reasons why it certainly
is that very plant, whose fruits the _Egyptian_ queen recommended to
_Helen_, as a certain cure for pain and grief of all sorts, and which
She ever after kept by her as her most precious jewel, and made use of
as a _Panacaea_ upon all occasions.

The great Dr. _Bentley_ calls it more than once _Machaera Herculis_,
having proved out of the fragments of a _Greek_ Poet, that of this tree
was made that club with which the hero is said to have overcome the
fifty wild daughters of _Thespius_, but which Queen _Omphale_ afterwards
reduced to a distaff. Others have thought the celebrated _Hesperian_
trees were of this sort; and the very name of _Poma Veneris_, frequently
given by Authors to the fruits of this tree, is a sufficient proof these
were really the _Apples_ for which three Goddesses contended in so warm
a manner, and to which the Queen of beauty had undoubtedly the strongest
title.

The vertues are so many, a large volume might be wrote of them. The
juice taken inwardly cures the green-sickness and other infirmities of
the like sort, and is a true specific in most disorders of the fair sex.
It indeed often causes tumours in the umbilical region; but even those
being really of no ill consequence, disperse of themselves in a few
Months.

It chears the heart, and exhilarates the mind, quiets jars, feuds and
discontents, making the most churlish tempers surprizingly kind and
loving. Nor have private persons only been the better for this
reconciling vertue, but whole states and kingdoms, nay, the greatest
empires in the world have often received the benefit of it; the most
destructive wars have been ended, and the most friendly treaties been
produced, by a right application of this universal medicine among the
chief of the contending parties.

If any person is desirous to see this excellent and wonderful plant in
good perfection, he may meet with it at the aforementioned Mr _Bowen's_
garden at _Lambeth_, who calls it _The Silver-Spoon Tree_; and is at all
times ready to oblige his friends with the sight of it.

THE Ridotto al' Fresco, A POEM.

What various Arts attempts the am'rous Swain,
To force the Fair, or her Consent to gain--
Now _Balls_, now _Masquerades_ his Care employ,
And _Play_ and Park alternately give Joy--
Industrious _H----gg----r_, whose magick Brains
Still in their Shell the _Recipe_ retains
Like some good Midwife brings the Plot to light
And helps