328 
Pastinaca nudicatile, Spreng. in Schultes, syst. 6. p. 587. Root 
fusiform. Plant having the odour of fennel, but more aromatic. 
This plant differs from the genera Férula, Pastinéca, and Smir- 
nium, in the flowers being white, not yellow, as in those genera. 
Nuttall’s Giant-fennel, Fl. July, Aug. Clt. 1817. Pl. 14 
to 2 feet? 
81 F.? Patme’txa (Hook. in fl. amer. bor, amer. 1. p. 268.) 
plant glabrous, nearly stemless; leaves bipinnatifid, on longish 
petioles, glaucous; leaflets linear, bluntish: lower ones often 
again pinnatifid ; peduncles rather shorter than the leayes ; in- 
volucrum none; involucel unilateral, dimidiate, palmate, with 
the disk floriferous. %. H. Native of North America, about 
Carlton House on the Saskatchawan. Root large, thick, rather 
fusiform. The involucels are very remarkable, truly palmate, 
gradually tapering into the broad petiole or ray, and bearing a 
small umbellule of white flowers on the disk. 
Palmella Giant-fennel. Pl. 4 foot. 
82 F., arrrnis (Bess. cat. hort. crem. 1816. p. 57.) Native 
near Odessa. This species is not described. 
Allied Giant-fennel. Pl, 2 to 3 feet. 
Cult. Any common garden soil answers the species of Fé- 
rula; and they are only to be increased by seeds. 
XCII. DOREMA (from dopnpa, dorema, a gift or benefit; 
not that the plant is considered pre-eminently deserving that 
title, but that the name is also agreeable to the ear). D. Don, 
in Lin. trans. vol. 16. p. 601. 
Lin. syst, Pentdndria, Digynia. Flowers sessile, immersed 
in wool. Margin of calyx 5-toothed. Petals ovate, with an in- 
flexed point. Disk epigynous, cup-shaped, fleshy : with a pli- 
cate, rather lobulate margin. Style complanate, recurved at the 
apex. Stigmas truncate. Fruit elliptic, much compressed from 
the back, girded by a complanate broadish margin; raphe very 
narrow, usually closed. Mericarps 5-ribbed ; the 3 intermediate 
ribs distinct, filiform, at equal distances: lateral 2 confluent 
with the margins; vittee prominent, one in each furrow, and 4 
in the commissure, which is flat. Carpophore bipartite, filiform, 
Seed flat.—A robust, greenish, glaucous, Persian herb, with a 
perennial root, and clothed with glandular down, almost with the 
habit of Opépanax Chirdnium. Leaves large, petiolate, some- 
what bipinnate, 2 feet long; pinne usually 3 pairs, each pair 
rather remote : lower leaflets distinct; superior ones confluent, 
deeply pinnatifid: segments oblong, mucronate, quite entire, or 
rarely a little lobed, coriaceous, veined beneath, 1-5 inches long, 
and half an inch to 2 inches broad. Petioles and rachis terete, 
ribbed, pubescent, very much dilated at the base, and sheathing 
a little, with the upper margin winged and stipulaceous, Umbels 
proliferous, racemose; umbellules globose, on short peduncles, 
usually disposed in a spicate manner. Peduncles terete, woolly. 
Involucra and involucels wanting. Petals white. Stamens and 
styles yellow. Ovarium densely woolly. Fruit naked. 
1 D. Ammonr‘acum (D. Don, 1. c.) 2%, H. Native of the 
south of Persia, in the vicinity of Jezud Khast, a town of Irak El 
Ajam, the ancient Parthia, about 42 miles south of Ispahan. 
