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Show Cuap.12, Theatrum Botanicum, ret, and the white wild kind of it, which the Italians Tripe17 Behmen abiad. WhiteBen. Tripet _seaedl meatestonane The Fbeater ofPlants. sae fen Ui Bitumen Indaicum, and Apothecaries ghops,are not knowne, whatthey are, Se Cua ¥.14, ern SESTRE: Casa Dry Pitch of la dite SAG He Bitumen ot dry Pitch, which the dead Sea in Judea cafteth up ata certaine time of the yeare is fet but are certainelyfal(e,and not the things they fhould be. Rawwolfius faith that he found the true white Ben grow- y downe by Diofco ides to be of a thining purple colour, but that whichis blacke, isadulrerate, and ge AZarthiolus faith that the A/phaltum,or Bitumen of the fhopsinItaly(and fowithus is a mixture, and zac not thetruc things D iofcorides faithit is had from Phenicia( wherof Indea is baa part)from Babylon, oy the Ifland Zacynthus and Sydon : but that of Babylon which hath beene feene by many in thele dayes, is held to be another thing,even the fame that the builders of Babe? ufed inftead of mokter to cement their bricks: but that of the deadSeais only in ufe and the belt, which dead Sea or Lakeis of a greatextent,yet diverfly proportioned by Writers thereof, for Pliny asI find AZatthiolys quoteth him,maketh it tobe ari hundred miles long, and ing atthe foote of mount Libanus, in a moilt fhadowy place, which the Inhabitants call Behmen Abiad, as they call the ted Bchmen ackmar s the defcriprion of the white fort he fetteth downe thus: the leavesare great long and thicke; like untothe fharpe pointed Docke, upon long foorcftalkes, but having at the bottome of each leafe, foure other {mall ones ftanding by couples each againft o- in the broadeft place five and twenty miles over, but Sir Walter Raleghinhis Chroniclé, telateth Pliny to m it leffe then onr Moderne Travailers doe, who judgeit to be eighteene Dztch miles in iength, that is 72. of our and two Dutch miles andahalfe inbreadth, that is renne of oilrs,accounting one Durch mile to be foure Englifh, Lfephms faithic is 180. Furlongs in length, that is twoand twenty anda halfe of our miles, and 150, Furlongs ther, thofe that grow ontheftalke are leffe, and without any footeftalke, the toppe of the flalkeis parted into fome branches, each bearing at the toppes a knap oryellowith fealy head,out of which breaketh a yellow flower: theroote is long and full of joynts,but without any or very fewfibressevery like unto Licoris both for forme efle, but white inwatdly. They are fay Sera[ues, and other Arabians hot and moift in the firlt to Venery, arlene CHAP. XIII. call Carotra biancoare thered and the white Ben, which they and Talfo fuppofe may pafle reafonable well as fubftitutes forthem, untill the true may be knowne, But thofe things that goe under their names in the Druggifts, or fecond degree,they comfort the heart, and areftirrers ile in breadth, thatis cighteene miles and fomewhat moreof ours, fuch varicty there isin Writers: This Lake or dead Seais (called by Galen Lacus Asphaltites the fame place where Sodsme and Gomorrha with the other Cities ood, mentioned in Genesis, being then the pleafanceft’ and moft frnitefiull valley of all rhofe parts, exceeding Hiericho,and the parts thereabouts, which1s aboutfifteene miles from.it, and whofe River runneth into it, and fodrowned therein, yetno fifh entereth into it; butnowthe traé& of groundabout it for agreat compaffe bearetha fad face,andis either utterly barren and frniteleffe; or beareth fuchfruite as is onely faire without and dof within, and the airenoyfome and peftilent, by the thicke infe@tious vapours arifing from it, and is neither moved by the wind,nor wiil fuffer any ching to finke therein, but will {wimme onthe toppe, and is nor onelyofa falt bucbicter tate, which will corrupt any thing rather then preferve ir, as falt Sea water will. There are vther forts of Bitemen inthe World, as Hiltorians report,as in C4ba, and fundry Fouintaines neeré the fea fhore, : cating it forth as blacke as Pitch, Another fortisin a Province of Perz, whete the placeis voyd of tree or plant, and givetha fat liquid Birwzsen inthis manner: Turfes of theearth, being laid oa hurdles, the liquour dropping from them, bybeing fer inthe Sunne, is keptto heate and comfort any place affected with cold humours and tumours,cureth wounds, andisufed for thofe griefes whereunto Caranba, and Tacamabaca ferve: ici firong {mell, and ofa blackifh red colour, The Inhabicants aboutthis Lake, gather this Bitumen or P anoyle orliquid fubG@ance onthe water, and hardned by the aire,and {pendit chiefly in pitching their Ships 2 medicinally it difeuffeth tumours, and {wellings,and mollefyeth the hardneffe of them, and keepeth them €f f; inflammations, andis of fingulat goodule for the rifing ofthe mother, andforthe falling fickeneffe, to be bu and the fumes thereof whichare {trong imelled unto: it bringeth downe womens courfestakenin Wine, with Cuarp. Benxoin, XII. Benjamin, He treé fro whence this {weet gumme Benzoinis taken,is very great,faire, and high,largely fpréad andfet full ot branches,in a comelyorder, the leaves whereof are fomewhat ike unto ue # the Citromtree, but leffer and not fo greene, but