Note (13) — BOOK III.

13. Laser.) This was the juice or gum of a plant like the ferula, by the Latins called laserpitium, by the Greeks silphium. That kind, which was most esteemed, came from Cyrene, where it seems it was worn out in Pliny’s time, for he tells us only one stalk was found in his memory, which was sent to Nero; he adds, that for a long time they had no other imported to them, but what came from Persia, Media, and Armenia, where it grew in abundance, but much inferior to the Cyrenean, and adulterated with gum, sagapenum, or bean-meal.—See Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. xix. cap. 3.—Some of the moderns take this for assa-fœtida; others, among whom is Dr Lister, think it a different thing, and absolutely unknown now. I have therefore chosen to retain the original word.—See the description of it Dioscorid. lib. iii. cap. 500.