1802.] 
great reputation, in the medical line, in- 
duced Mr. Cirillo to publith in 1780, his 
known work Nofologie Methodice Rudi- 
menta. What was the pofitive merit of 
this performance, the writer cannot tell, 
though he has reafon to think that it was 
delerving’ of a great confideration, and 
that it really anfwered the purpofe of its 
author, in extending and confolidating his 
fame. We conclude the paragraph by 
remarking that about this very time (a0 
1779) Mr. Cirillo was elected a fellow of 
the newly inftituted Academy of Naples. 
It appears that as foon as thefle perfonal 
concerns were fatisfactorily terminated, 
our author refumed his botanical purfuits ; 
accordingly, we faw him publifhing, in 
1784, his work, De Effentialibus nonunulla- 
yum Plantarum Characeribus, in ottavo ; 
and in 1785, the more interefting one 
Fundamenta Botanie, five Philofophie 
Botanica Explicatio, in two large volumes 
ef the fame fize. The prefent writer never 
read the former of thefe works; but if he 
canrely upon his memory, he remembers 
to have been accidentally informed by Mr. 
Cirillo himfelf, that the leading ideas in it 
were to inveftigate the effential character 
of fome plants, in’ order to complete, if 
poflible, what is called the natural fyftem ; 
and to afcertain how far the multiplication 
of varieties, by this method, could have 
a tendency to diminifh the number of /pe- 
cies. The latter work, on the philofophy 
of botany, exhibited many ~interefting 
ideas: but we entertain great doubts whe- 
ther much novelty and originality could 
be produced upon a topic perhaps al- 
ready exhaufted by the great Swedifh 
philofopher, and by his numberlefs difci- 
ples; commentators, tranflators, almoft 
in every language of Europe. We fcarcely 
need mention another analogous work 
publifhed in.1790 Tabule Botanice Ele- 
mentares, five Icones Partium que in Fun- 
damentis Botanicis defcribuntur: as the very 
title of it already fhews that it is little 
better than an appendage, or rather a fyn- 
optic illoftration, of his fyftem of bota- 
nical phyfies. 
Much about the fame time (1790) Mr. 
Cirillo attempted to pafs his medical and 
botanical line, and to penetrate into the 
field of fentimental philefophy. He pub- 
lifthed a {mall volume in octavo, of Medi- 
tazioni Flilofofche,which exhibireda ftrange 
mixture of the {pirit of Young; Sterne, 
and Roufleau. Happy would it have been 
for him, and much to the withes of his 
friends, that he bad never made fuch an 
attempt ;-as the publication did not even 
riig to the height of mediocrity, and foon 
Memoirs of Mr. Cirillo. 
A? 
after fell into complete oblivion! What 
{till contributed to render it more con- 
temptible, was one of the meditaziont 
confecrated to the praife of his then de- 
ceafed friend Filangieri, who being too 
much overvalued in his life, by the in- 
triguing philofophi/m at home, and by 
mercantile {peculations abroad, was, foon 
after his death, appreciated in his juft 
ftandard, and defervedly regarded in no 
better light than that of a book-maker, or 
of what fome witty people called ina vul- 
gar and pulcinellefca, but appropriate and 
energetic expreflion, the pa/try-cook of the 
political fcience! 
In 1793, Mr. Cirillo prefented to the 
public a really important work, in his 
favorite branch of ftudy. This was the 
Neapolitan Flora, or Plante Rariores Regni 
Neapolitani. Inftead of paffing any opinion 
ourlelves on this performance, we think 
it better to inform our readers of the judg- 
ment given upon it by the refpectable 
French periodical work, Le Magazin En- 
cyclopédique. According to this review, 
the author had difcovered many rare plants, 
and many alfo, until then unknown: and in 
order to exemplify this affertion, the editor 
refers to the firft Fafciculus of the work, 
in which are found four plants, the Scabi- 
ofa Crenata, the Lamium Bifidum, the Hy- 
pochaeris Minima, and the Phormium Bulbi- 
Serum, not generally noticed by our mo- 
dern ph¥tographs ; and in which alfo is 
feen the Convolvulus Stoloniferus, defcribed 
hitherto, fays the editor, by wo one but 
Profeffor Cirillo. 
Still more important than the laft, was 
the next work which our botanit pub- 
lithed, in 1796, under the title of Cyperus 
Papyrusg printed (we borrow the expref- 
fion from the title page) Parma, in edi- 
bus Palatinis, typis Bodonianis. ‘The author 
juftly thought that an accurate defcription 
of that famous Egyptian plant was a 
great defideraium in natural hiftory; as ne 
one among the botanifis, who had ex- 
prefsly written on the fubject, had ever 
given the figure or the reprefentation of the 
natural {tate of the plant. He confequently 
thought that the work fhould be printed 
in Atlas folio, and accompanied with 
two fuperb plates of the fame’ fhape, one 
of which might repreient the flourifhing 
ftate, and tie other the trunk and body 
of the plant exactly in its natural fize. 
The writer never faw this work; but he 
is informed that it is really magnificent 
beyond defcription, and one of the moft 
beautiful things ever iffued from the print- 
ing-houfe of Bodoni! 
Here is the end of the literary life of the 
fabject 
