'QBAUINEM. 583 



mentions It in tis chapter upon the diseases of grain (18, 44), 

 and again (22, 58, 77) reproduces the account given by Dios- 

 corides of its medicinal uses. The Arabian lexicographers 

 describe the same plant under the name of Zuwan or Ziwan 

 (ti)lj3) as a noxious weed growing among wheat, which often 

 gives a bad quality to it when accidentally mixed with it, 

 causing giddiness ; they consider it to be the same as the plant 

 called Shailam (aU^). Abu Hanifeh says, that Shailam is a 

 small, oblong, red, erect grain, resembling in form the 

 (or grub) of wheat ; and it does not intoxicate, but renders the 

 wheat very bitter ; and in one place he says the plant spreads 

 on the ground, and its leaves are like those of the willow, 



Ibn Sina describes Zdwan and Shailam separately, but in 

 his account of their properties there is hardly any difference, 

 it being essentially the same as Dioscorides' description of 

 Aira. He stales, however, that both are narcotic. 



Porskal considers Zuwan and Shailam to be different. Of the 

 former he says: — ''Zizania AUepensibus notissima : inter 

 triticum viget: si semina restant farinse (sic) mixta, hominem 

 reddunt ex panis esu temulentum : messores plantam non 

 separant ; sed post triturationem vanni aut cribri ope semina 

 rejiciunt/' Of the latter he says:— "Shalim etiam agri vitium; 

 a' priore (ziwan) tamen diversa species; decocto plantae 

 obtunduntur sensus hominis qui operationem chirurgicam 

 subire debet; Avicenna sic referente." (FL Mgypt Arab., 

 p. 199.) 



Indian Mahometan writers merely copy the Arabians, and 



Darnel 



►wn 



'^ fools' wheat/' In Northern India it is called Muchhni 



nmi 



or Bengal. 



Description.— Annual. Roots a few downy fibres. 

 Stems annual, erect, 3 feet or more in height, stiff, smooth, 

 often branched from the lower nodes. Leaves large, distant ; 

 •heaths smooth, striate, ligule short, truncate, blade 5 to 10 



