360 PEOSB HAILETJTICS. 



Athenseus : ' the Romans call our ylr^rra rhombus, which 

 is also- a Greek name.'* Archestratus uses the first 

 word. 



They serred up mighty psettas then, and soles all subrugose ;t 



and another Greek deipnosophist the last, 



Sicilian rhombus of the milky flakes. J 



Frequent allusions to the size of the turbot occur in 

 Latin writers, thus, — 



Great turbots and late suppers lead 

 To debt, disgrace, and abject need.§ 

 The border of the broadest dish 

 Lay hid beneath the monster fish.|| 



Rondolet tells of one he had seen measuring five cu- 

 bits fi-om head to tail, four across the broadest part of 

 the body, and the flesh of which was one foot deep ! 

 And that extraordinary 'Adriaci spatium admirabile 

 rhombi' which Domitian had so much difficulty, by rea- 

 son of its size, to cook, is a fit pendant to it. But of all 

 big fish, none approaches that which ftirnished the giant 

 Geryon with a dinner, and Swift no doubt with his con- 

 ception of Gulliver. For him the inhabitants caught 

 only the finest fish, ou% •^fieplov's, — not such as you meet 



* 'Pajjuitoi be KoXoOcri Trjv i/^iJTTai' pd/i^ov, Kol firn to Hvo/ia 'E\Xj/- 



■j" Erra XajSetv yjniTTav fieyaXriv, koI ttjv v7r6Tprjxvv ^ovy\au-(rov. 



J ToKaKTOXpStra SixeXof 



ov jrrjyvviT o)(Kos p6p.^to. 



But sometimes under each of these names distinct species were 

 intended, as iu our motto prefixed to the present family, q. v. 



§ Gfrandes rhombi patinseque 



Grande ferunt una cum damno dedecus. — Sor. 



f, II Quamvis lata, gerat patella rhombum, 



Rhombus latior est tamen pateUas. — Mart. 



