504 LILIAGEM 



DRAC^NA CINNABARI, BaJf. f. 



Fig. — Balf. /. in Trans. Boy. Soc. Edin. xxxi., Tab. 

 xcvi — zcvii. Dragon^s blood {Eng.), Sang-dragon (io'.). 



Hab. — Socotra. The resin. 



Vernacular. — Tlie tree — 'Khary a {Socotra), The resin — Dam- 

 khoheil, Edah (Socotra), Dam-el-akhwain {Arab., Ind. Bazars)^ 

 Hira-dukhi [Hind,), Hira-dakhan {Bomb.), Kandamurgarittam 

 {Tani.), Katgamurgam-nitdru {TeL). 



History, Uses, &C. — On the Dcir-el-Bahari monument 

 at Thebes, erected hj Hatasu, a queen of the 18th dynasty, who 

 lived about 1700 B.C., there are representations showing the 

 commissioner of the queen going over the sea to the country of 

 Punt and of ' To Nuter,' and bringing therefrom, amongst other 

 things, plants bearing ' Ana,' which is shown as a gum or resin 

 in the form of red tears on the stems of small trees with 

 ovate-lanceolate leaves. Tlie To Nuter of the inscription has been 

 identified with the Sacred Islands of Pliny, and the modern 

 archipelago, including Socotra. The gum or resin is probably 

 dragon's blood, as that is the most remarkable substance of the 

 kind produced on the island. The author of the Pcriplus of 

 the Erythrean Sea, A.D. 54-68, mentions Ktwd^api as a produc- 

 tion of the island of Dioscorida, the ancient Greek name of 

 Socotra. Dioscorides (v. 63) notices its medicinal uses under 

 the same name, and states that it is produced in Libya (Africa). 

 Both he and Pliny (33,38) distinguish it from the mineral 

 cinnabar; the latter writer states that the price of genuine 

 cmnabaris is fifty sesterces per pound. A myth was current 

 among the Greeks and Romans that this substance was the 

 blood of the dragon or python crushed beneath the weight 

 of the dying elephant, round which it had wound itself 

 to suck the animal's blood. Eufus Ephesius and Galen 

 notice the use of the drug for stopping hcemorrhage from 

 wounds. 



