LYTHRACE. 45 
and ginger is given in honey as a remedy for piles, The 
juice of the flowers with Durva root juice (Cynodon daclylon) 
_ is used to stop bleeding from the nose. The root bark does 
not appear to be mentioned in any Sanskrit works on Materia 
_ Medica.. The Arabs call the pomegranate Rumman ; Anér is 
the Persian name. Mahometan writers describe three kinds, 
sweet, sour, and subacid. The Rummdén-i-bari or Wild Pome- 
granate of these writers is, perhaps, the P. protopunica discov- 
ered by Balfour in Socotra, and which probably exists in the 
neighbouring continents of Africa and Arabia, but this name 
is also applied by the Arabs to the Tutsan or large Hypericum. 
_ Besides using the flowers and rind in a variety of ways on 
account of their astringency, they recommend the root bark as 
being the most astringent part of the plant, and a perfect specific 
_ in casesof tapeworm : itisgiven, in decoction, prepared with two 
_ ounces of fresh bark, boiled in a pint and a half of water till 
_ but three-quarters of a pint remain; of this when cold a 
_ wineglassful may be drunk every half hour, till the whole is 
_ taken. This dose sometimes sickens the stomach a little, but 
_ seldom fails to destroy the worm, which is soon after passed.* 
4 The seeds of the pomegranate are considered to be stom- 
chic, the pulp cardiacal and stomachic. It would appear that 
the Arabs derived their knowledge of the medicinal qualities of 
_ this plant from the ancients, as a similar account of them is 
_ found in Dioscorides and Pliny. The balaustium of these 
_ writers is the double pomegranate flower, a word which in the 
' corrupted form of Balusitun is common in Arabic aud Persian 
_ books.t The root bark and rind of the fruit are official in the 
4 Pharmacopeia of India. _ 'Che official preparation of pomegran- 
_ ate root bark is open to objection on account of its nauseous- 
_ ness, and Mr. Siebold, inorder to obviate this, has suggested a 
process for removing the astringent rua eee ae J tt 
q ee av | 896.) With a similar object Dr. Von Sc 
: pare with Dioscorides i i., 131, epi — | 
___t Plin. 13, 34; 28, 57 to 61; Scribon. Comp. 85 
2 mig it is used to stop bleeding in accordance with the 
