342 
& i 
AP PgRAN D IX, 
Pliny ‘forms us, that the Gauls 
ufed it in their incantations, as the Ro- 
mans and Greeks did in their luftrations. 
Terence, in his Andria, fhews us the 
Verbena was placed on altars before 
the doors of private houfes in Athens, 
and from the fame paffage in Pliny *, 
we find the Magi were guilty of the 
moft extravagant fuperftition about this. 
herb. Strange it is that fuch a vene-- 
ration fhould arife for a plant éendued 
with no perceptible qualities; and 
ftranger fill it fhould fpread from the 
fartheft north to the boundaries of Jn- 
dia. So general a confent, however, 
proves the cuftom arofe betore the dif- 
ferent nations had loft all communica- 
tion with each other. 
Bafking Shark, This fpecies, on comparing a rude 
78. 
{ketch of one taken in the Caernar- 
vonfbire feas, with an engraving of the 
Squalus Maximus in Bifhop Gunner's 
Atta Nidrofiana, we find them to be 
the fame, and that it has a fmall-anal 
fin, which probably was overlooked by 
the Welch fifhermen, 
Sturgeon, 96. The mouth of the fturgeon when dead 
is always open; when alive it can 
* Lib. xxv, cap. ge 
clofe 
