128 THE TREES AND SHRUBS [LECT. 



tified in page 122, with the Laurus taxa, or Alex- 

 andrina of Pliny, which is the same as 

 of Theophrastus. 



SMI LAX. 



Three climbers of this genus are noticed by Sib- 

 thorp, and one by Manetti. Smilax aspera is known 

 at the present day by the name of oyziAa, so that 

 we need not hesitate to refer to it the plant de- 

 scribed under the same name by Theophrastus q , 

 and by Pliny r . 



The trees noticed in the preceding pages pro- 

 bably comprise all, or nearly all, which were re- 

 cognised, or at least distinguished, by the ancients ; 

 but the same cannot be said of the shrubs, many of 

 those then existing having been overlooked by the 

 writers whose works have come down to us. 



The utilitarian character, indeed, which belongs 

 to all works on Natural History drawn up by 

 the Greeks and Romans, excluded from the con- 

 sideration of their authors those natural produc- 

 tions which were not supposed in some way or 

 other to minister to man's uses or enjoyment, so 

 that the meagre catalogue of herbaceous plants 

 given in my " Lectures on Roman Husbandry " 

 may be easily accounted for by this circumstance ; 

 and a similar deficiency in the shrubs enumerated 

 may be referred to the same cause. 



" iii. 18. ' xvi. 63. 



