8 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



the attention of King Charles III of Naples. He ordered 

 excavations to be made, similar to those which had already 

 been made in Herculaneum, and since that time those mar- 

 velous statues, bronzes, and beautiful wall-paintings have been 

 collected, and now form the great attraction of the National 

 Museum at Naples.* 



Besides the large statues there are thousands of small 

 household articles such as vases, lamps, mirrors in bronze, 

 and others. A new era in art, especially of art in con- 

 nection with industry, began, and the most common things 

 of daily life were refined in their forms, in taking the 

 Pompeiian ones as models. 



Many seeds and fruits all in a charred state were also found. 

 However, the plants in the wall-paintings drew more atten- 

 tion, and in 1851 the Danish botanist and plant geographer, 

 Schouw, published a popular article concerning them, also 

 including some of the seeds. In his book, "Die Erde, die 

 Pflanzeundder Mensch," Leipzig, 1851, German edition by H. 

 Zeise, Schouw enumerates the following plants from the wall- 

 paintings: Pine-nuts, cypress, Pinus halepensis, oleander, 

 ivy, date-palm, dwarf-palm ( Chamaerops humilis), barley, 

 millet, asparagus, onions, radishes, turnips (rapes), figs, 

 pears, apples, cherries, almonds, plums, peaches, granates, 

 medlars. 



Of the seeds found in the excavations, Schouw names sweet 

 pine-kernels, wheat, barley, broad-beans ( Vicia Fdba) and a 

 glass with preserved olives, which he relates had retained 

 their flavor when they were dug out. I have seen perhaps 

 the same olives, which are now in glass tubes, preserved, I 

 believe, in oil. 



But Schouw points out that there are many plants lacking, 

 which now form the typical character of the Flora of Italy. 

 Such are, besides the white mulberry, Morus alba, now used 

 as food for the silkworm, all species of the genus Citrus, the 

 lemons, the grape-fruits, the citron, a thick shelled lemon, 



* There is now also a fine representation of an ancient room from 

 Bosco Reale, near Pompeii, in the Metropolitan Museum of Arts and Science 

 in New York. 



