Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/382

 374

NOTES AND QUERIES.

s. xn. NOV. 7, 1003.

given. The title, though quite appropriate is not Caxton's. The book consists of three separate tracts, and is described in Blades' ' Life of Caxton ' (vol. ii. p. 231). The first "Ye seuen poyntes of trewe loue and euer lastyng wysdom drawen oute of ye book y* is \vriten in latyn and cleped Orologium Sapiencie." This is attributed to Jehan de Soushavie or Souaube. "Bibliographers/ says Mr. Blades, " generally call him Henrj de Suso, probably after the example o: Echard." The second tract is 'The Twelve Profits of Tribulation,' and the third is "a compendious abstracts translate in to eng- lyshe out of the holy rule of saynte Benet for men and wymen of the habyte thereof the whiche understonde lytell laten or none.' These three treatises have each a separate colophon, and were, no doubt, issued singlj as well as in this composite volume.

Regarding 'The Twelve Profits of Tribula- tion,' Blades refers to two MSS., Royal, 17 C xviii. and Harl. 1706, and says : " They both agree with Caxton's text, but afford no infor- mation as to the author." In my first note I gave reasons for suggesting Adam the Carthusian as the author, and have read with much interest ME. H. W. UNDERDOWN'S further communication.

There are copies of ' The Twelve Profits of Tribulation ' as issued by Caxton, probably in 1490, and by Wynkyn de Worde, probably in 1499, in the John Rylands Library at Man- chester. Wynkyn de Worde's is a reprint without alteration or addition, so far as my examination goes, of his master's edition. The same treasure-house contains also another consolatory treatise issued by Wynkyn de Worde, ' The Boke of Comforte agaynst all irybulacyons.' This has an interest of its own, but has no relation to the work of Adam the Carthusian. WILLIAM E. A. AXON. Manchester.

LATIN QUOTATION (9 th S. vi. 489 ; vii. 74). At the first reference the source of "Ubi lapsus? quid feci?" was asked for. More than one correspondent pointed out that this is the Larl of Devon's motto, but no one mentioned that the words are a translation of the opening half of the line n^ vapcfrjv: re S' e>a ; rC poi Seov O{,K

lach. From the way in which Newman quoted the Latin (" I asked in the words of a great motto,"&c., * Apol. pro Vit. Sua,' ch. iv.) it would seem as though he "had not been familiar with this famous Greek formula for self-examination.

Not having access at present to Prof. Bury's edition of the 'Decline and Fall,' I do not know whether he gives the immediate source from which the motto is taken (see ch. Ixi. ad fin.}. EDWAKD BENSLY.

University, Adelaide, South Australia.

" PALO DE COBRA " (9 th S. xii. 288). This is a ^pseudo-Spanish form of the Portuguese ptio^ da cobra (serpent's wood), three kinds of which, says Garcia da Orta in Colloquy xlii., were found in Ceylon. The plants producing these he describes, and he gives the native names (in a corrupt form) of two. The Conde de Ficalho, in his edition of the * Coloquios ' (Lisbon, 1891-5), identifies the three plants with Ramvolfia serpentina, Benth. (Ophioxylon serpentinum, Linn.) ; Strychnos colubrina, Linn. ; and Hemidesmus indicus, R. Brown (Periploca indica, Willd., Asdepias pseudo- sarsa, Roxb.). The late Dr. V. Ball, in 'A Commentary on the Colloquies of Garcia de Orta,' printed in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy of 1890-1, says : "The identity of these is very doubtful, as the descriptions are rather vague. It is possible, however, that they may be identical with the follow- ing : Cocculus acuminatus, D'C. ; Hemidesmus ^nd^cus, R. Brown ; Strychnos colubrina, Linn.'"' Both the above writers give references to various other works in which the plants are treated of. DONALD FEEGUSON.

See 1. 42 of the 'Aureum Pythagoreorum Carmen' in Mullach ; Tragmenta Philoso- phorum Grsecorum,' vol. i. (Paris, 1883), p. 196 ; Plutarch, 'DeSuperstitione,' 168B; Epictetus' Dissertationes' (Arrian), iii. 10, 3; Diogenes Laertius, vm. 1, 19(22); Ausonius, 'Edyll ' xvi. 16, and other references given by Mul-

Plants reputed to be antidotes to snake Doison are so numerous that it may not be possible to identify this particular one with- out further information as to its habitat, &c. Some suggestions may, however, be of use.

The genera which contain the most widely cnown alexipharmics are probably Aristo- ochia and Poly gala. The former "includes ome of the plants known as "Guaco" in Central and South America, besides the Virginian snakeroot ; and the latter has he famous senega-root of the U.S.A., and he Himalayan P. crotalarioides. But it is inlikely that Linscot (?) would apply a Portuguese term to an American plant with which the Dutch could have a first-hand acquaintance. Much the same may perhaps be said of the alexipharmic species of Eupa- torium, Simaba, Mikania, Liatris, Chiococca, Jiryngium, and Asarurn ; but I am inclined to suspect that Ophiorrhiza mungos, L., is the "palo de cobra," English plants are, of