OF ACCOMPANYING ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 373 



tomb of L. Scipio Barbatus, presenting the following forms of letters, D, F, G, Q, S, V; the language 

 being essentially the same — as seventy years later in the time of Plautus. 



About this time ( . . . ), by Ptolemy, the Alexandrian Library founded; and at the entrance 

 of the harbour, the *APOC or light-house commenced. — The light-house was completed in the 

 reign of his successor, and was much celebrated in after times ; continuing "one hundred and fifty 

 cubits high " when visited by Abd-allatif i. 4. 



"291 B. C." (Jap. centen. comm. 45), end of the reign of Koan, sixth dairo of Japan. His stone 

 coffin is regarded as the earliest specimen of stone-cutting in Japan. 



"290 B. C." (Sm. b. d.), P. Cornelius Rufinus and M. Curius Dentatus consuls, at the end of 

 fifty-three years, the Samnites finally subdued by the Romans : peace concluded, and the Third and 

 last Samnite war ended. 



"288 B. C." (C. Mull, fragm. Megasth. p. 398, see also Strab. ii. 1. 9), Sandrocottus or Chan- 

 dragupta succeeded by his son Allitrochathes or Amitraghata, now king at Palimbothra (Patna) on 

 the Ganges. — Deimachus was sent as ambassador to Allitrochathes (Strab. ii. I. 9). 



Abrus precatorius of the wooded seashore of Tropical climates. A woody twining plant called in 

 Hindustanee " gunj " or " ghungchi," in Bengali " gunj " or " kunch," in Tamil " gundu-mani " or " kunri- 

 mani " (Drury), in Sanscrit " gunja " or " krishnala " (Lindl.) ; and as early probably as this date, its seeds 

 called "retti" employed in the Hindu system of weights* — (Drury) : the "krishnala" is mentioned 

 in the Institutes of Manu viii. 134 to 330 ; an open mouth is compared in colour to a " gunja " seed 

 by Bhavabhuti maha-vir. 5; and the " kakachincha" or " kakadani " or "rakta" or "hinsra" of 

 Susrutas iv. 30 is referred here by Hessler : A. precatorius was observed by Rheede viii. pi. 39 in 

 Malabar; by Graham, "very common" in the environs of Bombay, where I found it not altogether 

 confined to the seashore ; by Roxburgh, Wight, and Drury, along the peninsula and as far as Assam, 

 the seeds prized "for necklaces and other ornaments." Farther East, by Mason v. 522 "exotic" 

 in Burmah and called "rwae-gnay" or " khyen-rwae," its seeds used by jewellers as weights: by 

 Blanco, universally known to the natives throughout the Philippines and called in Tagalo "baflgati" 

 or "saga" or "sagamamin," in Pampango " cansasaga," in Ylocano "bugayon," in Bisaya "gicos- 

 gicos " or " caloo " or " mangadolong" or " aroyangyang," the leaves and roots having the taste of 

 liquorice : by myself, on the Feejeean Islands, where oracles and other objects sacred with the natives 

 are coated with its seeds, indigenous also throughout the Tongan, Samoan, and Taheitian Islands, 

 but not seen on mid-ocean coral-isles, nor on the unwooded shores of the Hawaiian Islands and 

 Peru. Westward from Hindustan, was observed by myself on Zanzibar ; by Grant, at " Ukuni 4 S.," 

 and "plentiful in Uganda" on the Upper Nile ; by Forskal p. 138 among the mountains of Yemen, 

 called " byllia," and pods sold at Cairo ; by Alpinus, and Hasselquist, under cultivation in Egypt 

 and the seeds eaten (Lindl.) ; by Cadamosto in 1454 at the mouth of the river Senegal. Farther 

 West, is called in Guayana " panacoco," by the Caribs " aouarou " (Desc), having reached America 

 before the arrival of Columbus ; was observed in the West Indies by Sloane i. p. 181, and P. 

 Browne. 



"286 B. C." (Plut, and Clint.), Pyrrhus, after holding Macedonia seven months, driven out by 

 Lysimachus. 



Berosus, who was "born in the reign of Alexander" (Sm. b. d.), may have been writing 

 as early as this date, — though his history of Babylonia was completed somewhat later. 



Colocasia antiquornm of Tropical America. The cocco or taro is called by Polynesians "taro'' 

 or "talo" or "tao" (Hale), in Burmah " peing " (Mason), in Sanscrit "kuchoo" (Roxb., the 

 Carib name of Dioscorea alata), in Bengalee "kuchoo," in Telinga " chama," in Tamil " shema 

 kilangu " (Drur.), in the environs of Bombay "aloo" (Graham), among the mountains of Yemen 

 "kerir " or "kurr," in Egypt " kulkas " (Forsk.), in Equatorial Africa " myoog'wah " (Grant); and 

 the TOrrAC root, growing according to Berosus in marshes along the Euphrates, esculent and 

 equal to barley bread, — may be compared (the name seemingly derived from introduction by way 



* Phaseolus mungo of Tropical Hindustan. Annual with a flexuous stem (Pers.), and called 

 in Bengalee "mash-kulay," in Hindustanee "moong thikeree," in Telinga " minoomooloo," in Tamil 

 "oalandoo" (Drur.), in the environs of Bombay "ooreed" (Graham) ; and as early probably as this 

 date, its seeds used as weights by the Hindu goldsmiths — (Burnouf soc. beng.) : the " mudja " is 

 mentioned in the Institutes of Manu ix. 39, and Vishnu purana i. 6; and the " munjam " seen 

 in Hindustan is described by Ebn Batuta as a species of " mash : " P. mungo was observed by 

 Graham 248 "a cultivated pulse in the environs of Bombay; by Roxburgh hi. 296, Wight i. 246, 

 and Drury, from Malabar to Travancore and the Circars, "the most esteemed of all the" kinds of 

 pulse, and " bread for many of their religious ceremonies " made of it by the natives ; the root accord- 

 ing to Royle him contains a narcotic principle. (See P. max). 



