though in a Solution of Salt of Tartar, they afforded a Green Blewish
Tincture, yet I did not by an Acid Liquor obtain a Red one; all that the
Saline Spirit I imploy'd, perform'd, being (if I much misremember not) to
Dilute Somewhat the Yellowness of the Leaves. I would also have tried the
Tincture of Yellow Violets, but could procure none. And if I were in those
Islands of _Banda_, which are made Famous as well as Rich, by being the
almost only places, where Cloves will prosper, I should think it worth my
Curiosity to try, what Operation the three differing Kinds of Salts, I have
so often mention'd, would have upon the Juice of this Spice, (express'd at
the several Seasons of it) as it grows upon the Tree. Since good Authors
inform us, (of what is remarkable) that these whether Fruits, or Rudiments
of Fruits, are at first _White_, afterward _Green_, and then _Reddish_,
before they be beaten off the Tree, after which being Dry'd before they are
put up, they grow _Blackish_ as we see them. And one of the recentest
_Herbarists_ informs us, that the Flower grows upon the top of the Clove it
self, consisting of four small Leaves, like a Cherry Blossom, but of an
excellent _Blew_. But (_Pyrophilus_) to return to our own Observations, I
shall add, that I the rather choose, to mention to you an Example drawn
from Roses, because that though I am apt to think, as I elsewhere
advertise, that something may be guess'd at about some of the Qualities of
the Juices of Vegetables, by the Resemblance or Disparity that we meet with
in the Changes made of their Colours, by the Operation of the same kinds of
Salts; yet that those Conjectures should be very warily made, may appear
among other things, by the Instance I have chosen to give in Roses. For
though, (as I formerly told you) the Dry'd Leaves, both of the Damask, and
of Red ones, give a Red Tincture to Water sharpen'd with Acid Salts, yet
the one sort of Leaves is known to have a Purgative faculty,[20] and the
other are often, and divers ways, imploy'd for Binding.

[20] See _Parkinson_ Th. Boran. Trib. 9. cap. 26.