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786 CHRONOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENT
“ 1342, May 7th” (Alst., and Nicol.), Benedictus X I. succeeded by cardinal Peter Roger, now
Clemens VI., forty-second pope.
“ The same year” (Nicol.), a synod at Saumur. A canon, Forbidding “ the holding of pleas in
churches or their vestibules.”
“ The same year ” (Blair), in England, “ knights and burgesses first sit together in the same
house of parliament.”
Ranunculus bulbosus of Europe and the adjoining portion of Asia. Called in Britain with
allied species king-cob or king-cup orgold-cup or butter-cnp or crowfoot (Prior), in which we recognize
the pes c ò r v i identified in gloss. Sloane v. f. 45 with the rKm y S fOte having a yellow
flower and “ a knobe in the rote ” —(Cockayne) : R. bulbosus is described by Valerius Cordus f. 121,
Fuchsius, Urzedowa (Spreng.), and Lobel pl. 667; is termed “ r. pratensis radice verticilli modo
rotunda” by Tournefort inst. 289 ; and is known to grow in France and throughout middle Europe as
faras Denmark (fl. Dan. pl. 551, and Pers ). Eastward, was observed by Sibthorp, and Chaubard,
from the Peloponnesus to Constantinople. By European colonists, was carried to Northeast America,
where it has become naturalized, occurring in Newfoundland, Canada (Hook.), but as yet according
to A. Gray “ very abundant only in E. New England, seldom found in the interior.” The plant
according to Lindley is “ exceedingly acrid, raising blisters and producing extensive inflammation”
but “ not affecting all persons alike.”
Osmunda regalis of Northern Climates. Called in Britain O sm u n d or osmund the waterman or
flowering fern, by Brunswyck “ osmundi,” in the Ortus Sanitatis 294 “ os mundi,” and in a Vocabulary
in Mayer and Wright p. 139 “ bon-wurt ” (Prior) : the d I C h e pe r n of gloss. Sloane v. f. 40
— is referred here by Cockayne ; O. regalis is termed “ o. vulgaris et palustris ” by Tournelort inst.
547 ; and is known to grow in wet gTound throughout middle and Northern Europe (Engl. bot. pl.
209, and Lindi.). Eastward, was observed by Sibthorp on mount Athos and around Constantinople.
Farther East, was observed by Nuttall-along the Arkansas ; and by myself in our Atlantic States from
Lat. 43° to 38°.
“ July 22d” from Delhi, Ebn Batuta 17 to 19 proceeded South to Kalyur, having a fortress on
the top of a high mountain (hill-fort at Gwalior) ; Dawlatabad, “ one of the greatest and strongest
forts in India : ” Goa, and Malabar, where “ no one travels on beasts of burden, but nobles are carried
by men ” {palanquins) : Hili, the termination of the voyage of ships of China, after touching
only at “ Kalicut and Kawlan,” near the point of the peninsula.*—After waiting until Spring, Ebn
Batuta was left behind, and being unwilling to return to Delhi, proceeded after a while to the Maldive
Islands (Yule cath. 416).
At the Maldive Islands, “ wada” or cowries (Cypræa monetas) were used instead of coin; and
were exported to Bengal. The islanders had been converted (from Christianity, see Abu Zeid) to
Islamism by Abul Barakat, a Mognebine (or Barbary Arab).
“ The same year ” (art de verif.), Koutchouk succeeded by Schahabeddin ; and before the close
of the year, by Emadedclin, fourteenth Memluk sultan of Egypt.
“ 1344 A. D.” (art de verif.), Emadeddin succeeded by Schaban-Kamel, fifteenth Memluk sultan
of Egypt.
“ August” (Ebn B. 21, and Yule cath. 422), Ebn Batuta leaving the Maldive Islands for Ceylon.
He next proceeded to the neighbouring portion of Hindustan, — and sailing Eastward in a Chinese
“ junk,” some of which are large enough to contain “ a thousand men,” was captured by “ infidel
Hindus” in “ twelve war-vessels,” and carried to Bengal. But at leng th, he reached Java and the
city of Shumutrah ; where the Mu.slim king “ gave permission to go to China, a thing he is not always
prepared to grant, and put him on board a junk.”
“ 1344 or 1345 A. D.” (Nicol.), a synod in Armenia. On the errors of the Armenian church.
“ 1345 A. D.” (Nicol. brit. nav., and Humb. cosm. v.), at the outfit of the George, the royal ship
of king Edward IIL , “ sixteen hour-glasses" were purchased in Flanders.
About the close of the year, Ebn Batuta arriving at Zaitun in China, where he re-joined the
Embassy. In all the provinces of China, Ebn Batuta 18 to 23 found a town for the Muslims, who
are made much of by the Tartar emperors ; and at El Khansa, he found Jews, Christians, and
“ Turks who worship the sun” (Parsees). Paper-money was in use: and if anything was not entered
in the rerister of all the goods in a vessel, the vessel and freightage were forfeited. The Chinese
* Dolichos Sinensis of the Malayan Archipelago. In Hindustan called “ choulee” or “ hurrea
lobeh ” or “ suffeed lobeh ; ” the “ lubia” seen there by Ebn Batuta —may be compared: D. Sinensis
was observed in Hindustan by Rheede viii. pi. 41, Roxburgh, Wight, and is enumerated by Gra-
ham as “ commonly cultivated” in the region around Bombay. Farther East, is described by Blanco
as well known in the Philippines, and called in Tagalo “ quibal.”
