in.] OF THE ANCIENTS. 65 



climbing habit, (/cAi/zaf, a ladder). These terms, 

 however, probably included other climbing plants, 

 as the wild Vine is called in modern as well as in 

 ancient Greek AcA^/xa : and it is very probable that 

 the Periploca Grceca, a creeper common in Greece ; 

 the Bryony, oyuTreAo? AeJ/c?;, Dioscorides ; and other 

 twining plants, may be embraced under the same 

 denomination. 



M. Dumolin, in his Flore Poetique Ancienne, con- 

 tends that the Viburnum of Virgil was the Clematis 

 viorna of the moderns. 



He remarks, that in the lines 



" Quantum lenta solent inter viburna cupressi," 



the twining character of the Clematis affords a better 

 contrast to the erect and lofty stature of the Cypress, 

 than does the Privet, which the Viburnum is com- 

 monly supposed to mean. 



Ovid, too, seems to speak of the Clematis under 

 the name of Vitis alba : 



" Lentior et salicis virgis et vitibus albis." 



BERBERIS. 



In Northern Italy this plant is common, and one 

 species of the genus, namely, Berberis cretica, is 

 met with in the Archipelago, whilst another, the 

 B. vulgaris, occurs in Laconia. It is remarkable, 

 however, that there are no traces of any descrip- 

 tion of the Berberry in Dioscorides. 



Yet it is imagined by Royle a that the medicinal 

 preparation called Lycium, or AVKLOV, which will be 



a Trans. Linn. Soc., vol. xvii. 

 F 



