[620] Theoph. p. 613.
[621] The creeping branches were in particular called cacti, the upright stem pternix.
[622] Theophrastus calls the bottom of the calyx περικάρπιον, a word which is still retained in botany. But he also says that the same part of the cactus was called also σκαλία; from which is derived the ascalia of Pliny. Galen calls it σπόνδυλον.
[623] Theoph. This term is explained by Pliny, lib. xiii. c. 4:—“Dulcis medulla palmarum in cacumine, quod cerebrum appellant.”
[624] Athen. Deipnos. at the end of the second book, p. 70. He gives everything to be found in Theophrastus; but either the author or some of his transcribers have so confused what he says, that it is almost unintelligible.
[625] Herm. Barbar. ad Dioscor. iii. 15.
[626] Manni de Florentinis inventis commentarium, p. 34.
[627] Politiani Opera. Lugd. 1533, 8vo, p. 444.
[628] Ruellius De Natura Stirpium. Bas. 1543, fol. p. 485.
[629] Hakluyt, vol. ii. p. 164. Biographia Britannica, vol. iv. p. 2462; and Anderson’s History of Commerce.