1815.] oo 3 teRoyal Tnstititte.:.bo9 4 225 
able to eachsoil and each exposure, and that they do not draw from 
that precious tree all the advantages which might be obtained, has 
undertaken to examine and describe with attention the different figs, 
cultivated on the coasts of the Mediterranean, from. Genoa to Per- 
pignan.. He has already collected coloured figures, and made an 
exact description, of 172 varieties; and his general review is not 
yet terminated, as he bas not exhausted the whole of Provence, and 
has not yet visited the coast.of Languedoc. 
The part of this undertaking which has-been communicated to 
the Class announces a work which will be very useful to our southern 
departments, especially if the author add the requisite details re- 
specting the leaves and buds, and if he complete the characters by 
accurate comparisons of the different varieties with each other. 
M. Thiebaut de Berneaux, who proposes to give a French trans- 
lation of the works of Theophrastus, and who,.in order to know 
more accurately the plants of which that celebrated successor of 
Aristotle has spoken, bas planned, and: partly executed, journeys 
into the:countries where these vegetables grow, has presented to the 
Class some of the results which he has already obtained, not only 
respecting the species indicated by Theophrastus, but likewise re- 
specting those about which there is question in the other Greek and 
Latin authors. 
Thus the chara, which the soldiers of Caesar discovered so hap- 
pily under the walls of Dyrrachium, and the roots of which pre- 
served them from famine, deserves to be ascertained. At present 
this name is given to a small aquatic plant, which certainly is not 
capable of nourishing any person: and respecting the, chara of 
Cwsar, there are almost as many opinions as there are botanists who 
have attended to the subject. , 
M. de Berneaux, after having examined and eliminated success- 
ively all these opinions, suggests one, of which Cluvius alone had 
some suspicion, He shows that the chara must be a species of 
cabbage, and thinks that it was the plant. known at present by the 
name of crambe tartaria, This plant grows abundantly in the en- 
virons of Dyrrachium, and in.all Hungary and Turkey. Its roots 
are very long and large, firm, and of a good taste, which are eaten. 
both raw and boiled in all the countries of which we have spoken, - 
and which are of great importance in times of scarcity. ‘ 
Several Latin authors distinguish by the name of ulva different. 
marshy plants; but they distinguish particularly by that name one 
plant, which furnishes, they say, excellent food for sheep. As 
among aquatic plants there is scarcely any other than the /festuce@ 
Jluitans, which is sought after by sheep; and as this grass covers a. 
great part of the marshes in Italy, M. de Berneaux conceives that 
it constitutes that peculiar species of ulva. He shows that all the 
ges in which it is mentioned apply very well to the festuca. 
le shows also that this is the grass which Theophrastus and the. 
Grecks distinguished by the name of typha. b aly 
The ancients boast much of the useful properties Of the eytisus; 
Vor, VI. N° HL. P . 
