COMMENTARY. It is the _Pinus Pinea_, L., _Stone Pine_. Our author would appear to have condensed and abridged the more lengthy account of this article given by Dioscorides. He says it is a species of the same genus as the _picea_, and that the bark of both being astringent, is a suitable application to excoriations, to superficial ulcers and burns, with litharge and the manna of frankincense; that it stops hepatic diseases when pulverized with copperas; in a fumigation promotes the expulsion of the fœtus and secundines, and in a draught binds the belly and proves diuretic. The leaves he recommends externally as a soothing application in cases of inflammation and toothache, and internally with hydromel in diseases of the liver. (M. M. i, 86.) Of the fruit of pines, and of the torch prepared from it (δᾴδιον), we have treated in their proper places. Galen’s notice of this article is to the same effect as our author’s. Frequent mention of the pine occurs in the works of Hippocrates and Celsus. The latter recommends its flowers in diseases of the liver. (iv, 8.) The Arabians treat of the pine, and the virtues of the different parts of it, at great length. See Avicenna (ii, 2, 280, 301, 555, 693); Serapion (De Simpl. 63); Rhases (Contin. l. ult. i, 341); Averrhoes (Collig. v, 42); Ebn Baithar (ii, 137.) They borrow freely from the Greeks, and further recommend the different parts of the pine very much in diseases of the kidneys and bladder, especially calculus and hæmaturia. Πιτύουσα, Pityusa; some say that this is a species of spurge, because it has a juice and purges like them. * * * * * COMMENTARY. There can be no doubt of its being the _Euphorbia Pityusa_. It is briefly noticed by all the other writers on the Mat. Med. as possessing the same virtues as the spurges in general. Πλάτανος, Platanus, _the Plane Tree_, is possessed of a humectating and refrigerant power. Hence the green leaves are of use in incipient inflammations. But the bark and spherical balls are more desiccative, so that when one has been boiled in vinegar it relieves toothache. They also cure burns by fire along with fat. The burnt bark is more desiccative and detergent, so as to cure leprosies and humid ulcers. * * * * *