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TAMARISK. — TAMARIX. 



Natural order, Succulent a* Portulacea, Juss. 

 A genus of the Pentandria Trigynia class. 



" On yon rough craig, 

 Where the wild tamarisk whistles to the sea blast." 



H. Davy. 



" Their powers mysterious let thy knowledge shift, 

 Their useful poisons, and their healing gift ; 

 Where'er they rise, no part of earth is lost, 

 Since e'en the desert may its beauty boast." 



Deluxe. 



This flexible shrub is the Mup/.v, of the 

 Greeks, and the Myrica and Tamarix of the 

 Latins. The latter name is supposed to 

 have been derived from the Hebrew Tamari^ 

 (abstersio,) on account of its abstergent qua- 

 lities. It was a celebrated medicinal plant 

 with the ancient Arabians, from whom the 

 Latin authors seem to have borrowed their 

 knowledge of the virtues of this plant; and 

 the high encomiums which these iEsculapian 

 writers bestowed on the tamarisk, induced 

 Grindall, Archbishop of Canterbury, to in- 



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