[898] Poinsinet fancies that this name means “staff of the Magi.”
[899] Or “laser,” these names being indifferently applied to the gum-resin.
[900] The whole of this paragraph has been borrowed from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vi. c. iii.
[901] Sprengel takes this to be the Laserpitium ferulaceum of Linnæus, but Fée thinks it is more than doubtful if the identity can be established.
[902] From Theophrastus. Dioscorides says, on the other hand, that it grows in Libya.
[903] From Littré we learn that M. Fraas has suggested that the Magydaris and Laserpitium are possibly the Ferula Tingitana, and the Ptychotis verticillata of Decandolle, which last he has found upon high mountains in the lower region of pines, on Mount Parnassus, among others.
[904] See B. xxii. cc. [48], [49].
[905] The Rubia tinctorum of Linnæus.
[906] Dioscorides speaks of the madder of Ravenna as being the most esteemed. It is much cultivated at the present day in the South of France, Holland, and the Levant. That of Lille enjoys a high reputation.
[907] It is covered with bristly hairs, or rather, fine, hooked teeth. There is, however, no resemblance whatever between it and ervilia or orobus, the fitch.