Note 77 — VI. Report upon the New or Rare Plants which flowered in the Garden of the Horticultural Society at Chiswick, between March, 1825, and March, 1826. Part 1. Tender Plants. By John Lindley, Esq. ◊ (continued 6)

A Roman coin is said to have been discovered recently among the Indians in America, which has justly created surprise; but others have been found long ago. Bishop Hakewill’s book is dated A.D. 1635: he says, “Marianus Siculus, in his history of Spain, reports that certain coined pieces of gold, engraved with the image and inscription of Augustus Cæsar, were found in the American mines; thereby inferring that those countries were then discovered.” p. 310. Batou, the cousin of Kublai, both grandsons of Genghis, had conquered Russia, ravaged Europe to the Adriatic, and died on his march to Constantinople, in 1256. His successor also ravaged as far as Constantinople, (P. de la Croix, p. 387.) Mango (so spelt by Du Halde, ii., 251, and Maundeville, p. 275; Manku by Tooke, Russ. Emp., ii., 13) was brother to Kublai, who is considered by the writer to be the father of the first Inca, and there is nothing more probable than that he and other Moguls on the Japanese expedition may have possessed Roman coins, the plunder of Hungary, Poland, Dalmatia, and the Greek empire, as far as the capital.