Mr. RoYLE on the Lycium of Dioscorides. 91 



ported from the hills into the plains, and that large quantities continued 

 to be brought from Nuggur-kote as well as other places. 



While travelling in the Himalayas, I continued my inquiries on the subject, 

 and on wishing to be shown the plant which produced the wood called dar- 

 huld, as well as that from which the rusot was procured, species of Barberry 

 were immediately pointed out ; and I was told that both the wood and the 

 extract were procureil indifferently from Berbeiis asiatka, B. aristata, and 

 B. Li/vium, as well as from B. pinnata, the Mahonia tiepalensis of De Candolle. 

 On cutting into the wood of each, and having some converted into extract, I 

 found both to correspond in every respect with the wood and the extract which 

 I had bought in the plains under the names of dar-huld and rusof. 



As the above plants, (with the exception of B. Lycium, for the characters of 

 which the reader is referred to the end of this article,) have been fully described 

 by De Candolle in his Syslenia fegetabllhim, and as B. asiatka and Mahonia 

 nepalensis are figured in the 1st and 3rd Plates of the 2nd A'olume of Icones 

 Selectie Pluntarum of the Baron De Lessert, and Berheris aristata in Plate 98 

 of Dr. Hooker's Exotic Flora, it is unnecessary to dwell on their botanical clia- 

 racters. It may be interesting, however, to remark, that B. Lycium is found 

 as low as 3000 feet, B. asiatica grows naturally in 30° of latitude, at elevations 

 of from 5000 to 7000 feet, B. aristata at from 5000 to 8000 feet, and B. pinnata 

 is prevalent at from 0000 to 7000 feet above the level of the sea ; and it may 

 also be observed, that the French traveller Leschenault de la Tour found 

 Berberis tinctoria, which is considered in the work of De Lessert to be the 

 same as Berberis asiatica, on the Neel-gherris, in 1 1" of latitude, at 8000 feet 

 of elevation, and that there also it is brought into use. " E ligno corticeque 

 elicitur color luteus, cteteris prsestantior." De Candolle, in the Addenda to the 

 2nd volume of his Systenia Vegetabilium, describes it as " Lignum flavissimum, 

 amarissimum." 



It was observed in a former part of this paper as remarkable that there 

 appeared to be no traces of any description of the Barberry in Dioscorides. I 

 was anxious, therefore, to ascertain if the Arabians and Persians had alluded 

 to it ; and I adduce the following curious and good specimen of their mode 

 of describing a plant, of which there do not seem to be any traces in their 

 Greek originals. 



N 2 



