490 PLANTAGINE^. 



Uses — The flowering tops and dried leaves are kept by the herbalists, 

 but are not used in regular medicine. The volatile oil is employed as 

 an external stimulant in liniments, and also as a perfume. Rosemary is 

 popularly supposed to promote the growth of the hair. 



PLANTAGINE^. 



SEMEN ISPAGHUL^. 

 Ispaghijl Seeds, Spogel Seeds. 



Botanical Origin — Flantago decumhens Forsk. (P. Ispaghula 

 Roxb.),^ a plant of variable aspect, from an inch to a foot in height, 

 erect or decumbent, with linear lanceolate leaves which may be nearly 

 glabrous, or covered with shaggy hairs. The flower-spikes differ ac- 

 cording to the luxuriance of the plant, being in some specimens 

 cylindrical and 1| inches long, in others reduced to a globular head. 

 The plant has a wide range, occurring in the Canary Islands, Egypt, 

 Arabia, Beluchistan, Afghanistan, and North-western India. Stewart^ 

 says it is common in the Peshawar valley and Trans-Indus generally up 

 to 2000 feet ; also on the plains and lower hills of the Punjab, but that 

 he has never seen it cultivated in the latter region. It is said to be 

 cultivated at Multan and Lahore, also in Bengal and Mysore. 



History — The seeds which are found in all the bazaars of India and 

 are held in great esteem, are generally designated by the Persian word 

 IspagfcM; but they also bear the Arabic name Bazre-qutund,under which 

 we find them mentioned by the Persian physician Alhervi^ in the 10th 

 century, and about the same period or a little later by Avicenna.'* 

 Several other Oriental writers are quoted by Ibn Bay tar ^ as referring to 

 a drug of the same name, which may possibly have included the seeds 

 of other species, as Flantago Psylliwni L. and P. Cynops, having similar 

 properties, and known to have been used from an early period. 



J. H. Linck, whom we mentioned in our article on Oleum Cajuputi 

 (p. 278), described in 1719 the seed under notice, yet without knowing 

 its name ; it further attracted the notice of Europeans towards the close 

 of the last century,*' and has been often prescribed as a demulcent in 

 dysentery and diarrhoea. It was admitted to the Pkarmacopoiia of 

 India of 1868. 



Description — The seeds, like those of other species of P^CMiia^o, are 

 of boat-shaped form, the albumen being deeply furrowed on one side and 

 vaulted on the other. They are a little over -fV of an inch in length 

 and nearly half as broad, and so light that 100 weigh scarcely three 



1 After the examination of numerous MS. note attached to specimens in Herb, 

 specimens, we adopt the course taken by Kew. 



Dr. Aitchison (Cataloyue of the Plants of ^ Liber Fundamentorum Pharmacologice, 



the Punjab and Sindh, Lond. 1869) of unit- ed. Seligmann, Vindobonse, 1830. 40. 



ing P. Ispaghula to P. decumbens. The ^ Lib. ii. tract. 2. c. 541. ("Valgrisi edition, 



union of species in this group may pro- 1564. i. 357.) 



bablybe carried still further.— For a lig. ^ gontheimer's transl. i. (1840) 132. 



see Bentley and Trimen, Med. Plants, ^ Fleming, Catal. of Indian Med. Plants 



part 21 (1877). and Drugs, Calcutta, 1810. 31. 



2 Punjab Plants, Lahore 1869. 174— also 



