iv.] OF THE ANCIENTS. 107 



But it is probable tbat tbe plant alluded to by 

 Pliny under the name of Convolvulus, and compared 

 by him to a Lily, is one of the common herbaceous 

 species, perhaps C. sepium, which Dioscorides says 

 winds round trees, and in summer forms entire 

 arbours. He calls it oy>uAa Aeta. 



LlTHOSPERMUM. 



Two shrubby species are noticed by Sibthorp, 

 viz. L. fruticosum and hispidulum, but in Italy they 

 appear all to be herbaceous. Pliny k and Dios- 

 corides 1 both speak of a plant called in Latin 

 Lithospermum, and in Greek At#oo-7reyo/xo//, from 

 the hard, stony character of its seeds. 



It has been suggested that the description agrees 

 better with Coix lachryma, but as this is an Indian 

 plant, it will be safer to adhere to the common 

 opinion, that it is one or other of the species of 

 Lithospermum, found in Italy and Greece, though 

 which of them the descriptions of these writers is 

 not sufficiently precise to enable us to pronounce. 



ONOSMA. 



Sibthorp mentions a shrubby species of this genus 

 under the name of 0. fruticosa. 



The old botanists have given to this genus the 

 name applied by Pliny m to a plant which he de- 

 scribes too concisely to admit of identification. Nor 

 does Dioscorides n assist us further, in speaking of 

 the same plant under the Greek name of 



k Lib. xxvii. c. 74. ' M. M. iii. 148. 



m Lib. xxvii. c. 86. . n M. M. iii. 137. 



