WHAT WAS THE PRASIUM ? 85 



Aristotle says of it, that it lives on sea- weed and 

 filth, and that it also eats the prasium* There 

 has been much discussion among commentators 

 as to what the prasium, which afforded food to 

 the Salpa, was, some regarding it as a plant of 

 the onion tribe — a true leek — among whom is 

 Rondeletius — and others (as Gesner), suggesting 

 that it was a sea- weed resembling the leek. The 

 latter came nearest the truth. There can be 

 scarcely a question as to the irpamov, mentioned 

 in the passage of the History of Animals referred 

 to, being a sea-weed — and that sea-weed the 

 curious and beautiful Caulerpa prolifera, a fucus 

 whose oval and regularly shaped fronds are of 

 the most vivid green, and bear so little resem- 

 blance to ordinary sea-weed, that we can easily 

 understand the distinction drawn by Aristotle 

 between it and the fucus usually so called. The 

 Caulerpa grows in great profusion on the muddy 

 grounds frequented by the Salpa. When the 

 dredge came up full of this weed, it seemed as if 

 it had gathered a mass of shelled pea-pods. 



To the same tribe of fishes with the Salpa, 

 probably belonged the Orphus (opQog), said by 



npaoiov. — fltjoi Zwu)v. (viii. 4.) 



