M. Link on the Ancient History of 
flower in the centre of the mnbel, which is proper only td the 
species of the genus Daucus. Columella (1. ix. c. 4.) translates 
Staphylinus, which is the Greek name, by Pastinaca^ under 
which, therefore, our parsnip is by no means included. The 
Daucus of the ancients was a medicinal plant, (Theophr. Hist 
PI. 1. ix. c. and Dioscorides, 1. iii. c. 83.), which Pliny has 
translated by Pastinaca (1. xix. c. 5.), and thereby has made and 
occasioned great mistakes. Thjs error has been increased by 
the circumstance, that some writers, as Galen says, give the 
name Daucus to the wild Stapkylinus. The carrot (Daucus 
'arota) grows every where wild with us, as well as the parsnip, 
{Pastinaca sativa). Dioscorides says the wild StaphyVinus is 
also eaten, and Athenseus quotes cL passage from Diphylus, 
wherein it is said, that the Stapliylinus is sharp-tasted, (1. ix. 
c. 12.). In the north of Europe, there grows a wild species of 
Daucus^ which much more resembles our cultivated carrot than 
the species which grows wild with us, and by means of which^ 
the passages of the ancients are made more intelligible. The 
name Carrot is old : the large and full grown plants, says Di- 
phylus in Athenaeus, are called In Galen, is pro- 
bably used for 
Sisaron of the ancients was the common name for our Skir- 
ret {Smm sisarum). Dioscorides (1. ii. c. 139.) says little dis- 
tinct about it : the roots are pleasant to eat. It is not easy to 
say whether the c-m of Athenaeus be the same (1. 2. c. 18.)y 
since even in this author nothing certain is found. The Sium 
of Dioscorides is various, and always a medicinal plant. Colu- 
mella says. Jam siser Assyria venit qutz semine radix (1. x. 
V. 114.) ; according to which the plant ought to belong to the 
East. We ought probably also to place the native region of 
skirret there, since this plant does not grow in any part of 
Europe, and its use is very ancient. Linnaeus says of Sium 
sisarum: Habitat in China^ probably because Sium ninsi 
there. But the proper Ninsi is different. Galen quotes Siser 
only among the medicinal plants, and speaks of its bitterness. 
He means, therefore, a plant different from our skirret. Pliny 
says of Siser (1. 19. c. 5.), that it grows in Germany, the best 
kind of it near Gelduba, a Castle on the Rhine, — that it was 
always brought foom Yormaus by Tiberius, who was very fond 
