Cod

There is a Cod, or Bag, that groweth commonly in the Fields;

The Bunt is to a Sail,[The Bunt of a Sail.] as the Cod to a Net, being the very Pouch, or Bag of the Sail; and therefore all Sails have this Bunt,

Perspective view of the gear, showing important parts: b, beam; bl. belly; br, brail; bt, bating; c cod end, or bag;

And he wolde fayne have filled his bely with the coddes, that the swyne ate: and noo man gave hym.

and I remember the wooing of a peascod instead of her, from whom I tooke two cods, and giuing her them againe, said with weeping teares, weare these for my sake: wee that are true Louers, runne into strange capers; but as all is mortall in nature, so is all nature in loue, mortall in folly.

1. Colutæa vesicaria vulgaris sylvestris. Ordinary Bastard Sene with bladders. This greater Bastard Sene groweth in time to be a tree of a reasonable greatnesse, the stem or trunck being of the bignesse of a mans arme or greater, covered with a blackish greene ragged barke, the wood whereof is harder then of an Elder, but with a pith in the middle of the branches which are divided many wayes, having divers winged leaves composed of many small round pointed or rather flat pointed leaves, set at severall distances, and somewhat like unto Licoris, or the Hatchet fitch, among which come forth yellow flowers like unto Broome flowers and as large; after which come thinne swelling cods, like unto thinne transparent bladders; wherein are conteined blacke seede set upon a middle ribbe within the bladders, which being alittle crushed betweene the fingers, will give a cracke like a bladder full of winde: the roote groweth great and wooddy, branching forth divers wayes.

its Cods are very crooked and ill ſhaped

As soon as it is arrived at the size and strength necessary for the beginning its cod, it makes its web; this is his first day's employment; on the second he forms his cod, and covers himself almost over with silk; the third day he is quite hid; and the following days employs himself in thickening and strengthening his cod; always working from one single end, which he never breaks himself; and which is so fine, and so long, that those who have nicely examin'd it affirm, that each cod contains silk enough to reach the length of six English miles.