BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 349 
whole of the 13th volume, sect.2, of DeCandolle's “Prodromus” (Phyto- 
laccee, Salsolacee, Amaranthacee), &c., in conjunction with the veteran 
botanist, M. Requien of Avignon, is, we understand, preparing a Flora 
of the Island of Corsica. Such a work could not be in better hands. 
Plants of Candia and of Greece. * 
Mr. Theodor von Heldreich (from Athens) is at this time in London, 
directing the distribution of his extensive collections of Oriental plants. 
The most recently gathered are a very fine set from Candia, and another 
from Greece. Amongst them are some entirely new species, and many 
of great rarity, and some of Sibthorpe’s scarcest kinds. All are cor- 
rectly named, and arranged according to the system of De Candolle. 
Our own set consists of 785 species. Besides the specimens, we are 
favoured by M. von Heldreich, for the Museum at the Royal Gardens, 
with a portion, nearly four feet long and three inches in diameter, of a 
stem of the true Napéné of Dioscorides (Ferula communis), or the 
Ferula of the ancients, and of which it is remarked by Tournefort that 
it preserves its old name among the modern Greeks, who call it 
Nartheca. “It bears a stalk,” continues that author, “five feet high 
and sites inches thick, At every ten inches there is a knot, and it is 
branched at each knot. The bark is hard, two lines thick: the hollow 
of the stem is filled with a white medulla, which, being well dried, 
takes fire like a match. The fire holds for a good while, slowly con- 
suming the pith, without injuring the bark, and the stem is therefore 
much used for carrying fire from place to place. Our sailors laid in a 
store of it. This custom is of the highest antiquity, and may explain 
a passage in Hesiod, where, speaking of the fire that Prometheus stole 
from Heaven, he says that he brought it in a Ferula:—the fact being, pro- 
bably, that Prometheus invented the steel that strikes fire from flint, 
and used the pith of the Ferula for a match, teaching men how to pre- 
serve the fire in these stalks. The stem is strong enough to be leaned 
upon, but too light to inflict injury in striking ; and therefore Bacchus, 
one of the greatest legislators of antiquity, commanded that men who 
drank wine should carry staves of this plant, with which they might, 
during intoxication, smite each other, and yet not break heads. e 
Priests of this Deity supported themselves om sticks of Ferula, when 
