and the smaller vessells with the like infusion, that had instead of fish glew Gum[altered from 'gum'] Tragacanth dissolved in it. The infusion made with wine, did so plentifully flow from the spunges over all the boards, as to soake deepe into the pores, & make the worke looke as if it were varnished, & [ 'did' deleted] thereby did so preserve the wood, as well as the other, parts, that thô they have been made these[altered from 'them'] 16 years, and past the seas, I could not perceive any wormhole or sign of Corruption in any one of them. This way was deliver'd me by word of Mouth by the excellent Author himself, when I was alone with him [ 'by himself' deleted] in his study, vewing those accurate pieces.

Doctor M. overseer of the Duke of Orleans's famous Physic garden at Blois, assur'd me, that he had divers times growing three Pumpions that weighed 20,30, or more pounds a piece; and that once seeing a prodigiously vast fruit of that kind, in so much that a man could scarse commodiously take it up and carry it away, he caus'd it to be carryed to a shop that was not far off, where there was a very large balance for weighing bulky and heavy <wares>[replacing 'weighers', Boyle hand] where <the weight of> this Pompion amounted to no les then 88 pound.

The same Doctor told me, that haveing sowed the seeds of Pompions, and <taken note of>[replacing 'observd'] what they produced, he found that the seeds of the self same Pompion, yielded fruits that differ'd, even in their outward shape, allmost as if they had been of distinct kinds [ 'same' deleted] as smooth <rough,>Salcate &c