Valerianee.| THE HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS, 243 
are said to be clustered together on one root, of a bright blackish colour, and ofa very 
fragrant and strong odour. It is said to grow in the mountains of Caubul, India, and 
Bengal. — | 
The proofs and reasoning of Sir Wm. Jones appearing to me so satisfactory, and 
plants of what was said to be the Jatamansi, having been procured from the hills, 
which flowered at Gyah, and were figured and described As. Res. vol. ii. and iv., 
I considered the subject as perfectly settled. But one day accidentally asking 
Huree Sing, an intelligent and respectable native at the head of the establishment of the 
Saharunpore Botanic Garden, whether a plant (Valeriana villosa) in the Conservatory 
was not like the Jatamansi; he replied in the negative, and pointed to a Plantago, 
with lanceolate leaves, as that which most nearly resembled it. 
Understanding that the Jatamansi, better known in Northern India by the name 
bal-chur, was yearly brought down in considerable quantities from the mountains, I 
procured at the end of the rainy season several pounds of the fresh dug-up root from 
Nagul, a village five miles N.E. of Deyra, and one of the commercial entrepéts 
situated at the foot of the mountains. The roots obtained exactly resembled those sold 
in the Saharunpore bazar as Jatamansi; some of them were planted in the Botanic 
Garden, and others in the Hill Nursery at Mussooree. One of the former which vege- 
tated during the cold weather, is represented at Plate 54. f. 1. From the mountain 
specimen in flower, f.2. it is evident that though belonging to the same natural order, 
Valerianee, as the plant figured by Dr. Roxburgh (As. Res. vol. iv.), the true Jatamansi 
is more nearly allied to the Siberian genus Patrinia. It is remarkable that the &v of 
Dioscorides, Valeriana Dioscoridis of Sibthorp, + foo of the Arabians, is translated in 
the Persian bekh-i-sumbel, root of Suambul. 
~ Tt is evident that, either by accident or design, a wrong plant was sent from Bootan, 
and figured and described in the Asiatic Researches, at a time when it was not possible 
to detect the imposture, as it was long before we had free access to the hills. Previous 
to my inquiries, though I was unacquainted with the fact, the error had been detected, 
and the true plant sent home by Dr.Wallich. This was described by Mr. D. Don for 
his Prod. Flore Nepalensis, and figured by Mr. Lambert (App. to Iilustr. of the Genus 
Cinchona), where the additional corroborative fact is stated of Spikenard bought as such 
in a chemist’s shop in London (and of which a figure is given) corresponding exactly 
with the roots of the Nepal plant, and both with the roots represented in Plate 54, 
and all with the descriptions of the Arabians; also with the figure of Nardum in the 
edition of Dioscorides by Ruellius, and with that given by Clusius, 
The localities also agree with those assigned by Dioscorides and Ptolemy to the 
Indian Nard, as the latter, as quoted by Sir Wm. Jones, mentions Rangamritica, or 
Rangamati, and the borders of the country now called Bootan. The remoteness of 
these, indeed, has alone prevented the earlier ascertainment of the true plant. In 
the part of the Himalayas with which I am best acquainted, it is only found on such 
lofty mountains as Kedarkanta (v. p. 22), and Shalma, where it is for six months 
NS ee covered 
