iv.] OF THE ANCIENTS. Ill 



that locality, whilst the Solanum is very common ; 

 and the interior of the Apple of the Solanum just 

 mentioned is likewise, it is said, frequently con- 

 verted into a powder like dust, through the punc- 

 ture of an insect x . 



Upon the whole, then, I am inclined to adhere 

 to the older notion that the latter was the plant 

 intended. 



Pliny y says, that the Solanum is the same as 

 the Strychnon or Trychnon, which latter he describes 

 as rather a woolly shrub than a herb, with large 

 follicles, broad and turbinated, and a good-sized 

 berry within, ripening in November. This would 

 seem to be the Physalis alkekengi. 



Another kind of Strychnon he calls halicacabum : 

 one variety of which possesses, he says, narcotic 

 qualities, and produces death more speedily than 

 Opium ; whilst another is esteemed as an article 

 of food. 



As to the first variety, which species of Solanum t 

 or of the allied genera Atropa and Mandragora, was 

 intended, must be open to doubt, for the Atropa 

 belladonna, which is a very rare plant in Greece, 

 and not noticed by Sibthorp, seems to be men- 

 tioned by Theophrastus z under the name of M<w- 

 Spayopa?, and described as having a lofty stem 

 like the VaQr Ferula communis : so that the 



1 The berry of the S. sodomeum Sibthorp describes as, "Intus 

 viscida, amara, nauseosa, demura pulverulenta, sicca, friabilis, unde, 

 ut videtur, nomen specificum." 



r Lib. xxi. 105. z H. PI. yi. 2. 



