DIO 
to 123, and 129, referred by Linneus to sane Deer t hala 
belong to the alata, The fame auth rms 
root is often three feet long, as thick as a man’s thigh, and 
weighs 3elb. Ta bark is black, the internal part white and 
glutinous, becoming farinaceous when dreft. 1e juice, 
when recent, is nee Aiseet itching in the fkin. A favourit 
difh in Otaheite ofed of this root, with pu ulp of the 
Mufa, os Plantinfn ths and grated ee eee bulbi= 
Jfera, Linn. Sp. 1463. Salifb. Parad. (Katu 
Katsjil; Hort Mal v A nati a 
woods in Mala se mentioned by Rheede as an efculent 
har 
plant, but the boiled root, mixed with powder of China-root, 
is ufed as an application fe cleanfe ard heal ulcers. 
DIOSCORIDES, Pzevacivs, 0 erg a 
a — G - phyfician and botanilt of Anazarba in 
Cilicia, now Caramania, who lived, asit is generally chegeht. 
in the ae of Nero He is faid to ine ve been originally a 
foldier, but he foon became eminent a 
velled much, both in ag alae an Alia, 
ella knowle e paid 
Materia Medica, and efecial to Botany, as fubfervient to 
Medicine. His knowledge of plants has been reckone 
fuperior to that oft any other anaes writer 5 but raf- 
tus muft mee be seinen y far the more philofoohiea I 
botanift, and o whofe information Diofcorides profited, 
as Pliny Auequeny “did by them bot 
Diofcorides has le tusa_ treatife on the Materia Medica, 
in five books, of which the beginaing -; i fecond {peaks of 
animal fubflances, he relt 7 tirely of plants ; a!fo two books 
on the compofition and application of medicines, an ey on 
“oS 
fe) 
caine eee tone and another on venomous anima 
beit edition of his works was pt ublifhed in one eaoine folio, 
e original Greek, with a Latin ver- 
place. 
tion of Diofeondes in 1495, 8 
enemas rs have 
merous camaeee illuftrated with — 
entia toe wen botani 
e fize ae 
o by Vali at ake 
1604. Linnzus 
7 
with cuts a ie ize uta in sag works of Clufius 
&c. Diofcorides defer mentions about 600 plants, 
but his oo are ofee a flight and fupe- ey founded 
on fuch u in ariable characters, aA 0 oo sa 
technical or » ipacaatical principles, that hie commentato 
wee —_ {cope for conjéture, and their pei ie aa 
other as Haller obferves, terminated only by 
Setpair of fuccefs. So vague were their conjectures in many 
inftances, ae not only the extremities of Europe, but even 
America, was ranfacked to ala a a plant. This has 
been a flies abe err ood botanifis have 
of seeing ie plants of Diof- 
er has anes iomne fenoe gtcbrated Greek 
pec lacs » hitherto miftaken or unknown, as the ov 
and <AAsBopos = of mene et the former of which proves 
a hitherto unknown {pecies of tan, Valeriana Diofcori- 
dis, F), Gree. t. 33, and the a er a new Helleborus, mter- 
mediate, as it were, between the niger and viridis of Linnevs. 
Even amongft the fhepherds of the prefent day, Dr. Sib- 
Vox. XI. 
Qa 
; DIO 
thorp met with tradtionary a of the virtues of fome 
oe handed dow the nts. at of the erios, 
peafan 
a the figures of 
reign of the emprefs Maria Thos Sal the 
Two impreffions only of thefe plates, as 
er 
the other was given, out of Profeff sag he 3 own epee 
to Dr. Sibthorp, to sr his enquiries in Greece, and re 
at Oxford. The ngan copy confilts of 142 plates, in 
oblong quarto, in slphabetical oe 
d 
he remar 
Swifs 1 bota nift o on ihe are too 
jaft and ftriking to be omitted here. ‘* That ingenious 
people,”’ fays he, “ were not ieigaie for the flow and patient 
contem mplation of natu oticed the mott prominent 
red into the number of 
enfions, nor did they accu- 
rately deiine their forms. They {eartely ay for any thiog 
but plants ufeful in medicine, or neceflary for ome economi- 
cal purpofes. Yet they were not rag 8 
cal of Ranunculus 
by no means eye the vaft treafures of 
nature which they might have obtained if they had cae 
with equa rozen regions of the Olympus a 
i We muft therefore in fillies 
wets that the botanical learning of the people in queitian is 
more to be compared with that of modern Europe, than 
ik the induftry of ase Chinefe, Japanete It 
is proper, neverthelefs, to read the Gre 
puted virtues of plants ce defcended from the 
but little variation”? Diofe. oP Haller Bibl. Bot 
Sco! , or DroscurumM, in Ancient Ciom aphy, 
an ifland placed by Pliny on tie ic o: Magna Greet lay 
over: oe the promontory Pac : 
URIA, brocavgin, ae » Fupiter, and xs201, 
hae in ee a fettival i in are ot the Arocxzen, or 
= {tor oliux 
ter 
ay by tw Spartans, 
birth of thefe heroes. The 
aaa a time wherein they thared sicily of Ae sae . 
and diverte ace ade with f{ports, of w 
wre nailing nae alw se made a pa Potter, eevee 
Gree. lib. ii. ca ps 20 
tom. 1. an 
DIOSCURIAS, io Ancient Geography, a town of Afia, 
fituated on the N. E, coalt of the Evxiwe fea, that is, in t: se 
Colc 
a 
r is. co 
to Arrian, by acolony of Micfizne. P. Mela fays, that it 
was founded by Caftor and Pollux, who made a vovage to 
47 Colchis 
