[ 66i ] 
The commentators in general agreed in making 
the bryon of ( i ) Diofcorides one of thefe hairy tree- 
modes, which they called ufnea. No wonder, there- 
fore, that at the reftoration of letters it became a 
matter of controverfy, which of them was the ufnea 
of the ancients. Diofcorides recommends his as an 
aftringent ; and tells us, that “ the beft grew upon 
‘c t ] ie cedar ; but that from whatever tree it was ga» 
“ thered, the whiteft and moft fragrant was pre- 
“ ferable to the black.” The feveral ufnea would 
undoubtedly in different countries be found upon dif- 
ferent trees. In Italy, that of the larch-tree was the 
moft odoriferous ; and on that account Matthiolus 
(2) preferred it to all others. T. hat kind, which at 
length obtained a place in the fhops as the ufnea oi 
the ancients, was a fpecies commonly found in our 
countries on old oaks and other trees, and is called 
by Dillenius (3) ftringy tree-mofs, or ufnea of the 
{hops. Many excellent virtues have been afcribed to 
it, on a fuppofition of its being the true ufnea ; but 
it does not appear to have deferved them : and the 
prefent practice, at leaf! in England, has quite ex- 
punged it, and that perhaps very jufldy. 
Dr. Dillenius is evidently of opinion however, that 
this common ufnea , tho it obtained a place in the 
fhops as fuch, is not the bryon of Diofcorides and 
Pliny, or the phafeon of Theophraftus, lince he has 
(1) Lib. i. c. 20. See this fubjeft largely difcuffed in Bodaeus 
a Stapel Comment, in Theoph. p. 156. et feq. 
(2) Opera omnia a C. B. edit. 1598. p. 64. 
(-2) Ufnea vulgaris loris longis implexis Hill. Mufc. p. 56. Li- 
chen plicatus Lin. Sp. PI. 1154. Mufcus arboreus : Ufnea Officm. 
C. B. Raii Syn. III. p. 64* . 
applied 
