012 FLORA IIISTORTCA. 



them ; and this accounts for our so frequently 

 finding them deficient in the virtues ascribed to 

 them by the natives, to whom many plants become 

 aoTeeable and ^Yholesome, from custom and other 

 causes, which, with us, would act as a violent and 

 dangerous medicine. 



The materia medica of the most ancient phy- 

 sicians, that have been handed down to us through 

 the languages of different countries, seem all to 

 have derived the foundation of their knowledge 

 originally from the Arabians ; and as the present 

 European name of Doronicum is derived from the 

 Arabic Doron'uji or Durugi, it is probable that 

 this plant was in some celebrity with these wander- 

 ing tribes, who must, of necessity,' have made them- 

 selves acquainted with the qualities of herbs. 



The trivial name of this species of Doronicum is 

 derived from the Greek Pardalio, Leopard, and 

 Agcho (pr. Angcho), to strangle : hence our name 

 of Leopard's Bane, because it was said to cause the 

 death of any animal that ate it ; and it was there- 

 fore formerly mixed with flesh to destroy leopards. 



Martyn observes Ci that this plant has been 

 stigmatized as poisonous, seemingly without much 

 reason ;" and he adds, " the famous Conrad Gesner 

 took two drains of the root without injury." But 

 we are informed, in the Historla Plantarum 

 ascribed to Boerhaave, that Gesner took some of 



