260 Aster History; PLATEARIO 
Traces of the Botanical Garden of Salerno 
Waterlilies seem to have been cultivated by Matteo Plateario 
in the botanical garden at Salerno if we may judge from his inter- 
ested warning to his reader that the “‘ Nenuphar purpureum” (WVe- 
lumbium speciosum Willd.) produces the flowers which are more 
desirable, “qui meliores sunt,” while the yellow (Wuphar luteum) 
makes crocus-yellow flowers which are not so good—“* croceos 
facens flores qui non sunt adeo boni.” Nenuphar with white 
flowers is not here mentioned, but occurs in the Alphita, ‘‘ Nenuphar, 
. . . apud nos tantum in albo-et in citrino colore,” and in the Grant 
Herbier as printed perhaps 1480, as ‘“‘l’une est blanche I’autre est 
jaune.” Pliny had described his yellow xymphaea of the Peneus 
in Thessaly (Nuphar luteum L.) and his lily-like Nelumbium of 
Marathon and of Orchomenia, in terms as if they were not cul- 
tivated and he had not seen them in Italy. 
Regarding carnations, over which northern Italy was almost 
wildly enthusiastic by 1450, Plateario’s evidence is more doubt- 
ful, and they may not have been grown in his garden, although 
his Gariofilata, interpreted to mean Geum urbanum L., by Camus — 
and by Secres too, may perhaps have covered the carnation also, 
as it certainly did perhaps a century later, when, in the Sinonimia 
added to the Latin MS. of Circa instans at Modena, we read 
Gariofilata as a synonym* for Geum not only but also for 
Dianthus Caryophyllus.+ 
pees 
* «* Armeal (armeria) —Gariofilata.’? Also, ‘‘ Avanciana, Gariofilata or sana- 
munda or herba benedicata or pes leporinus.’’ 
t The carnation, remarks Camus, 133, is sculptured and painted on m 
Ferrara of about 1471 ; and was cultivated in the garden of Ferrara in 1460 ; 4 Modena 
onuments of 
and pomegranate ; cultivated plums and damsons of many kind 
fig, medlar and service; sweet and bitter almonds (his amidalis) ( i : 
Plateario for care in the culture of almonds are quoted by Bartholomaeus nglic 
gourd-fruits, the egg-plant, alkekengi, lettuce, parsnip (his Baucia), 
folie (his ortolana), etc., besides plants cultivated more exclusively for medi Me 
his Salvia, his “Consolida major,” our Symphytum officinale L. [his «¢ Consoli 
