107 
justify the comparison to the feathers of the ostrich ; and 
which, according to Garcias, " Nascitur etiam in Malavar, 
ubi Palan dicitur." (Clus. Exot. p. 229). The mangoe 
and tamarind are, perhaps, the other fruits, alluded to in 
the same chapter. The knowledge which had been attained 
is also observable in the accounts of the several grains 
cultivated in India ; as rice, sorghum, the different kinds 
of millet, as of the vise of some of the Leguminosce and 
Cucurbitacece, for food. 
Myrobalans having been so frequently referred to, it is 
necessary to observe, that the substances first known by 
this name, are not the same as those noticed at p. 36. The 
Pahavo; or fiahavos /iups^iKv of Dioscorides, translated Glans- 
unguentaria, celebrated in making the most precious 
ointments, is the ban of the Arabians, whence the ben- 
nuts of old writers, from which oil of ben was expressed. 
The seeds are those of Moringa pterygosperma, a native of 
India, as also of M. aptera, which is confined to Arabia 
and Egypt : the oil expressed from the seeds of both 
species is described as not becoming rancid ; and being 
inodorous, is still employed in the East, especially for 
retaining the aroma of delicate flowers. Of the accuracy 
and minuteness of the information obtained in those early 
times, we have an instance in the passage of Pliny, lib. 12. 
c. 18. " Onesicritus tradit in Hyrcania? convallibus ficis 
similes esse arbores, qua? vocentur occhi, ex quibus defluat 
mel horis matutinis duabus. 11 This plant has been supposed 
by Sprengel to be Hedysarum Alhagi, now Alhagi mau- 
rorum, from which the manna called toorunjbeen exudes; 
but from the form of the leaf it is much more likely to 
have been Calotropis procera, called ashur, or some nearly 
allied species : as on these also a kind of manna is secreted 
or deposited. Many other trees are mentioned, as being 
