An Account of a Book

pipe, and so stop the Bleeding: But on Tryals I have seen of it, though I may believe it innocent, yet I am sure 'tis not infallible. Fig. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. Shew Eight several Instruments made for paring the Nails, at which, in China, the People are very curious and dextrous. These Instruments are each of them shaped like a Chizzel. Fig. 14. represents a kind of Instrument, called, in China, a Champing Instrument. Its use is to be rub'd or roul'd all over the Muscular Flesh. It is like an Horse's Curricomb, and is said to be used after the same manner, and for the same Purposes that they are made use of for Horses. VIII. An Account of a Book. Museo de Piante rare della Sicilia, Malta, Corsica, Italia, Piemonte e Germania, &c. di Don Paolo Boccone, &c. with additional Remarks by Mr. John Ray, F. R. S. The learned and ingenious Author of this Work, Signior Paolo Boccone, a Gentleman of Sicily, Botanist to the Great Duke of Tuscany, and now a Monk of the Cisterian Order, of the Province of Sicily, having changed his Pronomen into Sylvius, hath rendred himself well known to the learned World, by his Writings published many Years since, viz. His Icones & Descriptions rariorum Plantarum Sicilie, Melitae, Galliae & Italie, Printed at Oxford in the Year 1674. And his Letters ters about several Natural Curiosities, Written in French and Printed at Amsterdam. In this present Work he gives us a large Collection of rare Plants, the greatest part whereof are new and non-descript, curiously delineated and engraven in a Hundred and Thirty Octavo-Plates, which he divides into Decads, inscribing each Decad to a Venetian Nobleman. Two Defects there are in this Work; the one want of Method, the other of Descriptions. 1. As for Method, there is none at all observed in it, the Species being promiscuously and indiscreetly placed as they came to Hand, without any Order or Connexion. 2. Besides the Names, the Stature and Magnitude, the Places where he found them, or Persons from whom he received them, he hath to a great Number of these Plants added no Descriptions of the principal parts, Root, Stalk, Leaf, Flower, Fruit. This, though he endeavours to excuse p. 171. by telling us, That he writes to such as are advanced in the Knowledge of Botanicks, who need no long Descriptions, and to whom they would be rather tedious than useful, and not to Novices: Yet can he not easily persuade us, but that concise exact Descriptions would ease the greatest Proficients of a much Trouble in finding out and exactly determining the Species. He had also obliged us, if he had given us the Synonyms of such as he took to have been described by others before him, together with the Names of the Authors of such Synonyms and Descriptions. This also he endeavours to excuse by want of time and Books. Yet all this notwithstanding, we ought rather thankfully to accept what he hath done, by enriching the History of Plants with such a multitude of new Species, than to censure or reprehend him for what we apprehend he hath omitted, which he might have done. Besides the main Subject of this Work, the Author intermixes many curious Observations and Remarks, Physiological and Medicinal: As for Instance, he tells us, That because we find not either among the Ancients or Moderns any Alcalick Medicine drawn only from a simple Vegetable, without any other Preparation but meer Trituration, therefore he will in this Observation (which is the second in number) communicate an Antacid Medicine of much Efficacy in curing the biting of a Mad Dog, of a Viper or other Serpent, of Fevers, Cholicks, Wounds, &c. called by the Palermitanes, Sanatodos; which is only a part of a Plant of no great Account among Herbarists, in brief, it is nothing else but the Sponge of the Dogs-Rose, called by some Bedeguar, dried, and grossly pulverized. For the biting of a Viper, after Scarification and Cupping, sprinkle upon the Wound the Powder of Sanatodos, and afterwards give to drink in generous Wine a good Quantity of the same Powder several times. For the biting of a mad Dog, give of the said Powder inwardly, and apply it outwardly to the Wound, first moisten'd in Strong Wine, or Oyl-Olive, in like manner use it for the stinging of a Scorpion. For continual Fevers it is to be often taken in Broth or other Meats. Several other Diseases he mentions, in which it's useful, especially the Colick, the Pains whereof, being given to drink in Red Wine to the Quantity of about a Drachm, it mitigates in half an Hour's time. One thing I cannot but wonder at, that Signior Baccome should take no Notice that the Root of this Rose had been of old celebrated by Pliny for the Cure of the Hydrophobia, as a Medicine revealed in a Dream, Hist. Nat. L. 25. c. 2. & lib. 8. c. 4. in these Words, Insanabilis ad hosce annos fuit rabidi canis morsus, pavorem aquae potusq; omnis afferens odium. Nuper cujusdam militantis in praetorio mater vidit in quiete, ut radi- cem Sylvestris Rosea, blanditam sibi aspectu pridie in fructo, mitteret filio bibendam. In Lusitania res gerebatur, proxima Hispaniae parte; causq; accidit, ut milite a morso canis incipiente aquas expavescere superveniret epistola orantis ut pareret Religioni, servatusq; est ex insperato, & postea quisquis auxilium simile tentavit. 2. Another Observation he gives us concerning the Seed of Sophia chirurgorum, or Flixweed, which being taken in Broth or Wine entire without reducing to Powder stops vomiting of Blood, and cures the Dysentery or Bloody-Flix, from whence the Plant hath its Name in English; which doth not succeed, if it be well pounded or beaten to Powder; the Reason whereof he assigns to be, because the oily-Substance which is more apt to dissolve than to coagulate, is loosened by pounding, and separated from the other parts. 3. A Third Observation we shall mention is, That in many Plants the Flower receives its Tincture or Colour from the Root. He instances in the greater Celandine, whose Roots and Flowers are of a Yellow or Saffron Colour; the Barbery or Oxyacantha, which also hath both Roots and Flowers of a Yellow: The Dentellaria of Rondeletius, whose Roots and Flowers agree in the same vinous or Griseline Colour. The Acacia Indica Aldini, &c. The Reason whereof he assigns; because the more fixt parts wherein the Colour consists, preserve the same Tincture without being altered by a long Circulation they make to the Flower. Hence he observes, that those Plants are more fit for dying Cloth, which are Lignose, and have their Root agreeable in Colour with the Flower. 