284 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



which will establish beyond doubt, what the shell was, employed by 

 the ancients for that purpose. 



The Truffles of Laconia. 



April 24th. — At Nisi, in the ancient Laconia, a basket of Truffles 

 was brought in ; my host distinguished three sorts, xuXctpfioKtc-ta, 

 a-Ta^vja-ia, and (rvKa.\i<ria, ; the man who brought them, confirmed to 

 me the account, that he had found them with a kind of virga 

 divinatoria, and that by the sound of the earth from the touch of 

 the rod, he had made this collection. I am sorry that circumstances 

 did not admit of my going to this truffle hunt. I was assured that 

 the Truffle * hound was unknown ; and that the quantity brought to 

 market is all collected in the manner he described to me. 



CYPRUS. 



The Ferula^ or vufal of Prometheus. 



Near the convent of the Holy Cross I observed the golden 

 Henbane in abundance : and when we had descended, a peasant 

 brought me a pumpkin with water ; it was corked with a bush of 

 Poterium Spinosum, which served both as a coverlid and a strainer, 

 and prevented the entrance of flies and other insects. It preserves 

 in most of the Greek islands its ancient name XtoiQui. The stools 

 on which we sate were made of the Ferula Grseca ; the stems cut 

 into slips and placed crossways were nailed together. This is one of 

 the most important plants of the island in respect to its economical 

 uses. The stalks furnish the poorer Cyprian with a great part of his 



James Smith. At the taking of Susa by Alexander a great quantity of Hermionc purple 

 was found there. Plut. in Alex. The fishery of the Murex on the coast of Laconia also 

 is mentioned by Pliny, lib. ix. and Pausan. in Lacon. " Blue and purple from the isles 

 of Elisha," arc referred to by the Prophet Ezck. xxvii. 7« The last words, according to 

 Bochart, designating the Peloponnesus. 



* A corruption of the ancient Tlvov may be traced in the Itvov of the modern Greek.*, 

 i he name of the Lycopcrdon Tuber; vova. t« xx) iVra ovoii.a.typeva., Aetius. Sec Du C. 

 ii.86. 



