122 THE CLASSICAL PLANTS OF SICILY. 
lui donnent un éclat particulier.” Voyage du Levant, vol. i. 
Let. 12. 
Dr. Walsh, in ** An account of Plants growing in the neigh- 
bourhood of Constantinople,” (see Horticult. Trans. vol. vi. 
p. 43.) says, “It is a rare plant, and after a search of three 
years, I only found a single specimen growing over the wall 
of an hospital in the vicinity of Pera. The whole appearance 
and character of the plant are very different from the Black 
Ivy. It is still sold in the herb shops of Constantinople, and 
used medicinally.” 
The edition (1826) of Donn’s Hortus Cantab. p. 86, has 
marked, that this plant was first cultivated in Britain in the 
year 1821. Itis worthy of a place in our gardens, as being 
so truly classical a species. Dioscorides, lib. ii. cap. 210, de- 
scribes a sort of Ivy, xsoòs, which bears yellow, or saffron- 
coloured fruit, x«ezi» xgoxiČora, and was commonly named the 
ss Dionysian,"—; 07) xai idsaires Aroviorov ovo, — Theophrastus, 
lib. iii. cap. 18, makes no mention of the yellow sort. It was 
anciently used for crowning Bacchanalians, tragic, comic, and 
other poets; Pliny says of it,—alii semen crocatum, cujus 
coronis Poete utuntur, foliis minus nigris, quam quidem 
Nysiam alii Bacchicam vocant, ———— —apud Greecos, 
à colore acinorum chrysocarpum. (Hist, Nat. 
lib. xvi. cap. 34.)—It is the Hedera Poetica of Gaspard 
Bauhin.—Thus Virgil,— 
Hanc sine tempora circiun 
Inter Victrices Hederam tibi serpere lauros. 
Theocritus mentions the head of Priapus crowned with it,— 
Epig. iii. v. 3.— 
ô roy Kgoxóevra, Tleinarog 
Kiooby iQ imepra neath xaüorrójusvog. 
Again, in Idyl. i. v. 30, where the sculptured cup is described, 
are the following lines, — 
Kuecbc Quygücw xexowojuévog* & Ò xar durdy 
Kaora "EME dedos dyurroueve Keonótvri. 
