Ball — On the Colloquies of Garcia Be Orta. 383 
give the substance of the volume in the order of the 58 colloquies into 
which it is subdivided, and together with it an account of the prefatory 
matter, which is somewhat copious, to which I have added a specially 
prepared bibliographical record. 
Many of the colloquies refer to subjects which have no connection 
wliatever with drugs, a large number being upon edible fruits, and some 
upon precious stones, &c. There are comparatively few of the indi- 
genous plants mentioned with which I have not made some acquaint- 
ance while in India, and several I have already had to specially 
investigate in connection with the identification of the plants of India 
which were known to the Greeks^ — and more recently in connection 
with plants and drugs mentioned by Tavernier, who wrote 100 years 
after Garcia. Colloquies i. and xliv. on " Precious Stones " are given 
in full in the following pages, and will sufficiently serve to illustrate 
the style of the author. 
Garcia has often been quoted and frequently misquoted in the 
past. It is hoped that what is here attempted will diminish the pro- 
portion of misquotations in the future. To each colloquy I have 
appended references to authors who give further and more recent 
information on the subjects. The number of such references might 
easily have been increased ; but the six selected authorities afford, 
by the diversity and extent of the information which they convey, 
nearly all that is requisite for the full illustration of the various drugs 
Avhich are enumerated. The first of these authorities is Carolus 
Clusius (L'Ecluse) who, as already stated, published an annotated and 
abbreviated Latin version of Christopher A' Costa's epitome of Garcia's 
work. The edition quoted from was printed at Antwerp (C. Plantin) 
in 1582. The second authority is Linschoten, who, as well as his 
annotator Paludanus (Bernard Ten Broeck), borrowed wholesale from 
Garcia. His travels were first published in 1596. The edition which 
is quoted from here is by Messrs. A. C. Burnell and P. A. Tiele, and 
was published by the Hakluyt Society in 1885. The third autho- 
rity is Jacob Boutins, whose animadversions on Garcia, and general 
notes on the plants with Piso's annotations are given in the latter' s 
Indim Utriusque re Naturali et Medica. Amsterdam, 1658. The 
fourth authority is Dr. "Whitelaw Ainslie, whose Materia Medica was 
published in London in the year 1826. It contains a wonderful 
store of information, being especially valuable for its copious refe- 
rences. The fifth authority is Pluckiger and Hanbury's Pharmaco- 
^ See Proceedings, Ser. ii., vol. ii., pp. 302-346 ; and Ser. iii., vol. i., p. 1. 
