ASPALATHUS (dr:mai:0os), a word which occurs only in Ecclus. xxiv. 15, where it is enu merated with other spices and perfumes to which wisdom is compared. Though this drug is not mentioned in the canonical Scriptures, it is probable that it may have been one of the substances com prehended under the general name of spices. It was no doubt one of the substances employed by the ancients as a perfume and incense, as it is de scribed by Dioscorides (i. c. 19), as well as enu merated by Theophrastus (ix. c. 7), and by both among aromatic substances. It forms one of the ingredients of the cyphi, or compound incense made use of by the Egyptian priests, as related both by Plutarch and Dioscorides. The substance which was called aspalathus has not been very clearly ascertained, though several plants have been indi cated as yielding it. Zignnm Rhodium is some times considered to be one of the kinds of aspalathus described by Dioscorides, but this is a produce of the Canary Islands and of the plant called Convol vulus scoparius. From it the perfumers of Paris obtain l'Huile de boil de Rhodes. By others aspal athus, which has been supposed to be the same thing as Syrian aloe, or that of Rhodes and of Candia, is thought to have been yielded by species of the genus which has been called Aspalathus, and especially by the species A. creticus, which is now called Anthyllis Hermannise; but there does not seem to be sufficient proof of this. Others again have held that aspalathus was a kind of agallochum [Axikum], and Dr. Harris (sub. Lign. —aloe) seems to have thought that he got rid of a difficulty by suggesting that aloha, which we have shewn to be agallochum, should be rendered ASPA LATHA. Arab authors, as Avicenna and Serapion. give Dar-shi-shan as the Arabic synonyme of as palathus. They quote some of their own country men as authorities respecting it, in addition to Galen and Dioscorides. Hence it would appear to
have been a product of the East rather than of the West, as for such they usually give only the Greek name or its translation, and quote only Greek authorities. Avicenna, in addition to his descrip tion, says that some think it may be the root of Indian nard. Hence it may justly be inferred that Dar-shishan, which the Arabians thought to be aspalathus, must have come to them from India, or they would not have hazarded this supposition. 3n India the name Dar-shishan is applied to the bark of a tree which is called ketephni or kyphul, This tree is a native of the Himalayan mountains from Nepal to the Sutlej, and has been figured and de scribed by Dr. Wallich, in his Tentamen Flora Nepalensis, p. 59, t. 45, by the name ilfyrica sapida, in consequence of its fruit, which is some thing like that of the arbutus, being edible. The leaves, on being rubbed, have a pleasantly aro matic though faint smell. The bark forms an article of commerce from the hills to the plains, being esteemed in the latter as a valuable stimulant medicine. It may be seen mentioned by the name ka-i-phul in Gladwin's translation of the Persian Ugitz-i-Urizeriek, No. 884, as a synonyme of Dar sheeshan, which is described as an aromatic bark, while at No. 157 Dar-shashan is considered to be a synonyme of ishielayoos, which seems to be a corruption of aspalathus from the errors of transcribers in the diacritical points. Kaephul has, moreover, been long celebrated by Sanscrit authors, and it may therefore have easily formed one of the early articles of commerce from the East to the West, together with the Nard, the Costus, and the Lycium of these mountains.—J. F. R.