_Scheme_.)_ Ita ut Apiarium marinum vere dixeris;
primo enim intuitu e Mare ad Terram delatum, vermiculis scatebat caeruleis
parvis, qui mox a calore solis in Muscas, vel Apes potius, easq; exiguas &
nigras transformebantur, circumvolantesque evanescebant, ita ut de eorum
mellificatione nihil certi conspici datum fuerit, cum tamen caerosa materia
propolis Apumque cellae manifeste apparerent, atque ipsa mellis
qualiscunque substantia proculdubio urinatoribus patebit, ubi curiosius
inquisiverint haec apiaria, eaque in natali solo & salo diversis temporibus
penitius lustrarint_.
Which History contains things sufficiently strange to be consider'd, as
whether the husk were a Plant, growing at the bottom of the Sea before, of
it self, out of whose putrifaction might be generated these strange kind of
Magots; or whether the seed of certain Bees, sinking to the bottom, might
there naturally form it self that vegetable hive, and take root; or,
whether it might not be placed there by some diving Fly; or, whether it
might not be some peculiar propriety of that Plant, whereby it might ripen
or form its vegetable juice into an Animal substance; or, whether it may
not be of the nature of a Sponge, or rather a Sponge of the nature of this,
according to some of those relations and conjectures I formerly made of
that body, is a matter very difficult to be determined.
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