286 Dr. Falconer on the Asafoetida Plant of Central Asia. 



tough, white or ash-coloured in the section, readily separable from the central core, and 

 like the latter abounding in a white, milky, opake, excessively foetid, alliaceous juice. 

 Leaves collected into a fascicle above the root, numerous, large and spreading, about 

 18 inches in length in the adult plant, of a light-green colour above, paler underneath, 

 and of a dry leathery texture : the petioles terete, amplexicaul and channeled at the 

 base, trifurcated a little above it, the divisions emitted at an angle with each other like 

 the legs of a tripod and bipinnately sected : the leaf-segments linear-lingulate, more or 

 less obtuse, entire or sinuately lobed, variable in their offset, being either alternate or 

 opposite, for the most part unequal-sided, and decurrent along the divisions of the 

 petiole, forming a narrow winged channel upon the latter. Midrib prominent on 

 the under side; veins slender and anastomosing by numerous reticulations. The 

 leaves observed on a young growing plant were about 9 inches in length, the leaf- 

 segments being from 2 to 4 inches long by 4 to 6 hues in width. Stem erect, 

 terete, simple, striated, about 2 inches in diameter at the base, solid throughout, the 

 spongy medulla being traversed by scattered, tough, fibrous bundles of vessels ; in- 

 vested with alternate, vaginating, dilated aphyllous petioles, and terminating in a luxu- 

 riant head of compound umbels. General as well as partial involucra entirely want- 

 ing. Umbels 10- to 20-rayed, emitted from the dilated spherical head of a common 

 peduncle, the rays 2-4 inches in length. Partial umbels with very short rays aggre- 

 gated into round capitula varying from 10 to 20 rays in the fertile, and from 25 to 30 

 in the barren umbellulae. Flowers small ; barren generally mixed up with the fertile 

 flowers (?). Border of the calyx obsolete, being reduced to very minute denticular 

 points. (Petals in the barren flowers small, oblique, unequal-sided, acute, without an 

 elongated acumen (?).) Stylopodia urceolate and plicated, with a sinuous margin. Styles 

 filiform, reflected on the ripe fruit, rather short and slender, attached by a broad base. 

 Fruit: from 7 to 15 ripening on the partial umbels, supported on short stalks. Meri- 

 carps varying from broad elliptical to elliptical obovate, 5-6 lines long by 3 to 4 lines 

 broad, flat, thin, foliaceous, but somewhat convex in the middle, with a dilated border, 

 generally unequal-sided, of a dark reddish brown towards the centre, lighter towards 

 the margin, perfectly smooth, with somewhat of a glossy surface. Dorsal primary 

 ridges 5 ; the 3 middle ridges filiform, slightly crested towards their confluence at the 

 apex ; the lateral ridges more obsolete, situated close to the margin, immersed in the sub- 

 stance of the border, but distinctly seen on the surface of the commissure, and confluent 

 with the middle nerve of the latter. The dilated borders as wide as the space occupied 

 by the three middle ridges. Vittae in the dorsal furrows large and broad, occupying 

 the entire width of the valleculas, stretching from base to apex, usually solitary, but 

 sometimes double in one or other of the middle furrows, and generally double or dicho- 

 tomous with a small branch in the broadest side of the margin, turgid with a foetid 



