THE 



QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



' April, 1825. 



Art. I — Sofne Account of the Prangos Hay Plant of 

 Northern India ; joi^eparecl by 'permission of the Honour^ 

 able Court of Directors of the East India Company. By 

 Mr. John Lindley, F.L.S., 8^c. 8^c,, Assistant Secretary at 

 the Garden of the Horticultural Society of London. 



[Communicated by the Author.] 



In the north of India, in the neighbourhood of Imbal or Draz, 

 grows a plant called Prangos ; much employed as fodder for 

 cattle, and of properties represented by the natives to be so mar- 

 vellous, as to have excited doubts among the Europeans, whom 

 reports of it had reached, as to its being more than an Oriental 

 exaggeration. Owing to the little intercourse which takes place 

 with the unfrequented districts where it was stated to grow, no 

 opportunity occurred of gaining accurate information respecting 

 it till the year 1S22, when William Moorcroft, Esq., the super- 

 intendent of the Honourable East India Company's stud, on de- 

 putation to Upper Asia, having occasion to enter into communi- 

 cation with the Chinese authorities of Ela, undertook a journey 

 to Draz, for the purjDose of examining into the truth of the pro- 

 perties ascribed to the plant by the natives. 



The information, thus acquired, appeared to this gentleman of 

 such importance as to be worthy of an especial communication to 

 the government at Fort William. Two chests of the seed, and 



Vol. XIX. B 



