[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.