456 On some Plants from the Kingdom of NepdhlA 



that valuable work of needless synonyms, owing to the want of 

 ordinary precaution as to what previous botanists had already 

 named. 



" Umbelliferous plant with root resembling Atliamanta Meum, 

 and when fresh, an uncommonly fragrant smell '^ (p. 98). Very 

 probably the well-known Chora, Angelica glauca of Mr. Edge- 

 worth, abundant at 9000 to 10,000 feet (and which I take to be 

 the aromatic Gertheon or Certheana of Assam, a compound of 

 Valeriana and Pastinaca, Griffith, Journals, 37, 57; and J. A. 

 Soc. Beng. 1837, 331,335). Two thousand feet higher flourishes 

 the Hushial, also very aromatic, which I believe to be Hymeno- 

 laena angelicoides, DC. Prod. iv. 245 ; as well as Hymenidium 

 Brunonis, Nesir or Lesir* of the mountaineers, a very fragrant 

 plant. 



Bhutkes: Bhutkesar, pp. 86, 98. ^'A thick woody root, on 

 the top of which were many stiff bristles, and from among these 

 the young leaves were shooting.^' These Dr. Hamilton thought 

 belonged to Thalictrum., and Dr. Boyle (Illustr. p. 69) refers 

 Bhutkes to Corydalis Govaniana ; but it is actually the root of 

 Oreocome filicifolia and elata of Mr. Edgeworth (Linn. Trans. 

 1845), especially the former. This is probably identical with 

 Selinum Candollii [Peucedanum Wallichianum, DC. Prod. iv. 

 181; Selinum /eww2/b/m7w. Wall.) and Pleurospermum cicutarium, 

 Royle, Illustr. Don^s three species of Athamanta, Prod. 184-5, 

 described in accordance with the signification of Bhutkes, seem 

 to belong to Oreocome, Both the above plants, and one or two 

 species of Cortia, growing at great elevations (14,000 to 15,000 

 feet), are well known all over the Himalaya by Dr. Hamilton's 

 names, which signify ' hair of the spectre,' against which they 

 are worn as charms. They are often called simply Kes, *hair,' 

 for the same reason as the Jatamansi. With the medicinal root 

 Bhutkes, Dr. Hamilton mentions another, called Jainti, which 

 he refers to an Orchid growing among moss on large stones, on 

 the higher mountains. Coelogyne prcecox is so described on his 

 authority in Don's Prodromus, p. 37. " Brim" (p. 100) is another 



* Dr. HofFmeister has pointed out the resemblance of this name and 

 plant to the Laserpitium (Lesir-pati) of the Romans, the Silphium of the 

 Greeks, which the historians of Alexander inform us that his army found 

 in Afghanistan. The Greeks of Cyrenaica represented the plant {Thapsia 

 Silphium of Viviani, Flor. Lib., or Thapsia garganica, Desfontaines) on 

 their coins still extant; and Pliny (N. H. xix. 15 ; xxii. 4.9) paints in high 

 colours the virtues of its gum-resin. Laser Cyrenaicum, as a medicine and 

 perfume. The celebrated drug, Asa dulcis of Gyrene, recalls the Assa- 

 fcetida of Persia, as well as a kind of incense from the Himalaya, called 

 As^ puri {i. e. ' the fulfiller of hope'), of which the Nepalese told me won- 

 derful virtues. 



.*i»iu§aoi/l moil ijd oi b^do^^w^ » h'ji. 



