a long list of complaints for which it was then considered an effectual medicine.

Virgil says, that bees which have strayed may be brought back by the juice of this herb.

"When you the swarms 'scaped from the hives des cry,
Like a dark cloud blown through the summer sky,
Swimming the boundless ocean of the air,
They still to pools and leafy bowers repair :
There juice of balm and woodbine sprinkle round,
Strike jingling brass and tinkling cymbals sound;
The loved perfume will sudden rest inspire,

And they, as usual, to their hives retire.

LAUDERDALE.

Gerard says, "Bawme is much sowen in gardens, and oftentimes it groweth of itself in woods and mountaines, and other wilde places." From this we should have been inclined to consider it a native plant; but that we have never met with it growing wild. Regnault, and after him Aiton, tell us, that it is a native of the South of Europe, and was first cultivated in this country about the year 1573. We have now eight species of balm, two of which are in digenous to England, viz. the common Calamint, Melissa calamintha, and the lesser Calamint, Nepeta.

The old English herbals, as well as those

of the ancients, are copious on the supposed virtues of this plant, but of which modern practice takes little notice. It is, however, much esteemed by the common people of this country, who take it in the manner of tea, and it is thought to be good in disorders of the head and stomach, as also in hypochondriac and hysteric complaints.

The infusion of this plant is better when made from the green herb, than when dried, which is contrary to the general rule in regard to other plants.

Without being misled by the high encomiums which our herbalists have bestowed on balm, we think it is not duly appreciated at present.

Hoffman contrived a process for obtaining the virtues of this plant, which affords its principles better than any other, and gives two medicines to the physician, unknown before, but of great value. He took a large quantity of the leaves of balm, fresh picked from the stalks, and filling a glass vessel more than half full with them, fixing the stopple carefully in, he put the vessel into a dunghill, where he let it remain three months. At the end of this time he took it out, and found the whole reduced to a kind of poultice. This

being distilled in a retort, yielded first an empyreumatic liquor, but afterwards, when the fire was increased, a black and stinking oil came over, in form of thin laminæ, spreading itself over the surface of the liquor. There remained at the bottom of the retort, a black and burnt mass, resembling a coal, which, being thrown on burning charcoal, had very much the smell of the common tobacco.

In this first distillation, no volatile salt appeared; but the empyreumatic liquor being examined, was found very sharp and acrid on the tongue, and of a sharp and pungent smell. Spirit of vitriol being mixed with it, it afforded no effervescence; but on the mixing it with spirit of hartshorn, spirit of urine, or the like, a small ebullition was always produced, though it lasted but a few moments.

This liquor, rectified by a second distillation, affords the volatile salt of balm, which is a fine white and pellucid substance, adhering to the neck of the glass in form of fine white and striated crystal; and a yellow æthereal oil, of a very penetrating smell, and sharp taste, becomes separated by the same rectification. These are both found to be very powerful medicines, the salt as a

sudorific, and the oil as a high cordial, a carminative, and a deobstruent.

In France, the women bruise the young shoots of balm, and make them into cakes with sugar, eggs, and rose-water, which they give to the mother in child-birth, as a strengthener. It has also been thought beneficial to those who are troubled with the palpitation of the heart.

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BARLEY.-HORDEUM.

Natural order, Gramina. A genus of the Triandria Digynia class.

THE generic name seems either horridum, from horres, on account of its long awns or beards; or, as it was anciently written fordeum, rather from peßw, to feed or nourish, whence popẞn and forbea, and changing the b into d, fordeum.* The name is, however, derived by Junius from the Hebrew 7.

Barley is evidently a native of a warmer climate than Britain, for in this moist atmosphere it is observed to degenerate, when either neglected or left to a poor soil. Dr. Plott speaks of barley and rye growing in the same ear alternately.

We have the best authority for its having been cultivated in Syria so long back as 3132 years; therefore that part of the world may be fairly fixed as its native soil.

* Vossius.