[55] _Quod fenestris obducebatur ad translucendum, ac lucem admittendam_ specular _vetens Latini vocârunt. Idque ex speculari lapide, quí est_ φεγγιτης, _aut_ ex vitro _fiebat, aut aliâ translucidâ materiâ. Nam_ specular dictum, non quod ex speculari lapide _factum esset, sed quod visum transmitteret, ac per id_ speculari _liceret_. Salm. Exerc. Plin. in Solin. tom. II. p. 771. [56] Villa’s of the Anc. illustrated, p. iv. [57] One of Pliny’s cautions for preserving apples is--_Austros specularibus arcere_. Nat. Hist. lib. xv. c. 16. Martial further informs us, that the Romans used to screen their orchards of choice fruit-trees with _specularia_. Lib. viii. epig. 14. [58] I suppose he means that of Fortuna Seia. Lib. xxxvi. c. 22. [59] Salmasius, speaking of the custom of adorning chambers with glass, says--_Quod proximè ætatem suam incepisse fieri narrat Plinius. Quum M. Scaurus_----Ex. Plin. tom. II. p. 854. I do not find this expresly asserted by Pliny: but it might have been so in fact. This fashion indeed was not begun till after Agrippa had built his _thermæ_: but if we suppose that to have been even as late as his third consulship, _viz. ante Christ._ 27. (_Helvicus_), when he erected the Pantheon (or at least its portico), near adjoining to those _thermæ_, there would have been sufficient room, from that period to the birth of Pliny (_viz. anno Christi_ 24), for the introduction of this usage. [60] Plin. Ep. V. I. 111. [61] Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. xxxvi. c. 26. §. 66. [62] Vid. supra. [63] Anno Christi 80. [64] In order to justify my placing the testimony of this Father so high, I would observe, that St. Jerome (_De Scriptor. Eccles._) says, that Lactantius--_Extremâ senectute magister Cæsaris Crispi filii Constantini in Gallia fuit_. He must probably have exercised this charge between _anno Christi_ 309, when Constantine began to reign, and 320. If he was then of a great age, he might have composed the treatise, out of which this authority is produced, and which was one of the earliest of his works, that are extant (_Vid. Sparkii præf. ad Lactant._), 40 years before, _viz._ about _anno Christi_ 280; which brings us up to 200 years after the overthrow of Herculaneum, as above. [65] Lib. i. c. 20. See this subject largely discussed in Bodæus à Stapel Comment. in Theoph. p. 156. et seq. [66] Opera omnia à C. B. edit. 1598. p. 64. [67] _Usnea vulgaris loris longis implexis_ Hist. Musc. p. 56. _Lichen plicatus_ Lin. Sp. Pl. 1154. _Muscus arboreus: Usnea_ Officin. C. B. Raii Syn. III. p. 64. [68] _Usnea barbata loris tenuibus fibrosis_ Hist. Musc. p. 63. _Lichen barbatus_ Lin. Sp. Pl. 1155. _Quercus excrementum villosum_ C. B. p. 422. Bauhine took this to be the true _Usnea Arabum_. [69] _Usnea ceratoides candicans glabra et odorata_ Hist. Musc. p. 71. _Muscus arboreus candicans et odorifer_ Camelli Raii Hist. III. Append. p. 3. [70] Civil and Natural History of Jamaica, p. 80. [71] Hist. Plant. I. par. ii. p. 88.