COMMENTARY. There has been great difference of opinion among the commentators and herbalists respecting this herb; but we are inclined to decide, with considerable confidence, that it was the Hatchet Vetch, or _Coronilla securidaca_. Dioscorides says of it that it is stomachic and alexipharmic, and that, in a pessary, it prevents conception. Our author abridges Galen, and Aëtius does the same; and so likewise Oribasius. We have been unable to find it in the Mat. Med. of the Arabians, with the exception of Ebn Baithar, who merely copies from Dioscorides (i, 80.) Ἡλιοτρόπιον, Heliotropium, _Sunflower_; the large one (called also Scorpiurus) is possessed of calefacient, desiccant, and detergent powers. Its decoction when drunk brings away phlegm and bile. Its fruit in a cataplasm dries myrmecia and such like cutaneous complaints. The small Sunflower also removes these complaints and kills worms if drunk with the fruit along with natron, hyssop, and cardamom. * * * * * COMMENTARY. Dioscorides calls the great Sunflower (_Heliotropium Europæum_) phlegmagogue and cholagogue, and says it is useful in the bites of scorpions, both internally and externally. He adds, that it was used as an amulet to produce sterility. He also recommends it in intermittent fevers, and as a cataplasm and fomentation to various tumours, sprains, &c. He adds, that it is emmenagogue, and procures abortion when powdered and applied on a pessary. (iv, 190.) None of the other Greek authorities, as far as we have been able to discover, have treated of either of the heliotropes; and if the Arabians describe them, we have not been able to discover under what name it is. The lesser heliotrope is probably the _Croton tinctorius_. Ἤλεκτρον, Electrum, _Amber_; they say that it is the tears of the poplar, which are discharged into the river Po, and get concreted into a golden-coloured substance. This, being pulverized and drunk, stops defluxions of the stomach and bowels and discharges of blood. * * * * *