374 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BOTANY OF ( Amaryllidew. 
and extends along the Malayan Peninsula to Silhet, and all along the Himalayas, as 
well as in Ceylon and the Peninsula of India; but Dr.Wallich not having enumerated 
either Crinum or Pancratium in his Catalogue, I find it difficult from want of time 
to examine the specimens in the E. I. Herbarium, to trace either his own, or Dr. Rox- 
burgh’s species to northern parts. But C. latifolium, sookh-dursun, a native of Bengal, 
is common in the gardens of N. India. I obtained another species, apparently C. tovi- 
carium, from the Muhunt’s (the head priest of the Sieks) garden at Deyra; and a third, 
which appears to me new, from Munsar, in the interior of the Himalayas, which I 
have called C. Himalense. 
The Amaryllidee are conspicuous for their highly ornamental nature. Many of them 
also possess considerable energy of action, though few are much employed as medi- 
cinal agents. Brunsvigia toricaria is said to be used by the Hottentots for poisoning 
their arrows, and Hamanthus coccineus as a substitute for squills at the Cape of Good 
Hope. Crinum asiaticum is employed medicinally by the natives of India; and the 
bruised leaves, made into a cataplasm with castor-oil, are applied to whitlows, and 
their juice dropped into the ears in cases of ear-ache. Dr. Horsfield states that the 
bulbs are accounted emetic in Java. This species is considered identical with C. tovi- 
carium of Dr. Roxburgh, which is said to be employed for curing the effects of the 
poisoned arrows of the Macassars. The bulbs of the plants of other genera have been 
employed as emetics, as those of Galanthus nivalis, Leucoium éstivum, and Pancratium 
maritimum ; but still more frequently those of species of Narcissus, which M. Deslong- 
champs has recommended as substitutes for ipecacuanha. The bulbs of Narcissus 
Jonquilla are thought by some to be the BorGes euerimag of Dioscorides, and those of 
N. poeticus by others. This species is usually stated to be his veouircos; but so is 
N. pseudo- Narcissus by. some authors. N. Tazetta is given as such in India; nurjus 
and nurgus being assigned as its Arabic and Persian, with Zinoos as its Greek syno- 
nyme ; the last probably a corruption of Azpiov, Stated to be one of its names by 
Dioscorides. Est 
AGAVE is frequently placed in Bromeliaceea, from resemblance in habit, and the 
ovarium being inferior; but itis now usually subjoined to Amaryllidee asa section, by the. 
name AGAve#, which includes this genus and Fourcroya. Both are confined to Ame- 
rica, and were probably early introduced by the Portuguese into India, as the species 
are common, and have native names assigned them. Mr. Don (Lin. Trans. xvii. p. 563) 
ascertained that A. cubensis referred to Fourcroya by Ventenat, is the species which 
Colonel Sykes described as having come up at Poona in a garden, where some Cape 
bulbs had been grown in the previous year. A. vivipara, Hind. bans-keora (a compound, 
of the names of the bamboo, and of Pandanus odoratissimus), is the species I found 
most common in gardens and hedges in N. India, and observed that on rich soils the 
plant invariably produced bulbs, but no seeds; while a poor stony soil and dry 
climate, as that of Delhi, had contrary effects, and the latter alone were produced. 
Dr. Roxburgh describes A. Cantala, a species agreeing in several points with A. vivipara, 
but 
