776 APIACE^. [Epigynous ExogeiNS. 



others), the following brief enumeration will sufficiently explain the purposes to which 

 Umbellifers are applicable : — 



Of the harmless species, in which, with a little aroma, there is no considerable quantity 

 of acrid watery matter or gum-resinous secretion, must be more particularly named 

 Celery, Fennel, Samphire, Parsley, and the roots of Carrots, Parsnips, and Skirrets 

 (Sium Sisarum). In addition to these, with which everybody is familiar, the following 

 plants more particularly deserve mention as esculents: — The root of Ei-yngium campestre 

 and maritimum, vulgarly called Eryngo, is sweet, aromatic, and tonic. Boerhaave reckons 

 it as the first of aperient dim'etic roots. It has been recommended in gonorrhoea, sup- 

 pression of the menses, and visceral obstructions, pai'ticularly of the gall-bladder and 

 liver ; it has also the credit of being a decided aphrodisiac. A good deal of it is sold in 

 a candied state. The roots of Meum athamanticum and Mutellina are aromatic and 

 sweet, and form an ingredient in the compomid called Venice treacle. AngeUca root, 

 belonging to ArchangeUca officinalis, is fragrant, bitterish, pimgent, sweet when first 

 tasted, but leaving a glowing heat in the mouth. The Laplanders extol it not only as 

 food but medicine. In coughs, hoarseness, and other pectoral disorders they eat the 

 stalks roasted m hot ashes ; they also boil the tender flowers in milk till it attains the 

 consistence of an extract, which they vise to promote perspu'ation in catarrhal fevers, and 

 to strengthen the stomach and bowels in diarrhcea. It is sold in the shops in a candied 

 state, and was once an inhabitant of every countiy garden. Chervil, an old-fashioned 

 pot-herb, with eatable roots, is the Anthriscus Cerefolium. Smyrnium Olusatrum, or 

 Alexanders, was formerly cultivated instead of Celery ; its leaves have a slight and pleasant 

 aromatic flavour. The tubers of Bunium ferulaceum are eaten in Greece under the name 

 of Topana. Samphu'e (Crithmum maritimum) is one of the best of all ingredients m pickles. 

 Carum Bulbocastanum, the Pignut of the English, is quite wholesome, as are also the 

 tubers of (Enanthe pimpmelloides. Anesorhiza capensis and Foeniculum capense are 

 both Cape esculents. Arracacha esculenta, an inhabitant of the table-land of Grenada, 

 has large esculent roots resembling a Parsnip in quality, but better. Finally, Prangos 

 pabularia, a herbaceous plant inhabiting the arid plains of Southern Tartary, and the 

 adjoining provinces, has a great reputation as a sheep food, wliich it appears not to 

 deserve. Dr. Royle thinks that it may have been one of the kinds of Sylphion of the 

 Greeks — that described by Arrian as growmg only with Pines on Paropamisus, where 

 it was browsed on by numerous flocks of sheep and cattle. Lieut. Burnes, crossing in 

 the direction of Alexander's route, found this m the same situation, greedily cropped by 

 sheep, and even eaten by his fellow-travellers. The natives of the north of Asia esteem 

 highly the skinned root of the sweet subacrid Heracleum SphondyUum. 



Among the gum-resinous species those yieldmg Asafoetida hold the first rank. The 

 fetid odour of these plants is supposed to be owing to sulphur in combination with their 

 peculiar essential oil. Asafoetida is the milky juice of various species of Ferula 

 inhabiting Persia and neighbouring countries. Of these F. Asafoetida is the plant 

 described by Kaempfer (Amisn. Exot. 535) ; but F. persica and others are no doubt 

 also the origin of the drug. Griffith was of that opmion {Ann. N. Hist. X. 193) ; and 

 the fruits sent home to me by Sir John M'Neill prove the fact. — See Fl. Med. No. 100. 

 Burnes found Asafoetida plants on the momitains of the Hindoo Koosh regarded as a 

 highly nutritious sheep-food. The Asadulcis, or Laser Cyrenaicum, was jdelded by a 

 Thapsia, and probably Thapsia garganica. This drug was in high reputation among 

 the ancients for its medical uses ; it had miraculous powers assigned to it ; to neutralise 

 the effects of poison, to cure envenomed wounds, to restore sight to the blind, and 

 youth to the aged, were only a part of its reputed properties ; it was also reckoned 

 antispasmodic, deobstruent, dim'etic, &c., &c. So gi-eat was its reputation, that the 

 princes of Cyrene caused it to be struck on the reverse of theu' coins ; and the Cyrenean 

 doctors were reckoned among the most eminent in the world. Its value was estimated 

 by its weight m gold. The plants appear to be in reality very active purgatives. 

 Galbanum, another fetid gum-resin, has been referred to Galbanum officinale, a Syrian 

 plant ; but it has been demonstrated to owe its origin 'to another Umbelhfer, the 

 Opoidia galbanifera, a Persian plant. — See Bot. Reg. 1839, Mkc. 107. Martins, however, 

 and others maintain that this Opoidia yields the Persian Galbanum only, and that it is 

 really the produce of diff'erent Umbellifers. Opopanax is the concrete juice of Opopanax 

 Chironum, a plant resembUng a Parsnip, and inhabiting the Levant. Ammoniacum 

 has a moi'e doubtful origin ; a Persian sort has been made out to be derived from 

 Dorema Ammoniacum, but as Dioscorides says that his plant ycvvarai ev Aifiv-q Kara 

 "Afijxooya, it was probably derived from Ferula orientalis, which stiU furnishes a drug of 

 the kind in the kingdom of Morocco. The origin of Sagapenum, a drug between 

 Galbanum and Asafoetida, is not ascertained with certainty ; it is thought to be derived 

 from either Ferula persica or F. Szowitsiana. Secretions of a similar nature ai'e yielded 

 by Bolax glebaria, a curious beehive-shaped plant, in southern Chile ; Peucedanum 



