CHAP. XXXV.
¶ Of the Bind-weed or Iuie called Smilax.
LIke vnto Iuie, is that plant which they call Smilax, or rough Bind-weed. It came first out of Cilicia, howbeit more commonly it is to be seen in Greece: it putteth forth stalks set [unspec D] thicke with ioints or knots, and those thrust out many thornie branches. The leafe resem∣bleth Iuie, and the same is small, and nothing cornered: from a little stele that it hath, it sendeth forth certain pretty tendrils to clasp and wind about: the floure is white, and smelleth like to a Lilly; it beareth clusters comming nearer to those grapes of the wild vine Labrusca, than to the berries of Iuie; red of color, wherof the bigger contain within them 3 kernels or pepins apiece, the smaller but one, and those be hard and black withall. This Smilax is not vsed in any sacri∣fices or diuine seruice of the gods, nor serueth for garlands and chaplets: for that it is held to be dolefull and ominous, or of an vnlucky presage, by occasion of a certain yong lady or Damo∣sell of that name, who for the loue of the young gallant and knight Crocus, was turned into this shrub or plant, retaining still her name: which the ignorant people not knowing, but taking it for a kind of Iuie, stick not to make coronets therof; profaning by that means many times their [unspec E] high feasts and sacred solemnities: and yet who woteth not with what chaplets Poets are crow∣ned, and what garlands prince Bacchus or Silenus vsed to weare? Of this Smilax are made certain manuell writing tables. And this property moreouer hath the wood thereof, That if a man hold it close to his eare, he shall heare it to giue a pretty sound.
But to return againe to the Iuie indeed, it hath (by report) a strange and wonderful vertue to trie wines, whether they be delaied with water or no: for make a cup of Iuie wood, and put wine thereinto, all the wine will soke and run through, but the water (if any be mingled therewith) will tarry behind.