Oyl of Plants is of a congruous Temper or Heat ; and by the ramose or viscous Parts , is slimy , and of a smooth Taste .

Earthy Plants are greety , hard and dry in Taste , from the Solidity and unequal Particles of Earth .

In distinguishing of Simple and Compounded Tastes of Plants , I do chiefly consider the different Textures and Motion of the Original Principles , as producing Simple Tastes ; and not the different Modes of Taste . Therefore , because these Four , Earth , Water , Acid , and Oyl , are the Original Principles of Plants , out of which some other Compositions are immediately made ; as Salts , Gums , Turpentines and Mucilages , &c. and because these have a determinate Texture and Motion , whereby they produce some certain Modes of Taste ; I think fit to call these Four Tastes , ( viz. ) Watry , Earthy , Oyly , and Acid , The only Simple Tastes in Plants . And where any Taste depends on diverse Principles , that Taste is justly esteem'd Compound ; having a certain Texture , and Motion , resulting from the Composition of the different Textures , and Agitation of the Principles ; which produce a different Taste in Composition , from the Taste of any Principle .

IF we use the Testimony of our Senses for the discovery of the Principles or Ingredients , out of which the Juyces of Plants , by different Mixtures , are produc'd ; they will inform us of Earthy , Watry , Oyly , and Acid Principles ; and a Pungency , which is a Salt.

Earthy Parts are in Mosses and Woods ; from whence arise dry Tastes .

Water in all Plants ; which is sufficiently evident in Distillations of them , and in their Juyces . The Watry Part is supplied by Rain and Dew ; whose great quantity this Year , ( 1685. ) has made many Plants prodigiously great : But in the two last dry Years , the want of them either dwarft them in their Growth , or hindred their Production , or preserved them not sufficiently from the scorching Heat . This is the Vehicle of the other Principles , in which the Acid swims readily , as also the Pungent Particles , and combine together ; as Acid and Alcali : In this the Oyls are mixed , by means of the Acid and Earth .

From these Two Principles of Plants , these following Tastes arise :

From much Earth in Plants arise , First , A dry Earthy Taste , as in Mosses ; Secondly , A Woody Taste , as in Trees and Barks .

From much Water mixt with Earth and Acid , arises a crude or raw Taste , as in Spinach , Chick-weed , &c.

From much Water mixt with Acid and Oyl , or from smooth Oyly-Earthy Parts , like Marle , or Bole diluted , and some Acid , arises a Mucilaginous Taste ; which I refer to the Watry Tastes , because Water most abounds in it .

THat Mucilages in Plants depend on the Oyl much diluted , is manifest from the following Instances .

Linseed affords an Oyl by Expression , and a Mucilage in Decoction .

Almonds afford an Oyl by Expression , and a slimy Mucilaginous Milk in Emulsions .

Poppies are very Mucilaginous , and contain an Oyl , as appears by a Milky Juyce ; and an Oyl is pressed out of Poppy-seeds .

Henbane smells Oyly , and is Mucilaginous , and feels Oyly , and Clammy ; and the Seed yields an Oyl by Expression .

These Plants that smell of a rank Oyl , as Goss-Flowers , and most of the Pea-Taste , are Mucilaginous : So that from these Instances , I may infer , that a crude Oyl diluted well with Water , makes a Mucilage ; which may be farther proved by the effects of a Mucilage , compared with the effects of Oyl .

Mucilages cause a smoothness in the Palat , and outwardly are Emollients , as Oyls be , and ripen Imposthumes ; inwardly they are more cool than Oyl , though of a congruous Nature : They defend the Throat from the sharpness of Rheums ; the Stomach from corrosive Humours or Medicines ; the Ureters from sharp Cholerick or Acid Urine ; and smooth the passages for the Stony Gravel ; they cool the hot scorbutick Blood , by their crude and ropy Parts , stop its violent Motion , and inviscate its Acrid Saline Particles . Oyls have a Mucilage joyned with them .

I distill'd some Gum-Arabick in an open Fire , and in an Earthen Retort , and found an Acid Spirit of a smoaky Smell , and a good quantity of Oyl ; but the Earthy parts exceeded all , Gum-Arabick being a clammy Mucilage .

But I cannot but think the Mucilage in Comphrey , which tastes as if Meal and Water were mixed together , depends upon a mixture of some Farinaceous Parts , which are the immediate Causes of Mucilages , ( which Farinaceous Particles are resolvible into Oyl and Water chiefly , and have the same Principles as other Mucilages ) and which are proper nourishment for the Parenchymous Parts of Plants : These being in plenty mixed with Water , cause a slimy Slipperiness , observable by rubbing in the Fingers , as well as by the Taste : Such is the Mucilage in Althaea , Mallows , Typha , &c. which also being dryed to Powder , produce a sort of Mealy Powder . All the Farinaceous Plants , as Barley , Oats , Wheat , do yield an Oyl . And Bonetus gives us an Instance of Roots of Althaea , which applied in the form of a Pultis , raised Blisters ; and Comphrey-Roots discuss Gouty Tumors : So that these crude Mucilages have more Volatile parts frequently mixed with them .

Those diversities of Taste that arise from Mucilage Compounded , are either Cool or Hot.

The Acid is obvious in the most bitter Plants , as in Extracts of Worm-wood and Horehound , and in all Extracts : In the Plant they are not perceived , because of the Strength of the Bitterness that affects the Palat most ; though the Acids temper the Bitter , and the Bitter the Acid.

Acids are never alter'd in the Plant , so as to lose their Nature , though they undergo divers Mixtures ; but when they are reduc'd into Volatile Salts , by being compounded with Oyl and Earth .

Acids mixt with much Water , are the purest Acids .

Acids mixt with a little Water , and much Earth , produce an Astringent Taste .

