COMMENTARY. The confusion about the Thymelæa and Chamelæa of the ancients may be partly removed by the following account of the matter given by Alston. There are three species of Laureola, 1st, the _L. officinalis_, or _L. Mas_, _Dwarf Laurel_, or _Spurge Laurel_, which grows in hedges and woods in England; 2d, the Chamelæa, or _Laureola femina_ namely, the true _Mezereon_, or _Spurge Olive_, which grows plentifully in Germany; 3d, the Thymelæa, _Spurge Flax_, or _Mountain Widow Wail_, which grows in the south of France. We will treat further of the Chamelæa, or Mezerion, in its proper place. Sprengel is decidedly of opinion that the Thymelæa of the ancients is _Daphne Gnidium_, L., or flax-leaved daphne, and one of the latest and best authorities on the Mat. Med. comes to the same conclusion respecting it. Dr. Pereira says, “_Daphne Gnidium_ is the Θυμελάια, or Thymelæa of Dioscorides, whose fruit is the κόκκος κνίδιος, or Gnidium berry, used by Hippocrates. Its properties are similar to those of the _D. Mezereon_.” (Elements of Mat. Med. 807.) For an account of its effects on the animal economy, see Orfila (Toxicol. ii, 3.) We will treat of its medicinal virtues under _Coccus gnidius_. Ἰδαῖα ρίζα, Idæa Radix, _Idæan Root_; being sour as to taste and powers, it agrees with hemorrhages and rheumatic affections when drunk or applied externally. * * * * * COMMENTARY. As may be seen upon referring to Bauhin, Woodville, Sprengel, and Pereira, several of the authorities have been disposed to hold this plant for the _Arbutus Uva Ursi_; but the probability is that it was the Laurus Alexandrina, or _Uvularia amplexifolia_. Dioscorides recommends it in fluxes from the bowels and womb, and in all kinds of hemorrhage. (iv, 44.) Pliny translates the chapter of Dioscorides. (H. N. xxvii, 69.) Our author copies from Galen; and Oribasius, in like manner, borrows his description of the plant from him. As far as we can discover the Idæa Radix is not treated of by the Arabians; and even in the days of Matthiolus it had disappeared from the Mat. Med. Ἰδρῶς. Sudor, _Sweat_; it is troublesome to collect by itself; but is mixed with the powder of those who exercise themselves in the palestra, which powder, being only repellent before, thus becomes altogether discutient. It is, therefore, a powerful remedy for inflamed nipples, and for extinguishing the heat in them. It also answers with buboes; but if too dry it must be softened with oil of privet or oil of roses. * * * * *