51
A perit is a small weight less than a grain. – Trans.
52
[How well the author’s remarks apply to the recent mania in railway scrip!]
53
In the year 1769, the dearest kinds in England were
54
Blainville’s Travels.
55
Introd. in Hist. Lit. iii. 3, p. 92.
56
That he might relax and refresh his mind, worn out by study, he amused himself with the cultivation of his garden and of flowers, and particularly of tulips, the roots of which he was at great pains to procure from all parts of the world, by means of Dodonæus, Clusius, and Boisotus, men singularly well-skilled in horticulture, and by others of his friends. Here, at a distance from civil tumult, with a cheerful countenance and placid eye, he sauntered through his plants and flowers, contemplating sometimes one declining, sometimes another springing up, and forgetting all his cares amidst the pleasure which these objects afforded him. See the Life of Lipsius, prefixed to the edition of his works printed at Antwerp in 1637. This is confirmed by what Lipsius says himself in his book De Constantia, ii. 2, 3, in praise of gardening.
57
He rented a house near to the Vatican, with a garden, in which he had planted the choicest flowers, and those chiefly which are not propagated from seeds or roots, but from bulbs. These flowers were not known about thirty years before, nor had they been ever seen at Rome, but lay neglected in the Alps. – Of these flowers, which have no smell, but are esteemed only on account of their colours, Barclay was remarkably fond, and purchased their bulbs at a great price. Erythræi Pinacotheca. Lips. 1712, 8vo, iii. 17, p. 623. See also Freheri Theatrum, p. 1515.
58
Gesneri Historiæ Animalium, liber tertius. Tiguri, 1555, fol. p. 234.
59
Uccelliera, overo Discorso della natura di diversi Uccelli. Roma, 1622, 4to.
60
Gesneri redivivi, aucti et emendati, tomus ii. Franc. 1669, fol. p. 62. More information respecting hybrids may be found in Brisson, Ornithologie, t. iii. p. 187; and Frisch, Vorstellung der Vögel in Teutschland, the twelfth plate of which contains several good figures.
61
Coleri Œconomia ruralis et domestica. Franc. 1680, folio.
62
Barrington’s paper in the Phil. Trans. vol. lxiii. p. 249.
63
64
Lib. iii. c. 159, and lib. xxvii. c. 12.
65
Dictionnaire de Commerce, t. v. 1765, fol. p. 1149.
66
In the Dictionary of the Academy della Crusca the word
67
Historia Muscorum, Ox. 1741, 4to, p. 120.
68
Hist. Plant. iv. c. 7.
69
Lib. iv. c. 95.
70
Lib. xxvi. c. 10; xxxii. c. 6.
71
Hardouin quotes Aristot. Hist. Animal. vi. c. 9. But that naturalist speaks of a sea-weed which was cast on shore by the Hellespont. A dye or paint was made of it, and the people in the neighbourhood imagined that the purple of this sea-weed, which served as food to certain shell-fish, communicated to them their beautiful dye. A proof that sea-weeds (
72
Voyage du Levant. Amsterd. 1718, 4to, i. p. 89.
73
“Præterea Amorgina, optima quidem in Amorgo fiunt, sed et hæc e lino esse asserunt. Tunica autem Amorgina etiam amorgis nuncupatur.” – Onomasticon, vii. c. 16.
74
Histor. Nat. lib. xxvii. c. 11.
75
Pinax Plant. p. 365. Hist. Plant. iii. 2. p. 796.
76
Other accounts say that he was an Englishman; but the name Frederigo confirms his German extraction.
77
Giornale de’ Letterati d’ Italia, t. xxxiii. parte i. p. 231.
78
These documents from the Florentine records may be found in Dominici Mariæ Manni de Florentinis Inventis Commentarium. Ferrariæ, 1731, p. 37, from which I have extracted the following: – “One of this family resided formerly a long time in the Levant, where he carried on trade, according to the custom of the Florentine nation. Being one day in the fields, and happening to make water on a plant, of which there was great abundance, he observed that it immediately became extraordinarily red. Like a prudent man, therefore, he resolved to make use of this secret of nature, which till that time had lain hid; and having made several experiments on that herb, and finding it proper to dye cloth, he sent some of it to Florence, where, being mixed with human urine and other things, it has always been employed to dye cloth purple. This plant, which is called
This is confirmed by another passage: – “One of this family, on account of the trade carried on faithfully and honestly by the Florentines, travelled to the Levant, and brought thence to Florence the art, or rather secret, of dyeing in oricello.”
79
In the genealogical history of the noble families of Tuscany and Umbria, written by P. D. Eugenio Gamurrini, and published at Florence 1668–1673, 3 vols. in folio, is the following account, vol. i. p. 274, of the origin of this family: – “This family acquired their name from a secret brought by one of them from the Levant, which was that of dyeing in oricello, never before used in this country. On that account they were afterwards called Oricellari, as appears from several records among the archives of Florence, and then by corruption Rucellari and Rucellai. Of their origin many speak, and all agree that they came into Tuscany from Britain.”
80
The History of the Discovery and Conquest of the Canary Islands, by George Glass. London, 1764, 4to.