a fig upon chesnut-a fig upon mulberry-peach upon mulberry-mulberry upon buckthorn-walnut upon chesnut -savin upon juniper-vine upon oleaster, rosemary, ivyan arbutus upon a fig-a peach upon a fig-white poplar upon black poplar-asp upon white poplar-wych elm upon common elm-hazel upon elm-sycamore upon wych elmcinnamon rose upon hipberry—a whitethorn upon a blackthorn-hipberry upon a sloe, or skeye, or bullace-apricot upon a mulberry-arbutus upon a mulberry-cherry upon a peach-oak upon a chesnut-katherine peach upon a quince -a warden upon a quince-a chesnut upon a beech--a beech upon a chesnut-an hornbeam upon a beech-a maple upon an hornbeam-a sycamore upon a maple—a medlar upon a service tree-a sumack upon a quince or medlar—an hawthorn upon a service tree-a quicken tree upon an ash -an ash upon an asp-an oak upon an ilex-a poplar upon an elm-a black cherry tree upon a tilea or lime tree-tilea upon beech-alder upon birch or poplar-a filbert upon an almond

-an almond upon a willow-a nux vesicaria upon an almond or pistachio-a cerasus avium upon a nux vesicaria—a cornelian3 upon a cherry tree-a cherry tree upon a cornelian -an hazel upon а willow or sallow-a lilac upon a sage tree -a syringa upon lilac or tree-mallow-a rose elder upon syringa―a water elder upon rose elder-buckthorn upon elder-frangula upon buckthorn - hirga sanguinea upon privet-phyllerea upon vitex-vitex upon evonymus-evonymus upon viburnum-ruscus upon pyracantha-paleurus upon hawthorn-tamarisk upon birch-erica upon tamarisk -polemonium upon genista hispanica-genista hispanica upon colutea.

Nor are we to rest in the frustrated success of some single experiments, but to proceed in attempts in the most unlikely unto iterated and certain conclusions, and to pursue the way of ablactation or inarching. Whereby we might determine whether, according to the ancients, no fir, pine, or picea, would admit of any incision upon them; whether yew will hold society with none; whether walnut, mulberry, and cornel cannot be propagated by insition, or the fig and quince admit almost of any, with many others of doubtful truths in the propagations.

3 cornelian.] Cornel-tree.

And while we seek for varieties in stocks and scions, we are not to omit the ready practice of the scion upon its own tree. Whereby, having a sufficient number of good plants, we may improve their fruits without translative conjunction, that is, by insition of the scion upon his own mother, whereby an handsome variety or melioration seldom faileth-we might be still advanced by iterated insitions in proper boughs and positions. Insition is also made not only with scions and buds, but seeds, by inserting them in cabbage stalks, turnips, onions, &c., and also in ligneous plants.

Within a mile of this city of Norwich, an oak groweth upon the head of a pollard willow, taller than the stock, and about half a foot in diameter, probably by some acorn falling or fastening upon it. I could show you a branch of the same willow which shoots forth near the stock which beareth both willow and oak twigs and leaves upon it. In a meadow I use in Norwich, beset with willows and sallows, I have observed these plants to grow upon their heads; bylders,4 currants, gooseberries, cynocrambe, or dog's mercury, barberries, bittersweet, elder, hawthorn.

MS. SLOAN. 1869, fol. 12-60, 62-118, COLLATED WITH 1874 and 1885.] [Hints and Extracts; to his Son, Dr. Edward Browne.]

SEVERAL hints which may be serviceable unto you and not ungrateful unto others I present you in this paper; they are not trite or vulgar, and very few of them anywhere to be met with. I set them not down in order, but as memory, fancy, or occasional observation produced them; whereof you may take the pains to single out such as shall conduce unto your purpose.

That Elias was a type of our Saviour, and that the mocking and railing of the children had reference unto the derision and reviling of our Saviour by the Jews, we shall not deny, but whether their calling of him bald pate, crying,

4 bylders.] Qu. bilberry?

ascende calve, had any relation unto Mount Calvary, we shall not be ready to affirm.

That Charles the Fifth was crowned upon the day of his nativity carrieth no remarkable consideration, but that he also took King Francis prisoner upon that day, was a concurrence of accidents which must make that day observable.

Antipater, that died on his birth-day, had an anniversary fever all his life upon the day of his nativity, needed not an astrological revolution of his nativity to know the day of his death.

Who will not commend the wit of astrology?-Venus born out of the sea hath her exaltation in Pisces.

Whosoever understandeth the fructifying quality of water will quickly apprehend the congruity of that invention which made the cornucopia to be filled with flowers by the naiades or water nymphs.

