AGNUS Castus, in botany, the trivial name of a species of the vitex. The Greeks call it αγνός. chaste; to which has since been added the reduplicative castus, &c. d. chaste chaste. It was famous among the ancients
as a specific for the preservation of chastity. The Athenian ladies, who made profession of chastity, lay upon leaves of agnus castus during the feasts of Ceres.—Being reputed a cooler, and particularly of the genital parts, it was anciently used in physic to allay those inordinate motions arising from seminal turgescences: but it is out of the present practice.