454 PELOPONNESUS. 
A circumstance related by dgathocles the 
\m. J 
< \ - ' Milesian, and cited from his writings by 
Plutarch 1 , in his description of the Tnachus, may 
prove that the state of the river now does not 
differ from its antient condition. Agathocles 
maintained, that, being thundesstruck by 
Jupiter, it became dry in consequence of the 
heat 2 . Strains description of it is applicable 
to a water-course, rather than to a flowing 
river 3 . Plutarch has stated a few observations 
connected with its natural history, which our 
time did not enable us to verify. Speaking 
Plants and o f jj.g ^\ an i & an( } minerals, he says, that the herb 
Minerals. > 
CYURA grew in the bed of the river, cele- 
brated for its properties in assisting parturi- 
tion: it resembled Peganum* ; and this word 
the Latin translator of Plutarch has rendered 
by Ruta ; perhaps from the extraordinary 
virtues ascribed universally to Rue, which 
caused it to receive, at an early period in our 
country, the name of " Herb of grace* ." Rue 
has been celebrated as an antidote against 
(1) Plutarch, de Fluv. ut supra, p. 60. 
(2) A/a *aiev<ytar ofa rev A Kt^vtufitra, { yiif&w. Ibid. 
(3) X 5 *S e Jjf rompis. Strabon.Geog. lib. viii. p. 537. Ed. Oxon. 
(4) IIya>M troaffoftaia;. Ibid. 
(5) "there's RUE for you; here's some for me; we may call it 
Herb of grace o'Sundays." Shakspeare's Hamlet, 
