8 
CHAPTER I. 
having only defcribed it as like the favln ^ 
a defcription which v/ill accord with a va- 
riety of plants of Europe. Moft authors, 
never thelefs, have agreed, from this refem- 
blance, to confider it as a fpecies of wolfsr 
claw msfs, which is now called lycopodtum 
felago, C^SALPiNUs, however, thinks it 
was a fedum ; and Guilandikus, an erica, 
or heath, and probably with more reafon. 
Various, but equally fuperflitious, were 
the rites attendant on the famoliiSy which 
was given to preferve oxen and fwine frpm 
difeafes. 
This is a plant of which ftill greater 
doubts remain, Pliny having faid nothing 
further of it, than that it grew in moift places. 
Hence the name is applied to a plant Ccilled 
round-leaved brookhme ; but, as lormmg a 
feparate genus m modern arrangements, it 
has apqvured the name given as above, from 
Fliny* Others have thought it a Ipecieb of 
•pulfatilla, or pafque-flov/er ; fmce one of 
that kind retains, among the Bologneie, the 
name of Jamiglo. 
The fame uncertainty attends all difqui- 
fitions relating to the herha Britannicay of 
DiOSCORiDES 
