PLANTS OF GREECE. 



239 



11. Nerium Oleander, -n-izpoSapri; a very general plant through 

 Greece; it marks the torrent bed, and fringes the banks of the 

 Ilissus. The flowers are used as an ornament, and cover the bazar 

 at Athens. The leaves boiled, or the dried leaves powdered are 

 employed as remedies for the itch; boiled in oil, they serve as a 

 liniment for rheumatic pains. The lattice windows (Jalousies) in 

 the Turkish houses are made of slips of this wood. In Cyprus it 

 retains its ancient name pocio<5W<p^ ; and the Cypriotes adorn their 

 churches with the flowers on feast days. 



12. Salix Babylonica, 'irea. This tree is not common, and perhaps 

 was originally introduced into Attica. I observed it near the 

 monastery of Pendeli. The wood is made into charcoal for gun- 

 powder, and the t wigs into baskets. 



13. Pistachia Lentiscus, c-xjvoq. This wood is much esteemed for 

 fuel. The mastic or gum is only collected in Scio. The ashes of the 

 wood are used by the Athenian soap-boilers for making the lye for the 

 manufacture of soap. In Zante it is also considered as furnishing 

 the best lixivium. The tanners employ it with Valanida in the 

 preparation of leather. In Ithaca an oil is expressed [a-x^oxdh) 

 from the berry. 



14. Vitex Agnus Castus, KavmsriTTa, the constant companion of the 

 Oleander grows by the Ilissus, and on the torrent side. The twigs 

 are very pliable, baskets and bee-hives are made of them. The leaves 

 are also used by the dyers to produce a yellow colour, and with 

 indigo, green. In Zante, hoops are made of the wood of this plant ; 

 it is there called Xvysix ; it bears also the same name in Cyprus as 



well as ciyveia. ; in Patmos it is called Xvyapia. 



Notes by the Editor. 



1 1. Nrj'piov of Diosc. iv. 82. the Rosa laurea of Apuleius. Sprengel. 



13. The (r^lvo; of Theoph. Hist. ix. 1. The ancient word o-^jvi'^oju-ai signifies to eat 

 mastich in order to clean and make white the teeth. The substance is now much used by 

 the women of Turkey for the same purpose. We find from Dioscorides, lib. i. c. 90. that 

 it was employed in preparations for the teeth. 



14. Coray remarks, that the Xvyivoi o-Tsfotvoi, of which the ancients speak, are still used 

 bv the Greeks. " It is reported," says Gerarde, " that if such as journey or travel do 



