FOOTNOTES
[1287] It cannot however be denied that some indigenous grasses might be brought by culture, perhaps, to produce mealy seeds that could be used as food. It is at any rate certain that some grasses, for example, the slender-spiked cock’s-foot panic-grass, Panicum sanguinale, which we have rooted out from many of our gardens, was once cultivated as corn, and is still sown in some places, but has been abandoned for more beneficial kinds.
[1288] “If the learned would lay aside disputing, and give place to truth, they would be convinced, both by the sight and the taste, that this plant (buck-wheat) is the ocimum of the ancients.”—Kreuterbuch, Augsburg, 1546, fol. p. 248.
[1289] Theophrast. l. vii. c. 3.
[1290] Dioscor. l. ii. c. 171.
[1291] Geopon. l. ix. c. 28.
[1292] Varro, lib. i. cap. 31. That a kind of meslin is here to be understood, has been supposed by Stephanus, in his Prædium Rusticum, p. 493; and Matthiolus is of the same opinion. See Matthioli Opera, p. 408. Buck-wheat may have been employed green as fodder; and it is indeed often sown for that use; but there are many other plants which can be employed for the like purpose.
[1293] Dioscorid. l. ii. c. 188.
[1294] Theophrast. p. 941.
[1295] Plin. lib. xviii. cap. 10. He says in the same place, and also p. 291, that the erysimum was by the Latins called also irio; and hence it is that Ruellius and other old botanists give that name to buck-wheat.
[1296] The first edition was published in octavo, at Lyons, in 1560. Two editions I have now before me; the first is called Dipnosophia seu Sitologia, Francofurti, 1606, 8vo. The other Joan. Bruyerini Cibus Medicus, Norimbergæ, 1659, 8vo. The author was a grandson of Symphorien Champier, whose works are mentioned in Haller’s Biblioth. Botan. i. p. 246.
[1297] De Natura Stirpium, Basiliæ, 1543, fol. p. 324.
[1298] Rei Rusticæ Libri Quatuor. Spiræ Nemetum, 1595, 8vo, p. 120. He calls it triticum faginum, φαγόπυρον, or nigrum triticum, buck-wheat.
[1299] Le Grand d’Aussy quotes from this book in his Histoire de la Vie Privee des François, i. p. 106, the following words: “Sans ce grain, qui nous est venu depuis soixante ans, les pauvres gens auraient beaucoup à suffrir.”
[1300] M. Schookii Liber de Cervisia. Groningæ, 1661, 12mo.
[1301] Lobelii Stirpium Adversaria. Antv. 1576, fol. p. 395.—Bauhini Hist. Plant. ii. p. 993.—Chabræi Stirpium Sciagraphia. Gen. 1666, fol. p. 312, and in App. p. 627.—C. Bauhini Theatr. Bot. p. 530.
[1302] The beech-tree in German is called Buche or Buke, in Danish Bög, and in Swedish, Russian, Polish, and Bohemian, Buk.
[1303] Wörterbuch, p. 434. This derivation may be found also in Martinii Lexicon, art. Fagopyrum.
[1304] Buck-wheat is sometimes named by botanists frumentum ethnicum (heathen-corn), and triticum Saracenicum, because some have supposed that it was introduced into Europe from Africa by the Saracens.
[1305] A particular description of this scarce bible may be found in J. H. a Seelen’s Selecta Litteraria, Lubecæ, 1726, 8vo, p. 398, 409.
[1306] This small work is entitled Vocabula Rei Nummariæ, &c. Additæ sunt Appellationes Quadrupedum, et Frugum, a Paulo Ebero et Casp. Peucero. Witebergæ, 1552, 8vo.
[1307] Dictionarium Latino-Germanicum. Argentorati, 4to.
[1308] Nya Swenska Economiska Dict. Stockh. 1780, 8vo, vol. ii.
[1309] Abhandlungen der Schwedisch. Akad. der Wissenschaften, vi. p. 107, where is given, as far as I know, the first figure of it.
[1310] Stirpes Rariores Imperii Russici, 1739, 4to.
[1311] Ehrhart’s Œkonomische Pflanzen Historie, viii. p. 72.
[1312] Ruellius De Natura Stirp. lib. ii. cap. 27. Some very improperly have considered this plant as Turkish wheat.
[1313] Several species of this genus were cultivated in the southern districts. Their distinguishing characteristics do not however appear as yet to be fully established. Bauhin makes the proper sorghum to be different from the durra of the Arabs. Linnæus in his last writings has separated Holcus bicolor from sorghum. Forskal thus describes the durra: “Holcus panicula ovata; spiculis sessilibus, subvillosis; alternatim appendiculatis; flosculo uno vel duobus vacuis, sessilibus.” There are kinds of it with white and reddish-yellow (fulva) seeds. According to his account, however, the Arabs cultivate another kind known under the name of dochna, though in less quantity, chiefly as food for fowls.
[1314] Lib. xviii. cap. 7. Holcus sorghum is sold at Venice for brooms, as we are told by Ray in his Hist. Plant.
[1315] Herodot. lib. i. cap. 193.
[1316] Beschreibung der Reyss Leonhardi Rauwolfen. Frankf. 1582, 4to, ii. p. 68. The author observes that this kind of millet is mentioned also by Rhases and Serapion.
[1317] Philostrat. Vita Apollon. lib. iii. cap. 2.
[1318] Melica cioe saggina e conosciuta, et e di due manere, una rossa et una bianca, e trovasene una terza manera che a più bianca che l’miglio. Crescentio D’Agricoltura. In Venetia, 1542, 8vo, lib. iii. cap. 17. It appears therefore that in our dictionaries saggina ought not to be explained by Turkish wheat alone.
[1319] Andrea, Briefe aus der Schweitz. Zurich, 1776, 4to, p. 182.
[1320] Adanson, Voyage au Senegal.