1857.] ANCIENT BOTANY. 287 



Duppliu and Glenfarg^ are founds Dent aria bulbif era, Doronicum 

 Pardalianches and plant agineum, Rumex alpinus, Mentha viridis 

 and. piperita, and Lychnis Viscaria. 



ANCIENT BOTANY. 

 {With a Plate.) 



Sir_, — In the June number of the ' Phytologist ' reference was 

 made to a manuscript copy of Dioscorides^ supposed to be of the 

 twelfth century, formerly in the Riuuccini Library at Florence, 

 and which was sold in April last, by Messrs. Sotheby, for £590. 

 The large sum paid for it may be accounted for when the extreme 

 rarity of manuscripts of this author is considered ; moreover the 

 present copy is supposed to be the finest extant, save the one at 

 Vienna, of the fourth century, from which, judging from the en- 

 gravings now at Oxford, the figures seem to have been directly 

 or indirectly copied. There are however in the Rinuccini MSS. 

 a large number of figures, of which no engravings occur among 

 those brought from Vienna by Dr. Sibthorp, and which are of 

 considerable interest, such as the Papyrus (fig. 1), the Nelum- 

 bium, under the title Kvafioo irepoi (fig. 3), the Egyptian Lotus 

 (fig. 3), from which I send you tracings. The flowers of the last- 

 mentioned are coloured pink, and represented as standing up 

 above the surface of the water. 



Under the name Xtoro'i a tolerably good representation of 

 Celtis australis is given; but what plant is meant which is 

 figured as Xa)To<i ovSe rpt^vXkov, etc., is more than I coTild deter- 

 mine. Ruscus aculeatus and Laurus nobilis are both figured at 

 different places under the same name, 8a(f)vr], while by poSo- 

 8a(f)V7] some kind of Epilobium seems to have been intended. A 

 tolerably good representation of Narcissus poeticus is given as 

 vapKKTcro'^, The Ash is figured under the name fieXta, the Pear 

 under that of fxrfkta ; another kind of Pear is represented and 

 called fiekifirfkr) (Honey Pear?). Will this similarity in the 

 Greek names of the Ash and of the Pear throw any light upon 

 Virgil's assertion — 



" Ornusque mcanuit aibo 

 Flore pyri" ? 



Though the figures in many instances are very rude, yet in , 



