78 Natural Mag ick.

left behind,may be the more easily concocted,and so the fruit will be sooner ripened.To be short, we may procure

T“he timely ripening os all kind of fruit.

If we sow or plant them in some p ! ace where they may lie still opposite against theSun, or if we put them into certain vessels made for the same purpose, and stillWater them with warm water, and let them lie continually in the Sun. And ifwe wonld have them to hasten their fruit very speedily, we should have an Ovenmade under those vessels, that so by reason of a double warmth, one from above,and the other from beneath the fruit may more speedily be produced. And surelythis is the only cause, why fruits and flowers are more forward and sooner ripe inthe Country Puteoli, and the Island Inarime, then in all other places of Campa-nia, because there they hasten the concoction and ripening of them, by cherish-ing the roots thereof with fire and heat within the earth.

C h IX.

How we may have fruits and flowers at all times of the year,

B Y these wayes of procuring fruit to be timely ripe, it may be effected, that weshall have fruits and flowers at all times of the year, some very forward thatcome before their ordinary season, and some latc-ward that come after: as for theirown time, then, Nature of herself affords them unto us. Aristotle in his Pro-blems sheweth

How Hoe may have Cucumbers all the year long,

both in season and out of season. When they are ripe, faith he, you must put theminto a waccrish ditch, neer the place where they grew, and cover it over: for bythis means the heat of the Sun cannot come at them to dry them, and the water-ishnesseof the place will keep them supple and moist, so that they will still be freshand green. And Theophrastus after him faith the like; that Gourds and Cucumbersmust be taken when they arc small, and in their tender growth, and must be hiddenin some ditch, where the Sun cannot com: to waste and consume their moisture,nor the wind to dry them , which two things would mar and hinder their growth,as'we seeicfallethoutinTrees, that are so situate, as both the win jeand the Sunhav e their full scope upon them. If you would have

Citron trees bear fruit all the year;

to have Citrons still growing fresh upon the Tree, you must observe that mannerand custom which was first peculiar in Assyria, but is now usual in many places.When their season is to be gathered, you must cut off some of the fruit from theTree, and prune those parts well where you have left no fruit j but you must leave1'omebehinde, upon some other parts of the Tree: so shall you find a new supplyof fresh,fruit thpre-whereyou cutoff the former ; and when these be ripe, then cutoff those which you left upon the Tree before, and so fresh fruit also will come upin their stead. ‘Pontanu* hath set down the same experiment in verse; thatpart of th: ftuit is to heZathered, and the rest left hanging upon the Tree; for soit will come to passe, that the Tree will bud forth a fresh in those parts where it

finds it seff destitute of fruit, srieving as it were that one bough should be beauti-fied with fruit, and the other should have none at all. We may also effect thisby the help of engraffing: for if we desire

* 7 0 have tApples all the year,

Dydimus in his Georgicks faith, that if we engraffe an Apple into a Citron-tree, it will bring forth for the most part continual fruit. And if we would

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