2l6 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



time as hardly any where to be feen. He tells us 

 that a Tingle plant of it had been found, under 

 the reign of Nero, and that it was Terçt to this 

 Prince as a great curiofity. 



Modern Botanifts pretend, that the lazerpitium 

 is the Tame plant with the jilphium of our gardens. 

 But they are evidently in an error, from the de- 

 Tcriptions which the Ancients, and, among others, 

 Vliny and Diofcerides have left us of it. For my 

 own part, I have no doubt that the lazerpitium is 

 of the number of the vegetables which are def- 

 ined to flit along the Earth, from Eaft to Weft, 

 and from Weft to Eaft. It is, perhaps, at prefent, 

 on the weftern (bores of Africa, whither the eas- 

 terly winds may have conveyed it's Teeds; per- 

 haps, likewiTe, by the revolutions of the wefterly 

 winds, it may have returned to the place where it 

 was in the days of Augufius ; or it may have been 

 conveyed into the plains of Ethiopia, among Na- 

 tions totally unacquainted with it's pretended won- 

 derful qualities. 



. Pliny enumerates a great many other vegetables, 

 which are, at this day, to us equally unknown. It 

 may merit obfervation, that thofe vegetable appa- 

 ritions have been contemporary with Teveral Tpecies 

 of flitting birds, which have likewiTe diTappeared. 

 It is well known that there are Teveral clafles of 



bircte, 



