Asp (Hastings' Dictionary)

See Serpent. ASPALATHD8 (d<nr<iXo9oi, baUamum, Sir 24"). — The name of an aromatic associated with cinnamon in the passage cited, but impossible to identify. Pliny (Nat. Hist. xii. 52, and xxiv. 68, 69) speaks of a thorny plant known by this name, and which in the first passage he identifies with the Erysisceptrum, and in the second seems to distinguish from it.

The same plant is alluded to by other ancient authors, but with such indefinite- ness that we are unable to identify it with any known plant. It is probable that there were two or more plants, and more than one vegetable product, known by this name. G. E. Post.