' 
ON THE CH‘ING MUH HSIANG. rid be 
and used also as a topical application ;* and this or other species, ae 
bably 4. betica, Linn., 4. par reifoliay, ibth. et Sm 
of Ardstolochia in cases of snake-bites as a universally recognised fact,{ 
and Pliny notes the employment of 4. pallida in such cases.§ 8 
pseudonymous Macer, in his poem ‘‘ De viribus herbarum,” written 
ied the tenth century, and which for more than five hundred years 
as the recognised authority on vegetable materia medica, eink ey in 
this respect an equal rank to that conceded to the renowned ‘ Re 
men Salernitanum ”’|| in all cases of diet, et and the daily con- 
duct of life, thus refers to A. rotunda, Linn: 
‘‘ Pestiferos morsus, cum vino sumpta, rotunda 
Curat, et assumptis prodest sic hausta venenis.”’§ 
And this belief was universal during the middle ages. Nor can the 
ment to the “‘ doctrine of signatures ” ; not only because it seems clear 
it was inherited from antiquity, but also because, remarkably 
nough, one of the most curious works devoted to the exposition of 
thie fanciful theory, the ‘* Phytognomonica ” of Giambatista Porta—a 
contemporary of our Gerarde—first published at Naples in 1588 
though several times ore to the presumed virtues of Aristolochia, 
* Hist. Plan , 18, 35 ix., 20, 4. ed. Age sek One hundred and forty 
years ate Nicander ‘extols t erse, thus :— 
nie Thy & nTO b EX! os TE xa Ee aes Egidyns 
fery po ess OQERos mepiogs quoy. ivOev ' mop pas 
Spa n pigyoITo ror ey xi ppa os otyns,’ 
Saale  rheriad. 517—19. 
t De Divinatione i L. 10. 
‘ st Hist. xxv., 8. 
Lays A little aha of this (and which would have been still mo 
lntaesdting » hod t been shar d by i ee to the writings of 
verse, has been pees wiblished by Professor Onirinses: of Columbia Saicce 
New York. 
{| De viribus herb., vers. 1402-3. I quote from the excellent edition of 
Choslant (Lips. 1832), who nee defends the utility and interest of the book, 
ng an insight into medival life and thought. Spren gel ben rei 
hen 4, Te speaks of the author most contemptuously, as “‘ miserrimus _ 
. Alexander org however, asserts (Popular Names of Brit. Pl., 
J el. 2 2, . 2) that the fanci nes of jArinilo ochia Clematatis, Linn., in assisting 
difficult parturition were pt nibed to it ob formam oris perigo: nii adhue inex- 
pansi feminali haud absimilem ; and i ts pe ecaige that the Tsinciee negroes 
have given a coarse popular name to 4. grandiflora, Sw., from a similar 
resemblance. 
