25G THE JOUKNAL OF IJOTANY 



is hardly fair to give risciolo as the Italian equivalent of Cerasus : 

 the cherry is universally known as ciliegio in Tuscany and as ceraso 

 in the south ; visciolo would not be generally understood, and is only 

 to be used in a special sense. Though it is true that in many parts 

 of the countr}^ Ferula is absent or rare, yet it thickly covers many 

 miles of the Apulian plain. The account of IlcUehorus, though 

 correct, is so obscurely worded that the non-botanist might suppose 

 that Linnaeus had given this name to the genus Veratrum ! As for 

 Myrica, Tamarix africana is just as plentiful as fjallica on the 

 southern and Sicilian coasts. Thy mum, as w^e are told, probably 

 included both Thymus vulgaris and Thymus capitatus to the exclu- 

 sion of ^erpyllum. The thyme of Tarentum praised by Horace as 

 equal to that of Hymettus is identical with the Attic in scent and 

 flavour, wliich depend on the profusion of Thymus capitaius and 

 Saiureia cuneifolia on the rocky hills, but nowhere is T. vulgaris 

 of the western coast plentiful enough to be the predominant honey- 

 flower. In the case of Crocus Maw's monograph would have been a 

 better guide than Arcangeli. 



There remain a few real "howlers" that we cannot pass over. 

 The Italian name for the silver fir, Abies pectinata, is ahete bianco 

 not abete rosso, which is the spruce and does not extend to the 

 Apennines. Acanthus mollis is not "a scrofularious plant," but 

 gives its name to the order Acanfhacece. Under Cupressus the 

 language implies that Theophrastus was wrong in believing the 

 cypress' to be native in Crete. Theophrastus was right: in the 

 mountains of Sphakia in southern Crete it forms a forest between 

 2000' and 4500 , which is easily seen in clear weather on the voyage 

 from Tai-anto to Port Said as a dark patch on the mountains. Under 

 Laurus we are told that "the true laurel is the bay- — Laura nobilis — 

 from which we get camphor and cinnamon " : those products would 

 be less expensive if the statement were true. It is a cruel trap for 

 the general reader who may not know that the genera Camphora and 

 Cinnamomum (in wliich Camphora is now included) l)elong to the 

 order Lauracece. Of Medica we read "its name of i^ujCik)] refers to a 

 supposed Persian (sc. Median) origin, but I do not find that it occurs 

 in Asia either wild or cultivated." Did it not occur to the author to 

 consult Boissier's Flora OrierJalis, where he would find Lucerne 

 quoted from Bithynia, Galatia, Lycia, the Taurus, Lebanon, Armenia, 

 the eastern Caucasus, northern and southern Persia, Afghan istau, 

 and Beluchistan? Finns halepensis (misspelt) is said on p. I02 to 

 be the dominant pine on Mount Ida : if Ida of the Troad is meant, 

 the dominant pine there is the Corsican {Laricio) not the Aleppo 

 {halepensis), which is an inhabitant of the coasts and lower hills 

 of the eastern Mediterranean, but does not climb up to the mountanis. 

 In spite of such blunders the many gossipy digressions and quaint 

 observations make this little book attractive, but it cannot become 

 the much-needed standard key to an understanding of VirgiFs Flora. 

 Probably a definitive judgement on many of VirgiFs plants will 

 always be impossible ; an accurate and accessible study of Pliny's 

 botany would be the first step. If Mr. Sargeaunt would under- 

 take such a work and then rewrite his Virgilian handbook, he would 

 do a service to modern plant nomenclature as well as to classical 

 stud v. ^' C. L. 



