“I will not speak to you of the silphium (says the Doctor) till I arrive in the place which produces it . . . but I cannot conceal from you that I have allowed myself to read, in translating this passage of Strabo, οπον του σίλφιου, juice of the silphium, instead of οπον και σίλφιον, juice and silphium.” “We know that from this plant, peculiar to the soil of the Cyrenaica, the Cyreneans extracted a most valuable liquid which was particularly celebrated in those times. The juice of this plant alone was sold on account of the state, and it was of this liquid only that the contraband trade consisted which is mentioned by Strabo, and was carried on between the Cyreneans and Carthaginians. If you will only reflect now (continues Signor Della Cella, addressing himself as usual to his friend the Professor) that the Cyrenean liquid is very often used by Strabo, and others of the ancients, as a synonymous term for the silphium, you will agree with me in the trifling alteration which is thus effected in the text of the Grecian geographer.” We must confess that the substituting the word _of_ for _and_, and a genitive case for an accusative, appears to us to be hazarding more than would be ventured upon by critics and commentators in general; and it is to be feared, at the same time, that there is scarcely more reason for the changes here proposed than there has been hesitation in suggesting them. For the plant called silphium was as much an article of commerce as the liquid which was extracted from it, and we find them again mentioned as two distinct things in the very next page to the passage of Strabo which Signor Della Cella is so desirous of emending[6]. Pliny also distinguishes them by separate names, calling the extract “laser,” and the plant “laserpitium;” and many other authorities might be adduced to the same effect: so that we may perhaps allow the passage of Strabo to remain in the state in which it usually appears, without any detriment to its genuine and proper signification. For ourselves, we are content to believe that the plant laserpitium, or silphium, was really sold, or rather bartered, at Charax, as well as the liquor which was extracted from it. We will however agree with Signor Della Cella in deferring any further remarks on the silphium till we find ourselves in the country which produced it; and will in the mean time proceed with our journey along the shores of the Syrtis. Soon after passing the several mounds which we have suggested as the probable remains of Charax, we arrived at the wells of Hudīa; a name which the Arabs suppose to have been given to this place in consequence of the bad water usually found there, and which they consider to be only fit for Jews; the Arab term for a Jew being Hudi, and the Jews themselves little esteemed by Mahometans.