()5 



sticking in abundance to the inflorescence of a specimen 

 gathered in flower, between Ghorian and Khaft'. It is un- 

 doubtedly the secretion of the pkmt, and has been obligingly 

 identified for me by Mr. Pereira. It is however deservino- 

 notice that a lump of Gum Ammoniac itself, from the 

 neighbourhood of Ghorian, was mixed w^th numerous fruits 

 of a Ferula, but not with one of the Dorema. 



106. The discrepancy between the statements of Pallas 

 and Kaempfer, as to the origin of Asafcctlda, is not settled ; 

 Sir J. McNiell's collection not answering to the statements 

 of either. Three samples of Asafcetida fruit were sent home, 

 none of which belong either to F. persica or F. asafcetida ; 

 one of the samples is near the former species, but the fruit is 

 broader and larger, corresponding with it however in thick- 

 ness, and in the almost total want of a thin margin ; the 

 other two samples are different from each other, as well 

 as from fruit formerly sent from Persia, and described by me 

 in the Flora Medica, No. 97, as those of the true F. asafcetida; 

 they more resemble the F. Hooshee, No. 100 of the same 

 work, but are larger, and have their dorsal, vittas much 

 elevated and undulated. From this I think we must con- 

 clude that Asafcetida is collected indiscriminately from 

 various species of Ferula found wild in Persia, and that it is 

 not the produce of any one species in particular. 



107. Of Galbanum, what has been thought to be the 

 fruit has been described by Professor Don, from specimens 

 found sticking to samples of the imported drug ; but there 

 is nothing to shew that the drug and the fruit belonged to 

 each other, and I think that the evidence now in my pos- 

 session renders it probable that there was no connection 

 between the two. Sir J. McNiell sent home specimens 

 of a plant called a 2nd sort of ammoniacum, gathered near 

 Durrood, June 27, 1838, to the branches of which are sticking 

 lumps of a pale yellow waxy gum resin, which I took for 

 Galbanum, and upon which Mr. Pereira, who has examined 

 it, makes the following remark : — " It is not asafcetida ; it is 

 not ammoniacum ; neither does it accord with either galba- 

 num or sagapenum, as met with in the shops or in my 

 museum. Both these substances, however, vary somewhat in 

 their properties, and therefore I could not deny the identity 



