A greene forest, or A naturall historie vvherein may bee seene first the most sufferaigne vertues in all the whole kinde of stones & mettals: next of plants, as of herbes, trees, [and] shrubs, lastly of brute beastes, foules, fishes, creeping wormes [and] serpents, and that alphabetically: so that a table shall not neede. Compiled by Iohn Maplet, M. of Arte, and student in Cambridge: entending hereby yt God might especially be glorified: and the people furdered. Anno 1567.

Of Golde.

GOlde is the heade of all other Mettalles, and is in the chiefest degrée that Nature in∣stituted Mettals by ripenesse and perfection at the last to come vnto: but euen as by stoppes and lets, partly by such imbecilitie as is with∣in vs, and about vs, partly by enuious & cleane contrarie disposition of the Ayre and Planets in their Orbes, fighting and striuing with vs somewhile, & anone against vs: we be many of vs cut off before we come to olde age, the last degrée of Nature, so that we can not attaine to this last, through such our hinderances and im∣pediments: so there is order and wayes to or∣der in al Mettals from the first to the last, from the most vile and base, to the most precious & richest: which kinde of order and degrée euerie Mettal although it were of the rawest and ba∣sest sort, should attain to in his due time, were it not for impediments and hinderances, either of colde and barraine ground, or for lack of the Sunne his purifying and ripening, or for in∣fection of rustie and copperous Mineralles be∣ing nigh neighbour to them: or for such other stoppes, whereby they stoppe and stay, and so become grosse for lacke of their naturall and first growth and tidinesse in ripening. Isido.

sayth that it is called Golde of the Ayre for that that the Ayre being stroked shimmereth the more. It is naturall to all Mettalles that they shine and looke bright, especially being moued and helden in the light. The Hebrewes call this Mettall Ophar, y^e Gréekes Chrusos. Aristo∣tle sayth in his fourth booke of Meteores, that this kinde as all the rest procedeth and is com∣pound of Brimstone the verie subtillest and red, and Quicksiluer also as subtile, but white, and this last verie smallie and proportionally. Amongst al Mettals there is none more solide, more compact then this is: and therefore it be∣ing put into the fornace doth not euaporate (as other thinges doe) neyther doth it léese of hys waight. It is more du••tile & easie to be brought to what poynt you will then any of the other. For vpon a Stith with a Mallet it is brought into most thin leafe or plate without rupture or breaking. There is nothing to looke to so beautifull as this, neyther is their any thing so pure. The Phisitions say that it comforteth and expelleth all superfluities in the bodie, and is effectuous against the Leprosie. Likewise his leafe buried in wine maketh it auaylable against diseases & consumption of the Splene, and other perturbations Melancholike. Like∣wise Incision or Adustion done with an In∣strument

of Golde is better than of any other Mettal or matter, for it kepeth the place of vsti∣on, frée and cleare from yll smelling and ran∣coring. There is also a certaine vaine of the earth, or whether a man might call it a kinde of stone, easily digged vp and broken, hauing the verie looke and face of Golde, and of some is the stone Arsenick, & is wrought as I thinke of Arsenicum, which also they call the golden earth. But this Arsenicum is double, one ashie colour, and the other as we aboue saide, in colour like Golde. The first is vsed to me∣dicine, for it hath power to dissolue & to purge: And besides that, they say it is vsed to Oynt∣ments depilatiue.