grayith on the underfide: from the body hereof webiti isgreatandthicke, and the wood veryhard and firme, by wounding it as they doe other trees is drawneforth the gumme,whichis of divers {orts, for fome is very red,and full of barkes and fickes whichfome take to be the fwecteft, others is more pure or cleane,nothin g fo red, having many great and final white peeces of gumme init, which is called the Allmonds of the gumme, another fortis blackifh which i faid to come from the younger trees, and called as Garesas faith Benini de Boninas, andis {weeter then the lat Somefaith he,call Benxoix Benjari quafifilius lave, (which Scaliger corre@eth, faying Garcias was miftaken in thinking that Ben in the Arabian tonguefignifyethfilins, when ashe faithitis lachryma,and {o Ben jaoi is La: legs malavenfis) andfome, as Ruclim Ben Iudevm, deccived either by theneereneff e ofthe name, or becanfe he ht that Iudea wasthe naturail place thereof, and that it wasakinde of Afa dulcis, but Sark any troth ob ground of reafon, which opinién is yet held with divers who will fill ufeit inwardly in place aes iti U {uallycalled in fhoppes Benjuinum, andof fome Belzoinum,y and Benxoin,or Benzoinum: and of the Tediins Cc "i minhams J here hath been fundryerrours among learned men, about thisgumme, for findingit to be fo {weete andof {o delicate a fubftance and fhew, theyftraight imagined that ic could not be but of fome fingular vertue, and not unknowne to the Auncients : fome therefore thought it to be Cancamum ofDiofesrides, butyet 28 Gare eras heweth, itchicfly groweth inyswmatra and Sian, and Martaban neere thereunto, of the fia; Lovan Jaay quafe thus ex Tava, and Vdoat Surrat,cc, and not in Arabia,as Diofcorides {aith Cas fone doth : fome tooke cto bethebelt called Afprrha Aminea, and fomeas I {aid before tobe e/a dulcis, but Benzoin hen fides thatit wasCMyrrha not knowne to the Ancients, it isnotnfed inwardlyin us that miftake it not, butis wholly {pencin perfumes either watér or Phyficke, neither by the Indians, nor by oyle, pouther, Pomanders, burning perFanies or the likeand is ofanexcellentfent, where or howfcever itis ufed, Baswhinus feemeth to referre tk but ‘Ue/lingius heweth it to be farre otherwite, as fhall be fhewed in the Chapter of Pepper, but rather thinke itis the fruite of this Benjamin tree,or of the browne American Balfamebef ore fet downe, alittle Caftorewm, it helpeth the biting of Serpents, the paines ofthe fides and.cthe hippes, and diffolyech congealed blood in the ftomacke and body, Petroleum quaji petre oleum ox oyle of Peter, is athinne reddifh liquour, thinner than oyle of Ollives; and a}moft as thinas water, andis accounted to bea liquid Bit#mex, and thought tobe the Naphthaof Diofcorides by Marthiolus becaufe it isfo apt and eafic totake fire, even by the ayrethereof, and is gotten in fundryplaces of Italy, diftilling ofit felfe out of a Minein the Earth, andin Hungary alfo, in a certaine place, where iffuine forth ina well together withthe water, the owniet of the place thoaght tdhave the chinkes {topped up with morter, which could not bedone withoutlighr, the workeman therefore taking aclofe lanthorne with ali init,wefit about it, and being gone downeinto the well toftoppeit, very fuddainely, the Peter op! 5 flew round abotit thefides of the Well, and with a hideons noyfe and {moke, like the cracke of a peece of great Ordinance fhot of, it not onely caft forth the Workeman dead, but blewup the cover of che Well intothe aire and fet onfire alfo fome bottles of the oylethat ftood by the Well, and many perfons that {tood thereby were feorched withthe fame, This oyle of Peter isa {peciall ingredient pierfing fent and quality, and therefore is nfed for cold aches orcut, {uddainely, a little thereof being putinto the oyle of S Guar, to make wilde fire, and is of a very hotand es and goutes,and to heale any greene wound obs wort and ufed, XIV. Blatta Byzantiafive Viguisodoratus, The {weete Indianfea fith theisHis Indian fhell,of {ome fea fith,hath beene the fubject of for Fachfius would make the Onyche of Diofcorides, and che‘ controverfie among the learned ; ia ot Unguis odoratus, . co be differing things, and thenagaine ; he would make the S/atta Byzantiatu bea bone inthe B ciouth or fore part of the nofe of the hell fifth Perpara, or purple Periwinkle, and thishe doth SY wile expreffe in his Annotations on Nicholas Myrepfus,in the compolition of Aurea Alexandrina, SEH and in Diamargariton, into both which compofitionsthe Blatt2 Byzantia are ro be put, but ALate thiolws contefteth againft this his opinion, andfaith that thefe {wecte fhells called Conchula Indica or Unguis cdom ratus aretaken by Serapioand Avicen, and thelatter Greeke writers, tobeno other thing then the Blatta Byxantia. Andagaine that never any Wrirer accounted that bone in the nofe of the fifh Purpura, to be {weete ot numbered amongother fweete things, but that the afhes of th ls being burned was drying, and fervedco clenfe the teeth, and to reftraine the excreflences in the flefh, toclen(culcers, and to bring them to skinning - Cua: but onthe contraryfide, the Arabians have alwayesnfedthe Blarte Byxantie; becaule they were ofan aftringent ; SELL(L 3 quality |