( 27 ) 
The Chafte-tree is a native of Sicily, affeQing humid and thady 
places. It has long been introduced into the gardens of this coun- 
try,* where it is found to brave the cold of winter in the open 
ground. | ie 
- Miller fays that he has feen it in full flower in O@ober, when it 
‘made a beautiful appearance; but we have not been fortunate enough 
to meet with it in that ftate, and therefore had the annexed ‘figure 
taken from a dried fpecimen in the Herbarium of Sir Jofeph Banks. 
The feeds, which have long been medicinally ufed, and were 
formerly received as an article of the Materia Medica, have a pungent 
acrid tafte, and an unpleafant aromatic odour. Thefe, from the days . 
of Diofcorides, have been highly celebrated for poffefling a power of 
fubduing the inclination natural between the fexes. Hence the name 
Agnus caftus;* and from being therefore thought more efpecially 
ufeful to thofé leading a monaftic life, thefe feeds have been called 
Piper monachorum, or Monk’s pepper. The feeds of the Chafte-tree 
are, however, fo far from being thought antiaphrodifiac, that writers 
of later times have afcribed to them an oppofite quality ; and their 
aromatic pungency feems to favour this opinion, and alfo that of 
Bergius, who ftates them to be carminative and emmenagogue. We 
are aware that Lewis fays, “ the feeds in fubftance, as met with 
in the fhops, have little tafte, and fearcely any {mell ;” but Dr. J. E. 
Smith, who examined them in their recent ftate, obferves, that they 
have an unpleafant aromatic fmell:”* it is therefore probable that on 
being long kept they lofe much of their fenfible qualities, nor is this 
to be regretted from any medical advantage they feem to promife in 
our Ifland; and the plant has been figured here rather with a view to 
 illuftrate this natural order, by its variety, than to ferve the purpofes 
of medicine. 
. * It was cultivated here in 1570. Lobel. Adverf. 423. 
* Agnos, (i. €. caftus) nominatur, quod, in Thofmophoriis (i. e. facris Cereris} 
matrone caftitatem cuftodientes, eo ad ftrata uterentur : Lygos vero (quafi vimen) 
propter virgarum ipfius firmitatem. Diofcor. J. 1. ¢. 135. Gal. Sim. vi. p: 40. and 
cited by Alfton, 1. ¢. 
* Sketch of a tour on the Continent. v9/, i. p. 223, 
Having, 
