PHARMACOPGIAL VEGETABLE DRUGS. 
Bible refer to our plant (483), and testify to the esteem in which the 
tree and the fruit (then called rimmon) were held in ancient times. 
The fruit and seed of the pomegranate are often mentioned in the 
“Arabian Nights.” 
Pomegranates were represented on Carthaginian and Phenician 
medals (422) and on the reverse of the coins of the Island of Rhodes 
(688). In Greek mythology the pomegranate is very conspicuous 
(307, 191, 241), and symbolizes fecundity and abundance. The fruit 
was dedicated to Juno, a deity always represerted in sculptures as hold- 
ing a pomegranate (191). 
The Greek authors, e. g., Theophrastus (633), describe the pome- 
granate under the names of “roa” and “roa side; also Dioscorides 
(194), who quite explicitly sets forth the medicinal properties of the 
different parts of the plant. Among Roman authors who describe the 
pomegranate and its uses are Cato Censorius (132), Pliny (514), Cel- 
sts (136), and others. Subsequent writers, for example the Arabians, 
in the ninth century, also refer to the pomegranate, but seem to have 
mainly reiterated the substance of the writings of their Greek and 
Roman predecessors (422). The “Arabian Nights” (88) speaks of 
the use of the seed cooked as follows: “Every day I cook five dishes 
for dinner, and the like for supper; and yesterday they sought of me 
a sixth dish, yellow rice, and a seventh, a mess of cooked pomegranate 
seed.” (Adventures of Mercury Ali of Cairo, Vol. vii, p. 185.) Of 
the writers of the Middle Ages may be mentioned Tragus (650) and 
J. Bauhinus (47), the latter giving a most detailed compilation of that 
which was known before his time on the subject of the pomegranate, 
- including the myths with which it is connected. It was not until the 
present century, however, that the literature of the pomegranate was 
enriched by the study of its chemical aspects. 
GRINDELIA 
Grindelia, robusta, a California plant, is, as found in commerce, 
of questionable authenticity, owing to the near relationship of very 
similar species of grindelia. It early attracted the attention of the 
Jesuit Fathers in their mission stations along the coast, it being used 
by the natives before the conquest of the country by the Americans. 
Dr. C. A. Canfield, of Monterey, Cal., about 1863, called attention to 
grindelia as a remedy in the poison of rhus toxicodendron, its native 
use in that direction having become known to him. Mr. James G. 
Steele, of San Francisco, 1875, contributed a paper to the American 
Pharmaceutical Association commending its use in this direction. 
After that time the drug rapidly crept into favor with the profession 
of medicine. 
GUAIACUM 
Guaiacum is a low evergreen tree, native to the West Indies and 
Southern Florida. Its earliest importation into Europe was from San 
Domingo, as recorded by Oviedo (487), A. D. 1526; but that it was 
known in Germany previous to that date is proved by treatises by 
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