TOLYAXDUfA. 



copia of young sprouting plants,, which, after a time, 

 loosen from their cells and take root in the mud. 



This Plant is also a native of Kg)'pt, and was com- 

 mon to the Nile, in the time of Herodotus, who, after 

 speaking of the Nymphcea Lotus, before mentioned, 

 which he considered as a Liliaceous plant, says; 

 ''There are likewise other Lilies like Roses: and 

 these too grow in the River Nile; whose fructifica- 

 tion is produced in a separate capsula, springing like 

 a sucker from the root, in appearance exactly resem- 

 bling a wasps nest. In this are a number of esculent 

 seeds, about the size of the olive berry. These are 

 are also eaten when tender, and dry." 



This plant would seem to have been newly im- 

 ported into Italy when Virgil is supposed to have 

 written his Eclogue entitled Folio. It is there men- 

 tioned by the name Coloiasia, and its geneial culti- 

 vation is alluded to as one of the blessings of the gold- 

 en age, which, in the poet's imagination, was about 

 to return. = Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and Pliny, all 

 mention this plant; and, on the authority of the two 

 last we are assured, that the Cyamus and Colocasia'' 

 are the same. 



f Herodotus Lib. ii. (Euterpe) "Ecii 11 x=t a.K>.a x^i'-.ia 

 poJcis-i £/x<j)£f>e , — Edit. Wesselin. p. 144. 



S \t tibi pritua, pucr, nullo munusculi cultu, 

 Errantes cderas passim cum baccare, te-lus, 

 Mixtaqie ridenti colncasia fundct acantho. Eel. iv. 



In Egypto nobilibsmia est Colccasia, quam Cyamon aliqui 

 vocaut. 



