307 
from Africa (Libya;. As C. Schoenantkus has not so far been 
observed in Arabia north of 18° N., we must assume either that 
the author took the term Nabataea in a wider sense than we do in 
confining it to Arabia Petraea, or that the article arrive! through 
Nabataean channels, whence Nabataea acquired the reputation of 
being the home of the drug. Considering the position which 
that region long occupied in the commercial relations of Arabia 
with the Levantine countries, the latter explanation is the more 
probable. The source of the * Babylonian ' article is undoubtedly 
that small and rather isolated area which extends from Rakka* 
on the Euphrates east and south-east to the Tureo- Persian 
frontier. Pliniust (23-79 A.D.) merely repeats Theoplirastus' 
and I.)i os -oridi s" -•,.•, ments i onreniitv tl i'dn of <r x oivoc, or as 
he calls it, J uncut ,.,-. -•.<)(> A.D.) also refers to 
Arabia as the home of the cr X oiw>c, adding that he does not know 
why it is vulgarly called '• * X aiv<,v urlhc" there being as a rule 
no flowers with the grass as imported from Arabia : for the 
camels are very fond of it and eat off the tops. This is the first 
time that a-^pivov iivdos is mentioned. Its Latin equivalent. 
however, 'Sr/meui od>>rati ffos,' occurs already in a prescription 
of the Roman surgeon Scrihouius . .»i«nu 40 A.D.). On the other 
hand the contracted form * Schoenantkus ' (Squinanthus) does 
not appear until the fourth century when Palladium uses it in a 
recipe for spicing wine. That the inflorescences, however, were 
used and valued long before Galenus is evident from Dioseori les, 
who says (l.c) : " Usus est (hu-is culmorum radicisque " and 
recommends for medicinal purposes the selection of many-th-wered 
(mtXvavdii) specimens. Possibly it was just the rarity of the 
flowers which enhanced their "value in the Greek and Roman 
markets. As a medir'na! dmi: it was chiorlv appreciated as an 
active carminative, diuretic and eimm-nairo-ne. I have referred 
to the use of ,r x „i ,■',„■ lor spiehiir or perfuming wine. It is already 
I'ecord.Ml l,v I'ii'i,, ,- -J2:*- -I 11) IU'.). For that purpose it was either 
poumbd in mortars (Cato) or boiled with the wine (Columella).^! 
Similarly it was used for aromatising oil. and the 'oleum 
nnirinvm' of Plinius** was probably nothing but olive-oil 
perfumed with ' Selmioirinthux' In a similar way it entered 
into the preparation of laurel-, rose-, and quince-oil (Dioscorides),|t 
and was no doubt, even in those remote days an ingredient of 
eosnotiesand p. rfumes, so that Prop' -rtins++ could very well say : 
"AfHabnnt tibi non Arabum de gramine odores, sed quos ipse 
sais fecit Amor manibiift" 
Kanwolf.Beechnil- 183). p. 1W. 
Plinius. Xat. Iliu. :■'. xii.. <•;!]). xxn.. p.: 
Palladia*, Agricultura, xi. (October), 13. 
I'ao,. I),. f; t . |;„., ra| , ,. jv . , -,, j:, | e.l. Lugd., apud Gryphium, 
: ' 
Dioscorides, l.c, pp. vv 57. :>S. 
Properrius. ii.. 29. 17-18. 
