Latin Texts & Translations

The bacchar, ^[Note] too, by some persons known as "field nard,"

is odoriferous in the root only. In former times, it was the practice to make unguents of this root, as we learn from the poet Aristophanes, a writer of the Ancient Comedy; from which circumstance some persons have erroneously given the name of "exotic" ^[Note] to the plant. The smell of it strongly resembles that of cinnamomum; and the plant grows in thin soils, which are free from all humidity.

The name of "combretum" ^[Note] is given to a plant that bears a very strong resemblance to it, the leaves of which taper to the fineness of threads; in height, however, it is taller than the bacchar. These are the only ^[Note] * * * * The error, however, ought to be corrected, on the part of those who have bestowed upon the bacchar the name of "field nard;" for that in reality is the surname given to another plant, known to the Greeks as "asaron," the description and features of which we have already ^[Note] mentioned, when speaking of the different va- rieties of nard. I find, too, that the name of "asaron" has been given to this plant, from the circumstance of its never ^[Note] being employed in the composition of chaplets.