HORTICULTURE IN RELATION TO MEDICINE. 



45 



forming a pleasant retreat in summer. Outside the vinery were rows of 

 palms, interspersed near the outer wall with the branched Doum palm 

 and other trees. There were four tanks of water for irrigating purposes, 

 in which the lotus was grown, bordered by grass-plots where geese were 

 kept, and small kiosks or summer-houses, shaded by trees, stood near the 

 water, and overlooked beds of flowers. Each space was enclosed by walls, 

 and there was a small subdivision between the tanks for special trees, either 

 bearing fruit of superior quality or requiring special attention. 



The identification of plants mentioned by ancient writers has always 

 been more or less a matter of difficulty, and this applies even to the 

 plants mentioned by Solomon (apparently as if growing in his garden) 



Fig. 10. — Frankincense Trees : (Pinus spec). {From an Egyptian bas-relief.) 



(Eccles. ii. 5 ; Cant. iv. 12-14), viz. henna, spikenard, saffron, calamus, 

 cinnamon, frankincense, myrrh, and aloes. 



But although drugs known by the names of calamus, myrrh, saffron, 

 and cinnamon are all employed in medicine in Europe at the present day, 

 possibly they were then only used as fragrant plants, since they are 

 mentioned in conjunction with all the chief spices. It is doubtful what 

 plant is meant by calamus, but it is certain that the fragrant Acorus 

 Calamus is grown throughout the world, and is used both as a perfume 

 and as a medicine in almost every country from England to Japan, and 

 even by the native Indians in the Hudson's Bay territory. The word here 

 translated " myrrh " is probably not the drug now called by that name, but 

 the scented gum-resin now known as " perfumed bdellium," which forms 

 the chief ingredient in the modern perfume sold under the name of 

 opopanax. 



