8 Dr. Smith's Remarks on the Seduin ochroleucum. 



common species in various parts of the continent of Greece, as 

 well as in almost all the Greek islands, growing on rocks and 

 walls near the sea-side. At Athens it is pounded and applied as 

 a cooling cataplasm to bruises or to gouty limbs, being called 

 KoXXcj^/Ja by the Athenians of the present day. Its most general 

 names however in modern Greek are Ajcta^avro and 1ra,(pvXa.xi. 



The three species of Aet^aov or Sempervivum in Dioscorides 

 seem to have been misunderstood. The 1st, Aei^aov ro yyiya,, hi- 

 therto taken by Matthiolus and others for the Common House- 

 leek, Sempervivum tectorum, is justly referred by Dr. Sibthorp, 

 as well as Clusius, to Sempervivum arborcum, with which the de- 

 scription of Dioscorides, more full than usual, most admirably 

 agrees, and not at all with the tectorum. The 2d, As/^wei/ 70 

 fji,iK^oi/, or Sempervivum minus, was taken by Matthiolus for Sedum 

 album, and by Dr. Sibthorp, not without much doubt, for Sem- 

 pervivum hirtum; but I have no scruple at all in referring it to 

 my present Sedum ochroleucum, a plant probably not known to 

 Alatthiolus. Dioscorides says " it grows on walls, stones and 

 " banks, as well as about shady enclosures. Several slender 

 " stems," he adds, " spring from one root, thickly encompassed 

 " with little round succulent sharp-pointed leaves. It throws 

 " out, moreover, a stem towards the middle, about a span high, 

 " with an umbel of slender (greenish or) pale yellowish flowers. 

 " Its leaves have the same virtues with the former." — The virtues 

 alluded to of '" the former," or Sempcrviru)n arhorcutn, are cool- 

 ing and astringent ; whence Dioscorides recommends that plant 

 in inflammatory eruptions and the gout, lor which the Sedum 

 ochroleucum is used at present, as menti(med above. 



The 3d, Aei^mv iTegov, which is described as " heating, acrid 

 " and exulcerating, M'ith very small thick leaves," seems to be 

 Sedum acre, as Matthiolus and Clusius judged, though Dr. Sib- 

 thorp 



