in Greek and Latin Authors. 23 



grow out of and near the roots of oaks and other trees. In 

 his treatise on odours (' De Odoribus,' Frag. iv. 3, ed. 

 Schneider) Theophrastus notes that the ^ivKrjreq which grow 

 in dung have no bad smell. This is all that Theophrastus 

 has said concerning fungi, and it is worth while to remark 

 that this most ancient Greek writer, who professedly dis- 

 courses on plants, has absolutely not left us anything suffi- 

 ciently descriptive to enable us to know definitely what most 

 of the above-named plants respectively denote. He seems to 

 have taken it for granted that the people of his time knew 

 what particular plants he was speaking of, and that therefore 

 there was no need of particular definite description. We have 

 to learn what fungi the Greek names really denote by com- 

 paring what Theophrastus has said with what other Greek 

 and Roman writers have recorded. The question of identity 

 of these names therefore shall wait until .we have brought 

 forward further evidence. 



After Theophrastus comes Nicander (B.C. circ. 185), a 

 physician, grammarian, and poet, who wrote on various sub- 

 jects ; but most of his works have been lost. His two poems, 

 the ' Theriaca ' and the ' Alexipharmaca,' in hexameter lines, 

 have been preserved to us. In the first-mentioned poem 

 Nicander discourses of venomous animals and the wounds 

 inflicted by them ; there is much absurd fable mixed up with 

 his zoological remarks, and perhaps Haller was not far wrong 

 when he described this treatise of nearly a thousand hexa- 

 meter lines as being "longa, incondita, et nullius fidei farrago." 

 The ' Alexipharmaca,' of about six hundred lines in the same 

 metre, treats of poisons and their antidotes, and is about as 

 valuable as his other poem. His Greek is obscure and full 

 of out-of-the-way words. Bentley, with great truth, called 

 Nicander " anticjuarium, obsoleta et casca verba venantem, 

 et vel sui saiculi lectoribus difficilem et obscurum." 



As Nicander is very seldom read and his works are in few 

 private libraries, it may be well to quote his lines on fungi as 

 a sample of his style and diction : — 



Mr] pkv 817 (vpcopa kcikov xBovos avepa Kr)8ot 

 ttoWclki. fxev (Trepvoiatv avoihiov, ciWore S' dy^ov, 

 evO'' V7r6 (pcoXevovra rpafpfi fiadiiv 6\koi> e^t'Si^r, 

 luv aviKjxalvov crTOpiav t' dnocptiiXiov aaapa' 

 Kelvo kclkoi> (vpmpa, to 8i) p hdeovcri pvKrjras 

 irapiTi]hr]v, dkXa yap eV ovvopa KeKpirai ctXXo- 

 'AX\« crv y 1} pa(pdvoio iropois (metpudea K.6p<jr)V, 

 r) pvrrjs KkiodovTa irepl aTTCidiKa KoXovaai, 

 ttoWciki Kai xoAkoZo ttciKcii pepoyrjoTos dv6i)V 

 uXKore KkrjpciToeao-av iv o£e'i dpvnrto retpp-qv' 

 dijnoTe /jifaSa rplfie nvp'iriba fiappari xpaivav 



