Chap. 69.] 
THE eetsisceptrum:- 
45 
CHAP. 68. (13.) — ASPALATHOS : ONE EEMEDY". 
The common^^ thorn too, with which the fulling coppers are 
filled, is employed for the same purposes as the radicula."^^ In 
the provinces of Spain it is commonly employed as an ingre- 
dient in perfumes and unguents, under the name of aspa- 
lathos.'' There is no doubt, however, that there is also a wild 
thorn^^of the same name in the East, as already mentioned,"^' of 
a white colour, and the size of an ordinary tree. 
CHAP. 69. THE EKTSISCEPTRTJM, ADIPSATHEOIT, OE DTAXYLOST : 
EIGHT REMEDIES. 
There is also found in the islands of !N'isyros and of Ehodes, 
a shrub of smaller size, but full as thorny, known by some as 
the erysisceptrum,'''^ by others as the adipsatheon, and by the 
Syrians as the diaxylon. The best kind is that which is the 
leasf^^ ferulaceous in the stem, and which is of a red colour, or 
inclining to purple, when the bark is removed. It is found 
growing in many places, but is not everywhere odoriferous. 
"We have already^^ stated how remarkably sweet the odour of 
it is, when the rainbow has been extended over it. 
This plant cures fetid ulcers of the mouth, polypus"^^ of the 
nose, ulcerations or carbuncles of the generative organs, and 
chaps ; taken in drink it acts as a carminative, and is curative 
of strangur5^ The bark is good for patients troubled with 
discharges of blood, and a decoction of it acts astringently on 
the bowels. It is generally thought that the wild plant is 
productive of the same effects. 
6^ Fee suggests that this may be the Dipsacus fuUonum of Linnaeus, 
the fuller's thistle. 
^« See B. xix. c. 18, and c. 58 of this Book. 
In B. xii. c. 52. But in that passage he makes the Aspalathos to be 
identical with the Erysisceptrum, which he here distinguishes from it. Fee 
thinks that there can be no identity between the common thorn here men- 
tioned, and the Aspalathos. This latter, as mentioned in B. xii., according 
to Fee, is the Convolvulus scoparius of Linnaeus, the broom bindweed, but 
Littre says that M. Fraas has identified it with tbe Genista acanthoclada. 
'2 See the preceding Note. Fee identifies this Aspalathos with the ^ 
Spartium villosum of Linnaeus, making that of B. xii. c. 52, to he tbe Lignum 
Khodianum of commerce, probably the Convolvulus scoparius of Linnaeus. 
'^^ The corresponding passage in Dioscorides has papv^, heavy," i. 
the most solid in the stem. 
74 In B. xii. c. 52. "^-^ " Ozsenas." 
