COMMENTARY. It is the _Quercus Ilex_, or _Evergreen Oak_. All the authorities speak of it as being a powerful astringent. The _Kermes_, or Scarlet Grain is produced upon the ilex by a certain class of insects. It is described by Theophrastus and Pliny, as stated under that head. Πρόπολις, Propolis, _Virgin-wax_, or _Bee-glue_, is calefacient in the second degree and moderately detergent. It is also possessed of attenuant and deobstruent powers. * * * * * COMMENTARY. Scribonius Largus calls it, “Propolis quam quidam sacram ceram vocant.” Dioscorides and Galen give nearly the same account of _Bee-glue_ as our author. It is the glutinous substance with which the working bees block up the holes in their hive. They gather it from poplars and other resinous plants. It occurs frequently in the works of the ancient writers on Pharmacy. Πταρμικὴ, Ptarmica, _Sneezewort_; the leaves are sternutatory; but the whole part, when green, removes hypopion and other kinds of ecchymosis, for it is hot and desiccative. The green belong to the second order, and the dried to the third. * * * * * COMMENTARY. Dioscorides’s description of it agrees well with the _Achillea Ptarmica_, except that (as is remarked by Sprengel) its favorite locality is meadows, and not mountainous and rocky situations as indicated by Dioscorides. All the Greek authorities, from Dioscorides downwards, give it exactly the same characters as our author. We have not been able to discover any traces of it in the works of the Arabians. Its leaves are still kept in the shops of apothecaries, and are held to be sternutatory. Gray (Suppl. to Pharm. 80.) Πτελάια, Ulmus, _the Elm_, is possessed of desiccative and detergent powers, so as to agglutinate wounds; but the bark of it still more, if, when in a fresh state, it be wrapped like a bandage about the wounds. It also cures leprosy with vinegar, and the roots of it are possessed of the same powers, so that fractures which will not unite are to be bathed with the decoction of it. * * * * * COMMENTARY. Most probably the _Ulmus campestris_. Our author’s statement of its medicinal virtues is closely copied from Dioscorides (i, 112.) Galen and most of the authorities represent it to be an agglutinative medicine. Pliny, like the others, recommends it as an application to leprosy. No mention of it occurs in the works of Celsus. The Arabians treat of it fully, but in the main follow Dioscorides. See Avicenna (ii, 2, 71, 96, 212); Rhases (Cont. l. ult. i, 250.) They recommend it in all cases requiring astringents and abstergents. Πτερὶς, Filix, _Fern_, is desiccative in its powers, and bitter. Hence it destroys the fœtus, and kills the broad intestinal worm when taken to the amount of four drachms in honeyed water. Because it is moderately astringent, it dries up ulcers without pungency. * * * * *