To discriminate and characterize those plants which more imme- 
diately administer to the wants and comforts of man, is one of 
the chief objects of practical botany ; but it is a task replete with 
difficulties; the countries whence many of the substances are 
derived, particularly those belonging to the Materia Medica, 
being generally remote, and often inaccessible to travellers, 
Although the gum Ammoniacum has held a place in the Materia 
Medica from a very early period, yet the plant from which it is 
obtained has hitherto remained almost totally unknown; and the 
same may be said of the analogous gum Galbanum, and many 
other articles derived from the vegetable kingdom, enumerated 
in the Pharinacopeeia. It is true Dioscorides and Pliny mention 
UMBELLIFERA. XCII. Frruta, 
XCIII. Dorema. 
the plant which yields the gum Ammoniacum, the former under 
the appellation of Agasyllis, and the latter under that of Meto- 
pium, and give Libya as its native country; but if the gum was 
anciently imported thence, it must have been the produce of a 
different plant than ours ; and probably identical with the species 
of Férula, represented by Jackson in his account of Morocco, as 
the gum now comes to Europe by way of the Levant and India, 
Dioscorides, whose opinion is adopted by all subsequent writers, 
derives the name Ammoniacum from Ammon or Hammon, the 
Jupiter of the Lybians, whose temple was situated in the desert 
of Cyrene, near to which the plant was said to grow. But it 
appears that Dioscorides was altogether mistaken as to its native 
country; and that the name Ammoniacum or Armoniacum, as, 
it is indifferently written, is really a corruption of Armeniacum; 
for it is now ascertained beyond all doubt, that the plant is a 
native of Persia, and that the gum must have been anciently 
brought to Europe by way of Armenia; and we sometimes 
find the name of the apricot written Malum Armoniacum. 
Willdenow, having sown some seeds picked from the gum-Am- 
moniacum, a species of Herdcleum came up, which he called 
Herdcleum gummiferum, but this appears to be identical with 
Heracleum Pyrenaicum; but as the plant possesses no smell 
analogous to Ammoniacum, and affords no gummy substance 
whatever, it is probable it was only an accidental weed, 
The materials from which the description was drawn were 
procured by Lieut.-Colonel Wright, of the royal engineers, = 
the district where the gum Ammoniacum was collected, which is 
given above, and presented by him along with other dried piane 
to the Linnæan Society. Every part of the specimen Is coveré 
with drops of a gum possessing all the properties of Ammonia- 
cum; and this circumstance alone, independent of any other 
evidence, would seem sufficient to remove all doubt on the sub- 
ject; besides the specimen has been compared with the portions 
of inflorescence and fruit, which are found abundantly inter- 
mixed with the gum in the shops, and they are found to agree 
in every particular. The name applied to the plant by Dios- 
corides is already pre-occupied by another genus of Umbelli ere, 
and that of Pliny is scarcely unexceptionable, as originating 1n 4 
mistake, Metdpium having been used by some ancient authors 
to denote the Galbanum, and by others the gum-Arabic tree ; 
but most writers seem to agree in considering it the appelio 
of an ointment, or some oleaginous substance, rather than of a 
plant. The name Doréma has been given to avoid confusion. 
The first volume of the Dictionnaire Universel de. Mae 
Médicale, by Merat and De Lens, published at Paris in 1829, 
contains some valuable notices on the Ammoniacum plant, a 
which it appears that the plant was already known to ^r. 
Brown, and had been determined by him to constitute a new 
genus. We also learn from the same work that M. poe 
a geologist sent into the Levant by the French government, as 
visited the district where the plant grows spontaneously, a 
transmitted a drawing, together with specimens of the herb se 
gum, to the museum of natural history at Paris. M. Fontanie 
was informed that the plant grows likewise in Khorassan. j 
In the appendix to the first volume of the transactions of i 
Medical Society of Calcutta, p. 369. is an extract of a letter a 
dressed to Dr. Wallich by Lieut.-Colonel Kennett, accompante 
by a rude figure of the plant, which yields the guot- Ammon 
cum, of which the following is a copy: ‘I have the per 
forward you a drawing and description of Oshac, a Pere 
plant that produces the gum Ammoniac. It was prem a 
Capt. Hart, of the 5th battalion Bombay native regiment, W zh 
on sick certificate in Persia; and understanding it was a —_. 
ratum in botany, he has requested me to send it to you m p 
name. It is to be regretted that Capt. Hart did not mee 
enough of botany to give a particular description of the plant 
