eee Oe eee et en 
y os ; ‘ 
tse This aes ihe. 
PRIMULACEZ. 343 
plants having no very remarkable properties were used by the 
ancients, and are still used in the East, as ingredients in per- 
fumes, &c., from some superstitious fancy in connection with 
them, 
The Hamama now in use in the Hast was known in Europe 
as Amomum in the 14th and 15th centuries, and is figured 
by Clusius (Haot. Lib. I., p. 199). He calls it Amomum 
spurium. The same drug was found in use in Egypt by 
Prosper Alpinus, 1580-83. Dr. Leonhart Rauwolff, who 
travelled in the East (1573-76) for the purpose of studying the 
drugs of Dioscorides, says of Amomum: “Lastly amongst the 
rest I did also enquire after the amomum and thought, because 
they were near unto the confines of Armenia (i, e., the bazars 
of Aleppo), that therefore they might easily have it by the 
caravans which come daily from those parts, yet I was 
forced to run a great while after it, till at length I got a little 
stock thereof in one shop. They ésli it by the name of Ha- 
mama, But of the other so-called by Dioscorides, which is like 
unto it, and therefore may easily be taken for the right one, 
they had a great deal. These two small shrubs, although they — 
are very like to one another, yet for all that they may be distin- 
guished by their stalks and different colours, wherefore Diosco- 
_ rides bids us (if we will not be imposed upon) to pick out the 
bigger and smoother, with its noble seed, and to leave the 
small, This stalk which I found about the length of a finger, 
is almost of the colour of the bark of the cinnamon tree, and 
_ also in its acrimony and good odour (although it was old) still 
very strong. At the top had been several woody stalks close to 
one another, whereon I believe had been the flowers and seeds. 
But the twigs of the other sort, which are crooked and bended, 
are of a brown colour, which at the top divide themselves 
into other Iéss ones like a tree, whereon grow several stalks, 
with little heads like unt» the Masaron, or Marum 6 alee 
Crete, wherein is no great strength nor odour.” (Ray’s 
Oolbertion of Curious Travels and Voyages, 1693, quoted 
ties 0. Aa anes in: a letter to. ‘the ane. Journ., Jan. 28th, 
Ns thch: asl tar oe oliea tena aid rel presi fa Coe 
