The authorities are much divided whether the Asclepium be _Cachrys Libanotis_, or _Echinophora tenuifolia_. The former of these would appear to be the _Libanotis_ of the ancient Mat. Med., and therefore the latter would seem to have preferable claims. Dioscorides recommends it externally as a discutient application to ulcers and tumours, and internally with wine as being an antidote to reptiles. (iii, 49.) Sprengel inclines to think that the Chironium is the _Hypericum origanifolium_, Willd. Why modern botanists have applied the specific term _Chironium_ to the first of these plants, we are at a loss to explain. Dioscorides recommends it both internally and externally for the bites of reptiles. Galen and the other authorities treat of it in general terms, like our author. The Arabians in like manner give its medicinal properties under the head of _Panaces_. Πάπυρος, Papyrus, when unburnt is only simply the vehicle of other substances. But when burnt it is desiccative like burnt paper, but the ashes of the papyrus are weaker. * * * * * COMMENTARY. It is marked _Cyperus Papyrus_ by Linnæus. From burnt papyrus and burnt paper prepared from it, the ancients procured an impure carbonate of kali, which they used as a caustic. It is frequently mentioned by Celsus. Pliny says of it, “Charta quæ fit ex Papyro, cremata inter caustica est.” (H. N. xxiv, 51.) See also Dioscorides and Galen. The papyrus was much used by the ancients for dilating fistulæ in the same manner that prepared sponge now is. Avicenna recommends it for this purpose, and also as a styptic to stop the flow of blood. Its ashes, he says, stop the spitting of blood. (ii, 2, 536.) See also Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 132), and Ebn Baithar (ii, 244.) Παρωνυχία, Paronychia, _Mountain Knotgrass_, is so named because it cures paronychia (whitlow). Its powers are those of an attenuate and desiccative substance without pungency. * * * * * COMMENTARY. The commentators are divided between the _Paronychia Hispanica_, Cand., and the _Draba verna_, or Whitlow-grass. See Sprengel (Ad Dioscorid. iv, 54); Gray (Suppl. to Pharmacop. 105.) Dioscorides and Galen join in commending it for the cure of whitlow. Galen argues that it acts in this case by being possessed of discutient powers. We have not been able to detect it in the works of the Arabians. Neither Hippocrates nor Celsus has noticed it. Πεντάφυλλος, Quinquefolium, _Cinquefoil_, is desiccative in the third order, but by no means acrid. It is therefore greatly in use. * * * * *