Tas. 6196. 
FERULA (EURYANGIUM) Sumsvt. 
Native of Turkestan. 
Nat. Ord, Umper.irer®.—Tribe PEUCEDANES, | 
Genus Ferua, Linn, (Benth, et Hook. f., Gen. Plant, vol. i., p. 917). 
Frervuta (Evryanarum) Sumbul ; elata, glauca, glabriuscula, caule stricto solido, 
foliis radicalibus patulis rigidis pro planta parvis minute sparse puberulis 
ambitu triangulari-deltoideis 3-pinnatim sectis, petiolo robusto lamina 
breviore, vagina brevi, rachibus pinnarum basi incrassatis, pinnulis polli- 
caribus cuneato-obovatis margine inferiore decurrente apices versus crenato- 
lobulatis subpinnatifidisve pallide viridibus glaucisque, inflorescentie elon- 
gate angustz ramis sparsis gracilibus alternis erecto-patentibus, umbellis 
secus ramos alternis superioribusve oppositis crassiuscule pedunculatis, 
bracteis ad basin ramorum et umbellarum ovato-v.-oblongo-lanceolatis flavis 
membranaceis, umbellis 1-2 poll. diametro, exinvolu cratis, radiis 7-10, 
umbellulis ad 20. floris radiis brevissimis, floribus parvis confertis flavis, calyce 
obsoleto, petalis incurvis ovato-acuminatis, vittis 4 dorsalibus (in carpellis 
immaturis) in valleculis solitariis maximis, 2 commissuralibus parvis. 
EurYANGIuM Sumbul, Kauffmann in Nov. Mem. Soc. Hist. Nat. Mosc., v. xii. 
(1871), p. 253, t. 24, 25; Flickiger et Hanbury, Pharmacop., p. 278. 
Two roots of this fetid drug were received at Kew from 
the Director of the Imperial Garden at Moscow in 1872, of 
which one rotted, and the other, planted in the Herbaceous 
ground amongst stones, and sheltered in winter, threw up 
leaves in the first year, and in the second leaves and a 
flowering stem nine feet high, from which materials the 
accompanying plate was made in July last, after which the 
whole plant died. : 
Unfortunately, owing to the wetness of the season, the 
flowers, which were copiously impregnated by bees, yielded 
no ripe fruit, though the carpels continued to swell for several 
days amid cloud and rain. The plant isa native of Turkestan, 
where it inhabits mountains east of Samarkand, at an elevation 
of 3000-4000 feet. It was there discovered by the celebrated 
oe ae Fedschenko in 1869, who sent roots to Moscow in 
2 
According to Fliickiger and Hanbury’s admirable work 
quoted above, the Sumbul plant here described—which 1s 
remarkable for the fetid, musky, and milky juice of its root-— 
was introduced into Russia in 1835 as a substitute for musk 
and a remedy for cholera; thence it reached Germany in 
1840 and England in 1850, where it was admitted into the 
Pharmacopeeia in 1867. In commerce the root is imported in 
transverse slices one to five inches in diameter, with a dry 
Novemser Ist, 1875, 
