“Non ego coenam condio ut alii coqui solent,
        Qui mihi condita prata in patinis proferunt,
        Boves qui convivas faciunt, herbasque aggerunt.”

       “Like other cooks I do not supper dress,
          That put whole meadows into a platter,
        And make no better of their guests than beeves,
          With herbs and grass to feed them fatter.”

Our Italians and Spaniards do make a whole dinner of herbs and salads (which our said Plautus calls coenas terrestras, Horace, coenas sine sanguine), by which means, as he follows it,

[1367] “Hic homines tam brevem vitam colunt------
Qui herbas hujusmodi in alvum suum congerunt,
Formidolosum dictu, non esu modo,
Quas herbas pecudes non edunt, homines edunt.”

       “Their lives, that eat such herbs, must needs be short,
        And ’tis a fearful thing for to report,
        That men should feed on such a kind of meat,
        Which very juments would refuse to eat.”

[1368]They are windy, and not fit therefore to be eaten of all men raw, though qualified with oil, but in broths, or otherwise.  See more of these in every [1369]husbandman, and herbalist.

Roots.] Roots, Etsi quorundam gentium opes sint, saith Bruerinus, the wealth of some countries, and sole food, are windy and bad, or troublesome to the head:  as onions, garlic, scallions, turnips, carrots, radishes, parsnips:  Crato, lib. 2. consil. 11, disallows all roots, though [1370] some approve of parsnips and potatoes. [1371]Magninus is of Crato’s opinion, [1372]"They trouble the mind, sending gross fumes to the brain, make men mad,” especially garlic, onions, if a man liberally feed on them a year together.  Guianerius, tract. 15. cap. 2, complains of all manner of roots, and so doth Bruerinus, even parsnips themselves, which are the best, Lib. 9. cap. 14.

Fruits.] Pastinacarum usus succos gignit improbos.  Crato, consil. 21. lib. 1, utterly forbids all manner of fruits, as pears, apples, plums, cherries, strawberries, nuts, medlars, serves, &c. Sanguinem inficiunt, saith Villanovanus, they infect the blood, and putrefy it, Magninus holds, and must not therefore be taken via cibi, aut quantitate magna, not to make a meal of, or in any great quantity. [1373]Cardan makes that a cause of their continual sickness at Fessa in Africa, “because they live so much on fruits, eating them thrice a day.”  Laurentius approves of many fruits, in his Tract of Melancholy, which others disallow, and amongst the rest apples, which some likewise commend, sweetings, pearmains, pippins, as good against melancholy; but to him that is any way inclined to, or touched with this malady, [1374]Nicholas Piso in his Practics, forbids all fruits, as windy, or to be sparingly eaten at least, and not raw.  Amongst other fruits, [1375]Bruerinus, out of Galen, excepts grapes and figs, but I find them likewise rejected.