CHAP. 15.—CARYOPHYLLON, LYCION, AND THE CHIRONIAN
PYXACANTHUS.
There is, also, in India another grain which bears a considerable resemblance to pepper, but is longer and more brittle;
it is known by the name of caryophyllon.[1] It is said that
this grain is produced in a sacred grove in India; with us it
is imported for its aromatic perfume. The same country produces, also, a thorny shrub, with grains which bear a resemblance to pepper, and are of a remarkably bitter taste. The
leaves of this shrub are small, like those of the cyprus;[2] the
branches are three cubits in length, the bark pallid, and the
roots wide-spreading and woody, and of a colour resembling
that of boxwood. By boiling this root with the seed in a
copper vessel, the medicament is prepared which is known by
the name of lycion.[3] This thorny shrub grows, also, on
Mount Pelion;[4] this last kind is much used for the purpose
of adulterating the medicament above mentioned. The root
of the asphodel, ox-gall, wormwood, sumach, and the amurca
of olive oil, are also employed for a similar purpose. The best
lycion for medicinal purposes, is that which has a froth on its
surface; the Indians send it to us in leather bottles, made of
the skin of the camel or the rhinoceros. The shrub itself is
known by some persons in Greece under the name of the
Chironian pyxacanthus.[5]
1. It has been suggested that under this name the clove is meant, though
Fée and Desfontaines express a contrary opinion. Sprengel thinks that it
is the Vitex trifolia of Linnæus, and Bauhin suggests the cubeb, the Piper
cubeba of Linnæus. Fée thinks it may have possibly been the Myrtus
caryophyllata of Ceylon, the fruit of which corresponds to the description
here given by Pliny.
2. See c. 52 of the present Book.
3. Or "Lycium." It is impossible to say with exactness what the medical
liquid called "Lycion" was. Catechu, an extract from the tan of the
acacia, has been suggested; though the fruit of that tree does not answer
the present description.
4. Fée suggests that this may possibly be the Lycium Europæum of
Linnæus, a shrub not uncommonly found in the south of Europe.
5. The Rhamnus Lycioides of Linnæus, known to us as buckthorn. The
berries of many varieties of the Rhamnus are violent purgatives.