28 TREATMENT OF THE SUBJECT-MATTER. | 
parably greater importance, however, is the Dominican monk,. 
known as Albertus Magnus, who from the year 1260 to 1280: 
was Bishop of Regensburg (Ratisbon). In his books ‘‘ De 
Vegetabilibus,” numerous medicinal plants and drugs have re- 
ceived for the most part very intelligent treatment, though this. 
is largely based upon other sources of information, including 
Arabian. 
The history of indigenous, and probably also foreign medici- 
nal plants may be further pursued with the aid of the diction- 
aries and glossaries of the middle ages. Compilations of this 
kind’ were also specially made use of in attempting, quite in 
accordance with medieval custom, to identify in the indi- 
genous flora plants of classical antiquity. From a mercantile 
point of view, very valuable information is afforded by the ordi- 
nances and lists of the departments of customs? of that time, as. 
also especially by the trade-books of the Venetians and Floren- 
tines.* The extraordinary importance of the commercial inter- 
course with the East during the middle ages has finally been 
described in an exhaustive and captivating manner by Heyd,* 
who not only represents the political and economical sides of 
the subject, but also gives detailed accounts of the most im- 
portant objects of that remarkable commercial era, namely: 
aloes, aloes-wood, ambergris, balm of Gilead, benzoin, Brazil- 
wood, camphor, cloves, frankincense, galanga, galls, ginger, 
indigo, kermes (a coloring insect afterwards supplanted by cochi- 
neal), lac, mace, musk, nutmegs, pearls (both as a medicament. 
and ornament), pepper, precious stones (quite a series of these 
were employed as medicinal agents), rhubarb, saffron, sandal- 
wood, and tragacanth. All that the civil and ecclesiastical 
travellers and historians of those centuries were able to report 
relating to these articles has been made use of in the proper 
place by Heyd, in his careful examinations. 
* Flickiger, ‘‘ Pharmakognosie,” pp. 107, 330, 642, 688, 713, 892, 898. 
? Tbid., pp. 781, 983. 
3 Ibid., pp. 1,011, 1,012. 
ne Geschichte des Levantehandels im Mittelalter,” 2 vols., Stuttgart, 
