324  NOTES

ss Zedoaria (curcuma), a ginger, cultivated at Bombay and in
Ceylon, aromatie, as powder, in infusion etc. Not in Greek or
Latin writers.

s: Doronicum plantagineum, & ceomposite; root used instead of
hellebore, irritant; apparently not in Greek or Latin writers.

ss Galanga, root of Alpinia galanga, &, ginger, from Java. Fracas—
torius advises, p. 241, that it be held in the mouth as a protection
against the plague; not in Greek or Latin writers.

s5 The root or rhizome of Polygonum bistorta  ('twice—twisted?,.
because the root is twisted back, usually twice), & kind of knot—
weed, a tonic, astringent, still used externally and internally. Dioscu—
rides IV. 4, and Pliny XXVII. 113 foll., give various kinds of poly—
gonum and their use in medicine.

s* Lapathum is the old botanical name for the various kinds of
rhubarb, dock and sorrel, now classified as Rumex.  See also p. 265.

s$ For onobrychis, Dioscurides III. 153 gives many synonyms
and advises as a sudorific etc. Pliny XXIV. 155; not in Celsus.
"The modern Orobrychis (Greek, asses bray) papilionacea, pink
flowers, common in Europe, cannot safely be equated with the above.

s* Cicerbita is equated in old botanical works with cuscda, the
dodder. Hort on Theophrastus VIII. 8. 4, identifies cuscwuia with
Greek öpo84yxn, 'vetch—strangler'., The dodder is a leafless parasite
allied with the convolvyulus and winds round other plants; its stem
contains &a reddish substance, aperitive and anti—scorbutie, and
öpo8&yx^ is somewhat similarly described by. Dioscurides II. 142;
Pliny XXII. 162.

40 Vesalius says that the tendons of the muscles of the heart in old
harts, "*degenerate to a bony hardness that whitens, when exposed to
the air, and is used against poisons and to secure longevity'. 'This
growth is also found in oxen and was often substituted.

4: Monoceros, according to James, Medicinal Dictionary, was
Gwhales tooth taken in Davis Straits . . . more solid and heavy
than ivory, sudorific, cordia!l etc. . . . the fragments of horns
commonly sold under this name are bones of the whale or elephant
teeth'. 'The horn of the antelope was also sold under the name
(unicorn's horn'.  Mundella, FEpistfolae, p. 258, says: (^Monoceros
was not recognised as & medicament by the ancients, but is frequent—
ly given now (about 1540) for bites of all kinds'.

4:Omphacium (QGreek, juice of the unripe grape), Dioscurides
V. 5, Pliny XXIII. 7; öug&a»or, Dioscurides I. 30, is the juice of
the unripe olive; Pliny XII. 130.

43 Ozyacantha, a vague word, is in Dioscurides I. 93 a thorny tree
with red berries "like the myrtle", sometimes ealled pyrakant£he;
in the present passage Fracastorius might mean hawthorn—berry
wine, but in his De Vint (emperatura he speaks of ozyacanthinum,
e vocatis berberis. The berries of the barberry were used for wine
and syrup. See also p.231.  In Theophrastus, Enquiry into Planis,
Vol. I., Index, Hort, the translator (Loeb Library) gives 1) coton—