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REDISCOVERY OF ‘‘ CIRCA INsTANS”’ 255 
Camus, in 1886, claimed that ‘‘ by reason of mention in Circa 
instans,* the Italians can prove that their now abundant Agave 
Americana,+ Oxalis corniculata and Xanthium strumarium, are 
not, as has been believed, immigrants from the New World.” 
Singularly, Plateario fell into obscurity and finally into un- 
merited contempt. He shared the fate of the Salernitan school 
when fuller translations from the Arabic appeared ; although his 
work remained a rich quarry from which the next three centuries 
builded. 
Finally the unlocking of the treasures of the Greeks in their 
original tongue gave to Europe a direct path to antiquity, and Pla- 
teario’s half-way house of mediaeval knowledge was left far aside. 
So thoroughly was Plateario forgotten that no attempt to print 
his Circa instans occurred, it is believed, from 1582 to 1886. 
Pritzel omits him entirely; and Seguier, usually so accurate, 
guessed, p. 292, at his date as ‘circa initium XIV seculi,’’ 200 
years too late. 
Brief references by Haller and Sprengel, publication of extracts 
by Henschel and Renzi, and of comments by Meyer, have recalled 
Plateario to modern consciousness, though Renzi was so far from 
appreciating his value as to call the Circa instans “ nothing but a 
uudo catalogo.”’ Henschel’s enthusiasm over his discovery of the 
Breslau MS. in 18 37 and especially Meyer’s judicial observations 
On its position (in 1856), did something to rehabilitate Circa in- 
Stans, the latter pointing out its importance “to any who would 
follow the knowledge of plants from earlier to later times.” 
Camus’ study of its names and publication of the descriptive text 
in 1886, as already indicated, has now given the world its first 
°pportunity to appeciate Plateario. 
: * Camus also calls particular attention to the remarkable number of binomials used 
In Circa imstans, enumerating 54 different adjectives so used, as sé/vestris, agrestis, 
aquaticus, etc. I may add that Dioscorides had far excelled this however; of olive 
alone he distinguishes in binomial form over a dozen different kinds, and Columella 
distinguishes as many of his Avassica or cabbage.—Camus also calls attention to 28 
binomials in the 1 3th century Sinonimia E-.tense. 
T OF th Agave of southern Italy it was claimed by Bertoloni, F’ora /talica, 4: 
156, that it is native there and a distinct species from the American. Meyer, 3: 512, 
Temarks that Bertoloni’s claim is confirmed by the figure and description in Circa instans 
and Merits the attention of botanists, and notes that the Konigsberg MS. of Secres 
Sives a good figure of it. 
