32 
Though the literature of his profession should never be 
a matter of indifference to any of its members, yet, as 
it was in the performance of a public duty, and not 
from any blind devotion to the dictates of antiquity, or 
especial love for the science of weighing words, that I 
was led to these investigations, so I endeavoured to identify 
the things I found named and described. The results 
would fill a volume, as may be seen by the MSS. on the 
table: the specimens which illustrate them are in the 
Museum. I can here adduce only a few instances to 
shew the nature of the information which has been, and 
may still be obtained, by perseverance in such inquiries. 
The more common and well-known products of the East, 
noticed in ancient authors, it is unnecessary to mention ; 
but there are others, which are equally described as the 
produce of India, but which have remained in uncertainty, 
or entirely undetermined. Of these, the Lycium indicum 
(kukiov h&Kov, Diosc.) may be given as an instance : this I 
found to be the extract, called rusot, of species of Berberis 
(B. Lycium, nob. and others), in use in India at the present 
day, as in ancient times ; to this the name lufyon Ctr^JV 
is applied as the Greek term ; which differs from Ivkyon 
\\J^$) or Tiuxiov only by a diacritical point. To Cassia 
Absus the name akakalis (axaxxM;, Diosc. 1. c. 119) is 
applied : and the seed of Ccesalpinia Bonduc is given 
as one of the kinds of Eagle Stone or iEtites of the Ancients. 
Lupin Seeds may be obtained in the bazars of India in the 
present day under the name of toormus, evidently a corrup- 
tion of ^Eflubf. The leaves of Cinnanwmurn albifloritm and 
Tammala, which are analogous to the Bay-leaf of Europe, 
have malatroon assigned as "a. Greek name ; apparently a 
corruption of Malabathrum. The Hemp {Cannabis sativa) 
though probably originally an Asiatic plant, has kinnabus, 
as well as dephrunus, assigned as its Greek, and kinnub 
