Note 840 — Chapter XVII · THE ORIGIN OF PERPETUAL FIRES

P. de Tournefort, Relation d’un voyage du Levant (Amsterdam, 1718), i. 93 (Lettre vi.); Sibthorp, in R. Walpole’s Memoirs relating to European and Asiatic Turkey (London, 1817), pp. 284 sq.; W. G. Clark, Peloponnesus (London, 1858), p. 111; J. T. Bent, The Cyclades (London, 1885), p. 365. The giant fennel (Ferula communis, L.) is still known in Greece by its ancient name, hardly modified (nartheka instead of narthex), though W. G. Clark says the modern name is kalami. Bent speaks of the plant as a reed, which is a mistake. The plant is described by Theophrastus (Histor. plant. vi. 2. 7 sq.).