30 History of Luminescence 



be shadowed, and make no shew. These glowbards never appeare before 

 hay is ripe upon the ground, ne yet after it is cut downe. 



The time of year when glowworms appear is again emphasized 

 in Book XVIII, Chap. 26, " On husbandrie." Speaking of various 

 grains, he wrote: 



Now the signe common to them both, testifying as well the ripenesse 

 of the one [barley] as the Seednes of the other [Panicke and Millet], are 

 the glo-birds or glo-wormes, Cicindelae, shining in the evening over the 

 corne fields: for so the rusticall paisants and country clownes call cer- 

 taine flies or wormes glowing and glittering star-like; and the Greeks 

 name them Lampyrides: wherein we may see the wonderfull bountie and 

 incredible goodnesse of Nature, in teaching us by that fillie creature. 



Pliny used the word lampyrides, but the most common medieval 

 Latin name, cicindelae, was applied to beetles which light during 

 flight, although many other names have been used, without much 

 reference to the winged or wingless condition. According to Muffet 



(1658: 975) — " The Latines call it [the glowworm] Cicindela,''° Noc- 

 ticula, Nitedula,''^ Lucio, Lucula, Luciola, Flamis, Venus, Lucernuta, 

 Incendula, as appears out of Cicero, Pliny, Scoppa,''^ Varro,''^ Festus,''* 

 Plautus, Scaliger,''^ Turnehus,''^ Albertiis,''^ and Silvaticus." '^^ It will 

 be noted that the list includes medieval as well as classic designa- 

 tions. Hesychius (fifth or sixth century a. d.) merely spoke of 

 Cantharis. 



The luminous mollusc, Pholas dactylus, called a piddock in Eng- 

 land, is mentioned twice by Pliny in Book IX. Pliny emphasized 



(Chap. 61) the " wonderfull qualities " of this animal: '^^ 



■"• The word has been spelled in every possible way, cicindula, cicendela, etc. Many 

 references will be found in D. du Cange, Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis 

 (1883-1887). 



'^Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 b. c.) used the word nitedula for a dormouse (Pro 

 Sest. 72) , the commonly accepted meaning, but C. Gesner and A. Kircher apply nitedula 

 (or nitela) to the firefly. 



''^Probably Scioppius (Caspar Schoppe, 1576-1649) who edited Varro's De lingua 

 Latina. 



''^ T. Terentius Varro (116-27 b. c.) author of De lingua Latina called the firefly, 

 lampas domestica. 



''* Pompeius Festus, the second century lexicogiapher, who revised the lexicon of 

 Verrius Flaccus. His lexicon was epitomized by Paulus Diaconus (735-793) . 



''^Julius Caesar Scaliger (1485-1558), who wrote De causis linguae Latinae (1540). 



''^ Adrianus Turnebus (1512-1565), the French classical scholar; Albertus, Albertus 

 Magnus. 



'^ Possibly Bernard Silvester of Tours, who lived in the twelfth century and wrote 

 Megacosmos and Microcosmos. 



'* Athenaeus of Naucratis, who lived in the third century a. d. in his Deipnosophistae 

 (Book III, sec. 35) mentions dactyli as very nutritious but with a disagreeable smell. 

 He did not refer to their light (The Deipnosophists or banquet of the learned, trans, 

 by C. D. Yonge, 1: 146, 1854) . 



