DRUGS. 



cult to deny that sugaY is not here meant, and very hard to consent that 

 Tabasheer is. Pliny, copying from Diosco rides, as is plain, perhaps confused 

 Tabasheer with sugar in his description, and thus has involved the subject 

 in a way well-suited for the exercise of subtle and learned criticism. 

 The Honorable President of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic 

 Society has suggested to the compiler a reading of Pliny as ingenious as 

 that of Salmasius, and probably more just, inasmuch as it supports the 

 common sense view in the "Sugar Controversy." Placing a full stop 

 where the first semicolon occurs, the Honorable Mr. Frere reads the pas- 

 sage as follows : " Saccharon et Arabia fert, sed laudatius India. Est autem 

 mel in arundinibus collectum, &c." As if Pliny, on mentioning, at once 

 dismissed so familiar an article as " Saccharon," and then went on to 

 describe in detail so rare a substance as Tabasheer must have been. 

 Fee, Sprengel, and Humboldt simply follow Salmasius, Humboldt 

 very diffidently. A passage from his " Prolegomena de distributione Geo- 

 graphica Plantarum" (quoted in his "Cosmos"), states an opinion all, on 

 reading the whole controversy on sugar, will probably acquiesce in, and is 

 on other accounts worth introducing here. " Confudisse videntur veteres 

 saccharum verum cum Tebaschiro Bambusse, turn quia utraque in arundini- 

 bus inveniuntur, turn etiam quia vox sanscradana scharkara, quae hodie(ut 

 Pers. schakar et Hind, schukur) pro saccharo nostro adhibetur, observante 

 Boppio, ex auctoritate Amarasinhse, proprie nil dulce (madu) significat, 

 sed quic^uid lapidosum et arenaceum est, ac vel calculum vesicse. Veri- 

 simile igitur vocem scaharkara duntaxat tebaschirum (succur nombu) 

 indicasse, posterius in saccharum nostrum humilioris arundinis (ikschu, 

 kandeschu, kanda) ex similitudine aspectus translatum esse. Vox Bam- 

 busae ex mambu derivatur ; ex kanda nostratium voces candis zuckerkand. 

 In tebaschiro agnoscitur Persarum schir y h. e. lac, Sanscr. Kschiram" 

 The Sanscrit name for tabascher is tvakkschird, bark-milk. Herodo- 

 tus, Book xiv, ch. 1 94, writing of the Gyzantians, observes that in their 

 country, " a vast deal of honey is made by bees ; very much more, however, 

 by the skill of men." In a note, Hawlinson states, " bees still abound in the 

 country, and honey is an important article of commerce. A substitute for 

 honey is likewise prepared from the juice of the palm." Sprengel states 

 that the sugar-cane is first mentioned by Abulfaidil, 13th century, and 

 sugar by Moses Chorenensis, A.D. 462 ; and notwithstanding that it must, 

 the writer would apprehend, be mentioned in Hindoo books of a far 

 earlier date, it is not a little remarkable that a Hindee name of sugar is 

 Cheene. 



N. 0. 267. FILICES. FERNS. 

 Adiantum lunulatum. Spr. 



Linn. Syst. Cryptogamia Felices. 



The frond. 



Vernacular. Hunsraj, Mobarkha, Hind. Shuer-ul-jin ? Arab. 

 Habitat. India. 

 96 



