Notes

Bel citronium

Bel citronium (text)

Balanus

Balanus (text)

Mirabolani

Moringa oleifera Lam.

Moringa oleifera Lam.
vernacular name: horseradish tree

myrobalans

XLVI. Myrobalanum Trogodytis et Thebaidi et Arabiae qua Iudaeam ab Aegypto disterminat commune est, nascens unguento, ut ipso nomine apparet, quo item indicatur et glandem esse; arbor est heliotropio, quam dicemus inter herbas, simili folio, fructus magnitudine abellanae nucis. ex his in Arabia nascens Syriaca appellatur, et est candida, contra in Thebaide nigra; praefertur illa bonitate olei quod exprimitur, sed copia Thebaica. inter haec Trogodytica vilissima est. sunt qui Aethiopicam his praeferant glande nigra ac pingui nucleoque gracili, sed liquore qui exprimitur odoratiore, nascentem in campestribus. Aegyptiam pinguiorem esse et cras siore cortice rubentem et, quamvis in palustribus nascatur, breviorem siecioremque, e diverso Arabicam viridem ac tenuiorem et, quoniam amet montuosa, spissiorem; longe autem optimam Petraeam ex quo diximus oppido, nigro cortice, nucleo candido. unguentarii autem tantum cortices premunt, medici et nucleos, tundentes adfusa paulatim calida aqua.

XLVI. The Cave-dweller country and the Thebaid and Arabia where it separates Judaea from Egypt all alike have the myrobalanum, [Μυροβάλανον, ‘perfume-nut,’ the behen-nut] which is grown for scent, as is shown by its name itself, which also indicates in addition that it is a nut; it is a tree with a leaf that resembles that of the heliotrope, which we shall describe among the herbaceous plants, and a fruit the size of a hazel-nut. The variety growing Arabia is called the Syrian nut, and is white in colour, whereas the Thebaid kind is black; the former is preferred for the excellent quality of the oil extracted from it, but the Thebaic for its large yield. The Cave-dweller kind is the worst among the varieties. Some persons prefer to these the Ethiopian behen, which has a black oily nut and a slender kernel, but the liquid squeezed out of it has a stronger scent; it grows in level districts. It is said that the Egyptian nut is even more oleaginous and has a thicker shell of a reddish colour, and that though it grows on marshy ground the plant is shorter and drier, whereas the Arabian variety, on the contrary, is green in colour and also smaller in size and more compact in shape because it likes mountain regions; but the Petraean kind, coming from the town mentioned above, is a long way the best—it has a black rind and a white kernel. Perfumiers, however, only extract the juice from the shells, but medical men also crush the kernels, gradually pouring warm water on them while pounding them.

myrobalanum

LII. Palma quae fert myrobalanum probatissima in Aegypto. ossa non habet reliquarum modo in balanis, alvum et menses sistit in vino austero et vulnera conglutinat.

The palm which bears the myrobalanum, found in Egypt, is very highly esteemed. It has no stone in its dates, as other date-palms have. Taken in a dry wine it checks diarrhoea and excessive menstruation, and unites wounds.

Note: In chapters LII and LIII Pliny seems to have completely misunderstood and confused his authorities. Dioscorides says that the date is Egyptian, and resembles the Arabian myrobalanum. According to him the spalhe is “the covering of the fruit of palma when these are at their prime (?):” περικάλυμμά ἐστι τοῦ καρποῦ τῶν φοινίκων ἀκμὴν ἀνθούντων. Pliny on the other hand speaks of “the palm which bears the myrobalanum,” giving it (or its fruit) the properties attributed by Dioscorides to the Egyptian date. He goes on to say that the spathe was a palm with medicinal properties in its sprigs, leaves and bark.
Among Pliny’s mistakes seems to be the confusion of ben nut (myrobalanum) with what is called by Dioscorides φοινικοβάλανος. Cf. Pliny XII. § 103. The conjecture of Hardouin (refert) clears away one discrepancy between Dioscorides and Pliny if we take palma in the first sentence of § 98 to mean “date,” but then the words in balanis become oddly otiose. No emendation, however, can make spathe in § 99 mean anything but a tree; it certainly cannot mean the περικάλυμμα τοῦ καρποῦ of Dioscorides.

mirobolans

Du grec μυροξαλανοζ, unguentaria glans; mot composé de μυρον, ungentum liquidum, et ξαλανοζ, glans. En effet, comme le dit Martial:

Hoc ex unguento constat et ex balano.

Myrobolans

Cf. ii. 14.

myrobalans

Mirobolanz (Platearius), myrobalan, mirobolan (Antid. Nicholas), Mirabolain (Hortus sanit., 1500). — «Myrobalanum Troglodytis et Thebaïdi et Arabiae… commune est, nascens unguento, quo item indicatur et glandem esse arboris, heliotropio… simili folio», Pline, XII, 46. Fée veut y reconnaître le Morgina oleifera, Lmk. (M. pterygosperma, Gærtn.) des Indes orientales. Il parait plus probable de rapporter le myrobolan des Anciens, avec de Candolle et Planchon, à Moringa aptera, Gærtn. Quant aux myrobalans de la pharmacopée moderne, inconnus aux Anciens, et introduits dans la thérapeutique par les Arabes, ce sont des drupes de diverses esp. du G. Terminalia (Combrétacée) de l’Inde, et des fruits de l’Emblica officinalis, Gærtn. (Euphorbiacée). (Paul Delaunay)

Les aultres de leurs formes

Encore une fois, tout cela se retrouve dans le petit livre de Charles Estienne, De latinis nominibus.

Les aultres de leurs formes

Toutes ces informations sont dans le livre d’Estienne. L’étymologie de «serpoullet» (du lat. serpere) est indiquée par Pline, XX, 22 («herper» : ramper?). Calepin signale celle de myrobolan, «quam Dioscorides Βάλανον μυρεψικήν appellat, hoc est glandem unguentariam»; de là la précision terminale de Rabelais. Voir aussi Manardi, dans ses annotations sur les Simples de Mésué, à l’article «De ben».

myrobalan

myrobalan. [adopted from French myrobolan or its source Latin myrobalanum, adopted from Greek murobalanoj(1) perhaps the ben-nut, (2) in modern Greek, emblic, formed on muro-n unguent, balsam + balanoj acorn, date, ben-nut. Known colloquially amongst dyers as m’rabs.]

The astringent plum-like fruit of species of Terminalia (N.O. Combretaceæ), e.g. T. Bellerica, T. Chebula, T. citrina: formerly used medicinally, but now chiefly in dyeing, tanning, and ink-making.

attributive, as myrobalan tree; myrobalan ben, date, the ben-nut; myrobalan plum