and then look well to them, add you shallhave your desire. The like may be done by Gourds. Fheophrastus (heweth,that if a man sow Cucumber feeds in the Winter-time, and water them withwarm water, and lay them in the Sunne, or else by the fire, and whenseed-time cometh, put whole panniers of them into the ground, they willyield very timely Cucumbers, long before their ordinary (eason is to grow.Columella faith, that Tiberius the Emperour took great delight in the Cucum-bers that were thus ripened, which he had at all times of the year; for hisGardners every day drew forth their hanging Gardens into the Sun upon wheels,and when any great cold or rain came, they straightwayes carried them inagain into their close hovels made for the fame purpose. Didymus stieweth

Roses may budforth , even before Winter be passif they be used aster the like minner - namely, if you set them in hampers or earthenvessels, and carefully look unto them , and use them as you would use Gourds andCucumbers, to make them ripe before their ordinary season. Pliny stieweth

How to ma\e Figs that were of lafiyears grow th) to be ripe very fin the next year astir'}and this is by keeping them from the cold too, but yet the device and practice isnot all one with the former. There are, faith he, in certain Countries j as in Mæ-sia, Winter Fig-trees, (a small tree it is, and such as is more beholding to Art thento Nature) which they use on this manner. After the Autumn or Fall, they laythem in the earth, and cover them all over with muck, and the green Figs that grewupon them in the beginning of Winter are also buried upon the Tree with them.Now when the Winter is past, and the Air is somewhat calmer the year following,they dig up the Trees again with the fruit upon them ; which presently do embracethe heat of a new Sun as it were, and grow up by the temperature of another year,as kindly as if they had then new sprung uptwhereby it cometh to passe,that thoughthe Country be very cold, yet there they have ripe Fsos of two years growth as itwere, even before other Fig-rrees can so much as blossom. But because We cannotso well practise these experiments in the broad and open fields, either by hindering,or by helping the temperature of the Air, therefore we will assay to ripen fruit andflowers before their time, by laying warm cherilhers, as lime, or chalk, and nitre,and warm wtter, to the roots of Trees and herbs. If you would have

A sherry ripe before his time,

Pliny faith, that you must lay chalk or lime to the root of the Tree before it begin toblossom; or else you must oftentimes pour hot water upon the root; and by cither"leans you may procure the ripening of Cherries before their time: how-L -. a ^ ec ward the Trees will be drie and wither away. If you would procurethe ripening

- iri i. . 0/ a %ofe before his time j

Dydmut faith you may effect it by covering the Rose-bush with earth, a foot Lbove the root of it, and there pour in warn water upon k, whilst the stippe

N a beginneth