Sores Tt 
Lay ’ 
ANACARDIACEZ, 378 
History, Uses, &c.—tThe leaves have long been well 
_ known in Europe and in the East as a tan and dye, and the. 
fruit as a medicine; the latter is described by Theophrastus 
and Dioscorides under the name of fois as the fruit of a plant 
used for tanning,* Pliny calls them Rhus, and Scribonius 
Largus mentions them as an ingredient in astringent medi-. 
cines.t Abu Hanifeh in his “ Book of Plants” says that Sumak 
has bunches of small, intensely red berries, and that it does 
not grow in any part of the land of the Arabs except Syria. 
Aitchison informs us that it is cultivated in orchards in Khora- | 
san. The author of the Kaémus says ‘the fruit excites the 
appetite, stops chronic diarrhoea, and an infusion of it is useful 
in scurvy (4) and for ophthalmia, It does not appear to be 
used by the Hindus. The tree is well described in the 
Makhzan-el-Adwiya by Mir Mohammad Husain, who says that 
the fruit is cold and dry, astringent, and tonic, that it checks 
bilious yomiting and diarrhoea, hemoptysis, hamatemesis, 
- diuresis and leucorrhcea, strengthens the gums, and is useful 
as an astringent in conjunctivitis. Alone or mixed with char- 
_ coalit is applied to sores, suppurating piles, &c. A kind of 
liquid extract is made by boiling down the leaves and fruit, 
which is used as an astringent: poultices of the leaves are re- 
commended as an application to the abdomen in the diarrhoea 
of children. He also mentions the gum and the russet- 
coloured down of the fruit as having powerfully astringent 
properties. Ainslie notices the use of the leaf and fruit in 
India by the Mahometans as a styptic, astringent and tonic ; 
also their former use in France as an astringent in dysentery, 
in doses of 24 grains. 
Description.—The fruit is a small flattened drupe the _ 
size of a lentil, of a red colour, containing one lenticular : 
polished brown seed; it is acid and very astringent. The 
 deaves are about a foot long, pinnate, with from 5 to 7 pairs of 
- leaflets and an odd one, like the leaves of the common elm ; the 
*Theophr H. P. iii., 18. Diose. L., 128i" 
+ Plin, 24. 54, Scrib. Comp. 111 and 142. 
* 
