66 THE TREES AND SHRUBS [LECT. 



further noticed under the head ofMhammis, may have 

 been prepared from a species of Berberry called 

 B. lycium, found abundantly at present in the 

 mountains of Nepaul, and also, if we may believe 

 the accounts of Arabian writers, in Syria and Asia 

 Minor. An astringent medicine is extracted from 

 its root and stem, and a yellow colouring-matter is 

 also obtained from the latter, as was the case with 

 the Lycium of Dioscorides. 



As that writer therefore speaks of two kinds of 

 this medicine, one the produce of Lydia and Cap- 

 padocia, arid the other of India, it is very possible 

 that the latter, which was the most prized, may 

 have been obtained, as Royle thinks, from a Ber- 

 beris found in Persia, and in countries still further 

 to the East. 



It is conjectured, that the Berberry may be meant 

 by the term Sjnna appendix, a plant described by 

 Pliny b as a thorn with red berries hanging from its 

 branches, and that ovaK.dv6a in Galen may imply 

 the same. This word, as Sibthorp informs us, is 

 still used in Greece to signify the Berberry. The 

 KoAourea of Mount Ida, mentioned by Theophras- 

 tus, is by some supposed to be the Berberis cretica; 

 but I shall speak of this hereafter. 



CRUCIFER.E. 



Amongst the Cruciferce several frutescent plants 

 are noticed by Sibthorp in Greece, but none of 

 them can be safely identified with modern plants. 



b Lib. xxiv. c. 13. Lib. jij. c . 16. 



