OF ACCOMPANYING ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 389 



Gookin coll. 3. " S. lacustris" is attributed also to the Southern Hemisphere, to Australia and New 

 Zealand (Wats., and J. D. Hook.), but as growing in Austral America I found the stem obtusely 

 trigonal at base. 



" 237 B. C. = 10th year of Wang-tching" or Chi-hoang-ti (Chinese chron. table), beginning of 

 the Forty-first cycle. 



" 235 B. C." (Liv., Eutrop., and Clint.), Second closing of the temple of Janus. The Romans 

 having peace with all nations for the first time since the reign of Numa Pompilius. 



The same year = " 26th year of Asoka " in inscriptions on columns at Delhi and Allahabad — 

 (Burnouf ii. 655 to 741). 



One hundred and twenty-second generation. Sept. 1st, 234, mostly beyond youth : the Greek 

 poets, Rhianus, Archimelus, Hegesianax of Alexandria, Samius, Alcaeus of Messene, and Diosco- 

 rides of Egypt ; the comic poet, Epinicus ; the philosophers, Evander, Ariston of Ceos, Zenon of 

 Tarsus, and Chrysippus ; the astronomer Conon of Samos ; the historians, Chares, Phylarchus, Phi- 

 linus of Agrigentum, Mnesiptolemus, and Ptolemaeus of Megalopolis ; the grammarian Aristophanes 

 of Byzantium ; the biographer Hermippus ; other Greek writers, Apollonius of Perga, and Antigo- 

 nus of Carystus ; the Greek painters, Neacles, Cydias, and Antidotus (Bryan): the Latin writer 

 Marcius; and the Roman painter M. Valerius Messala. 



As early perhaps as this date, the first regular work on pharmacy composed by Mantias, a fol- 

 lower of Herophilus, and the preceptor of — Heracleides Tarentinus (Galen, and Sm. b. d.). 



Rheum rhaponticum of Western Tartary. The PHON of Mantias — (Gal. sec. loc. viii. 3), 

 Zopyrus, described by Dioscorides as a medicinal root brought from beyond the Bosphorus, men- 

 tioned also by Oribasius (Daremb.), Aetius, and Paulus Aegineta, is referred here by writers ; and 

 the " rawand " of Elhur, Serapion, Avicenna, and the earlier Arab physicians, is referred here by 

 Ebn Baitar : R. rhaponticum is known to grow wild from the Volga North of the Caspian to Kras- 

 nodar on the upper Yenissei (Spreng , and Lindl.). Westward, the " reon " or " ra " is identified in 

 Syn. Diosc. with the " rapontikoum" of the Romans : the "radicis ponticae " is mentioned by Celsus 

 v. 23, and Scribonius Largus ; the "rhacoma," by Pliny xxvii. 105; the root of R. rhaponticum is 

 distinguished by Matthaeus Sylvaticus pandect. 589 ; and the living plant introduced into Europe 

 prior to 1612, is described by Alpinus libell. rhapon., and Parkinson. By European colonists, was 

 carried to Northeast America, where it continues under cultivation for its esculent leaf-stalks, and is 

 called garden rhubarb ; also to Tropical Hindustan (Graham). Its root according to Guibourt is 

 bitter, astringent, and aromatic (Lindl ). 



" 231 B. C." (Dionys., Blair, and Clint.), first divorce among the Romans, that of Spurius Carvilius. 



"The same year" (Zonar., Blair, and Clint.), the Corsicans and Sardinians, who had been in- 

 duced by the Carthaginians to revolt, subdued by the Romans. 



" 229 B. C." (Eutrop., Blair, and Clint.), war against the Illyrians on account of their piracies 

 commenced by the Romans. — At the end of a year, the Illyrian queen Teuta sued for peace. 



" 228 B. C." (Polyb., Blair, and Clint), at the invitation of the Achaean and Aetolian Leagues, 

 Roman ambassadors first visit Athens, Corinth, and other cities of Greece. 



227-6 B. C. (Polyb. v. 89, and Clint, iii. p. 425), the colossus at Rhodes about this time thrown 

 down by an earthquake. Presents to the Rhodians to repair their losses, sent by the Greek kings 

 of the East, Mithridates IV., Seleucus II. Callinicus, Prusias, Attalus, Antigonus Doson, and Ptole- 

 my III. of Egypt. 



"226 B. C. (Clint, iii. p. 346), Seleucus II. succeeded by Seleucus III. Ceraunus, fifth Greek 

 king of Syria. 



Hardly later than this year (Sm. b. d.), by invitation of Ptolemy III., Eratosthenes removing to 

 Egypt to take charge of the Alexandrian library. Parallels of Latitude were applied to geographical 

 maps by Eratosthenes. From the entrance to the Mediterranean, his celebrated "First parallel" 

 extended through the island of Rhodes, and thence across the Euphrates and Tigris to the mountains 

 of India, having been determined by observing where the longest day continued " fourteen hours and 

 a half;" — therefore, as afterwards ascertained by Hipparchus, corresponding to "the Latitude of 

 36 " (Blair). 



According to Eratosthenes (Strab. i. 3. n), the current in the Strait between Italy and Sicily 

 changes twice a day ; corresponding in general to the tides of the Atlantic, but not so invariably fol- 

 lowing the moon. — Further details respecting the tides of the Atlantic, are given by Posidonius, and 

 Athenodorus. 



Eratosthenes (Strab. i. 3. 3, 4. 9, and xvii. 1. 19) maintained, That the Earth is C*AI PO€IAHC 

 spheroidal (compare Archimedes). He divided mankind into good and bad, a distinction existing 

 throughout all nations ; he admired the institutions of the Romans and Carthaginians ; but states, 

 that the Carthaginians would sink any vessel containing a foreigner sailing to Sardinia, or the en- 

 trance of the Mediterranean. 



