Tas. 6564. 
NARDOSTACHYS Jaramanst. 
Native of the Himalaya. 
Nat. Ord. VaLERIANER. 
Genus Narpostacays, DC.; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. ii. p. 153.) 
Narpostacuys Jatamansi ; subscapigera, glabra v. superne pubescens, foliis ra:li- 
calibus elongatis elliptico- v. spathulato-lanceolatis acutis in petiolum brevem v. 
elongatum angustutis, scapis gracilibus sim plicibus medio bifoliatis, eymis densi-_ 
floris ad apicvem scapi in paniculam 3-chotome ramosam dispositis, bracteis liberis, 
floribus pallide reseo-purpureis sessilibus, calycis pubescentis lobis ovatis basi 
connatis ciliatis, corollae oblique tubo cylindraceo basi extus gibbo intus sericeo, 
lobis brevibus rotundatis, filamentis gracilibus ciliatis, antheris inclusis, fructu 
compresso 1-spermo calycis lobis auctis membranaceis reticulatis coronato. 
N. Jatamansi, DC. Mem. Valer. p. 7, t. 1; Prodr. vol. iv. p. 624; Royle Ii. Pl. 
Himal, pp, 242, 244, t. 54; Fir. Nees Ic. Plant. Med. fase. iii. t.4; Clarke 
in Fl. Brit. Ind. vol. iii. p. 211. - 
N. grandiflora, DC. Mem. Valer. p. 8,t..2; Prodr, vol. iv. p. 624; Wall. Pl. As. 
_ Rar. vol. iii. p. 40. 
Parrtnia Jatamansi, Don Prodr, Fl. Nep. p. 159. 
VaLertana Jatamansi, Wall. Cat. 431, not of Jones in As. Res.; Don in Lamb. 
Lil. Cinch. p. 180, cum ie. 
Narovvs indica, Bauh. Hist. vol. iii. 2, p. 202. 
Fepra grandiflora, Wall. Cat. n. 1187. 
The interesting plant here figured is unquestionably one 
of the Spikenards of the ancients, the history and identifi- 
cation of which have been much complicated by the long 
prevalent opinion that the word Spikenard referred to but 
one vegetable substance, and by the fact that Sir William 
Jones in his learned essay on the present plant was misled 
into referring its root to the foliage, &c., of a very different 
plant, which proved to be a species of Valeriana. _ 
Royle, who has summed up the history of the Spikenard 
of India with his usual care and learning, observes that 
Dioscorides described four kinds of Nard, the Syrian, the 
Indian (also called Gangites, from the river near which is 
the mountain which produces it), the Celtic, and the 
mountain Nard; and that a reference to the old Arabic 
and Persian works on the subject shows that the Spikenard 
or Narden is synonymous with Sumbul, of which four 
kinds are described, and that of these four the Sumbul- 
hindee is the Himalayan Nardostachys, being the Sunbul- 
ool-teeb, or fragrant Nard of the Arabs, the Narden of the 
JUNE lst, 1881. 
