Batman vppon Bartholome his booke De proprietatibus rerum, newly corrected, enlarged and amended: with such additions as are requisite, vnto euery seuerall booke: taken foorth of the most approued authors, the like heretofore not translated in English. Profitable for all estates, as well for the benefite of the mind as the bodie. 1582.

Of Semine. cap. 156.

SEede is called Semen, and is sow∣en in fieldes to bring forth fruite, though the seminall humour of beastes is called Semen by a manner appropria∣tion, as Isidore sayeth: and Sementes is the séede of corne, when it is sowing time, and was called of manye men the Goddesse or the Lady of sowing: And Seminarium is the beginning of euerye thing, or a vessell that séede is put in for to sowe: But Sementum is profite and winning that commeth of the seede, as Hugo sayth. Héereof bée vearses dif∣ference in Grecismo, that meane that seminall humour of beasts is called Se∣men, and grains of corne that bée sowen in the fielde is called Sementis proper∣ly, and Sementinum. And Seminum is the well and beginning of things. And as Plinius libro. 8. and 24. cap. sayeth. Séede is good kepte one yeare, or two, or thrée: and is little woorth that is kepte longer time: and the grain that is lowest in the threshing floure is best is séed, & is best séed, for it is heauyest: & that is best, that is most heauie, and most white within. And by qualytie of the land, séede shall be sowen thicke or thinne, soone or late, for it must be sowen soone in moyst lande, least the séede rosteth with raine: and late in drye lande, that raine come soone thereafter, least the séede lye long drye, and vanish, and bée lost. And lesse séede shall bée sowen in fat land, and most in leane land. For in fat land it groweth full fast, and destroyed it selfe: and one séede ouersetteth another at the last by greate multiplication of it selfe. And séede that is sowen soone, shall waxe thic∣ker then the séede that is late sowen.

For late séede shall be thinne, least it dry for thicknesse: and it is cunning to sow euen lyke thicke. For the hand shall ac∣corde with the stepping, and passe away foorth with the right foote: and séede shall not bée chaunged out of colde place into hot, neither againewarde. For no∣thing shall bée commanded into the con∣trary. Of séede sowen in leane land com∣meth thin strawe and small eares, som∣time voide: and in fat fields, of one roote of séed commeth a cluster of stalks: and in Haruest, when the day and the night bee lyke long, the time is contrarye to séede time, and also in springing time. And men shall not sow in full hoare frost: and that is sooth: for the winter séede is sowen before the hoare frost, and breaketh and springeth the seauenth day. But after the frost, vneth it springeth within 40. daies, Huc vsque Plinius. ca. 20. Then seede is small graine and rounde, and hath in it selfe vertue to multiply and to saue kinde therof: And when it is sowen, it swelleth by humour of the earth closed within, y^t tempereth & maketh subtill the humour and the earth all about. And bringeth it & draweth it to temperatnesse of y^e grains: and so the graine waxeth soft and great: and so the small skin of the séed cleaueth and the burgening springeth out lyttle and lyttle: the rootes be pight down∣ward in the ground by the which rootes the burgening séede draweth awaye to it selfe féeding and nourishing, and ope∣neth at the last priuelye the earth: and thereof springeth stalkes, twigges, flow∣ers, fruit, and séede. And though the séede y^t is sowen, be right little: yet therof com∣meth a right great thing and an huge. Fooles account séede lost when it is sow∣en: neuerthelesse in better wise it is not kept then by sowing. Also in the séede is the vertue seminall, and kinde heat wor∣keth therein. And humour of nourish∣ing and of féeding is drawne thereto by vertue of heate. To féeding and growing of the séed commeth the stalks, and of the stalke commeth the eare that is called Spica, and hath that name of Spiculo, a dart or an eile, as Isidore sayeth, libro 17. For in the eares groweth many eiles that be sharpe as dartes. Kinde maketh eyles in the corne eares, to be succour and armour against sodeine réeses & bi∣ting of small birds and wormes, as Isi∣dore sayth. After diuerse kindes of séeds the eare is diuerse in figure and shape. For sometime the eare is broad, as it fa∣reth in Barlye, & sometime foure edged, as it fareth in Wheate, and is sometime round, as Plinius sayeth and Aristotle also.

Also the eare is in the toppe of the stalke compassed all about with small skinnes and bulls, and therein the séede is nouri∣shed as it were in the mother, and kept and saued vntil it be ripe: and such hulls springing out first with the graine bée closed, and cleaueth afterward some and some, and the graine swelleth and wat∣eth great, and namely in wheat, as it is sayd super libro. Aristotelis de plantis. And generally in the beginning by wor∣king and rearing of heate, the heads of corne eares be areared vpward, but whē it ripeth, then it bēdeth somwhat down∣warde by heauynesse and weight of the graines. And while eares bee greene, they bée sometime sprong and corrupte with corrupt aire and dewe, and taketh as it were rust thereof: and ripeth the better, if they be sprong with couenable dewe and raine, and haue dewe heat of heauen. And moysture of dew suffereth not the graines to fall out of the hulls, as Plinius sayth, libr. 17. And Constan∣tine, Isaac, and Albuma. meane the same. By goodnesse of the land the goodnesse of the eare is knowen: for in good and fat ground groweth good eare in great quan∣titie, and fruitfull of graines, and in dry lande and leane againeward, as Plinius sayth.