304 BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 
author speaks of a wine prepared from this fruit. Homer calls this eat- 
able dv@vov eidap (the flowery food), and hence some have fancied that he 
meant the Cabbage Palm. Does this Palm grow near the Mediterranean ? 
It is more probable that he means vegetable, in contradistinction to ani- 
mal, alimentary substances. This fruit is supposed by most authors to 
be produced by the Rhamnus Lotus, Lam. (Zizyphus Lotus, Willd.) The 
Arabian poets call this the fruit of Paradise. 3. The Egyptian Lotus, un- 
known to Homer, and first mentioned by Herodotus (lib. ii. c. 92); the 
Water-Lily of the Nile, a fine plant, and well represented by the white 
Water-Lily of our British rivers and lakes, the queen of all our aquatic 
plants. Both the fruit and roots of the Nilotic Lilies were eatable. With 
this the Sacred Bean of India, Cyamus Smithii (Nelumbium speciosum), 
appears to be confounded, even at the present day. Some say that the 
Egyptian Lotus was introduced into India from the Nile, and that it was 
equally venerated in both countries. The Oriental Sacred Bean is not an 
Egyptian plant, but it is probable that the White Lily of the Nile is so. 
The Nymphea alba of England is also an Indian plant: teste Hooker 
and Thomson’s ‘Flora Indica.’ 4. Celtis australis, a lofty tree, a native 
both of Africa and the South of Europe, is, according to Sprengel, the 
Lotus-tree of Theophrastus (Hist. Plant., iv. 8, p. 126). 5. Diospyros 
Lotus, mentioned by Virgil (Geor. ii. 84: “ Nec salici, lotoque, nec Ideis 
cyparissis”’). This plant is hardy in our climate; its fruit is yellowish, 
and, when ripe, sweet, with some astringency, and about the size of a 
cherry. The generic name means “ Jupiter’s fruit,” or celestial fruit. 
The celestials were not so dainty in those days as the modem clodpoles 
are; the fruit is not so celebrated in our days as Windsor pears and Rib- 
stone pippins. ETYMOLoGUS. 
Traveller's Joy.— Clematis Vitalba.—Gerarde says that the above Eng- 
lish name is appropriate, “ because of its decking and adorning the ways 
and hedges where people travel.” See Johnson’s ‘Gerarde,’ p. 886. 
The name “Old Man’s Beard”’ is very applicable, because the tails of the 
carpels are hoary. “ Bindwith,” another name, is derived from one of the 
uses of the plant, viz. that of binding up other plants, for which it is and 
may be used instead of withs or withies. The elegant term Viorna implies 
that it is an ornamental wayside plant, being derived from wa, a way, and 
orno, | adorn. 

Communications have been received from 
A. Russell; W. D. (Cockermouth); J. G. Baker; J. S. Mills; H. B.; 
Rev. Hugh A. Stowell; W. Mitten, A.L.S.; B. (Bath); T.B.F.; W.H.; 
W. A. L.; Etymologus; Antiquus; Rev. G. E. Smith; Serutator; J. A. 
Brewer (Reigate); Sylvanus; Librarius; John Windsor, F.L.S. 

BOOKS RECEIVED FOR REVIEW. 
Enumeration of Welwitsch’s Portuguese Mosses, by W. Mitten, A.L.S. 
Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, No. 1. 


ERRATA. 
In page 251, line 26, for hors read hers,—i.e. the eradication of the Lathyrus 
sylvestris ; in page 279, line 9 from bottom, for Elleston read Ellerton. 
