THE TEEES AKD SnRUES OF THE ANCIE^'TS. 535 



lation, which, as we perfectly agree with him, "will be found to 

 embrace an identification of a greater number of Greek and Boman 

 plants than is contained in any former English publication," and we 

 may add, as far as they go, much more to be relied upon. We believe, 

 at the same time, that every other inquirer pursuing the subject 

 with the same means at his disposal, and the same anxiety to get at 

 the truth, must inevitably come to the same conclusion, that, " in 

 consequence of the vagueness of the descriptions of classical writers, 

 and the loose manner in which they noted the characters of the 

 plants that came under their observation," it is scarcely possible, 

 " except in the case of a few conspicuous and important species, to 

 do more than point out with some degree of probability, the natural 

 family, or at most, the genus to which the classical designation 

 appeared intended to apply." The result of Dr. Daubeny's critical 

 notes is summed up in a catalogue of about 140 genera, and nearly 

 100 species, of Greek and Italian trees and shrubs, referred with 

 more or less probability to their classical appellations. 



"We join with Dr. Daubeny in deploring the servile manner in 

 which ancient writers were in the habit of copying from each other 

 the facts they gave, mixed up with old fables, instead of observing 

 for themselves, but as some excuse we may allude to the difficulty of 

 avoiding it, even in modern days, in all general works which must 

 include more or less of compilation. A striking instance may be 

 pointed out even in the work before us, where pp. 84 and 35, Dr. 

 Daubeny has inadvertently given further currency to some of the 

 many absurd fables put forth in a recent article on Conifers, in the 

 "Edinburgh Eeview," and exposed by Dr. A. Gray, in " SilHman's 

 Journal." Bernard de Jussieu did not bring a seedling of the 

 Cedar from the Holy Land, nor did he stint himself of water to 

 keep his plant alive. The Cedar which he brought without any 

 romantic difficulties from England in his hat, a very common recep- 

 tacle for a travelling botanist's plants, and planted in 1734, still 

 stands in its original site, in the Jardin des Plantes, and no railway 

 comes near it. 



