[275] Mattioli or Matthioli, an Italian physician, was one of the founders of modern botany. He was born at Siena in 1500, and died at Trent in 1577. He was educated at Venice and Padua, and afterwards lived at Siena and Rome, but was compelled by the sack of the latter city to retire to Trent, from which he removed to Goritz. In 1562 he was summoned by Ferdinand to his Court, where for ten years he was first physician to Maximilian. His most celebrated work is his _Dioscorides_ and his _Commentary_ on that author. In this he made especial use of two MSS. discovered at Constantinople by his intimate friend Busbecq, one of which is presently mentioned in the text. Mattioli in his _Commentaries_, continually refers to the specimens and information he had received from Quacquelben, Busbecq’s physician. He gives a figure and description of the _Acorus_, the plant mentioned in the text, which Busbecq had had collected for him from the Lake of Nicomedia, and also mentions the _Napellus_ under the head of Aconite. Apparently there were two species known by that name, one of which was extremely poisonous. Mattioli gives instances of experiments tried with it upon condemned criminals, some of which proved fatal. Mattioli also describes and gives figures of the horse-chestnut and lilac, taken from branches and seed sent him by Busbecq. Quacquelben took advantage of the return of Busbecq’s colleagues in August 1557, to send Mattioli a box of specimens accompanied by a long letter, which, with Mattioli’s reply, is printed among the letters of the latter. [276] The sweet or aromatic flag was used as a medicine in cases of bites from mad dogs, &c. See Salmon’s _Herbal_. It was also used for scenting rooms, and for ornamental purposes. See Evelyn’s description of Lady Clarendon’s seat at Swallowfield: ‘The waters are flagg’d about with _Calamus aromaticus_, with which my lady has hung a closet that retains the smell very perfectly,’ _Diary_, p. 490. See also Syme’s _English Botany_, vol. ix. p. 11. [277] See page 389. [278] Matarieh, a village near Cairo, occupies the site of the ancient On or Heliopolis, where Cleopatra’s Needles originally stood. [279] See page 256 and note.