Umbeliifere.]| THE HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS. 231 
The order of Umbellifere, so natural in structure, is likewise so in the possession in a 
considerable degree of similar properties. The seeds abound most in essential oil, and 
are hence frequently warm and carminative—as those of anise, carraway, dill, cumin, 
coriander; but the diffusion of a portion in the herbaceous parts renders agreeable, as 
culinary articles, fennel, parsley, celery, and others. A remarkable anomaly, how- 
ever, occurs on the herbaceous parts of many of this tribe being of a poisonous nature, 
so that we cannot place great reliance on their generally innocuous nature. 
Many have tuberous roots, which are eaten by the natives of different countries, as 
species of Bunium and Cherophyllum are in Europe; and, in the Himalayas, a species of 
the latter genus, called sham, C. tuberosum, nob. In Santa Fé and the Caraccas, 
Aracacha esculenta is highly valued as a substitute for potatoes, and might be introduced 
into India. In others, saccharine matter and mucilage abound without any excess of 
essential oil, so that they form a grateful food: as the carrot, parsnip, skirret, and 
Pastinaca Sekakul in Persia. If essential oil abounds as well as mucilage, and the 
former changes to resin, and the latter to gum, we have a series of gum-resins, which 
exude from incisions in the stem, or from the top of the root (Fée), as Assafetida, Gal- 
banum, Sagapenum, Ammoniacum, and Opoponax all of which are employed in Indian 
medicine, and have, with the exception of the first, Greek names assigned them. 
Having obtained in the bazars two species of seed, as those of the assafcetida plant, 
and seeing others in Dr. Lindley’s possession from Beloochistan, it is probable that 
more than one species of Ferudla yields this gum resin in the different parts of Persia, 
Caubul, and Bokhara. Ammoniacum, called ooshk and ooshak, is produced by Dorema 
Ammoniacum of Mr. D. Don (Lin. Trans. xvi. p. 599), in the province of Irak, where 
the plains are dry, gravelly, and exposed to an ardent sun. Galbanum, in Persian works, 
has barsud given as the Arabic, bireeja as the Hindoostanee, with khulyan and metonioon 
as the Greek names (evident corruptions of y«ABavy and jx:twrvor, owing to errors in the 
reading of the diacritical points); Ainneh and nafeel are stated to be the names of the 
plant, which is described as being jointed, thorny, and fragrant. Neither its locality 
nor nature are well known, but it is probable, as suggested by Mr. Don, that the 
plant named by him Galbanum officinale, from some seed found on the drug, may be a 
native of some remote and inaccessible parts of Syria; perhaps of some of the northern 
parts of Persia, or of Arabia. Sagapenum, sugbeenuj of the Arabs, and to which sugafiyoon 
is assigned as the Greek name in Persian authors, is probably a product of Arabia, as it 
is imported thence into India, and into England from Alexandria ; it is supposed to be 
produced by Ferula Persica, but the subject is well worthy of investigation by travellers. 
Opoponar, called juwasheer, and said to be produced by Pastinaca Opoponar, is also 
imported into India from Arabia, and into Europe from Asia Minor. Dr. Lindley has some 
seed, called hooshee, sent by Mrs. Macneil from the Hills of Beloochistan, which he informs 
me, appears to be Opoponar. Some of the above, as Sagapenum, requiring:a hot climate 
and arid soil, would succeed well in the north-western frontier of India, while others, 
as the Assafcetida, might find a congenial soil and climate in the mountains. ; 
NoreEs 
