of which is soft, succulent, and very thick; which in proportion as it increases, becomes thin, membranous, dry, and brittle: in becoming thus capacious and thin, it gives room to a large number of pyramidal seeds, very close to each other, and fastened all by their points to a common centre, a kind of placenta. When this capsule is in its perfection, its outside is shining, and not unlike the seed of coriander in colour. The pericarpium is as it were divided into 4 loculi, by membranes so delicate, that they must be regarded with great attention, to be satisfied of their reality. The exterior form of this fruit sufficiently shows this division, by its roundness being interrupted by 4 slight ribs, like those of a melon, which shows as many cells. The membranes, which divide these cells, arise from the placenta, and are inserted into the sides of the capsule.

The seeds, which fill all the capsule, amount to about 4 or 5 dozen, according as they are more or less nourished; for the larger ones receiving more nourishment, make the smaller ones abortive. They are always so pressed in their apartments, that their pyramidal figure is owing only to this pressure, which arises from their reciprocal increase. The pyramidal points of these seeds are crooked in some, and bent in others, according to the direction given them in their growing. Their colour is red or brown, and always somewhat shining.

-

Remarks. We find in the ancient writers of plants, such as Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and Pliny, who have all in their manner treated of vegetables, of how much esteem the cyprus was among the ancients. The historian Josephus, and St. Jerome, have mentioned it as a rare and precious plant, placing it in the same rank with the most valued spices. The fine smell, which its flowers send forth in the countries where they grow naturally, as in Egypt, Syria, Arabia, Persia, &c. has occasioned its use in the earliest time; and the same use still continues in those countries. Its being twice mentioned in Solomon's Song,* is a very great proof of its being much valued in the most ancient time. We there see it was accustomed to be cultivated even in their vineyards. The perfumers in old times made of it an oil or precious ointment, for various uses; but principally to give their anointings a grateful odour, and to make supple the limbs of the body.

Modern authors have taken great trouble to be thoroughly satisfied of the history of this plant. There have been great controversies among them concerning it, in endeavouring to settle its description; but it must be confessed they have made a very small progress in explaining its true characters. How many mistakes have the botanists of the last 2 centuries made, owing to the bad descriptions of this plant which the ancients have left us.

Solomon's Song, chap. i. v. 14, ch. iv. v. 13. In both these places the English translation of the Bible has it camphor, instead of cyprus.-Orig. 4 F

VOL. IX.

Dioscorides, who, by describing the plants he treats of too briefly, always leaves their characters imperfect, says (perhaps after some other author more ancient than himself) that the leaves of the plant in question are like those of the olive-tree; that its flowers are in bunches, and that its fruit is black, like that of elder. This was enough to make the Latins conjecture, that the xúpos of this author was the ligustrum or privet; and the more so as the cyprus was quite unknown to them, since it only grew in Egypt and in Syria, where it was always called henna, or alhenna, and by corruption alkanna.

There is some appearance that, as the Greeks received a good quantity of this drug from the Isle of Cyprus, as a species of merchandise, they would chuse to call it Cyprus, rather than give it any other denomination, on account of the quantity furnished to them from the isle of that name.

Pliny took it first for a kind of privet or ligustrum, which grew particularly in Egypt, and afterwards he thought it to be the common ligustrum of Europe: this shows how uncertain he was as to the plant in question. He judged ill in comparing the fruit of the cyprus with that of the jujube-trec; but was more happy in likening the fruit (capsule) to that of the coriander, as they agree in colour, though that of the cyprus was larger. Matthiolus, who thought himself greatly above his contemporaries in the theory of plants, asserts boldly, that this plant was the common privet: and in this he thinks himself justified, not only from the description of Dioscorides, but from the virtues attributed to the cyprus by Pliny. He even ridicules those who think that the ligustrum and cyprus are different plants. Fuchsius, who wrote before Matthiolus, had nevertheless reason to believe them of a different genus, by the account given of the Egyptian plant by Pliny; but he was wrong in confounding it with the phillyrea of Dioscorides, and in this mistake he has been followed by Dodonans.

