Mr. RoYLE on the Lycium of Dioscorldes. 89 



it is evident that the Acacia Catechu is not that plant, for it does not extend 

 beyond India; and though Rliamnus infectorius may have produced one kind 

 of Lycium, it is a plant wiiich does not exist in India : but from the Barberry 

 possessing so many of the same properties, being used for the same pui-])oses, and 

 occurring in the same countries, it appears to me as likely as any other to have 

 been the true Lycium. But if it be required that species of the same genus 

 should have produced the two kinds of Lycium, it will not be difficult to find 

 one, of which species are indigenous both in India and Asia Minor, possessing 

 all the requisite characters, and from which an extract is even at the present day 

 prepared, answering in every respect to the Lycium of Dioscorides. 



It is well known that the knoM'ledge of Grecian medicine was transferred 

 to the Arabians by means of translations made at Bagdad in the caliphates of 

 Al-Mansor, Ilarroon-Al-Raschid, and especially of Al-Mamoon ; and among 

 the first works translated were those of Pliny, Galen and Dioscorides. The 

 Persians have translated from the Arabic into their own language, and their 

 works are now tiie text-books of all the Mahommedan students and prac- 

 titioners of medicine throughout India : we may expect, therefore, to find some 

 traces of Lycium in the portion of these works which treats of Materia Medica. 



In the Index to the Mukhzun-ool-Vdwieh (or Storehouse of Medicines), I 

 find i^^jjl J loofyon, mentioned as the plant which yields huziz, and that in 

 Persian it is caWed fecl-zuhreh. In referring, in the body of the work, to the 

 account of hilziz, /(xif'yoji is said to be its Greek name. This must evidently 

 be intended for lool-yon, particularly if we attend to the context, which corre- 

 sponds with the description of Dioscorides ; and this there is no difficulty in 

 conceiving, for the letters _/ and /.• in composition are similarly written in the 

 Arabic alphabet, and differ only in the latter having two, and the former only 

 one diacritical point placed over it; thus, ^,>J^, lookyon, may easily, by an 

 error of the transcriber, be converted into ..^jJj loofyon, as has been done, to 

 adduce a familiar instance, in the name of Antiochus, the first of Alexander's 

 successors who reigned in Persia, from Antukliasli into Ahtakhasli ; j_^jij, 

 Filafuos, Philip of Macedon, into j^^yiLi, Filukoos. 



IIuozuz, or hooz'iz, is further described as being of two kinds ; one from 

 India of which the Hindee name is ru.sot, and the other from Arabia ; that the 

 Greek name is lo()fion ; the Persian feel-zuhreh, which in Hindee is also called 



VOL. XVII. N 



