Of the ProduBion of new 'Plants . 85

by laying tyles upon the roots thereof, as upon Leeks. Theophrastm sheweth ano-ther kinde of Device, whereby to make

%adifhes greater j

and he faith that the Gardeners of his time were wont to practise it. They tockaway the leaves in the Winter-time, when they flourish mo!!, and cast the Radishesinto the ground, covering them over with earth ; and so they lasted and grew tillSummer came again, never shooting forth either into buds or leaves,except it werewhere the earth was gone, that they lay uncovered. The like Experiment doth Pal-ladim teach, concerning the Rape-root, whereby to make

%ape-roots greater.

Assoon as you have plucked them up, you must strip off all the leaves, and cut offthe stalk about half an inch above the root: then make certain furrows for them inthe ground, for every one of them a several furrow ; and there bury them asunder,about eight inches deep: and when you have cast earth upon them, tread it in ; andby that means you shall have great Rape-roots. By the like means, Theophrastmthinks, we may procure

The herb Wake-robbtn to grow greater.

When it is most full of leaves , and when the leaves be at the broadest, we mustbow them downward, winding them round about the root within the earth, that sothe herb may not bud forth, but all the nourishment may be converted to the head ofthe herb. So may we make

Onions to grow bigger,

as Theophrastm suppofeth , if we take away all the stalk, that the whole force of thenourishment may descend downwards; lest if it should be diffused, the chief vertuethereof should spend it f^f upon the feeding. Sotien faith,that if a man plant Oni-ons, he must cut off both the tops and the tails thereof, that so they may grow to agreater bigness then ordinary. PaOadins faith, that if we desire to have grcat-head-ed Onions , we must cut off all the blade, that so the juyce may be forced down tothe lower parts. In like manner, if we would have

(fdrltckjoeads greater then contmen ,

we must take all the greenish substance thereof, before it be bllded , and turn icdownward , that so it may grow into the earth. There is yet another Device,whereby to make herbs and roots grow bigger then ordinary; but yet I like not lowell of it, howsoever many ancient Writers have set it down: and first,

How to make Leekj grow greater.

Columetta hathMefcribed this course : you must take a great many Leek-seeds, andbinde them together in thin linen clouts, and so cast them into the ground, andthey will yeeld large and great leeks. Which thing Palladitu also confirms by hisauthority , in the very fame words. But both of them had it out of Theophrasttuywho putteth it for a general Rule, That if a man sowe many feeds bound up toge-ther in a linen cloth , it will cause both the root to be larger, and the buds to belarger also 5 and therefore in his time they were wont to sow Leeks, Parfly,and otherherbs after the fame manner: for they are of more force when there be many seedstogether, all of them concurring into one nature. Moreover, it makes not a little tothe enlarging of fruits, to take the feeds which we would sow, out of some certainpart of the former fruit. As for example: we shall procure

ji Gourd of a greater or ver growths

if we take the seed out of the middle of a Gourd , and set it with the top doWn-This course Colnmella prescribes, in his Hortulut: Look, faith he, where theourd swells most, and is of the largest compass, thence, even out of the middle

there-