The brassicæ held a place in our Dispensatory, and retained their ancient character down to a comparatively recent date. See Parkinson, Culpeper, and still more recently Quincy. (116.) They are still much prized as medicines by the Arabians and Persians. See Ainslie (M. Ind.) Κραταιόγονον, Cratæogonon; the fruit of this herb is acrid to the taste and cold like millet. * * * * * COMMENTARY. Dioscorides assigns it wonderful powers in promoting procreation, and hence its name. He calls it intensely acrid. Galen and the other Greek authorities, treat of it very succinctly like Paulus. We have not been able to find any traces of it in the Mat. Med. of the Arabians. What plant it was seems a puzzle. Both Parkinson (Theatre of Plants, 858) and Sprengel (Ad Dioscor. l. c.) incline to the _Polygonum Persicaria_, but the medicinal virtues of it, as given by our older herbalists, do by no means agree with the characters of the cratæogonon as given by the ancients. Κρῆθμον, Crethmum, _Samphire_, is somewhat saltish with a little bitterness, and therefore its powers are detergent and desiccative. * * * * * COMMENTARY. It is the Crithmum maritimum, _Samphire_, or _Sea-fennel_. Dioscorides recommends its fruit, root, and leaves, when boiled in wine, for dysuria and jaundice. He further mentions it as a potherb and pickle. (ii, 156.) Galen and the other Greek authorities state its characters briefly like our author. Pliny, like Dioscorides, mentions it as a potherb and pickle, but says nothing of it as a medicine. (H. N. xxvi.) We do not find it noticed by Celsus nor by the Arabians, with the exception of Ebn Baithar. (ii, 280.) Κριθὴ, Hordeum, _Barley_, is of the first order of cooling and desiccative medicines, and is also somewhat detergent. It is more desiccative than the flour of beans, and less flatulent. The polenta of barley is more desiccative than barley itself. Its ptisan is not only more diluent, but is also more detergent. * * * * *