192 



Scare avec lc Unocal is, qui paroit 6trc notre mercu- 

 rialeT I suppose this is from Oppian, bat no re- 

 ference is made : this, however, I will look to. " Les 

 anciens pecheurs avoient, ainsi que nous, des re- 

 cettes pour endormir le poisson, et aussi pour l'cra- 

 poisonner. Aristote nous apprend qu'ils era- 

 ployoient a cet usage l'ellebore. Suivant Oppien, on 

 faisait des gobbes pour enivrer le poisson avec du 

 cyclamen et de l'argile. Le cyclamen est une plante 

 a racine tubereuse que le vulgaire appelle pain de 

 por^eau, parceque cet animal en est tres friand. 

 Theophraste lui reconnoit entre autres proprietes, 

 celle d'endormir." — Hist. Plant, ix. c. 10. 



It is remarkable that the French writer should 

 say nothing of that passage in Aristotle which de- 

 scribes fish being caught tm ttXojlko ; for so it is 

 written. 



Will you be kind enough to give me your opinion 

 about the first statement respecting linocotis ; and 

 also if you have anything to remark concerning the 

 use of ellebore, as intoxicating? The three plants 

 that Sibthorp mentions with this quality are Co- 

 mma maculatum, Euphorbia Characias, and Verbas- 

 cum sinuatum. Will you also be good enough to 

 add the modern name of cyclamen ? 



I wrote some months ago to a gentleman who 

 was travelling in Greece on this subject ; and he 

 answers me, that one mode of catching fish is " by 

 means of tpXopoc, great Tithymal : they dam up part 

 of the water, and then throw into it some of the 

 herb : this intoxicates the fish, so that they float 

 on the water's surface, and are easily taken bv the 



