84 Mr. RoYLE on the Lycium of Dioscorides. 



favourably situated in the north-western provinces of India for carrying on 

 such investigations, I offer the following as an attempt to trace out one of the 

 articles mentioned by Dioscorides as procured from India. 



The Lycium, 7mkiov, of Dioscorides is one of those articles of the ancient 

 Materia Medica which still remains undetermined, owing in some measure to 

 its not being at present employed in European practice, and also to Dios- 

 corides having described two different kinds under the above name, one the 

 produce of Lycia and Cappadocia, and the other of India. The former, he 

 says, is by some called Pyxacantha, ■7rv%a,x,a,v6oi,, and is a thorny shrub, with 

 branches of three cubits or more in length ; leaves like box thickly set, full of 

 fruit like pepper, black, light and bitter ; bark pale-coloured ; roots numer- 

 ous, crooked, woody; and that it grows in stony places. The mode of making 

 the medicinal article is then described, and is that universally employed for 

 making vegetable extracts. The bruised roots and branches being macerated 

 for some days in water, the liquor is strained, and boiled until it becomes of 

 the consistence of honey. The Indian kind, Dioscorides says, is more va- 

 luable and efficacious as a medicine ; and he adds, that it is said to be made 

 from a shrub called LoncMtis, Xoyxiri?, which is thorny, and has branches three 

 or more cubits in length, thicker than those of Ruhits, with numerous roots ; 

 that the bark, when bruised, becomes of a reddish colour, and that the leaves 

 are like those of the olive. That a considerable degree of uncertainty still 

 prevails respecting the plant or plants alluded to in the above descriptions 

 will be evident, if we refer to the latest authors who have noticed the sub- 

 ject. 



In the Dictionnaire Universel de Matiere MMcale of Merat and De Lens 

 (1832), where the opinions of some previous authors are given under the ar- 

 ticle "Lycium" the authors conclude with saying, "Aujourd'hui on ne connait 

 plus cette composition," and do not hint at the plant producing it. In Rees's 

 Cyclopcedia, the author of the article under that name says, " Lycium, Xvkiov, 

 of Dioscorides, so called from Lycia, where it is said to have been abundant, 

 but what was the precise plant has never been settled by commentators :" 

 while under the article " Rhamnus infectoria, frequent in rough stony places in 

 Greece," apparently the same author observes, " rightly considered l)y Dr. Sib- 

 thorp as the Xviciov, Lycium, of Dioscorides." Sprengel, in Historia Rei Her- 



