Anchusæ, _Alkanet_; there are four varieties, all of which are not possessed of the same powers. For that which is called onoclea has a root which is astringent and somewhat bitter; whence it is useful in splenitic and nephritic cases. It is a suitable remedy for erysipelas when applied with polenta. The leaves are less cooling and desiccative than the root, and, therefore, they are also drunk for diarrhœa. The lycapsos being more astringent, agrees in like manner with erysipelas. The onochilos (or alcibiadios) being possessed of stronger medicinal properties than these, is beneficial for the bites of vipers, when applied as a cataplasm, as an amulet, and when eaten. The fourth variety being smaller than the others, has scarcely got a name: but being more bitter than the alcibiadios, it is applicable in cases of the broad lumbricus when taken in a draught to the extent of an acetabulum. * * * * * COMMENTARY. The first species is either the _Anchusa tinctoria L._, or the _Lithospermum tinctorium_; the lycapsos, the _Echium italicum L._; the alcibiadios, the _Echium diffusum_, and the fourth species the _Lithospermum fruticosum_. There is considerable difficulty, however, in determining the alkanets of the ancients. Our author, in his account of them, follows Galen, who, in his turn, copies from Dioscorides. Avicenna, Rhases, and Haly Abbas borrow all they say of them from Dioscorides and Galen. The only one of these substances that is retained in our modern Pharmacopœias is the _Anchusa tinctoria_, and it is used only for colouring. The medicinal virtues of the _Lithospermum_, or of any species of _Echium_, are scarcely recognized. Indeed, as the Anchusa tinctoria is retained in the modern Greek Pharmacopœia, and as it is there stated to be a common plant in Greece, we need have no hesitation in admitting it to be the common anchusa of the ancients. Ἄδάρκη, Adarce is a sort of froth of salt water, collecting about rubbish and weeds. It is very acrid, and heating almost to burning when applied externally with other things; for it cannot be taken internally. * * * * * COMMENTARY. The description of this substance given by Dioscorides, Galen, and the other authorities is substantially the same as our author’s, from which all we can gather is that it was a saline concretion formed about reeds and herbs in salt lakes. But even Matthiolus confesses that he never could satisfy himself that he had found the substance in question, and no modern authority on the Materia Medica has treated of it. Dioscorides compares it to the _alcyonium_, from which we think it probable that the adarce may have been applied to some species of this zoophyte. See Alcyonium. Dioscorides recommends it for the cure of lepra and sciatica (v, 136.) The Arabians borrow from him under this head. See in particular Avicenna (ii, 2, 17); Serapion (c. 378.) It is not mentioned by Celsus. Ἄδίαντον,