242 ; ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BOTANY OF [ Valertanee. 
The annual plants of this order are without odour, and some are even eaten as sal- 
lads, but many of the perennial species secrete in their roots a volatile oil, which renders 
them useful as perfumes, or as stimulant medicines, as Valeriana officinalis, Phu, and 
dioica. V. celtica is exported from the mountains of Austria to Egypt, whence it is 
spread into both Africa and Asia, being valued for its fragrance and use in perfuming 
their baths. So also in India, the roots of Jatamansi, no doubt the Spikenard of the 
ancients, and produced by a plant of this order, are brought down in large quantities 
from the Himalayas to the plains, whence they are distributed over every part of India, 
being highly esteemed as a perfume, and for their uses in medicine. 
Notwithstanding the proofs adduced by Sir Wm. Jones, it has been said that the 
grounds are insufficient on which the Jatamansi of the Hindoos has been considered. to 
be the Spikenard of the ancients. Having followed the course pointed out by that 
eminent Orientalist, without taking exactly the same steps, it is not uninteresting 
to state, that I arrived at precisely the same results. 
_ Dioscorides (1. 1. c. 6.) describes three kinds of Nard; of the first and principal of 
which, there are two varieties, Syrian and Indian; the latter is also called Gangites, 
from the river Ganges, near which, flowing by a mountain, it is produced. The 
second kind is called ‘‘ Celtic,” and the third ‘Mountain Nard.” On consulting 
Avicenna, we are referred from .,ob Narden to jm Sunbul, pronounced. Sumbul, and 
in the Latin translation from Nardum to Spica, under which the Roman, the Mountain, 
the Indian and Syrian kinds are mentioned; and Senbel, misprinted Seubel, is given as 
the synonimous Arabic name. This proves, as stated by Sir Wm. Jones, that Sumbul, 
in Persian dictionaries, translated, ‘‘ the Hyacinth,—the Spikenard, to which the hair of a 
mistress is compared—an ear of corn, &c.,” was always considered by Arabian authors 
as synonimous with the Nardos of the Greeks. On consulting the Persian works on 
Materia Medica in use in India, and especially the Mukhzun-ool- Udwieh, we are referred 
from Narden, in the Index, to Sumbul, in the body of the work. 
Under this name, however, four separate articles are described—Ist, Sumbul-hindee ; 
2d, Sumbul-roomee, called also Sumbul-ukletee, and Narden-ukletee, evidently the 
yeepdop xsAtixy Of Dioscorides, said also to be called Sumbul-italioon, that is, the Nard 
which grows in Italy ; the 3d kind is Swmbul-jibullee, or Mountain Nard (vepdoe opsivn’) ; 
and, 4th, Sumbul farsee, which is a bulbous plant, and probably a kind of hyacinth. 
Polianthes tuberosa is described as being one of the kinds of Persian Sumbul. But the 
first alone is that with which we have at present any concern. The synonimes of it, 
given by Persian authors, are, Arabic, sunbul-ool-teeb, or fragrant nard ; Greek, narden; 
Latin, nardoom ; Hindee, balchur and jatamasee. The last is the Sanscrit name, and that 
which was given to Sir Wm. Jones, as the equivalent of swmbul-hindee, and which, he 
informs us, like other Sanscrit names applied to the same article, has reference to its 
resemblance to locks of hair. 
The Sumbul-hindee is described as a plant without flower or fruit, like the tail of an 
ermine, in length exceeding that of the finger, but rather less in thickness. Several 
are 
