OF ACCOMPANYING ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 803 



1415 A. D. (Markham p. liii), Ibrahim Meerza, son of Shah Rokh, appointed governor of Shiraz 

 in Persia. He encouraged Literature, caused Ali of Yezd to write the life of Timour, — built a 

 famous " medrassa " or college, and after a reign of " twenty years " died " in 1435." 



_ " In this year" (Bethune edit. Galvan.), Ceuta in Morocco captured by John, king of Portugal, 

 assisted (according to Walsingham) by the English — The captured city " was afterwards annexed 

 to Spain." 



" 1416 A. D." (Alst. p. 375), archdeacon Nicolaus Clemangis writing, on the corrupt state of the 

 church. Jerome of Prague burned alive at Constance. 



" 1417 A. D." (Alst.), Manuel succeeded by his brother Joannes VII., by consent of the Turks 

 sixty-seventh Byzantine emperor. 



" The same year " (Churchill coll.), under instructions from prince Henry of Portugal, two small 

 vessels pass cape Nao, " N. Lat. 28° 15'," on the African coast. "Sixty leagues" beyond, at cape 

 Bojador, difficulties were experienced, and the vessels returned to Portugal. 



" Nov. nth " (Alst., and Nicol.), Joannes XXIIf. succeeded by cardinal Otho Colonna or Mar- 

 tinus III., in the Council at Constance elected fifty-second pope. Sigismund ruling Hungary, Ger- 

 many, and Italy ; and Henry V., England. 



" In this year (= 15th year young-Io," Remus, iii. 97), tribute sent to China from Cambodia. 



" 1418 A. D." (Galvan., and Churchill coll.), John Gonzalez Zarco and Tristam Vaz Teixeyra in 

 a vessel sent by prince Henry of Portugal, driven out of their course Westward as far as a small 

 island previously unknown, which they called " Porto Santo." 



" In or about this year (= about thirty years before 1448 " in lett. of pope Nicholas V., Major 

 edit. Zen. p. lxvi), "some heathens from the neighbouring coasts came upon" the Greenland settle- 

 ments " with a fleet, and laid waste the country and its holy buildings with fire and sword, sparing 

 nothing but the small distant parishes, which they were prevented from reaching by the intervening 

 mountains and precipices. The inhabitants of both sexes they carried away into slavery." 



The Dighton inscription and other sculptures and stone relics of the aboriginals of New Eng- 

 land, as old or older than this date. — The earliest copy of this inscription, so far as known, is by 

 Rev. Samuel Danforth. 



Acer rubrum of Northeast America. The red ina-ple in Eastern New England known from early 

 times to the natives,* — " the rottenest maple-wood " according to Josselyn rar. 47 "burnt to ashes," 



* Vitis labrusca of Northeast America. The fox grape known to the natives from early times : 

 — of two kinds of "vitis" seen by Hariot on the Roanoke, one bore acerb grapes large as the Eng- 

 lish (De Bry i. 9): vines twisting " their curling branches about" the "broad-spread arms" of the 

 "home bound tree" (Nyssa biflora) and bearing "great store of grapes," were seen by W. Wood 

 in Eastern Massachusetts ; " vines," by Higgeson, growing •' up and downe in the woods " around 

 Salem ; and grapes growing "in swamps and low wet grounds " and having "a taste of gunpowder," 

 by Josselyn as far as 43 30' : V. labrusca is described by Plumier sp pi. 259 (Pers.) ; has been 

 observed by myself from 43° near Monadnock to 39 , often within the margin of swamps ; by A. 

 Gray, "common" in Central New York ; by Michaux, from Pennsylvania to Florida; by Elliot, in 

 South Carolina; by Baldwin, as far as 30 in Florida; by Chapman, in "river-swamps, Mississippi to 

 North Carolina; " and by Short, in Kentucky. According to A. Gray, "improved by cultivation it 

 has given rise to the Isabella grape." 



Viola pubescent of Northeast America. A yellow violet, its bruised leaves from early times applied 

 by the natives "to boils and painful swellings for the purpose of easing the pain and producing sup- 

 puration" (Cutl. p. 485): V. pubescens was received by Hooker from the Rocky mountains 



throughout Canada ; was observed by myself from 46° on the St. Lawrence to 40 on the Delaware ; 

 by Schweinitz at 36 in Upper Carolina ; by E. James at Council Bluffs on the Missouri ; by Nuttall, 

 on the Arkansas. 



Vitis astivalis of Northeast America. The summer grape or chicken grape known to the natives 

 from early times : — a "smaller kinde of grape, which groweth on the islands, which is sooner ripe," 

 is enumerated by W. Wood i. 5 : V. aestivalis has been observed by myself along the Atlantic from 

 42 30' to 39 ; by Eaton, at 42 on the Hudson; by A. Gray, "common" in Central New York, the 

 "berries pleasant;" bv Michaux, from Virginia to Carolina; by Elliot, in South Carolina; and by- 

 Beck, near St. Louis o'n the Mississippi. Under cultivation, clearly the origin of the Elsinborough 

 and other small delicately-flavoured varieties. 



Impatiens biflora of Northeast America. The snap-weed or touch-me-not known to the natives 

 from early times : — used according to Josselyn pi. 43 by the New England natives "for aches, being 

 bruised between two stones, and laid to, cold : " was received by Hooker from Bear Lake Lat. 66°; 

 was observed by Lapylaie at 49° in Newfoundland ; by myself, along the Atlantic from 45° to 39 i 



