DRUGS. 



* 



plum of Pliny, and certainly it afforded the wood of the Egyptian mum- 

 my cases. There is just a chance that it also may have been the Persea 

 of Dioscorides, although the probability is that it is not, and that he, like 

 Pliny, in describing the Persea, confounded it with the Persica or Peach. 

 Sprengel refers the Persea to Cordia Sebestena, a species peculiar to the 

 Antilles, and which Linnaeus most unfortunately named after a renowned 

 product of the old world. The seeds of Cordia Myxa are sold under the 

 name of Chakoon-ke-benge. See " Fruits and Vegetables," and " Woods." 



N. 0. 157. SOLANACE^:. NIGHTSHADES. 



Physalis somnifera var. flexuosa, Nees. Flexuose Winter 

 Cherry. 



Linn. Syst. Pentandria Monogynia. 



The root. 



Vernacular. Ashuva, Ashwa, Sans., Beng. Asgund, Hind., Dec. 

 Pevetti, Mai. Amkoolang, Tarn. Penerroo, Aswagandhi, Pilli- 

 vendram, Tel. Amuk-kara, Cey. Behmun, Barde t Obab, Uarak- 

 esschefa, Arab. Sekaran, Egypt. 



Habitat. Concans, Travancore, Coromandel, Bengal. 



Remarks. First distinctly described by Van Rheede, but is thought to 

 have been the o-rpi/xvos VTTVUTIKOS of Dioscorides, and the second kind of 

 halicacalum of Pliny called morio and moly. Kunth recognised it in 

 Egyptian mummy cases. It often goes by the name of Kaknuj in the 

 bazars, but erroneously. Asgund is also the Hindee name of Justicia 

 Adkatoda (Rox.) t the Adulsa, Bakus y or Vasooka of Bombay. 



Puneeria coagulans. Stocks. 



Linn. Sytt. Dioecia Pentandria. 



The berry. 



Vernacular. Kaknuj, Rajpootuka, Binpoonka, Hind. Puneer-ja- 

 fota, Sind. Shaprunga, Peshawur. Hub-ul~yahood t Jowz-ul- 

 murj, Arab. Kaknuj, Pers. Khumzuray, Candahar. Aroosuk- 

 pus-purdah (Bride behind the curtain), Fars. Kuchoomun, Shiraz. 

 Kumree-murja, Syria. Akeedoleon, Turkey. Ousfudnoon, Yonanee. 

 Halikabum, Latin of Bazaars. Hub-ul-kaking, Vulg. 



Habitat. Sind, Beloochistan. 



Remarks. Stocks (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. iii.) 

 observes that the berry Hub-ul-kaking has been referred to the plant 

 " called by Tournefort Alkekengi officinarum, and by Linnaeus, Physalis 

 Alkekengi, and the same plant is identified with the arpvxvos aXiKaKafios 

 mentioned by Dioscorides. Dr. Royle * * has suggested the Nicandra 

 indica (JR. and S.), referred more properly to the genus Physalis under the 

 name of P. indica (Lam.) and which Loureiro called P. Alkekengi. Dr. 

 Royle also throws out the idea that the widely distributed Physalis somni- 

 . 59 



