qo —— — M 
which yields the Gum Ammoniacum. 603 
to both of which it is closely allied. The flowers being com- 
pletely sessile is also a remarkable character. 
With respect to the plant which yields the gum Galbanum I 
am enabled to say but little, not having seen any part of it 
except the fruit, some of which, almost perfect, I have been so 
fortunate as to pick from the gum. ‘These, however, are quite 
sufficient to determine the most important characters of the 
plant, which appears to constitute a new genus allied to Siler, 
but differing essentially from it in the absence of dorsal resi- 
niferous canals, and the commissure being furnished with only 
two. I propose for the plant the appellation of Galbanum offici- 
nale, and shall conclude these few imperfect observations by 
adding a description of the fruit. 
Fructus à dorso compressus, ellipticus, unguicularis: raphe 
angustà apertà, nec clausá. Achenia 7-juga: jugis ele- 
vatis, compressis, obtuse carinatis, nec alatis; lateralibus 
distinctis, marginalibus.  Vallecule latiuscule, concave, 
evittatee ! Commissura plana, dilatata, bivittata : vittis latis, 
subarcuatis. 
The plant, according to Dioscorides, is a native of Syria ; but 
it must be in some remote and inaccessible part of it, as it has 
not been observed by any of the numerous travellers who have 
visited that country. 
As the gum is partly imported from Smyrna, and partly from 
India, it is very probable that the plant is aie a native of 
Persia. 
The Bubon Galbanum of Linnzeus possesses eder the kel] 
nor the taste of Galbanum, but in these particulars agrees better 
with Fennel, and the fruit has no resemblance whatever to 
that found in the gum. How a plant differing so essentially 
from 
