§3

Natural Magick. Dso^ 5.

Sweeter apples byengrajfing them into a QutnceFor if you do engraffe an Apple into a Quince,- the Apple will have a relish likehoney: which kindeof fruit the Athenians do therefore call Melimeia, becausethey taste like honey, asDwp/Mwrsheweth. Now we wist (hew alio, how by hus-bandry and skilful dressing, fruits may be made sweeter in taste - namely, by pier-cing or boring the stock , orfcarrifyingic round about, or by some other chastise-ments, as the Husband-men are wont to call them ; for by these means, the treesmay pur°e themselves of their superfluous moisture, and lo they will bear the swee-ter fruit. As for example : If you would learn,

How to procure the Almond-tree to yield fruit without any bitterness.

Aristotle hath taught you the way. You must knock a great nail into the body of theAlmond tree,that the gum of the Tree, which causeth the bitternefle of the fruit,may drop out by that paflage. And this is such a sleight that hereby you may tame,as it were, wilde Trees, and alter their nature into a milder kind. Theophrafltufaith, that if you dig round about the stock of the Almond-tree, and bore thoroughit about nine inches above the ground, the gum will thereby drop our, and so thefruit will become the sweeter by that chastisement. If you cut off a bough, or anarm of it, so that the gum may have egrefle that way, and if you wipe away thegum still as it cometh forth, and observe this for two or three years together, youmay by this means alter a bitter Almond-tree into a sweet one. For the bitternefleproceeds from no other cause, but onely from the superfluity of nourishment andmoisture, which is abated by boring into the stock : and when once that which issupeifluous is evacuated, then that which is left, is more easily concocted, and sothe tree becomes fertile in bringing forth a sweeter and a better fruit. Africanuslikewise assirmeth, that if you dig about the stock of a bitter Almond-tree, andmake a hole into it some four inches above the root, whereby it may sweat out thehurtful moisture, it will become sweet, Pliny faith the same; If you dig rounda-bout the stock, faith he, and bore thorough the lower part of it, and wipe awaythe humour which there issueth forth, a bitter Almond-tree will become sweet.Some there are, who aster they have made that hole, do presently put honey into it,that it may not be quite empty ; for they are of opinion, that the relish of the ho-ney is conveyed up into the fruit, through the pith, as thorough a Conduit-pipe. Asfor example fake ; If we would procure

Sweet Citrous -

(fer that kind of fruit was not wont to be eaten in Theopbrastut time, nor in Athena -wrtime, as himself reports, noryet inT//»/>jtime:) Talladius hath shewed, bowto alter the bitter pith of a Citron tree into sweet. His words are these. It is re-ported that the bitter pithes of Citrons may be made sweet, if you take the Citton-seeds, and steep them in honey-water, or else in Ewes milk, (for this is better) forthe space of three dayes before you set them. Some do bore a hole floapiug intothe body of a Tree, but not quite thorough it; by which paflage the bitter humourdrops away : This hole they make in it about February, and leave it so, till the fruitis fashioned ; but after the fruit is fashioned, then they fill up the hole with morter;and by this device the pith is made sweet. This hath Pontantu set down in his bookcalled, The Gardens of Hefperides. What is it,faith he, that Art will not search into ?Cut a thick Vine, and make it hollow on the the top, about thy hand breadth* butso, that the brims of the hole be brought round and something close together,so thatthe sides be about an inch thick and no more.Pour into it and fill it up with liquefiedhoney, and cover it with a broad stone that the Sun may not come at it. And whenthe Vine hath drunk in all that, then fill it up again with the like : and when that issoaked in too, then open the concavity wideband let the Vine grow : but you mustcontinually water the tender roots thereof with mans water: and you must be surethat you leave no buds or leaves upon the stock, that so there may be no other moi-sture let into it, but the whole Vine may grow up as it were in a spring of honey.PaUaditu shews a.so