KATVD. 119 



Chap. 26.1 



CHAP. 24. THE VARIOUS USEFUL PRODUCTS OF TREES. 



Arabia, which is in the vicinity of these islands, requires 

 that we should make some distinction in its vegetable products, 

 seeing that here the various parts of trees which are em- 

 ployed for useful purposes are the root, the branches, the 

 bark, the juices, the gum, the wood, the shoots, the blossoms, 

 the leaves, and the fruit. 



chap. 25. (12.)— COSTUS. 



A root and a leaf, however, are the productions which are 

 held in the very highest estimation in India. The root is that 

 of the costus ; 77 it has a burning taste in the mouth, and a 

 most exquisite odour ; in other respects, the branches are good 

 tor nothing. In the island of Patale, 78 situate at the very 

 mouth of the river Indus, there are two kinds of costus found, 

 the black and the white ; the last is considered the best. The 

 price of it is five denarii per pound. 



CHAP. 26. NARD. THE TWELVE VARIETIES OF THE PLANT. 



Of the leaf, which is that of the nard, 79 it is only right to 

 speak somewhat more at length, as it holds the principal place 

 among our unguents. The nard is a shrub with a heavy, 

 thick root, but short, black, brittle, and yet unctuous as well ; 



W According to most commentators, this is the Costus Arabicus of Lin- 

 nams Dioscorides mentions three varieties of costus : the Arabian, which 

 is of the best quality, and is white and odoriferous; the Indian which is 

 black and smooth ; and the Syrian, which is of the colour of wax, dusky, and 

 6tron°- smelling. Fee, however, doubts whether the modern costus is the 

 same°thing as that of the ancients ; for, as he says, although it has a sweet 

 odour, it does not deserve the appellation of a " precious aromatic, which 

 we find constantly given to it by the ancients. 



w SeeB. vi. c. 23. . 



79 It is probable that the nard of the ancients, from which they extracted 

 the famous nard-oil, was not the same plant which we know as the Indian 

 nard or Andropogon nardus of Linnseus. Indeed, it has been pretty con- 

 clusively established by Sir William Jones, in his « Asiatic Researches," 

 that the Valeriana Jatamansi is the plant from which they obtained the oil. 

 Among the Hindoos, it is known as djatamansi, and by the Arabs under 

 the name of sombul, or " spike," from the fact of the base being surrounded 

 with ears or spikes, whence, probably, the Roman appellation. Ihis spe- 

 cies of valerian grows in the more distant and mountainous parts oi India, 

 Bootan and Nepaul, for instance. 



