Chap. 46.] 
THE ROYAL TKORIS". 
207 
of much greater solidity. The seed of it is a well-known 
article of food,^^ and is mostly gathered together with the stalk. 
It is as well, however, to be on our guard against the foreign 
kinds for that of Arabia has certain deleterious properties, 
that from Africa is injurious to the gums, and that from 
Marmarica is prejudicial to the womb and causes flatulence 
in all the organs. That of Apulia, too, is productive of vomit- 
ing, and causes derangement in the stomach and intestines. 
Some persons call this shrub cynosbaton,''^* others, again, 
ophiostaphyle."^^ 
CHAP. 45. — THE SARIPHA. 
The saripha,'^'^ too, that grows on the banks of the JS'ile, is 
one of the shrub genus. It is generally about two cubits in 
height, and of the thickness of one's thumb : it has the foliage 
of the papyrus, and is eaten in a similar manner. The root, 
in consequence of its extreme hardness, is used as a substitute 
for charcoal in forging iron. 
CHAP. 46. (24.) ^THE EOYAL THOEIST. 
We must take care, also, not to omit a peculiar shrub that 
is planted at Babylon, and only upon a thorny plant there, 
as it will not live anywhere else, just in the same manner as 
the mistletoe will live nowhere but upon trees. This shrub, 
however, will only grow upon a kind of thorn, which is known 
as the royal thorn.^^ It is a wonderful fact, but it germinates 
the very same day that it has been planted. This is done 
23 The stalk and seed were salted or pickled. The buds or unexpanded 
flowers of this shrub are admhed as a pickle or sauce of delicate flavour. 
2* Fee remarks that this is not the truth, all the kinds possessing the 
same qualities. There may, however, have been some diff'erence in the 
mode of salting or pickling them, and possibly productive of noxious 
eff'ects. 
25 Probably from its thorns, that being the name of the sweet-briar, or 
dog-rose. 26 u ggrpent grapes." 
2^ Sprengel and Fee take this to be the Cyperus fastigiatus of Linnseus, 
which Forskhal found in the river Nile. 
28 Spina regia. Some writers have considered this to be the sam'e with 
the Centaurea solstitialis of Linnaeus. Sprengel takes it to be the Cassyta 
filiformis of Linnaeus, a parasitical plant of India. "We must conclude, 
however, with Fee, that both the thorn and the parasite have not hitherto 
been identified. 
