Ml 1
then, as the moon decreases, its leaves one by one fall off. In the
no-moon period, being deprived of all its leaves, it hides itself. Just
as the Boriza is influenced by the moon, so are certain shrubs undei;’
the sway of the sun. These shrubs are described as growing up
daily from the sand until noon, when they gradually diminish, and
finally return to the earth at sunset.
Gerarde tells us that among the wonders of England, worthy
of great admiration, is a kind of wood, called Stony Wood,
alterable into the hardness of a stone by the action of water.
This strange alteration of Nature, he adds, is to be seen in sundry
parts of England and Wales ; and then he relates how he himself
“ being at Rougby (about such time as our fantasticke people did
with great concourse and multitudes repaire and run headlong
unto the sacred wells of Newnam Regis, in the edge of Warwickshire,
as unto the water of life, which could cure all diseases),”
went from thence unto these wells, “ where I found growing oner
the same a faire Ashe-tree, whose boughs did hang oner the spring
of water, whereof some that were scare and rotten, and some that
of purpose were broken off, fell into the water and were all turned
into stones. Of these boughes or parts of the tree I brought into
London, which when I had broken in pieces, therein might be
seene that the pith and all the rest was turned into stones, still
remaining the same shape and fashion that they were of before
they were in the water.”
GCJje S'tone OTrre. From Gerardds Herbal.
In Hainam, a Chinese island, grows a certain tree known as
the F ig of Paradise. Its growth is peculiar: from the centre of a
cluster of six or seven leaves springs a branch with no leaves, but
a profusion of fruit resembling Figs. The leaves of this tree are
so large and so far apart, that a man could easily wrap himself up
in them ; hence it is supposed that our first parents, after losing
their innocence, clothed themselves with the leaves of a tree of
this species.
The island of Ferro, one of the Canaries, is said to be without
rivers, fountains, and wells. However, it has a peculiar tree,
as Metellus mentions, surrounded by walls like a fountain. It
resembles the Nut-tree; and from its leaves there drops water
which is drinkable by cattle and men. A certain courtesan of the
island, when it was first subdued, made it known to the Spaniards.
Her perfidy, however, is said to have been discovered and punished
with death by her own people.
Bishop Fleetwood gives the following description, by Her-
mannus Nicolaus, of what he calls the Distillatory Plant :—“ Great
are the works of the Lord, says the wise man ; we cannot consider
them without ravishment. The Distillatory Plant is one of these
prodigies of nature, which we cannot behold without being struck
with admiration. And what most surprises me is the delicious
nectar, with which it has often supplied me in so great abundance
to refresh me when I was thirsty to death and unsufferably weary.
. . . But the greatest wonder of it is the little purse, or if you
will, a small vessel, as long and as big as the little finger, that is
at the end of each leaf. It opens and shuts with a little lid that
is fastened to the top of it. These little purses are full of a cool,
sweet, clear cordial and very agreeable water. The kindness this
liquor has done me when I have been parched up with thirst,
makes me always think of it with pleasure. Cne plant yields
enough to refresh and quench the thirst of a man who is very
dry. The plant attracts by its roots the moisture of the earth,
which the sun by his heat rarifies and raises up through the stem
and the branches into the leaves, where it filtrates itself to drop
into the little recipients that are at the end of them. This delicious
sap remains in these little vessels till it be drawn o u t; and it
must be observed that they continue close shut till the liquor be
well concocted and digested, and open'of themselves when the
juice is good to drink. ’Tis of wonderful virtue to extinguish
speedily the heats of burning fevers. Outwardly applied, it heals
ring-worms, St. Anthony’s Fire, and inflammations.”
pFanfii) R e a l'll^ (in/l)cripiiori/l) ^igai*ei^,
Gerarde has told ns that in the root of the Brake Fern, the
figure of a spread-eagle may be traced ; and Maundevile has
asserted that the fruit of the Banana, cut it how you will, exhibits
a representation of the Holy Cross. L . Sarius, in his Chronicles
to the year 1559, r e c o r j that, in Wales, an Ash was uprooted
during a tempest, and in its inassive trunk, rent asunder by the