CYPEBACE^. 553 



and stomachic, and is prescribed in febrile alFections and 

 derangements of the bowels. In Indian domestic medicine the 

 fresh tubers are applied to the breast in the form of a paste as 

 a galactagogue . 



C. rofundus is doubtless the ax-«» (Suad) of Abu Hanifeh, who 

 describes it as a certain kind of sweet-smelling root o{ rhizome 

 i^^jj^), round, black, hard like a knot, which is an ingre- 



s and medicines. In the Kamu^ it is said to 



nm 



possess 



and sores. Ibn 



Sina says that the best kind of Suad is that which comes from 

 Kufa in Chaldea, and that the Indian drug (C. scariosus) is said 

 to make the hair grow thin. He, along with other Arabian and 

 Persian writers, describes the drug as attenuant, diuretic, em- 

 menagogue, lithontriptic, and diaphoretic ; they prescribe it in 



dyspepfe 



ulcers 



warm 



Dioscorides calls it tcvTrepot and notices its use as a diuretic 

 and emmenagogue and as an application to scorpion stings 

 and ulcers; he also states that it is an ingredient in warm 

 plasters. 



Herodotus (4, 71) notices it as an aromatic plant used by 

 the Scythians for embalming. KWapov is mentioned in the 

 Iliad (21, 351) and Odyssey (4. 603) and by Theophrastus in 

 Ha fourth book ; it appears to have been a favourite food of 

 horses. Pliny (21, 18) calls it Juncus triangularis or anguhsm ; 

 it is also probably the Juncus of Celsus (3, 21), mentioned as 

 an ingredient in a diuretic medicine for dropsy, although he 

 calls it Juncus quadratus. 



Description.— Culms erect, 1-2 feet, triangular, with 

 rounded angles ; leaves radical ; sheathing shorter 

 <5ttlms ; root tuberous, tubers often crowded together, size of 

 filberts, brown or black externally, white internally, odour like 

 that of Acorus ; umbels terminal, compound ; involucre 3-leaved, 

 unequal; spikes linear, sub- sessile. Often a troublesome weed 

 m cultivated ground. 



111—70 



than the 



