20. Λύκιον—Lycium. Exported from Barbarikon in Indo-Skythia ([39]), and from Barugaza ([49]). Lycium is a thorny plant, so called from being found in Lykia principally. Its juice was used for dying yellow, and a liquor drawn from it was used as a medicine (Celsus v. 26, 30, and vi. 7). It was held in great esteem by the ancients. Pliny (xxiv. 77) says that a superior kind of Lycium produced in India was made from a thorn called also Pyxacanthus (box-thorn) Chironia. It is known in India as Ruzot, an extract of the Berberis lycium and B. aristata, both grown on the Himâlayas. Conf. the λύκιον ἰνδικὸν of Dioskor. i. 133. (? Gamboge.)

21. Μάγλα—Magla—a kind of cassia mentioned only in the Periplûs. Exported from Tabai ([12]).

22. Μάκειρ—Macer. Exported from Malaô and Moundou (8, 9). According to Pliny, Dioskoridês, and others, it is an Indian bark—perhaps a kind of cassia. The bark is red and the root large. The bark was used as a medicine in dysenteries. Pliny xii. 8; Salmasius, 1302. (? The Karachâlâ of the bâzârs, Kutajatvak).

23. Μάλαβαθρον (Sans. tamâlapattra, the leaf of the Laurus Cassia), Malabathrum, Betel. Obtained by the Thînai from the Sesatai and exported to India[10] ([65]); conveyed down the Ganges to Gangê near its mouth ([63]); conveyed from the interior of India to Mouziris and Nelkunda for export ([56]). That Malabathrum was not only a masticatory, but also an unguent or perfume, may be inferred from Horace (Odes, II. vii. 89):—

... “coronatus nitentes

Malabathro Syrio capillos”,

and from Pliny (xii. 59): “Dat et Malabathrum Syria, arborum folio convoluto, arido colore, ex quo exprimitur oleum ad unguenta: fertiliore ejusdem Egypto: laudatius tamen ex India venit.” From Ptolemy (VII. ii. 16) we learn that the best Malabathrum was produced in Kirrhadia—that is, Rangpur. Dioskoridês speaks of it as a masticatory, and was aware of the confusion caused by mistaking the nard for the betel.

21. Μέλι τὸ καλάμινον, τὸ λεγομενον σάκχαρ (Sans. śarkarâ, Prâkṛit sâkara, Arab. sukkar, Latin saccharum)—Honey from canes, called Sugar. Exported from Barugaza to the marts of Barbaria ([14]). The first Western writer who mentions this article was Theophrastos, who continued the labours of Aristotle in natural history. He called it a sort of honey extracted from reeds. Strabo states, on the authority of Nearkhos, that reeds in India yield honey without bees. Ælian (Hist. Anim.) speaks of a kind of honey pressed from reeds which grow among the Prasii. Seneca (Epist. 84) speaks of sugar as a kind of honey found in India on the leaves of reeds, which had either been dropped on them from the sky as dew, or had exuded from the reeds themselves. This was a prevalent error in ancient times, e.g. Dioskoridês says that sugar is a sort of concreted honey found upon canes in India and Arabia Felix, and Pliny that it is collected from canes like a gum. He describes it as white and brittle between the teeth, of the size of a hazel-nut at most, and used in medicine only. So also Lucan, alluding to the Indians near the Ganges, says that they quaff sweet juices from tender reeds. Sugar, however, as is well known, must be extracted by art from the plant. It has been conjectured that the sugar described by Pliny and Dioskoridês was sugar candy obtained from China.

25. Μελίλωτον—Melilot, Honey-lotus. Exported from Egypt to Barugaza ([49]). Melilot is the Egyptian or Nymphæa Lotus, or Lily of the Nile, the stalk of which contained a sweet nutritive substance which was made into bread. So Vincent; but Melilot is a kind of clover, so called from the quantity of honey it contains. The nymphæa lotus, or what was called the Lily of the Nile, is not a true lotus, and contains no edible substance.

26. Μοκρότον. Exported from Moundou ([9]) and Mossulon ([10]). It is a sort of incense, mentioned only in the Periplûs.