The Digital Ark: Early Modern Collections of Curiosities in England and Scotland, 1580-1700

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Prosper Alpinus (23 Nov 1553 - 6 Feb 1617)

Venetian physician and botanist Other biography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospero_Alpini Botanist
 Relevant locations: Lived at or near Venice, Veneto
 References in Documents:
Grew, Musaeum Regalis (1685)

BEIDEL OSSAR, i. e. The Egg or Cod of the Ossar, a kind of Syriac Dogs-Bane so called; Beid, being the Arabick word (d) (d) Honorius Bellus. for an Egg. Accurately described by Honor. Bellus. And by Wormius very well figur'd. Yet Wormius in his Description, which he borrows of Alpinus, (with his Author) mistakes, in giving the Name to the Plant, which belongs only to this Egg or Cod. 'Tis soft or skinny, with some asperity. About four inches long, at the upper end sharp, and (now) hooked backward. Filled with a company of small flat Seeds, enclosed in a fine and white Down.

Grew, Musaeum Regalis (1685) The PAPYR-REED of Nile. Papyrus Nilotica. By the Ægyptians called Berd. Given by Sigr. Boccone, who brought it out of Sicily, where it grew. Described and figur'd in Bauhinus; (b) (b) Lib. 18. c. 196. who with Gesner, makes it a Species of Cyperus, to which (in Leaf and Stalk) it is like; but hath a more compacted Head. This seems to have been no tall Plant: but upon its Native Bed, sc. near the Banks of the River Nile, it grows above three yards high, (as high, saith Alpinus, above the Water) and abundantly. Which Moses's Mother knowing, chose well, to lay her Babe in Pharaohs Daughter's way, yet, in the mean time, under good shelter from the scorching Sun.
Grew, Musaeum Regalis (1685)

The ROOT of the Ægyptian ARUM. Described by Fabius Columna, (a) (a) Pars 2. c. 1. with the Name of Arum Ægyptiacum: but called by Alpinus, (b) Colocasia Strogulorhiza s. rotundâ Radice; not rightly, as Columna notes. Nor do either of (b) Rarior. Pl. lib. 2. c. 18. their Descriptions well reach it.