COMMENTARY. It is quite manifest that the plant here described comprehends the two well-known species of the Water-lily, now named _Nymphæa alba_ and _Nuphar luteum_. The two species, the one having a white root and the other a black, are no doubt mere varieties. Our author abridges his account of this article from Galen, who, in his turn, borrows freely from Dioscorides. (iii, 138-9.) For the Arabians, see Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 493); Serapion (De Simpl. c. 144); Avicenna (ii, 2, 508); Averrhoes (Collig. v, 42.) The Arabians administered it in the same cases as the Greeks, and also recommend the syrup for coughs and pleurisy, and say of the plant that it induces sleep and cures acute vertigo, but is debilitating. They compare the nature of the nymphæa to that of the mandragora. Though the two Water-lilies have long ceased to hold a place in our Dispensatory, they are still used medicinally by the oriental nations. See Lindley (Veg. Kingd. 411.) Ξάνθιον ἢ φασγάνιον, Xanthium, _Clutburr_, has fruit of discutient powers. * * * * * COMMENTARY. It would seem to be the _Xanthium strumarium_, a plant of the natural order of _Ambrosieæ_. Our author takes his brief notice of it from Galen. Dioscorides gives a minute description of it, but merely mentions its being used for a dye and a cataplasm for swellings. (iv, 136.) It does not occur in the works of Hippocrates or Celsus, nor, as far as we can discover, in those of the Arabians. Χηρὶς ἢ ξυρὶς, Xyris, _Wild Corn-flag_, is possessed of attenuating, discutient, and attractive powers, and of truly desiccative, especially the seed, so that it is diuretic, and cures scirrhus of the spleen. * * * * * COMMENTARY. It is the _Iris fœtidissima_. It is still used medicinally in dropsy and scrofula. See Lindley (Veg. Kingd. 161) and Gray (Suppl. to the Pharmacop. 25.) Dioscorides recommends it as a vulnerary, and application to swellings and boils; and further prescribes it internally in bruises, ruptures, sciatica, and diarrhœa. Its seed, he says, is very diuretic, and reduces enlarged spleen when drunk in vinegar. (iv, 22.) Galen notices it in the same brief terms as our author. We have reason to believe that it is not wholly overlooked by the Arabians, but we cannot find it, while writing this, in their authorities on the Materia Medica, not even in the copious list of Ebn Baithar. Ξίφιον, Xiphium, _Bulbous Iris_; its root is possessed of attractive, discutient, and desiccative powers. * * * * *