Bellonius, who had seen this plant in its place of growth, well knew that it was not the ligustrum or privet: he saw also how the commentators of the Arabian authors were deceived in taking it for such.

Rauwolf and Prosper Alpinus, who met with it in their travels, after having observed it in the places of its growth, believed, as Pliny had done, that it was a kind of ligustrum, which approached very near to that of Europe. They have each of them given a different figure; which made Caspar Bauhin believe that there must be 2 new species of ligustrum; but herein he was not followed by the ingenious Mr. Ray. In fact, we ought to acknowledge, by the characters here set down, that our cyprus is of a genus truly different, and the only one of its kind.

The Hortus Malabaricus has given a figure of this plant under the name of mail-anschi, which represents the end of a large branch ill chosen, and some

what withered, without doubt by the fault of the designer, who has drawn it in its natural size; which is greater in Malabar than elsewhere, because of the rains which fall there in abundance half the year. This shrub is less in all its parts in Arabia, and to the south of Persia, because in those countries it rains seldom ; but in recompence, its flowers have much more smell than in Malabar. It must be remarked here on this occasion, that the description just now given, and which contains the size of the parts, was made in a garden in the Persian gulf belonging to the Dutch factory, and situate about a league from the town of Gameroon, otherwise called Bender-Abassi, where there was one of these trees: carefully preserved, which was the first he saw in the Indies; as it was complete in all its parts, having flowers and fruit; and as it appeared agreeable and curious, especially on account of the fine smell of the flowers, and as it was a new genus to be established in botany, he examined it with great exactness, and noted its characters, figures, and dimensions. He did not conceive it to be the cyprus; not then knowing what it was. He asked the people of the country the name of this beautiful shrub: they only called it henna, and he could learn noother name: they assured him it had no other name, either in Persia, or in Arabia. It was on the 1st of December, 1721, that he observed it, and described it under the name of frutex Persicus, foliis ligustri, flore et fructu racemoso, henna vulgo dictus. He thus characterized it, in expectation of finding it, if it had already been described among authors, after his return to Europe. When he returned in 1730, he had the satisfaction to find it in Mr. Ray's history, by the description which he has given of it, extracted from various authors, in the chapter of ligustrum, under the synonyma of Parkinson, and to see it in. the other authors above mentioned, especially the figure given by Rauwolf, which is not a bad one, and which is copied by Clusius, Dodonæus, Parkinson, and Dalechamp.

The figure in the Hortus Malabaricus under the name of mail-anschi, does not so happily represent our cyprus, as that excellent work generally does the plants it treats of. The leaves of this plant there are half withered, and not in their natural disposition. Rauwolf's figure is much nearer the truth. The flowers are not much better represented than the leaves, in the Hortus Malabaricus; as, besides other things of less moment, the authors of that work have. neglected to make the petals appear between the lobes of the calyx, as always. happens in a natural state; by which disposition the flower appears of an octagonal figure. Rumphius, who has written a History of the Plants of Molucca, has given a description of this shrub, not different from mine..

By what is here laid down of the characters of this plant, we plainly see that it differs widely from the oxyacantha and rhamnus; of one of which the authors of the notes to the Hortus Malabaricus suspected the cyprus to be a species.

This occasioned Mr. Ray to range it under the last, supposing its fruit to be a berry, which it is not. This learned author could not think that the mail-anschi was the cyprus, because of the difference in the descriptions among authors, and of the imperfection of those of Rauwolf and Alpinus. Rumphius, just now quoted, has ill compared the colour of the leaves of cyprus to those of the olive-tree.

This shrub, so cherished among the Eastern nations, is cultivated in Africa, Asia, and all the Indies; that is, from near the equinoctial even to 35° of north latitude; where it is much used, as we shall find by the great commerce with it in the Levant, according to the relations of travellers of credit.

