BERBERIS VULGARIS. 89 
canthus of Dioscorides, or the Hawthorn. “ The fruit,” he 
says, “being most like that of the myrtle;”’ but J. Bodeus 
remarks, that the fruit of the Barberry is not at all similar to the 
myrtle, and he therefore concludes that the plants described by 
Dioscorides and Galen are identical. 
Galen (De Nutrimentis) reckons the tender sprigs of the 
Barberries among the tender shoots that are to be eaten, such as 
Oxycanthus, or the Hawthorn, bringeth not forth. He evi- 
dently, therefore, considers them two distinct plants. It was 
called Kaauwgis by the Greeks, according to Rhases. The 
Arabian physicians, Avicenna and Serapion, make no distinction 
between this and the Hawthorn, and call both Amyrberis. Dr. 
Royle supposes the Lycium Indicum of Dioscorides to be the 
Barberry ; but the commentator of Paulus Aigineta (vol. ii. 
p- 435) thinks it more probable that the Barberry was but the 
succedaneum of the Lycium. According to Leroux, it was 
much used by the old Egyptians. 
Gerarde, in giving a description of the uses of this plant, 
says, that the leaves and berries of this thorn are cold and dry 
in the second degree; and as Galen also affirmeth, they are of 
thin parts, and have “a certaine cuttinge qualitie.” 
Under the head of the “ Vertues,” he divides them into the 
following :— 
“A. The leaves are used of divers to season meat with, and 
instead of a sallad, as be those of sorrell. 
“B. The decoction thereof is good against hot burnings adil 
cholericke agues; it allayeth the heat of the blood, and tem- 
pereth the overmuch heat of the liver. 
“C. The fruit or berries are good for the same a things, and be 
also profitable for hot laskes and for the ‘ bloudy flixe,’ and 
they stay all manner of superfluous bleedings. 
“D. The greene leaves of the Barberry bush, stamped and 
made into sauce, as that made of sorrell, called greene sauce, 
doth cool hot stomachs, and those that are vexed with hot burn- 
ings, agues, and procureth appetite. 
