Page:Scientific Memoirs, Vol. 1 (1837).djvu/193

 VOL. I.— PART II.

IX. concluded

VIII. Cantharis.— are given in the Geoponics for preventing Cantharides from injuring the vine: these insects are to be macerated in oil, and the plant rubbed with the preparation.

Another recipe for the preservation of the vine is given in Palladius, for which the Cantharides of the rose are required; they are to be macerated in oil until an unctuous liniment is formed, with which the branches are to be rubbed.

The name Cantharis occurs very frequently in several Greek and Latin authors without any mention of the vine. Pliny, however, says, "Verrucas Cantharides cum uva taminia intritæ exedunt —"Cantharides pounded with the uva taminia destroy warts."

The Uva taminia, which we translate by wild grape, is, I apprehend, unknown; it is certainly not the fruit of the vine.

It would be superfluous to produce here the numerous passages of the ancient authors in which the word Kantharis occurs, because there can be no doubt as to its signification. They all prove evidently that the ancients understood by this word, not the larvæ of insects, but