1 



THYMELJi'ACEJE!. 225 



Apuleius Plutonicus lias the following notice of it : — "Alii pyros 

 agnen, alii heracleon, alii bdelyram, alii coccon gnidion, 

 Homani citocaeium, nonnulli oleaginem, quidam oleastellum 



vocant/' {De Vir. Herb. y2Q.) 

 Mir Muhammad Hueain 6 



three kinds^ viz., 



white with large thin leaves, called AshkhiSy jellow with 

 yellowish thick leaves, smaller than those of the olive^ called in 



Haft'barg and Musht 



hii 



acrid : but even the 



eav<es 



vinegar, which should be several times changed, to make thein 

 fit for medicinal use. Having been thus prepared, they are to 

 be washed and dried^ and pounded with almond oil. This pre- 

 paration may then be given in combination with purgatives, 

 bitters and aromatios, in dropsy or in such ca^s as are benefited 

 by hydrogogue and dra&tic cathartics, to the extent of 24 grains^ 

 Mulla Ahmad Nabtf, in his Tarikh^el-hukamaj tells a story of a 

 dropsical patient, who was cured by eating locusts which had 

 been feeding upon Mezereon leaves ; they acted as a hydro- 

 gogue cathartic. 



Lasiosiphon eriocephalus, Dcne.^ Wight ic. 



it. 1859-60; Jacq. Voy^ Bof., L 150, a native of the Deecan 

 Peninsula and Ceylon, is a shrub with leaves like the willow, and 

 terminal heads of flowers, surrounded by an involucre of oblong, 

 rather hoary leaflets. It is common on the hills of Western 

 India, and the bark is a powerful vesicant, which has not, as 

 far as we are aware, been inentioned in native medical works. 

 The peasantry are, however, acquainted with its properties, and 

 when they have a lean ox or cow to take to market, rub the skin 

 with a deeoetion of the bark, which causes swelKng and an 

 appearance of plumpness, which disappears in a few days much 

 to the discomfiture of the purchaser^ 



Dr. J. Y* Smith, in his Matheran Rill, its People, Plants 

 end Animals (p. 35), says ^*the Bametha bushes are often 

 seen stripped of their bai'k, which is used for poisoulag 



fish. 



yf 



III.— 29 



