By the Rev. Robert Walsh. 



45 



stands in a valley, and measures forty-five yards in circumfer- 

 ence ! It in fact now consists of fourteen large trees, growing 

 in a circle from the same root, but separating at some distance 

 from the ground. The Turks sometimes encamp here ; and 

 the Bin Bashee pitches his tents in the centre of this tree 

 or trees. The immense size to which the Platanus attains, 

 has been the wonder of antiquity : Pliny * describes several ; 

 in one of which Lucinius Mucianus gave a supper to a 

 company of twenty-two friends. 



Ricinus Communis. 

 The name of YL^otuv, and Ricinus, was given to this tree by 

 the ancients, from the exact resemblance of the seeds to a 

 tick, or insect which fastens on dogs' ears — Ricinus quasi auri- 

 canis. It is called by the Arabs Tebsche ; which, I believe, 

 signifies the same thing. The seeds were prescribed by 

 Dioscorides ;f and the expressed oil was used in lamps. 

 Till very lately, this was the practice at Constantinople ; and 

 sometimes at this day the seeds are taken like pills, as a 

 purgative, and are so violent in their operation, as to have 

 obtained for the plant the name of the Infernal Fig. It 

 grows in great luxuriance all over the barren rock of Gib- 

 raltar, where it attains a large size. It is found along the 

 coasts of the Mediterranean, and as far as Constantinople ; 

 but it does not always ripen its seeds on the Bosphorus. 



* Hist. Nat. Lib. xii. cap. 1. f Lib. iv. cap. 164. 



