25. Μελίλωτον—Melilot, Honey-lotus. Exported from Egypt to Barugaza (49). Melilot is the Egyptian or Nymphæa Lotus, or Lily of the Nile, the stalk of which contained a sweet nutritive substance which was made into bread. So Vincent; but Melilot is a kind of clover, so called from the quantity of honey it contains. The nymphæa lotus, or what was called the Lily of the Nile, is not a true lotus, and contains no edible substance.
26. Μοκρότον. Exported from Moundou (9) and Mossulon (10). It is a sort of incense, mentioned only in the _Periplûs_.
27. Μότω—Motô—a sort of cassia exported from Tabai and Opônê (13).
28. Μύρον—Myrrh. (Sans. _bola_.) Exported from Egypt to Barugaza as a present for the king (49). It is a gum or resin issuing from a thorn found in Arabia Felix, Abyssinia, &c., _vide_ σμύρνη _inf._
29. Νάρδος (Sans. _nalada_, ‘kaskas,’ Heb. _nerd_) Nard, Spikenard.[11] Gangetic spikenard brought down the Ganges to Gangê, near its mouth (63), and forwarded thence to Mouziris and Nelkunda (56). Spikenard produced in the regions of the Upper Indus and in Indo-Skythia forwarded through Ozênê to Barugaza (48). Imported by the Egyptians from Barugaza and Barbarikon in Indo-Skythia (49, 39).
The _Nardos_ is a plant called (from its root being shaped like an ear of corn) νάρδου στάχυς, also ναρδόσταχυς, Latin _Spica nardi_, whence ‘spikenard.’ It belongs to the species _Valeriana_. “No Oriental aromatic,” says Vincent, “has caused greater disputes among the critics or writers on natural history, and it is only within these few years that we have arrived at the true knowledge of this curious odour by means of the inquiries of Sir W. Jones and Dr. Roxburgh. Pliny describes the nard with its _spica_, mentioning also that both the leaves and the _spica_ are of high value, and that the odour is the prime in all unguents; the price 100 denarii for a pound. But he afterwards visibly confounds it with the Malabathrum or Betel, as will appear from his usage of _Hadrosphærum_, _Mesosphærum_, and _Microsphærum_, terms peculiar to the Betel”—II. 743-4. See Sir W. Jones on the spikenard of the ancients in As. Res. vol. II. pp. 416 _et seq._, and Roxburgh’s additional remarks on the spikenard of the ancients, vol. IV. pp. 97 _et seq._, and botanical observations on the spikenard, pp. 433. See also Lassen, _Ind. Alt._ vol. I. pp. 288 _et seq._
