Note (13) — BOOK IV.

13. Lycium or puxacantha, box-thorn, a tree of the thorn-kind. The branches, with the leaves, are bruised and macerated for some days in water, then boiled, and after straining it, is boiled again to the consistence of honey. The best lycium is what will burn. It has an astringent quality. They adulterate it by mixing lees of oil, or the inspissated juice of wormwood or ox-gall in the boiling. Dioscorid. lib. i. cap. 133.