Mr Hardy's Botanical Notices. 155 



Lyon, 1642, p. 375) figures S. ramosum for Sparganium ; but 

 he was not quite convinced that this application, which 

 began to be taken up in his time, was the correct one ; so 

 that those writers were wrong who afterwards cited him as 

 strongly upholding this opinion. One of these was his 

 inimical critic, Amatus Lusitanus ; " Comment, in Dioscorid." 

 p. 600 (a.b. 1558). I refer to him, in order to cite the note 

 of the learned physician, Robt. Constantine, as it reveals to 

 us a distinguished foreigner as botanising in this country in 

 early times, of whom previously we were unaware. He says, 

 he had a thousand times seen both Sparganium and Spatula 

 fcetida (the other claimant for the title) both in England and 

 other places ; and had frequently compared them with the 

 description of Dioscorides, and was quite willing to subscribe 

 to Matthiolus. The French name, according to him, is 

 "Pillette." Dodonseus (" Pempt." p. 602) while he has a 

 theory of his own, points out that S. simplex corresponds 

 better with the Sparganion of Dioscorides than S. ramosum. 

 S. ramosum, however, is the adopted plant of the Pharma- 

 copoeias, ("Stokes' Bot. Mat. Med.," iv. p. 335). Dale- 

 champ also, (" Hist. Gen. des Plantes," ii., p. 888, Lyons, 

 1653) sets forth S. simplex for Sparganium. In modern 

 times, Dr. Adams, in his " Paulus vEgineta," (iii., p. 350) 

 decides for S. simplex ; at the same time, he remarks that 

 S. ramosum " is still kept in the shops with the reputation of 

 curing the bite of the viper ;" for which the root was recom- 

 mended by Pliny (" Nat. Hist." xxv., c. 63), almost in the 

 words of Dioscorides. 



The English " Bur-reed " was of Gerard's invention ; " I 

 call them Burre-reede ;" but this term did not arise sponta- 

 neously. Dodonseus, in an early work, " De Stirp. Hist. 

 Commentariorum," p. 51, a.d. 1559, figures S. ramosum as 

 the Carex of Virgil, and the " Rietgras " of the Flemings 

 Lyte in 1578, translating this writer's " Hist, of Plants," 

 makes it " Reede Grass ;" " with the which," he tells us of 

 himself, "it hath no likenesse " (p. 515). Gerard added 

 " burr," and dropped " grass." Johnson, the editor of 

 Gerard, in one of his peregrinations, names it " Burre- 

 flagge;" ("Johnsoni Opuscula,") which is perhaps nearer 

 the meaning, than the English " reed." For it is question- 

 able whether this popular " Rietgras " was not traditional of 

 the " Calamogrostis," or " Gramen arundinaceum " of the 

 Greeks and Romans ; or whether, as is fully as likely, it may 



