COMMENTARY. The herb is not described by Dioscorides, Theophrastus, or Pliny. It would appear to be the same as the _Erinus_, which see. The Ἐ. χερσᾶιος is undoubtedly the _Hystrix Cristata_, and the Ἐ. θαλάττιος the _Echinus Esculentus_. Dioscorides and Galen give the same account of their medicinal properties as our author. Serapion, after giving the description by Dioscorides and Galen, adds, from an Arabian authority, that the flesh of the land echinus is beneficial in protracted fevers. (De Simpl. 435.) Avicenna (ii, 2, 234,) treats of the two echini at greater length than any other ancient author, recommending the flesh of the land, in phthisis, dropsy, elephantia, scabies, scrofula, and other complaints of a formidable nature. Upon the whole, however, his account of it is mostly made up of extracts from Dioscorides and Galen. See in like manner Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 273.) He recommends the land echinus in the irretention of urine to which children are subject, adding that when frequently administered, it brings on dysuria. He and Avicenna quote Serapion as an authority for its use in protracted fevers. Both the echini disappeared from our Dispensatory a considerable time ago. Ἔχιον, Echium, _Viper’s Bugloss_, (some call it also _Dorias_, and others _Alcibiadium_,) is a prickly herb, which not only relieves those who have been bitten by reptiles when drunk in wine, but, if taken beforehand, it preserves them from being injured. * * * * * COMMENTARY. It appears to us quite clear that this article is the _Echium vulgare_ or Viper’s Bugloss, which we have no doubt was introduced into Britain with other medicinal herbs by the Romans, for it is never found remote from cultivated places, and therefore we believe it not to be truly indigenous. Some have taken it for the _Echium rubrum_, from Dioscorides having described the flowers as being _purplish_, whereas, purplish signifies a bright blue, and not red as is supposed. Parkinson thus describes the colour of the flowers of the _Echium vulgare_: “The flowers are of a purplish violet colour, in them that are fully blown, but more reddish while they are in bud; but in some places of a paler purple colour,” &c. (p. 413.) We, then, have no hesitation in acknowledging it as the _Echium vulgare_. Our author borrows his account of its medicinal powers from Dioscorides. (iv, 27.) The Arabians would seem to confound it with the Anchusæ, to which it is closely allied. Our old herbalists, in treating of the viper’s bugloss, follow Dioscorides; but it has long ceased to hold a place in our Dispensatory. It still, however, is known in the shops, where its root retains the character of being aperient and slightly astringent. See Gray (Suppl. to Pharmacop. p. 54.) Ἕψημα ἢ σίραιον, Defrutum, _Boiled Must_; it is moderately heating and digestive, and is also emplastic and free from pungency. * * * * *