OF ACCOMPANYING ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 407 



Scolopendrium officinarum of Northern Climates. Called in Italy " lingua cervina" or "fillitide " 

 (Lenz), in which we recognize the " phullitis " of Dioscorides, perhaps the n€ T A A I T I C of Nicander 

 ther. 864: — the "phullitis" is described by Dioscorides as growing in gardens and shaded places, 

 stemless and having neither flower nor fruit, six or seven leaves resembling those of dock but longer 

 and more verdant, upright, smooth in front with something like distant slender worms behind ; and 

 is identified in the added Synonyms with the " phullis " or "akaulon" or " lapathon agrion : " S. 

 officinarum was observed by Forskal growing in the streets of Constantinople, and by Sibthorp, and 

 Fraas, in mountain defiles and shaded situations in Greece, and called at present "gl6ssa." West- 

 ward, according to Cremutius, a tree on which the " phyllis " suspends itself never flourishes (Plin. 

 xvi. 45); S. officinarum is described by Matthioli p. 606 (Spreng.), and is known to grow in Italy 

 and throughout middle Europe as far as Britain (Curt. lond. i. pi. 67). Farther West, was discovered 

 by Pursh in 1807 in North America, on limestone rocks at Onondaga South of Lake Ontario. 



Agaricus campestris of Northern climates. Called in Greece " manitari," in which we recognize 

 the MY K HT A C : AMA N I TAC of Nicander, — Athenaeus ii. 56, and Galen fac. alim. ii. p. 655 : A. 

 campestris was observed by Sibthorp around Athens. Westward, is called in Italy " pratajolo " 

 or " pratolino " (Lenz), in which we recognize the "pratensibus optima fungis " of Horace satir. ii. 

 iv. 20 ; is described by Tournefort inst. 556, and is known to grow throughout middle Europe (Schaeff. 

 i. pi. 33, and Sowerb. pi. 305). Farther West, is frequent in North America in grass-grown clearings 

 and around dwellings, seems as yet almost our only edible mushroom, is sometimes artificially multi- 

 plied, and the spores if not originally brought from Europe have doubtless in some instances been 

 imported. 



" 13;, March 23d" (C. Ptol., Blair, and Clint.), "a little after midnight on the 29th of Mechir, 

 in the forty-third year of the Third Calippic period," the Vernal equinox observed on Rhodes by Hip- 

 parchus. 



"134 B. C. = 1st year of the ' youan-kouang ' of Wou-ti " (Chinese chron. table). "In the 

 reign of Wou-ti " (Gaubil), books written in the obsolete Chinese character, including a copy of the 

 Chou-king, discovered in the ruins of the family mansion of Confucius. The copy was written on 

 bamboo, and was certainly not less than a century old. 



"The same year" (Liv., and Clint.), commencement in Sicily of the Servile war. — The war con- 

 tinued two years. 



One hundred and twenty-fifth generation. Sept. 1st, 134, mostly beyond youth : the Syrian writer 

 Maribas : the Greek philosophers, Cleitomachus, Apollodorus the Epicurean, and Hecaton the Stoic; 

 the historians, Dionysius Scytobrachion ; the grammarian Herodicus of Babylon : the Latin writers, 

 Sextus Turpilius the dramatist, L. Attius the tragic dramatist, the two historians Coelius Antipater 

 and P. Sempronius Asellio, M Antonius the orator, and M. Aemilius Scaurus statesman and 

 orator. 



The same year (= 103 y 2 mo. -|- " 29 years " of Abyss, chron., and M. Russel p. 99 and 109), acces- 

 sion of Menilec as king of Abyssinia. As he is termed " son of Solomon," was accompanied by 

 "the twelve doctors of the law that form the right-hand bench in judgment," and by an officer carry- 

 ing " the Ten commandments and holy water," this may mark the commencement of Jewish ascendancy 

 in Abyssinia. 



" 133 B. C." (Liv., Blair, and Clint.), Numantia captured and destroyed by P. C. Scipio Afri- 

 canus the younger. And in Asia Minor, the kingdom of Pergamus bequeathed by Attalus III. to the 

 Romans. 



" The same year " (Clint, iii. p. 331), after nearly a year's siege, Jerusalem captured by Antiochus 

 Sidetes, the usurping king of Syria. 



" 130 B. C." (Diodor., Liv., and Clint, iii. p. 389), Ptolemy VII. of Egypt, on account of his 

 cruelties, compelled by popular indignation to take refuge in Cyprus. 



" In or about this year" (Percev. i. 183), birth of Adnan, twenty-first progenitor of Mohammed, 

 and the earliest descendant of Ishmael— known to the Arabs. 



" 129 B. C." (Clint, iii. p. 346), return of Demetrius II. from captivity among the Persians. 



" 128 B. C. = 1st year of the ' youa-choua ' of Wou-ti " — (Chinese chron. table). 



" March 22d " (C. Ptol., Blair, and Clint.), " about sunset on the 1st of Phamenoth, in the fiftieth 

 year of the Third Calippic period," the Vernal equinox observed on Rhodes by Hipparchus. After- 

 wards the star Cor-leonis was observed by him to be " 29 50' from the Summer solsticial colure." 



"127, May 2d" = "35 years" after his first Astronomical observation (C. Ptol., and Clint), an 

 Observation made on Rhodes by Hipparchus. And on "July 7th," another Observation. 



About this time (Thaalebi, and Percev. i. 61), Dhou-Sadad succeeded by Harith-Erraich, of the 

 " sixteenth " operation from Himyar, and now first tobba of reunited Yemen. The new dynasty is 

 distino-uished°as the " Himyarite Dynasty." — Homerites are first mentioned in the expedition of 

 Aelius Gallus into Arabia (Strab.) " B. C. 24." 



