against the Jatamansi on the ground that the perfume produced 
by ifs roots, would not prove, perhaps, so grateful to onr mo- 
dern ladies, yet to the ladies of ancient Rome it might } ha ye 
been highly grateful, as it is to those of Nepal at the pre- 
sent day. The late Sir William Jones, in two learned disserta- 
tions published in the second and fourth volumes of the Trans- 
actions of the Asiatie Society, of which he was the able pre- 
sident, has, indeed, so fully demonstrated, by so many proofs, 
that the Valeriana Jatamansi is identical with the Spikenard of 
the ancients, and this opinion is supported by so many con- 
curring circumstances, that there can, I think, be no doubt now 
left on the subject. ‘ 
The Valeriana H avddwickii, with which Sif William Jones 
confounded it, has short fleshy roots sending out numerous cy- 
lindrical fibres. The radical leaves are cordate on long Sted ; 
those of the stem pinnate or ternate. The flowers pa ™ 
-drous. Filaments and throat of the corolla quite smooth. ‘The 
stigma 3-lobed. In other respects it differs widely. The roots 
pore a — scent like those of the common Valerian, and, as 
informed by Dr. Wallich, in Roxburgh’s Flora Indica, 
sed d by the natives of ee for medical Perens. a I ye 
former soldi the. Ligh “ , : . 
ch, I was fortunate to meet ies in . the ‘op of the 
seen rpg actly “the two ae coincide, ide shall.n now 1 concludé 
