374 ORD. XX. Personate. VITEX AGNUS CASTUS. 
¥% 
Miller says that he has seen it in full flower in October, when 
itimade a beautiful appearance; but we have not been fortunate 
enough to meet with.itan.thatstate,and therefore had the annexed 
figure taken from a-dried apecumen in the Herbarium of Sir Joseph 
Banks, 
‘The seeds, SS eS have Jong Fass medicinally used, and were 
: formerly received as an: sacle of the.Materia “Medica, have a pun- 
_gent acrid taste, and an ‘unpleasant aromatic odour. These,. from 
the days of Dioscorides, have been highly celebrated for possessing 
a power of subduing the inclination natural between the sexes. 
‘Hence the name Agnus eastus;* and from being therefore thought 
more especially useful to those leading a monastic life, these seeds 
have‘been cajled Piper monachorum, or Monk’s pepper. The 
seeds of the Chaste-tree: are, however, so far from being thought 
antiaphrodisiac, .that writers of later times have ascribed to them 
an opposite quality; and their aromatic pungency seems to favour 
this opinion, and also that of Bergius, who states them to be car- 
minative and emmenagogue. We are aware that Lewis says, “ the 
seeds in substance, as met with in the shops, have little taste, and 
scarcely any smel];” but Dr. J. E. Smith, who examined them in 
their recent state, observes, that “ they have an unpleasant aro- 
matic smell: it is therefore probable that on being long kept 
they lose much of their sensible qualities, nor is this to be regretted 
from any medical advantage they seem to promise in our Island; 
and the plant has been figured here rather with a view to illustrate 
this natural order, by its variety, than to serve the purposes of 
medicine. 
We have now figured all the medicinal plants classed by Pro- 
fessor Murray in the order Personatz, except Scrophularia nodosa 
and aquatica, Avicennia tomentosa, or Anacardium orientale, and 
* Agnos, (i. e. castus) nominatur, quod, in Thosmophoriis (i. e. sacris Cereris) 
matrone castitatem custodientes, eo ad strata uterentur: Lygos vero (quasi vimen ) 
propter virgarum ipsius firmitatem, Déoscor.1.1.c, 135. Gal. Sim. vi. p. 40. 
and cited by Alston. 1. c. 
* Sketch of a tour on the Continent. vol. 7. p. 223. 
