Note c — BOOK X.

That the most abject Vegetables, &c. have their Use, and are beneficial to the World, may in some measure appear from the Use the Northern People put rotten Wood, &c. unto. Satis ingeniosum modum habent populi septentrionales in nemoribus nocturno tempore pertranseuntes, imo & diurno, quando in remotioribus Aquilonis partibus ante, & post Solstitium hyemale continuæ noctes habentur. Quique his remediis indigent, Cortices quercinos inquirunt putres, easque collocant certo interstitio itineris instituti, ut eorum splendore, quò voluerint, perficiant iter. Nec solùm hoc præstat Cortex, sed & Truncus putrefactus, ac fungus ipse Agaricus appellatus, &c. Ol. Mag. Hist. L. 2. c. 16.

To this we may add Thistles in making Glass, whose Ashes Dr. Merret saith, are the best, viz. the Ashes of the Common-way Thistle, though all Thistles serve to this Purpose. Next to Thistles are Hop-strings, cut after the Flowers are gathered. Plants that are Thorny and Prickly, seem to afford the best and most Salt. Merret’s Observ. on Anton. Ner. p. 265.