REMARKS EXTRACTED FROM DR. SIBTHORP'S JOURNALS. 283 



landing place approaching the convent we were ferried over a narrow 

 stream, fringed with Agnus castus, into a garden belonging to the 

 convent. A number of vernal flowers now blossomed on its banks ; 

 the garden Anemone was crimsoned with an extraordinary glow of 

 colouring. The soil which was a sandy loam was further enlivened 

 with the Ixia, the grass-leaved Iris, and the enamel blue of a species 

 of Speedwell not noticed by the Swedish naturalist. 



The Klcra-x of the Ancients. 



The lower regions of the Arcadian mountains are covered with 

 oaks, among which are frequently heard the hoarse screams of the 

 Jay, still called Wicrcre. CamUs in his translation of Aristotle has 

 wrongly supposed that the K/<r<r« was our magpie. These oaks 

 produced the true misletoe of the ancients, that is the Loranthus 

 Europseus, which is still called o'|oV*, and from which bird-lime is 

 prepared. Our misletoe grows also in Greece, but is not to be 

 found on the oak but on the silver fir, and abounds on Parnassus, 

 where it is not called ogog but yAxxa, and is gathered by the herds- 

 men as food for the labouring oxen. The mountains of Arcadia 

 supply a number of Alpine rivulets abounding in trout, called 

 ireo-TeoXa. Advancing near to Olono, the ancient Cyllene, we observed 

 the Sturnus Cinclus flying along the rocky sides of these rivulets ; 

 perhaps this is the " White Blackbird," said by Aristotle H. A. 

 lib. ix. to be found in that region. 



The Murex or xctX-xy of the Ancients. 



At Hermione, once famous for its purple, and where that dye 

 was particularly prepared, I had the good fortune to stumble over a 

 vast pile of those shells, whose fish or animals had been employed 

 for that purpose. I brought away with me a box of these exuviae -f •, 



* Viscum album is called in Laconia l^lodpvg. — Sibthorp. 



f " They are still denominated Porphyri ; the species is Murex Trunculus of Linnaeus 

 figured by Fabius Columna, under the name of Purpura nostras violacea." From Sir 



oo 2 



