Asphodelee.] THE HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS. 393 
. 
Asparagus, common in the temperate and subtropical parts of the Old World, 
-_ — species indigenous, both in the plains and mountains of India. A. offici- 
_ is known only in a cultivated state, in India as in Europe, and is probably 
indigenous in the Persian region, as it is the halyoon of the Arabs, and nakdoun of 
the Persians. Some species are peculiar to the Peninsula, as A. floribundus, divari- 
catus, and falcatus, with A. acerosus, which occurs along the Malayan Peninsula, 
and to the eastward of Bengal. A. racemosus extends from the Peninsula to the 
plains of N. India, where it is common in jungles, and highly ornamental, as well as 
A. adscendens, which is indigenous in N.W. India, and extends for a few thousand feet 
up the Himalayas. A. Curillus, found by Dr. Hamilton, in Nepal, extends to: Kemaon, 
and also to such mountains as Urukta, Manma, and Simla: allied to this is 
A. filicinus, nob., from the banks of the Jumna in the interior of the Himalayas. 
A. gracilis and A. umbellatus, nob., are likewise found in those mountains. 
Many of the Asphodelee secrete in their bulbs, either volatile oils or acrid prin- 
ciples, and these being in greater or less proportion to the rest of the herbaceous portion, 
several species have been employed as condiments, or as medicines. Though in 
the parts of Asia earliest inhabited, the Asphodelee are less abundant, yet many are 
mentioned by the Persian writers on Materia Medica, in consequence probably of their 
being indebted for their information to the Arabic translations of Greek authors. The 
onion, garlic, and leek, called in Arabic busl, som, and korras, seem to be alluded 
to in the earliest parts of the Bible (Numb. xi. 12), as the names there used are very 
similar to these. All are cultivated in gardens in India, as well as Allium ascalonicum 
and A. tuberosum. The bulbs of Allium leptophyllum are eaten by the Hill people, and 
the leaves are dried and preserved as a condiment. MJuscari moschatum, Boros epetixog of 
Dioscorides, is literally translated busl-al-kue by the Arabs. Squill has been most 
anciently and extensively employed, owing to the presence in it, both of a volatile 
acrid matter and a bitter principle, called scillitin: according to the dose squill 
may stimulate various functions, or act as an emetic. It is curious that in India 
a species very closely allied to the Mediterranean plant, and called Scilla indica 
by Dr. Roxburgh, is substituted for the Unginea or Sguilla maratima, and iskeel 
given as its Greek name; the bulb is also used by weavers in preparing their thread, — 
Asparagus officinalis contains a peculiar principle, which by Vauquelin and Robiquet 
was called asparagine: this has an especial direction to the urinary organs, - The roots 
of Asparagus racemosus and of A. adscendens are both used medicinally in N. India: ; 
those of the latter, conical in form and semi-transparent, are considered a good 
substitute for salep. } 
Dracena Draco, a native of Socotra and the Canaries, yields one of the kinds of 
probably that in tears, still continues to be 
dragon's blood, dum-al-akhwain ; one sort, . 
the case in the time of the Arabs. 
exported from Socotra, as is stated to have been . 
Xanthorrhea hastilis, or grass-tree of New Holland, appended to this order, : yields a : 
yellow gum-resin, which is sometimes imported into Europe. 
3 E 182. PaLMACEZ. 
