\i6 Natural Magick. ‘Boofy.

but they mull b: oyle-vessels, and they 'must be covered over with asiies.P/<«; writesthe very fame experiment out of Varro\ that Beans and Pulse being laid up in oyle-buts, and covered over with ashes, have lasted a great while; and being laid uprn some hole of the earth, they have lasted an hundred and twenty years. So thePulse called

Lintels,have been preserved. long,

as ColumelU sheweth: for if you put them into oyle-vessds, or else into falting-tubs,that they may be full, and so plaiticr them over wich morter, whensoever you takethem forth again for your use, you shall find your Lintels sweet and good.

Chap. VIII.

How the tyincients, -when they had put their frut into certain Vejsels, and so shut them upelse, did put them also into some other vessels full of liquor,

H owsoever the Ancients, by making up their vessels close, did shut out and keepavfray the air as being the Author of all putrefaction, so that it could not comein to the fruit: yet they did not by this means keep away the air out of those placeswhere the vessels were laid,but that as the circumstint air was changed,either beingdisposed to heat,or cold,or drouth,or moisture,so the air also that is within,mustneedsbe changed, and consequently, the fruit also must be affected with the same change.Wherefore, for the avoiding of all inconvenience* which this way might ensue,after theyliad plaistered their fruit-vesscl?,and so made them up fast, they did drOwnthese vessels in divers and sundry kinds of liquors. And surely not without greatreison, as experience shews. For I have oft-times observed it, being serious! im-played in these affairs, that if the air be uniform, and without alteration, the fruitsand flowers that have been shut. up in vessels of glass, have lasted long without anyputrefaction :but when once they felt any alteration in the air, presently they beganto putrifie. For this cause are those v tffcls to be drowned in Cisterns, or ditches,or some plates underneath the ground, that so the variable alterations of the ait;may noc be felt by the fruit. And, to descend to experiments, we will firstJhew, ...

Hove Quince-pears beingshut ftp close, tnay be drowned for their better preservation,

'An experiment which Tstmocritus hath set down. You must put your Quince-pearsinto a new.earthen-vessel, and then cover it, and pitch it all over, and so put it into* hut of wine ; but so, that-tliey may have scope to swim upon the top of the Wine:for by this means shall you keep your fruit fresh and good for a long time , and■besides, the wine wherein they stoat, will have a very fragrant savour. Likewise

I \

apples being (hut up close, and then put into Cisterns, will last long,

As Falladiutmc.wci'a. You must put your apples, faith be, into earthen vessels, wellpitched and made up close : and when you have so done, drown those vessels in aCistern, or else in a pit. PA»yputteth apples in earthen Basons, and so leathernswim in wine ; for, faith he, the wine by this means will yield a more odoriferoussmell. Apuleius faith, that Apples arc to be put into a new pot, and the pot to beput into a Hogs-headof wine that there it may swim, and play on the top of thewine ; for so, the Apples will be preserved by the wine , and the wine will be thebetter for the Apples. So

Figs being (hut up close, may he drowned for their better presrr vat ion,

As Jsricamu ifh.metb. They take figs, faith he, that are nor very ripe, and putthem into a new earthen veffel; but they gather them with theirijails or stalks up-on them, and lay them up everv one in a several cell by itself: and when cbeyhaveso done, they put the vessel into an Hogs-hcad of wine, and to preserve iheiifigs. I have also proved it by experience, that

c Peatha