LILIACEM 489 



garlic by the Ilindu physicians. A summary of them may 

 be found in Pliny (xx., 23). Garlic is the j^j-i (thum) of the 

 Arabians and ji^ (sir) of the Persians ; their medical writers fol- 

 low the ancients in mentioning three kinds, OTZ.,I^ustanl "garden," 

 Bari "wild," and Kirathi "leek-like/' and in the account 

 they give of its medicinal properties. The leek-like garlic is 

 probably meant for the bulbed leek (J 



orrum 



Hippocrates {De Morb. Mal.y ii., 89) which was considered to 

 have the property of opening the uterus when contracted, and 

 De Gubernatis states that in Sicily garlic is still placed upon 

 the bods of parturient women. He also notices the wide- spread 

 belief in the protective power of garlic against evil influences 

 among the Hindus, Scandinavians, Greeks, and Germans, 

 as shown by passages in Sanskrit works, in the Songs of 

 Sigurdrifa and Helgi, the Yolsungasaga and Hippocrates. In 

 Bologna, at the present day, it is purchased by every one on the 

 feast of Saint John as a guarantee against poverty during the 

 year, whence the proverb : 



Chi 'n compra i ai al de d'San Zvan, 



E povret tot gl'an. {Myth, dcs Plant., ii., 7.) 



Garlic is still used medicinally to some extent on the Con- 

 tinent of Europe and in America, but in England it is hardly 

 ever prescribed. A syrup of garhc was formerly official m 

 the Dublin Pharmacopoeia, and was given in doses^ of two 

 drachms in moist asthma. As a condiment, it enters into the 

 composition of most sauces. After intense fatigue a clove of 

 garlic slowly chewed, and swallowed, acts as a very powerful 

 restorative. 



Description.— Garlic is a sub-globular compound bulb, 

 surrounded by a few dry membranaceous scales, which cover 

 the remnant of the upright stem and the 5 to 8 small bulbs or 

 cloves arranged in a circle aroand its base. These bulblets are 

 oWong in outline, compressed from both sides, wedge-shaped 

 toward the stem, and rounded upon the back. They consist of 

 u few thick fleshy scales and a short fleshy axis. Garlic has a 

 poculiiir pungent and disagreeable odour, and an acrid, burning 

 taste. It is used in the fresh state only. 



1II.-G2 