Who can but wonder that Fuchsius should doubt the purging quality of manna, or derive aloe sucotina from succus citrinus, which every novice now knows to be from Socotara, an island from whence 'tis brought?

Take heed of confidence and too bold an opinion of your work: even the famous Phidias so erred in that notable statua of Jupiter made in a sitting posture, yet so that if he had risen up he had borne up the top of the temple.

Transcriptional erratas, ignorance in some particulars, expedition, inadvertency, make not only moles but wens in learned works, which notwithstanding being judged by their better parts admit not of reasonable disparagement. I will not say that Cicero was slightly versed in Homer, because in his books De Gloria he ascribeth those verses unto Ajax which were delivered by Hector. In the account of Hercules, Plautus mistakes nativity for conception. Pliny, who was well seen in Homer, denieth the art of picture in the Trojan war, and whereas it is plainly said, Iliad 2, 483, that Vulcan engraved in the arms of Achilles the earth and stars of heaven. And though I have no great opinion of Machiavell's learning, yet am I unwilling to say he was but a weak historian, because he commonly exemplified in Cæsar Borgia and the petty princes of Italy; or that he had but a slight

knowledge in Roman story, because he was mistaken in placing Commodus after the emperor Severus.

Wonderful without doubt and of excellent signification are the mysteries, allegories, and figures of Holy Scripture, had we a true intelligence of them, but whether they signified any such thing as Gamaliel, Rampegnoli, Venetus, and others, do put upon them, is a great obscurity and Urim and Thummim unto me.

That the first time the Creator is called the Lord, in holy Scripture, was twenty-eight times after he was called God, seems an excellent propriety in Scripture; which gave him the relative name after the visible frame and accomplishment of the creation, but the essential denomination and best agreeable unto him before all time or ere the world began.

Whether there be any numerical mystery in the omission of the benediction of the second day, because it was the first recess from unity and beginning of imperfection: and according to which mystery three angels appeared unto Abraham to bring him happy tidings, but two at the destruction of Sodom.

Whether Tubal Cain, the inventor of smith's work, be therefore joined with Jubal, the father of musicians, because musical consonances were first discovered from the stroke of hammers upon anvils, the diversities of their weights discovering the proportion of their sounds, as is also reported from the observation of Pythagoras, is not readily to be believed.

The symbolical mysteries of Scripture sacrifices, cleansings, feasts, and expiations, is tolerably made out by Rabbins and ritual commentators, but many things are obscure, and the Jews themselves will say that Solomon understood not the mystery of the red cow. Even in the Pagan lustration of the people of Rome, at the palilia, why they made use of the ashes of a calf taken out of the belly of the dam, the blood of an horse, and bean straw, hath not yet found a convincing or probable conjecture.

Certainly most things are known as many are seen, that is, by parallaxes, and in some difference from their true and proper beings; the superficial regard of things being of dif

ferent aspect from their central natures; and therefore following the common view, and living by the obvious track of sense, we are insensibly imposed upon by consuetude, and only wise or happy by coestimation; the received apprehensions of true or good having widely confounded the substantial and inward verity thereof, which now only subsisting in the theory and acknowledgment of some few wise or good men, are looked upon as antiquated paradoxes or sullen theorems of the old world: whereas indeed truth, which is said not to seek corners, lies in the centre of things; the area and exterous part being only overspread with legionary vanities of error, or stuffed with the meteors and imperfect mixtures of truth.

Discoveries are welcome at all hands; yet he that found out the line of the middle motion of the planets, holds an higher mansion in my thoughts than he that discovered the Indies, and Ptolemy, that saw no further than the feet of the centaur, than he that hath beheld the snake by the southern pole. The rational discovery of things transcends their simple detections, whose inventions are often casual and secondary unto intention.

Cupid is said to be blind; affection should not be too sharp-sighted, and love not to be made by magnifying glasses; if things were seen as they are, the beauty of bodies would be much abridged; and therefore the wisdom of God hath drawn the pictures and outsides of things softly and amiably unto the natural edge of our eyes, not able to discover those unlovely asperities which make oystershells in good faces, and hedgehogs even in Venus' moles.

When God commanded Abraham to look up to heaven and number the stars thereof, that he extraordinarily enlarged his sight to behold the host of heaven, and the innumerable heap of stars which telescopes now show unto us, some men might be persuaded to believe. Who can think that when 'tis said that the blood of Abel cried unto heaven, Abel fell a bleeding at the sight of Cain, according to the observation of men slain to bleed at the presence of the murderer ?

The learned Gaspar Schottus dedicates his Thaumaturgus Mathematicus unto his tutelary or guardian angel; in which epistle he useth these words: cui, post Deum conditorem