198 CONTRIBUTION TO THE HISTORY OF AROIDEOLOGY. 
Semina plura, subrotunda.” This definition still holds good. The 
name “ Aron,” with the Greek termination, has been used in the most 
ancient times, but nothing is known respecting its etymology, it having 
been applied by Hippocrates (seculo v. ante Chr.), Theophrastus (se- 
culo iii. ante Chr.), Dioscorides and Pliny (seeulo i. post Chr.), but by 
the latter with the Latin termination (4rum). After the revival of 
scientific botany in the sixteenth century, Marcellus Vergilis (1518) 
was one of the first who employed the name for our drum (vulgare) 
maculatum ;* whilst many of the latter writers regarded Arum, Aris, 
lium, Dracunculus, and Arisarum as synonymous. Brunfels 
(1680); the first who gave printed illustrations (woodcuts) of plants, 
also refers us to the just-mentioned Arum, still the type of the genus. 
The “4ron” of the ancients must probably be sought in what is now 
called 4. Byzantinum, Ponticum, marmoratum, Italicum, or allied spe- 
cies, for, according to Dr. Kotschy, the young leaves of drums are still 
seen in the markets of Constantinople. As former and ancient synonyms 
of Arum may be noticed Jarus, Jarum, Gigarum, Sara, Harmiagrion, 
Cyperis, Mauriaria, Sigingialios, and Alimos. 
The Linnean genus Arum contained, in 1763, 22 species, made 
known in the following chronological order :—Arum Dracunculus, Colo- 
casia, Arisarum, tenuifolium (from the fifth century before Christ to the 
first century after Christ), Arum maculatum (Marcellus, Comment. 
1518), triphyllum (C. Bauh. 1623), pentaphyllum (Zanon. Hist. 1675), 
Dracontium (Herm. Lugd. 1687), macrorrhizon (Herm. Parad. 1689), 
trilobatum (Herm. Parad. 1689), esculentum (Rumpb. Amb. 1690), 
ovatum (Rumph. Amb. 1690), sagittefolium (Pluckn. Phyt. 1692), diva- 
ricatum (Rheede, Mal. 1692), arborescens (Plum. Amer. 1693), auritum 
(Plum. Am. 1693), hederaceum (Plum. Am. 1693), Zingulatum (Plum. 
Am. 1693), segwinum (Plum. Am. 1693), prodoscideum (Boce. Sic. 
1697), peregrinum (L. Hort. Cliff. 1737), and Virginicum (Gronov. 
Virg. 1739). 
But only one of these species, viz. Arum maculatum, agrees com- 
pletely with the character assigned by Linnaeus to the genus, a genus 
which comprises the Arum vulgare non maculatum (A. immaculatum, 
Stents the 4. maculatum maculis candidis (A. Italicum ?, hodie) $ 
gris (A. maculatum, hodie) of C. Bauhin. The other twenty-one 
ei widely diverging as they do from the generie type, have been 
* Sprengel, Hist. i. p. 306. 
a 
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