“So, slowe Boötes vnderneath him sees,
In th’ ycy iles, those goslings hatcht of trees;
Whose fruitfull leaues, falling into the water,
Are turn’d (they say) to liuing fowls soon after.
So, rotten sides of broken ships do change
To barnacles; O transformation strange!
’Twas first a greene tree, then a gallant hull,
Lately a mushrom, now a flying gull.”
For the reason which will appear in the sequel, it is deemed advisable to reproduce here the elaborate description of “the goose tree, barnacle tree, or the tree bearing geese”, given by the learned John Gerard, in his Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes, of which the first edition was published in 1597:—
“There are found in the north parts of Scotland and the islands adiacent, called Orchades, certain trees, whereon do grow certaine shells of a white colour tending to russet, wherein are contained little liuing creatures: which shells in time of maturitie do open, and out of them grow those little liuing things, which falling into the water do become fowles, which we call barnakles; in the north of England, brant geese; and in Lancashire, tree geese: but the other that do fall vpon the land perish and come to nothing. Thus much by the writings of others, and also from the mouths of people of those parts, which may very well accord with truth.