iv.] OF THE ANCIENTS. 129 



Indeed, the catalogue of either would probably 

 have been even more scanty than is actually the 

 case, had it not been for the medical properties 

 ascribed by the ancients to so many more plants 

 than modern experience justifies, owing to which 

 various members of the vegetable kingdom have 

 been distinguished by a place in Pliny's work, 

 which is certainly not warranted by any real vir- 

 tues belonging to them. 



These, however, are often merely alluded to by 

 their vernacular names, and therefore are not re- 

 cognisable at present, whilst in other cases the 

 descriptions given are so vague and concise, that 

 the real nature of the plant intended is left in 

 a great degree a matter of conjecture. 



So difficult, indeed, is it to identify a modern 

 plant from the description given by an ancient 

 writer, that Sibthorp was glad to avail himself of 

 two subsidiary means of determining what it might 

 be, of which he has made a frequent use. 



The first of these consisted in ascertaining the 

 vernacular name by which the plant is known in 

 Greece at the present day, it being presumed that 

 the peasants retain in most instances for familiar 

 objects the appellations handed down to them by 

 the first settlers in the country. Thus Sibthorp, 

 in describing his ascent of Parnassus, observes : 

 "I walked- out with a shepherd's boy to herbarize. 

 My pastoral botanist surprised me not a little with 

 his nomenclature ; I traced the names of Dioscorides 

 and Theophrastus, corrupted, indeed, in some de- 



K 



