Transactions of the Horticultural Society. 29.9 



It grows in all the sandy plains of Asia Minor, and is pro- 

 pagated by seed as well as bulbs. I found it among the ruins 

 of Teos, and am disposed to think it was the lily of Anacreon." 



Arum dracunculus. Dioscorides. Found in the plains of 

 Brusa. 



Ferula sp. : eight feet high ; covers the islands of Mar- 

 mora like a forest of young trees ; the narthex of Dioscorides, 

 and ferula of Pliny. 



Phytolacca decandra ; introduced to Constantinople from 

 America, along with tobacco, now common in humid situa- 

 tions. " The berries yielded a rich purple juice, which was 

 formerly used to colour red wine, but is now confined tosherbet 

 sugar, which the Turks manufacture of a rich red colour." 



Cyperus esculentus. The tuberous knobs of the roots are 

 sold in the markets. The manna of the Greeks, abdalassis 

 of the Turks, and kuperios of Dioscorides. 



Centaurea solstitialis ; pretty ; found sparingly on the hills 

 about Constantinople. 



Momordica elaterium. Pliny. The capsule is a tube, 

 " without valves, from whence the seeds seem to be projected 

 by a process similar to that of shot from an air-gun, namely, 

 the expansion of some elastic fluid within the tube." It is 

 abundant around Constantinople, used in medicine as in Eng 

 land, and for jaundice by the Turks, as it was in the time 

 of Dioscorides. 



Solanurn Egyptiacum, Sodomeum, and Melongena, were 

 not known to the ancients. " The first of them bears a bright 

 scarlet fruit ; and is a rare plant at Constantinople, never sold 

 in the markets, and seldom met with in private gardens. It 

 is used in soups. The second bears a large, rich, dark purple 

 fruit, which looks very inviting. It is sometimes punctured 

 by a species of cynips, which gangrenes the fruit, and con- 

 verts the interior into a dry powder like ashes, while the out- 

 side retains its plump and beautiful aspect, and hence it is 

 called the apple of Sodom. Hasselquist found it on the shores 

 of the Dead Sea. It is distinguished by spines on the stem 

 and calyx. The third bears a long black fruit, of which there 

 are several varieties in shape and colour. It is sold in the 

 markets in almost as great abundance as gourds and melons, 

 and used in the same manner in soups. It is called by the 

 Turks patlindjam ; and its first appearance in the markets is 

 always attended with a strong N.E. wind, which for that rea- 

 son is called in the Armenian Almanack, patlindjam melk- 

 tem ; and all the ships bound for the Black Sea hasten to 

 sail before the fruit appears in the market and the wind sets 

 in, as it continues several weeks." 



Vol. I. No. 3. v 



