776 CHRONOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENT 



natives as "antifebrile." Farther East, the seeds were found by Mason v. p. 503 employed for 

 the same purpose by the natives of Burmah ; but according to Rumphius v. pi. 4, are roasted and 

 eaten like chestnuts in Sumatra and Java. Eastward from the Malayan archipelago, its huge pods 

 dangling from tree-tops were occasionally observed by myself along the shore of the Feejeean and 

 Samoan groups of islands. By Polynesian or possibly European colonists, was carried to the West 

 Indies, no Carib name being given by Descourtilz notwithstanding that the pods furnish food " ser- 

 vent de nourriture." 



Cijinamomum Loureirii of the mountains of Cochinchina. Called in China " kio kui," in Japan 

 " ni-kei " (Lindl.) : the cinnamon tree is enumerated by Jordanus mirab. as large, growing in India 

 Major and producing fruit and flowers after the manner of cloves $&.HOphyLLOPum: — cas- 

 sia-buds, said to be unexpanded flowers of a Cinnamomum, are further described by H. Yule as bearing 

 some resemblance to cloves ; and flowers of cassia according to Lindley are the product of C. Lou- 

 reirii ; described by Loureiro as growing on the lofty mountains Westward toward Laos, the old and 

 young branches equally worthless, but the middle-sized shoots furnishing bark about a line thick, 

 superior to that of Ceylon and sold at a much higher price. 



"In this year" (Crawfurd vii. 11), Javanese and Arabs visiting Ternate in great numbers and 

 settling there. 



" 1323 A. D." (De Wailly pi. ix. 2), inscriptions of this date piesenting the following form of 

 the letter J. 



Hardly earlier than this year, Odoric of Friuli, a Franciscan, arriving at Tana (near the site of 

 Bombay). Taking the bones of the four murdered missionaries, he proceeded by sea to Coromandel, 

 Sumatra, Java, and deposited them at Zayton in China, where were two houses of friars minor. — 

 After spending "three years " in Northern China before " 132S," he returned to Venice, and died "in 

 January 133T " (Yule cath. i. 6). 



He mentions the sumpit or tube for blowing poisoned darts, — used by the natives of Southern 

 Borneo, Celebes, and the Moluccas (Yule i. go). 



The goose domesticated in China (Anser cygnoides ?) is described by Odoric 29 as having "a 

 bone on the top of its head about the size of an egg.'' Fishing with domesticated cormorants (Pha- 

 lacrocorax carbo) is also mentioned ; and the silk fowl (a variety covered with wool-like down). 



Amomum lardai/ioiiiiiin of the mountainous parts of Java, Sumatra, and as far as Burmah. A. 

 Scitamineous plant producing the round cardanvns of commerce (Nees) or "amomum verum " of 

 the old apothecaries (J. E. Smith): the " melegetas " growing according to Odoric on Java — (Yule i. 

 88) may be compared : A. cardamomum is described by Rumphius v. pi. 65 ; and was observed by 

 Mason indigenous in Burmah. Westward, according to Lindley, is " commonly cultivated in gardens 

 in" Hindustan, its "seeds agreeably aromatic." Transported to Europe, is described by Blackwell 

 pi. 584 and 585. 



Rhapis antndinacea of . The "cassan" canes of Odoric 22, growing on Panten or Thala- 



masyn (Borneo) and " along the ground like what we call dog's grass " (Cynodon dactylon), " and at 

 each of their knots they send out roots, and in such wise extend themselves for a good mile in length, " 

 the stems in thickness "much about the same as the canes in our Frank countries," — may be com- 

 pared with the ground rattan (see Royle fibr. Ind.). From transported specimens, R. arundinacea 

 is described by Aiton (Steud.). 



" 1324 A. D. = 'tai-ting,' istyearof Tai-ting-ti " or Tai-ting 1 1. (Chinese chron. table), beginning 

 of the Sixty-seventh cycle. 



"Nov. 21st" (Nicol), a synod at Toulouse. A canon, Forbidding "clerks to shave oftener 

 than once a month." 



"1325 A. D." (Clavig. i. 112 to 123, Humb. ; and Holmes suppl ), the Aztecs at a lake where they 

 settled, building a temple, and around it "huts of reeds and rushes;" the beginning of the city of 

 Mexico. 



The following plants known to the Creeks from early times,* " toonau " Amaryllis atamasco, its 



* Sisyriiichiuin anccps of Northeast America. The blue-eyed grass, considered by the Creeks 

 "an infallible emmenagogue " and " used by the Cherokees as an emetic "— (Baldw. reliq. 60). 

 Transported to Europe is described by Plukenet amalth. 61. 2 (Spreng.), received by Dillenius elth. 

 pi. 41 from Bermuda, termed " s. angustifolium " by Miller, " s. gramineum " by Curtis, has also 

 reached without human intervention the Western shore of Ireland, found wild at a single 'point (A. 

 Dec). At its home in North America, has been observed by myself from 45 to 40° alon°- the 

 Atlantic, in sunny situations, and especially in grass-grown clearings ; by Pursh, from Canada 

 to Carolina; by Schweinitz, as far as 36 in Upper Carolina; by N. A. Ware, and Chapman, in 

 Florida; by Nuttall, in Pennsylvania and on the Arkansas ; and by E. James, along the Missouri 

 and Platte. 



