LYTHRACE. 43 
rary relief from the remedy when numerous other means had 
previously failed. The fresh leaves beaten up into a paste with 
_ vinegar were applied as a poultice to the soles of the feet in. 
most cases, but some patients obtained greater relief from 
_ using strong frictions with the bruised leaves over the part. 
_ In Southern India Henna seeds are called Iswan, a corruption. 
of the Persian word Isband or Ispand, a name applied to the 
seeds of Peganum Harmala by the Persians. They are used 
_ by the Mahometans of those parts as a substitute for the true 
_ Ispand in certain superstitious observances. (See Peganum.) 
_ The use of Henna for dyeing the hands and feet appears to 
be common among Mahometans in Asia and Africa, and was 
_ probably practised by the ancient Egyptians and Jews. Sir G. 
_ Birdwood has the following remarks upon its history in more 
Western countries :—“ Solomon is supposed by Sprengel to 
refer to the Henna plant in his Epithalamium (I. 14), ‘ My 
beloved is unto meas a cluster of Samphire (or Cypress or 
Camphire) in the vineyards of Engedi.’”? It is undoubt- 
dly the «vmpos of Dioscorides and “ Cyprus in Egypt” of 
Pliny. It is mentioned by Avicenna also under the name of, 
‘ Henna.”’* 
-Description.—Leaves opposite, smooth, short petioled, 
oblong, or broad lanceolate, pointed at both ends, an inch or 
more long and less than half an inch broad; the flowers are in 
terminal, globular, cross-armed panicles, small, greenish white 
_ and very fragrant ; the fruit is round, the size of a pepper-corn, 
_ four-grooved, with the apex depressed, four-celled ; the seeds 
are angular, The decoction of the leaves is of a deep orange 
colour, which is destroyed by acids, and deepened by alkalies 
_and vegetable astringents; it stains the skin of an orange red 
colour, which does not disappear until the epidermis has been 
renewed. 
_ Chemical composition. —The colouring matter of Henna is a 
kind of tannin to which M. Abd-el-Aziz Herraory has given’ 
the name of hennotannic acid. This’ principle is brown, of 
* Cf. P. Bellonius Obs. I. 64. He visited Egypt in A. D. 