This plant does not love shade, even under the torrid zone, because of the violent rains there at the time of the western monsoon, no more than it does in cold countries, our author means those of the 5th climate; but towards the tropic, and even in Arabia, it grows best when a little sheltered from the sun. In hot and dry countries, as in the Persian gulf, where he first saw it, it produced a great number of boughs and branches very short, which gave it the appearance of white thorn. On the contrary, towards the equator, its branches are farther from each other, and longer, occasioned by the moisture from the rain. The back splits into scales, and detaches itself in pieces from the trunk, in those countries where it rains seldom; but in Malabar, in the isles of Ceylon and Sunda, the back continues entire and united almost all the year, because of the moisture of those places.

Rauwolf remarks, that the Turks and Moors cultivate this plant with care, and even keep it in pots, on account of the smell of the flowers, which somewhat resemble musk. They keep these pots in winter in chambers or caves, to preserve the plants from cold.

The Uses of Cyprus.-Bellonius, who was the first of the moderns who treated of this shrub under the name of alcanna, and spoke of its culture in Egypt, tells us, that the powder of its leaves is so great an article of commerce among the Turks, that they load several vessels from Alexandria for Constantinople, where the sale of it is so great, that the Grand Seignior's revenue from it amounts yearly to 18,000 ducats. According to him, the great consumption of this powder arises from its being used in beautifying the skin and nails, in making them red by a decoction made with it. The women, he says, generally use it all over Turkey, to dye the skin of those parts which are from the navel downwards, as well as their hands and their hair. Their children are served in the same manner. They consider this as a great ornament; and that the colour may hold longer, and penetrate deeper, they apply it usually when they go out of the baths. This practice of dyeing, to beautify the body, is extended even to their horses, of which they tinge the mane, the tail, and the hoofs. They often add alum to heighten the colour. This powder is sent from Constantinople to Russia. Let us now consider the other properties of cyprus.

It is not necessary here to take notice of what Dioscorides and Pliny attribute to this plant; they may be consulted, if, at the same time, they are regarded as being very little skilled in its true qualities. Our author contents himself with saying, that the Persians and Arabians, who appear to have been anciently the first that used this plant, frequently use at present not only its flowers to perfume their linen, their cloths, and their tables, but make a greater use of its leaves in a decoction, for the cure of all distempers of the skin, as the itch, scabs, and ring-worm, which the air of their country causes from its heat, and from the drought which often reigns there to a great degree. These disorders, if neglected to be cured as soon as possible in dry climates, easily degenerate into the leprosy : and it is on account of these disorders of the skin, that the eating of pork is forbidden to people of every religion in these countries; because that food there is known to occasion these distempers.

All the nations of the East Indies make use of it in medicine, for the same, as well as for several other disorders; but they particularly use the leaves to dye their nails; which our author thinks they had originally from the Arabians. In dyeing their nails, the Indians make use of the fresh leaves, which always grow in great plenty in their gardens, and apply them beaten on their nails, mixing with them sometimes a little lime and juice of citron. This colour lasts a great while on the skin, on account of sweating. A strong decoction of the leaves in water is sometimes used to tinge their nails, but more generally their skin and hair.

There is reason to believe, that this pretended beautifying of the skin, the hair and nails, which long custom has established among the Eastern nations, owes its origin to a quite different principle than that of beautifying. The ancients had no other view in the beginning, than the prevention of pruriginous and leprous disorders in the skin, to which their climate subjected them, as well as to preserve them from vermin, as the leaves of cyprus have that property. But as in using baths with these leaves in them, they dyed their skin either réd or yellow, according to the preparation, they accustomed themselves to this colour by degrees, and afterwards regarded it as a salutary embellishment.

These baths, which are here constantly employed for the cleanliness and health of the skin, and which the necessity of using has established as a point of religion, and a duty, for the better prevention of these maladies, is certainly a true method to preserve both the body and the skin in a good state. These good effects are extended further by using the alcanna; because its colour, passing in the opinion of these people for a necessary ornament, and a mark of cleanliness, makes the practice of bathing better observed.