312 InsLiiule of France. 



species indicated by Theophrastus, but also in thobe mentioned 

 in the other Greek and Latin authors. 



Tlius the cliuru, which Cassar's soldiers discovered so fortu- 

 nately under the walls of Dyrrachium, and the roots of which 

 prevented them from starving, deserves well to be sought after. 

 At present this name is given to a small aquatic plant, vvhich cer- 

 tainly can afford nourishment to no person ; and tliere are a mul- 

 titude of contending opinions on the subject of the cknra of 

 Caesar. 



M. de Berneaux, after having examined and rejected all these 

 Opiinons successively, shows that the chara was a cabbage, and 

 thinks it was the species now known by the name of crambe 

 tataricit. In fact, this plant grous in great abundance in the en- 

 virons of Dyrrachium, and in all Hungary and Turkey : it has 

 vary long and thick roots, firm and well tasted, winch are eaten 

 raw or boiled in all the countries just mentioned, and which are 

 of great service in times of scarcity. 



Several Latin authors describe various marsli plants by the 

 name of i/lva ; but they mention one in particular as being 

 excellent food for sheep. As among the aquatic plants the fes^ 

 tvca Jiuiluns only is eaten by sheep, and as this grass covers a 

 great part of the Italian marshes, M. de Berneaux thinks the 

 above is the particular species of idva, and he also shows that 

 this is the grass denominated by Theophrastus and the Greeks 

 tnpha. 



The ancients boast much of the useful properties of the cy- 

 iisus ; but they describe it imperfectly, and the moderns differ 

 greatly as to the plant which ought to bear this name. Some 

 have been of o])inion that it is the tree lucern {medicaqo ar- 

 b.orea), M. de Berneaux, who has made copious researches into 

 this subject, thinks that it is rather our false ebony, cylimis la~ 

 tumum. But as Pliny speaks cltarly of this last tree "under the 

 name of Iftlnirnu-m^ and regards it as diflerent from the cyiisus; 

 and as on the other hand some parts of the dcsrcription given of 

 the cyihua by Dioscorides do not exactly suit it, M. de Ber- 

 ncaux's opinion does not seem quite well founded. It is to be 

 observed, however, that Pliny and other ancient naturalists are 

 very vague in th«ir desciiptions of plants. 



In the buds of trees, there are some which are not developed 

 with the rest, and wliich are called dead eyes, but which ought 

 rather to be called sleeping eyes, for it is possible to revive them 

 from this state of lethargy even when it has lasted several years. 

 It is owing in general to the tendency of the sap to go to the up- 

 ])er buds. The lower buds are thereby deprived of this nourish- 

 ing fluid. No inctnvenience arises from this process to trees 

 which are destined to yield wood or to afford a shade3 but in the 



fruit- 