OF ACCOMPANYING ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 787
were in ge^rH “ the richest people in the world ; ” and China was “ the best and safest country for
travellers. At the city of Fanjanfur, he met a townsman from Tangiers, whose brother he afterwards
saw m Sudan. - Returning by sea to Sumatra and the West, Ebn Batuta arrived at Zafar
(Dhofar m Southern Arabia) m April or May 1347; and continuing on by the way of Maskit EI
Torayre (Muscat), Hormuz, Saman, reached the city of Saba (in Interior Arabia) after an absence in
all oi “ twenty years.”
“ 1346 A. D.” (art de verif.), Schaban-Kamel succeeded by Zeyneddin, sixteenth Memluk sultan
of Egypt.
„ “ Aug.” (Humb. cosm.), the West coast of Africa as far along the Desert as Rio de Ouro N. Lat
£ 40, visited by the Catalan navigator Don Jaime Ferrer: —Cape “ Bugeder ” (Bojador) is laid
down in the Catalan map “ of 1375 ” (Major pr. Henr. 47).
.!! 1,® 0 '" ft®"® ” Batut., and Major pr. Henr. 48), death at Timbuctoo “ of Abu-Ishac-es-
Saliih, a famous poet of Granada. = His tomb continued in after times “ one of the curiosities of
limbuctoo ” The stone mosque and royal palace, “ the only two remarkable buildings in the city ”
were built by “ an experienced architect of Granada ” (Leo Afr.).
^ “ Aug. 26th ” (Blair), the French defeated by Edward I I I . at Cressy: “ perhaps the first battle
I L ' S Ë Î r ' " " ®“ ft- the following year, Calais was captured by
Mamdeville on his journey found the king of Hungary very powerful, holding Slavonia, a great
part oi Comama and Bulgaria, “ and the realm of Russia a great part ” to the border of Prussia.
Continuing Eastward, Maundeville 15 mentions the burning of widows in Hindustan ; devotees
wounding themselves with knives, and others prostrating themselves to be crushed under the car of
a huge idol.
In the Malayan Archipelago, Maundeville mentions cannilials, and an isle where the people
nmke marks on their faces with a hot iron” (Papuans). Houses built of large reeds (bamboo) :
and people having “ thin and long beards ” seldom of more than “ fifty hairs ” (Malayans) He also
mentions in £other country, men letting the nails of their fingers grow, as a sign of nobility while
the women “ bind their feet so tight that they may not grow half as nature would ” (Chinese)
Maundeville iS maintains. That the Earth is “ of a round form ; ” and “ that if a man found passages
by Hiips, he might go by ship all round the world above and beneath,” and always “ find men
lands, and isles.” ’
a H " syirood at Constantinople. The patriarch Joannes of Apri was deposed
The same year (art de verif.), Zeyneddin succeeded by Hassan seventeenth Memluk sultan of
Egypt A gold com issued by Hassan, is figured in Marcel p. 174. The large mosque and tomb
built by him, is “ the finest edifice ” in Cairo (Wilk. theb. and eg.).
“ The same year” (Rafn, and Major), a voyage from Greenland to Markland : - the account
written nine years afterwards, speaks of Markland as still known and visited ; the latest notice of
the country in the Icelandic records.
“ In Uiis year (= 74S A. H ” of Ferisht., Elph.), revolt in the Deccan and the insurgent chiefs
shut up m tlie fortress of Dowlatabad. Before reducing the place, Mohammed Toghlak was called
away by fighting in Guzerat ; when the people of the Deccan rose behind him, and their revolt in the
end proved successful, their leader Hasan Gangu becoming head of the new dynasty of Bahraani ■ —
that reigned “ one luindred and seventy-one years.” ’
“ 1348 A p .” (Alst., and Blair), pestilence throughout Europe, carrying off nearly “ a fourth
part of Its inhabitants : ” extending to Denmark and Norway (Relat. du Groenl. 210) : beginnin» in
England “ May 3 rsG’ - (Skeat ed. Piers Pl.) and ending “ Sept. 29th, 1349;” called the black la th and occasioned” Boccaccio s Decamerone.
“ 1349 A. p. (= 2oogth of Synmu,” art de verif.), accession of Siukouo, now dairo of Japan *
The “ Book of Nature,” an encyclopædic work of Conrad of Meygenberg, a priest in this year
at Regensburg (Humb. cosm.). ^
Camellia d, npifera of Anam. Apparently the “ Camellia ” from whose seeds “ a very fine oil
IS e.xtracted, and “ either flavored or unflavored is used ” in Japan “ for the hair or for pomades ” —
(Jap. centen comm. 57). C. drupifera was observed by Loureiro in Anam, the oil from its seeds
nagraiit, and u.sed lor various purposes by the natives (Pers.).
ffi*"""' , P'"®‘ ft'®™pmg qualit.®s, IS used either alone or with other pig®m®e°n t"s®, for p‘’a’i"nftt ing, coating, or varnishoifn »it-s
do/ffi ; } ‘"'® £>me'-o»s and most important, - such as, for instance, for umbrellas, water-prôèf
mheffiffi Iffir P"P®®’"’’‘"ft®"" of leather, for mixing with lacquer, and for many
tAvricclluffinifofi -1'1 . plr. 13, (aJ"nPd- Lmnæus c(oPnerrms.,) . 57). Transported to Europe, P. ocymoides is described hy/