occurring during the night. In this way the plant has been com- 
pletely protected from the effects both of very high wind and of 
cold. It has progressed vigorously and rapidly. On the 13th 
April its height was seven feet eight inches. This height has been 
reached in about forty-five days. The last thirty inches of growth 
have been accomplished in eleven days, 7. e. from 2nd to the 13th 
of April. The first anther expanded at eleven a.m. on the 7th of 
April, and in the course of that day the anthers appeared by 
hundreds: the plant has flowered well, and promises to bear 
fruit. At present there are forty-five compound umbels on it, 
some of which are five or six inches across.” 
The plant here figured for the first time from perfect spe- 
cimens is one of the several now known to yield the well known 
fetid gum-resin asafcetida, though whether it be, as Falconer 
supposed, 4. Disgunensis, indicated by Keempfer and figured in 
his ‘Ameenitates Exoticee’ (p. 535), is still a disputed point. 
That it yields excellent asafoetida in the form of a copious milky 
juice, which is collected and exported to Europe in great abun- 
dance, is clearly made out by Dr. Falconer, who discovered it in 
western Tibet, north of Kashmire, in 1838, and sent seeds to 
the Royal Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh in 1839, where the 
plant flowered and ripened its fruit last year. 
It would be impossible to discuss here the vexed question of 
the history of the origin of all the Asafcetidas, nor would the dis- 
cussion be very profitable; it is certain that Keempfer had two 
plants (species or varieties) in view, from different countries,— 
that his descriptions and drawings and specimens (in the British 
Museum) do not tally,—and that though Dr. Falconer considers 
his plant one of Keempfer’s, other botanists do not. Just now 
too we have received at the Museum of the Royal Gardens su- 
perb specimens of a very different gigantic Umbellifer from the 
Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg, asa true Asafetida of com- 
merce ; it was collected by M. Borsczhow in sandy places on the 
steppes east of the Caspian, where it attains a height of nine feet ! 
and yields abundance of excellent asafcetida. Professor Bunge has 
called this plant Scorodosma fetidum (characterized generically 
by the absence of vittee), and M. Borsczhow, who recently visited 
this country, informs us he believes it to be the Khorassan plant 
figured by Keempfer, and of which fruits are in the British Mu- 
seum. The same gentleman kindly informs us further, that he 
considers the Tibetan plant to be quite distinct (in which we 
entirely concur), and that the Scorodosma is probably also found 
in eastern Persia. 
Referring to our herbarium, we find various plants (varieties, 
genera, or species), all yielding the asafcetida of commerce or 
an entirely similar gum-resin :—(1) Dr. Faleoner’s plant (leaves, 
