I860,] CHAPTERS ON BRITISH BOTANY. 311 



that this plant is the ephemeron of Theophrastus, but it is quite 

 certain that it possesses venomous properties, and that it grows 

 both in Greece and in England. 



CoMARus or CoMARUs is Arbutus Unedo, L. See Arbutus. 

 Clusius, in Hist. E-ar. Plantarum, p. 47, gives an excellent de- 

 scription of the Strawberry-tree ; he also supplies a very good 

 figure of the plant, both in flower and in friiit. 



CoNiuM. The spotted Hemlock is well known, and that our 

 plant, C. maculatum, is the plant of the ancients is generally 

 admitted. Criminals were put to death or poisoned with the 

 juice of this plant. See Diogenes' Lives of the Philosophers, in 

 life of Socrates. (Theo. i. 8, vi. 2, ix. 8.) 



Convolvulus. This genus of handsome plants is called 

 Jasione in the Greek language {cacrimvr)). The round-headed 

 pretty plant of the order Campanulacecs, so called by modern 

 botanists, is not the Jasione of the ancients. Theophrastus' s 

 description is, that though it be a monopetalous flower {/jlovov ov), 

 yet it has the expansion or development of a polypetalous 

 blossom. This expresses fairly the flower or corolla of any of 

 the modern Convolvuli. Stackhovise's reference, viz. "i. (31)," 

 should be the 17th chapter and near the middle of the 39tlipage 

 of Stackhouse's edition of the History of Plants. 



C. septum {lacncovr)). This ranges in Europe from Scandi- 

 navia to Greece. Doubtful native of North Wales, north of 

 England, and Scotland (?). 



It is not quite certain that Jasione of Theophrastus is C. 

 septum of the moderns, but it is most probable that the ancient 

 name was that of some Convolvulus. 



CoNYZA. This plant, with Origanum, etc., is enumerated 

 among the herbaceous thornless or non-prickly plants. Accord- 

 ing to Theophrastus there are two species, the male and the fe- 

 male. The doctrine of sex in plants is not a novelty. The 

 evidence of this ancient belief in the sexes of plants still exists 

 in the terms mas and foemina, as names of species ; as Cornus 

 mas, Filix mas, also, C. and F. fcemina. Stackhouse, as usual, 

 in his Illustrations, enters the name with hesitation. Billerbeck 

 says (p. 215) Erigeron viscosum {viscosus?) is Conyza mas (Th.), 

 and E. graveolens is C fosmina. As these do not represent 

 British species, they may be passed over without further remark. 

 We certainly have the name from Greece, although we may not 

 have the Greek plant. 