4. He gives us out of Caesalpinus, the Preparation of Cate, (which he takes to be the same with Catechu) which is the inspissate Juice of the Lycium Indicum, or Zzz Tree Tree called Cadira, by the Indians, which they thus prepare; They divide the Heart [Medulla] of the Tree into thin Slices, which they grind upon a Marble, such as Painters use, and boil the Powder in a sufficient Quantity of Water for Four and Twenty Hours, and then strain it. This Decoction they boil again beyond the Consistency of Honey, but not so hard as Wax, of which they make Pastilli, which being dried are outwardly black, but inwardly redish. This Opinion he rather adheres to, than that of a late learned Traveller in India, who affirms Catechu to be made up of the Juice of the Fruit of Areca or Fauzel, and a certain Mineral Earth of that Place. 5. He presents us with a sort of Pistachio-Tree, which he calls, Pistacium mas ficulum folio nigricante, which produces no esculent Fruit, being by it self barren, though in respect of the Female, which it impregnates with Fruit, it may be said to be fruitful. Then he gives us the Notes of Distinction between the Male and Female Pistachio, and tells us how the Country-men ingravitate the Female with the Flowers of the Male, viz. They wait till the Female hath its Flowers explicated; then they take, at their Discretion, many Flowers of the Male, which are in Bud and just ready to open, and put them into a Vessel, and having encompassed them with Earth moistened with Water; they hang this Vessel with the Flowers on a Branch of the Female Pistachio, and there leave it till the Flowers be dried, that so the Powder which they scatter may more easily by the help of the Wind be dispersed over all the Branches of the Tree, and ingravitate them with Fruit. Other more compendious Ways he mentions, which the Country-men use of scattering the Dust or Powder of the Flowers of the Male upon the Female. He tells us, That the Male, for the most part, flowers and scatters its Prolific Powder before the Female puts forth its Blossoms (which happens in most Plants supposed to differ in Sex) and what Provision they make in that case. This being the general Practice in Sicily, must needs depend upon Observation, that without so doing the Trees would not be fruitful, or at least not to that Degree, and confirms the Opinion, that there is in Plants also a difference of Sex. This whole Observation about the Pistachios he inserts also into his Museo di Fisica & di esperienze variato, &c. 6. He brings an Observation concerning a Woman of Chambery in Savoy, who being afflicted with a fierce Apoplexy, after various Medicines in vain used, grew lame on her whole Left Side from Head to Foot; whom an Emperick undertaking to cure, spent Eight Boccale of Aqua Vitæ, and Twelve Pound of Camphire upon her, in Six Weeks time, anointing every Morning and Evening the whole part affected without any Benefit at all. The Woman mean time was with Child, and without suffering any Inconvenience, at her due time brought forth a Son, otherwise perfect, save that all his Bones were so soft and tender, that he could not bear himself upon his Feet; the Bones of his Legs, as also his Arms and Hands being so tender, that they seemed flexible Tendons: And in this Case he lived Eighteen Months. This Effect he, and not without Reason, attributes to the Camphire. I have often wondered how Out-landish Authors should so grossly mistake in the Orthography of English Words we find in their Writings. But by an Observation in this Book concerning the Serpentaria Virginiana (the Name and a tolerable Description whereof Signior Boccone had from one Edward Painten) I perceive how it might come to pass, viz. They received these Words from some illiterate English Men, and put them down according to the Pronunciation, spelling them as Words of such Sound and Pronunciation in their own Language are spell'd. So, doubtless, Edward Painten pronouncing the Word Snake-root, as the Italians do Snecrut, (we often pronouncing a as they do e, and they having no double o) Signior Boccone writes it Snecrut. But because he desires further Satisfaction concerning this Serpentaria Virgin. or Snake-root, I shall give him, and others that concur with him in that Desire, a full and exact Description of the whole Plant, drawn up and sent me by a Person that knew it very well, and was as well able to describe it, the Learned and most Skillful Herbarist Mr. John Banister, whose unhappy and untimely Death cannot sufficiently be deplored. The Pistochia, or Serpentaria Virginiana hath a bushy Root, consisting of a Number of small Strings of a yellowish Colour, and hot Aromatick Scent and Taste: Thence grow One or Two Two smooth; at least very little hairy, Stalks, round and most commonly upright, not square nor trayling: The leaves grow alternately on this side and that, one at a Joint or Knee: They are thin long and pointed, coming in like a Heart at the Footstalk, a little Hairy above, and rough with many protuberant Veins underneath, and in handling they stick a little to the Fingers. Near the Ground grow One or Two hollow Flowers, each upon its proper Foot-stalk, different in Form from the *Pistochia Cretica*, or any other yet known; all whole Flowers (if Authors Figures, or the Plants themselves dried, rightly inform me) resemble a Cows Horn, the top growing to the Rudiment of the Seed-Vessel, and the open end cut slanting like a Drenching-Horn, whereas this of ours terminates with a Heel, which supports a broad, round, galerniculated Lip, the Center of which opens into the Hollow of the Flower. The Lip is of a light russet or dirt Colour. The Seed Vessel is hexagonal, shap'd like a Pear, when full grown near half an Inch in diameter. It is not an ever-green, but after the Seeds are ripe, the Leaves and Stalks begin to wither and decay. It flowers in May, and its Seeds are ripe in August.