COMPOSITE. 997 
Fiiéch he calls Indian Costus. The Syrian Costus of the same 
_writer is Elecampane root. The Arabs appear to have had, like 
the Hindus, a fabulous kind of Costus, which they speak of as 
_ the carrot of the sea ( ya ! 32) or Costus of the sea ( ye I awd), 
_ which is mentioned in a tradition as one of the best of a 
- This myth probably led the Greeks to describe Arabian as 
distinct from Indian Costus. Arabian writers describe Costus 
_ asa wood brought from India, a well known drug, of sweet 
: odour, with which women and infants are fumigated: it is 
diuretic, beneficial to the liver in a high degree, and for the 
colic, and for worms, and the quartan fever, as a beverage; and 
_ for rheum, and defluxions, and pestilence, when the patient is 
a F fumigated therewith; and for the leprous-like- disorder called 
Gr, and the discoloration of the face termed uals when applied 
asa liniment ; and it confines the bowels, expels wind: strength- 
ens the stomach and heart, occasions pleasurable sensation, is 
an ingredient i in many sorts of perfume, and is the best of 
ie hime in odour when one fumigates therewith (Zl. Leyth, 
. = Byn” ; ; Kémus; Taj-el-Arus). Persian physicians copy all that 
the Greeks and Arabs have written, although they evidently 
know there is only one kind of Costus, and that brought from 
Cashmere. For an account of the history of this drug in 
medieval Europe, Cooke (Phar. Jour., July 21st, 1877,) and 
Flickiger (Phar. Jour., Aug. 18th, 1877,) may be ¢onsulted. 
Amongst European writers upon the Materia Medica of India, 
_ Ainslie, although he describes Kust as the root of Costus ara- 
Dicus, expresses his doubts in the following words: “ Judging 
from the root, the plant would appear to differ from that 
- described in the 11th Vol. of the Asiatic Researches, p. 349.’’ 
‘The credit of first suggesting the botanical source of the drug 
“is due to Guibourt ; his conjectures were afterwards confirmed 
by Falconer, who, when on a visit to Cashmere, discovered that 
an Aplotaxis growing there produced the commercial Kust. 
Te pat iteelt had been Brevionsly, Seecia bed Pat se 3 
a 