Acids with Water and Earth more loosly mixt , produce a rough Taste ; as in Sloes , which is a greater degree of Astringency : And in this Taste the Acid and Earth are in equal quantity .

The Fourth Acid Composition is Acid Oleose , as in Terebinthinates ; and these always have an Astringency joyn'd to the Bitterness , which arises from the Oyl and Acid in Turpentine .

ASTRINGENTS are ,

Either Watry-Astringents , in which Water is most plentiful ; which are convenient in hot Diseases , with Fluxes of Blood , or Stools ; as Plantane , Knot-Grass .

I distill'd the Roots of Flaggs in an open Fire , and had a great deal of Acid , and very little Fetid Oyl , and much Caput mortuum : This was like the distill'd Liquor of Woods .

Bitter-Astringents ; where the Astringency is mitigated by the Bitterness , which depends on a crude Turpentine : These , by their Bitterness , make the Astringent Faculty more agreeable to the Stomach and Blood : By their Bitterness they help and preserve the mixture of the Blood ; and by their Astringency , which is an Acid in potentia , precipitate some Feverish parts , which are separated from the mixture of the Blood ; so Jesuits Powder works ; and Tormentil-Roots have been us'd for the same purpose ; and so may the Barks of That taste . 'T is manifest , that upon giving the Jesuits Powder , a sharpness of Vrine is sometimes observable ; and when it succeeds , the Water , which at first look'd like Strong Beer , high colour'd , and reddish , turns after a while muddy ; the separable Feverish Sediment is precipitated , and the top of the Vrine is thin and clear , by the separation of Parts : So that , after the use of the Jesuits Powder , whose Vertues are evident to the Taste , being bitter Astringent , the prevailing Bitterness preserves the mixture of the Blood , and the Astringency separates some easily-separable Parts ; which not continuing in their right equal Mixture with the rest of the Blood , cause the Fever , as being Heterogeneous , and raise a Fermentative Commotion for their Segregation . And it is usual with Practisers , to guess and assert the Alterations in the Blood , to correspond to those observable in the Water . It may be , our Country cannot afford such an exact Mixture of Bitter and Astringent , as in the Jesuits Bark ; but I believe it does .

It may be , we cannot mix Bitter and Astringent Tastes , in the same Proportion , as Nature has done in the Cortex : However , it 's evident , that these Qualities of Bitter-Astringent are in the Cortex ; and we cannot imagine any other so probable to work those Effects which it does ; for Tormentil-Root and Cinquefoyl have been tryed and approv'd in putting off Agues .

Sweetish Astringents , or the Fern-Tastes , which have a slight Bitterness also . These Ferns are good Vulneraries , stop Fluxes , and abate the Fermentation of the Blood in Hypochondriack Scurveys , by their Crudity and Astringency : So Chalybeats , as Vitriol of Mars , taste sweet Astringent ; the Sweetness is most perceptible in the Polypody-Root . In the Female Fern the Mucilage is great ; the Astringency is evident in the Male , and in Lonchitis ; but in the Leaves of Osmunda , the Mucilage ; in the Root , the Astringency , Bitterness , and Orris Smell . Maiden-Hair is Sweet-Astringent , which seems to me the true Character of a Fern-Taste ; though some Varieties are observable , as I have noted .

The Aromatick-Astringent must be consider'd amongst the Aromaticks .

THe Fourth Principle our Senses discover in Plants , is Oyl , which produces Bitterness , and Aromatick Tastes , plain Turpentine , and Fetid Smells , with a Taste contrary to an Aromatick .

The most crude state of Oyl Vegetable , is in Mucilages and Sweetness ; the next is in Bitters , which have their Taste from a Turpentine mixed with much Earth , and fixed by an Acid ; as the following Instances will convince .

Hypericon Leaves , the Roots of Valerian , Herb Robert , and especially the Leaves of Chamaepitys , or Groundpine , taste Bitter , and smell of Turpentine : The Taste of Turpentine it self , is Bitter ; and so is the Taste of most Gums , which are the product of Turpentine Trees , and Plants ; as Myrrh , Ammoniacum , &c.

If we consider how many Plants are Aromatick , arising from Turpentine , how many are Resinous , and the constant Greenness of many Trees and Plants , which depends on Turpentine ( which did not Freeze in the hard Winters ) ; It will seem more probable that Bitterness depends on Turpentine , which is Compounded of Oyl , Acid and Gumminess .

Bitters yield a great deal of Oyl by Distillation , as Wormwood , Centaury , Bitter Almonds ; Olives have also a Bitterness .

The Milk of Bitter Plants , as Sonchus , Jacea , and Celandine , is exceeding Bitter ; and it must needs be allowed , that the Milk is Oyl , diluted by much Water . Bitters have generally some Fetid Smell , or Aromatick Odour : which shews us , that Bitter Plants abound in Oyl , from whence Odors chiefly arise . The Flowers of Orange and Elders , are Bitter ; and so are the Fragrant Flowers of other Trees , as Sloe-Trees , Jessamy , Roses , Hawthorne , Lilies of the Valley .

The Turpentine in Bitters , is fixed by an Acid , which readily coagulates the Oleous Parts , if it be a strong Acid ; but a mild Acid only detains Oleous Particles in their mixture with Water ; as it appears by Milk ; for in the making of Butter , the Oyl is visibly separated in the form of Butter ; and the Acid , which kept it fluid , is apparently in the Butter-milk . This Acid by dividing the viscous Oleous parts of the Butter , rendred it fluid in the Milk ; and from thence its Whiteness depends .

In Distillation of Fats and Oyls , an Acid appears ; as also in the Distillation of Gums , which may artificially be produced , by the mixing of Oyl and Acid.