604 Mr. Don on the Plant 



from Galbanum should yet have been retained so long in the 

 Pharmacopoeia may well be a subject of surprise, especially as 

 the Bubon Galbanum, being so frequent in botanical collections, 

 afforded abundant opportunities of settling the question. 



Since writing the above, I have been enabled, by the assist- 

 ance of friends, to add the following information on the subject 

 of the Ammoniacum plant. 



The first volume of the Dictionnaire Universel de Matiire 

 MSdicale, by Merat and De Lens, published at Paris in 1829, 

 contains some valuable notices on the Ammoniacum plant, from 

 which it appears that the plant was already known to Mr. Brown, 

 and had been determined by him to constitute a new genus. 

 We also learn from the same work, that M. Fontanier, a 

 geologist sent into the Levant by the French Government, 

 had visited the district where the plant grows spontaneously, 

 and transmitted a drawing together with specimens of the 

 herb and gum to the Museum of Natural History at Paris. 

 M. Fontanier was informed that the plant groAvs likewise in 

 Khorasan. 



In the Appendix to the first volume of the Transactions of 

 the Medical Society of Calcutta, p. 369, is an extract of a 

 letter addressed to Dr. Wallich by Lieut, -Colonel Kennett, ac- 

 companied by a rude figure of the plant which yields the gum 

 Ammoniacum, of which the following is a copy. 



'* I have the pleasure to forward you a drawing and descrip- 

 tion of the Oshac, a Persian plant that produces the gum Ammo- 

 niac. It was procured by Captain Hart (of the 5th batallion 

 Bombay native regiment) whilst on sick certificate in Persia; 

 and understanding it was a desideratum in botany, he has 

 requested me to send it to you in his name. It is to be re- 

 gretted that Captain Hart did not know enough of botany to 



give 



