Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/399

 us. m. MAY 20, ion.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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and the plant called the rha grew in the Pontus as used in the second sense. Lewis and Short give Pontica radix, rhubarb, used by Celsus. I suppose it was simply called so as growing in the country to the north of the Black Sea. How great a sinner must Ovid have been in writing verses " ex Ponto," when all the while he was at Tomi, in Moesia, and not in Pontus (in the narrow sense) at all ! WALTER W. SKEAT.

The principal geographical source of the Rha Ponticum of our old herbalists was sup- posed to be Pontus, not the shores of the Caspian. Siberian rhubarb is now called Rheum Rhaponticum, but both Lyte (Dodoens) and Gerard distinguish between the rhubarb of the Volga and " Pontick rubarb." Gerard, at least, seems to confuse the former with China rhubarb ; Lyte calls the other " Rha of Turkie."

As regards the etymology of the word, Lemery, under Rhabarbarum, suggests that possibly the river Rha tooS its name from the root, not vice versa (!); and under Rhaponticum he says : " c'est-a-dire, ratine de Ponte, parce que cette racine etoit autre- fois apportee du Royaume de Ponte." Thus too Silvius (quoted in ' Alphita ') : " Reubar- barum a reu quod est radix et barbarum region* 5 ubi oritur." C. C. B.

The Radix Pontica grows in Thrace, on the borders of the Euxine Sea, north of the Caspian, Siberia, &c. Prosper Alpinus was of opinion that the Rha of Dioscorides was the root of Rheum Rhaponticum, which Alpinus obtained from Thrace in 1608 A.D., and cultivated at Pavia, Paulus ^Egineta seems to make a distinction between Rha and Rheon, for he says that in the vomiting of pregnant women we may give " the blood-wort, boiled in water, for drink, and likewise dill, and Pontic root, called Rha in the dialect of that country." In noticing the practice of the ancients, he says : " Alvine discharges they promoted by giving turpen- tine to the extent of an olive, when. going to rest ; or, when they wished to purge more effectually, by adding a little rhubarb " (Rheon). Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. xii., says the Rha is a river on the banks of which grows a root which bears its name, and is much renowned in medicine.

TOM JONES.

WALTER R. BENJAMIN OF XEW YORK (11 S. iii. 189). Judah P. Benjamin, Q.C. (1811-84), was born of Anglo- Jewish parents at St. Croix, West Indies. He does not seem to have been in any way related to Mr.

Walter R. Benjamin of New York. One would rather look for the latter's connexion with Hawthorne through Park Benjamin (1809-64), born of New England parents at Demerara. A poet and journalist, Park Benjamin edited The American Monthly Magazine, The Neiv Yorker, and other pub- lications. Being contemporary with Haw- thorne, he may have corresponded with him on literary matters. S. W. S.

My guess is that Dr. Conway referred to the New York publisher of this name. To judge from his catalogues occasionally sent me, he deals largely in autographs and docu- ments. MR. BRESLAR'S question can doubt- less be answered by addressing a letter to Mr. Benjamin at 225, Fifth Avenue, New York. ALBERT MATTHEWS.

Boston, U.S.

FISHING IN FRESH WATER IN CLASSICAL TIMES (11 S. iii. 249, 350). In a unique volume of paintings by Pietro Sante Bartoli containing fine copies of frescoes and mosaics made by him from the walls of classical ruins found in his lifetime (1650), for Cardinal Camillo Massimo occurs abeautiful early fourth-century representation of fishing with hook and line. The main subject, in three sections divided by architectural pilasters, is a Christian one. In the decora- tive foreground is a river with amorini fishing, quite in the best Pompeian manner. The original formed part of the rich vaulting adorning the so-called " Tempio di Bacco " (in reality the tomb of Constantia, daughter of the Emperor Constantine), near S. Agnese fuori le Mura, on the Via Nomentana.

The subject of Aphrodite fishing on the seashore is a Greek one probably. It occurs at Pompeii. Tibullus (ii. 6) refers to the use of the rod. ST. CLAIR BADDELEY.

Plutarch in describing the trick which Cleopatra played upon Antony (' Vit. Ant.,' 929 A) does not say that they were angling in fresh water. In any case, the point of the jest was that dried fish (YlovnKov rdpi\os) a red herring, so to speak was attached to the hook. EDWARD BENSLY,

PRINCE CHARLES OF BOURBON-CAPUA (US. iii. 329). The Prince of Capua who made a " romantic marriage " was younger brother of King Ferdinand II. of the Two Sicilies. He was born 10 October, 1811, and was the second son of King Francis I. by his second marriage with Maria Isabella of Spain, and full brother also of Queen Maria Christina of Spain. He married later