120 plint's katueal HISTOEY. [Book XII. 



it has a musty smell, too, very much like that of the cyperus, 

 with a sharp, acrid taste, the leaves being small, and growing 

 in tufts. The heads of the nard spread out into ears ; hence 

 it is that nard is so famous for its two-fold production, the 

 spike or ear, and the leaf. There is another kind, again, that 

 grows on the banks of the Ganges, but is altogether con- 

 demned, as being good for nothing; it bears the name of 

 ozsenitis, 80 and emits a fetid odour. Nard is adulterated 

 with a sort of plant called pseudo-nard, 81 which is found 

 growing everywhere, and is known by its thick, broad leaf, 

 and its sickly colour, which inclines to white. It is so- 

 phisticated, also, by being mixed with the root of the genuine 

 nard, which adds very considerably to its weight. Gum is 

 also used for the same purpose, antimony, and cyperus ; or, 

 at least, the outer coat of the cyperus. Its genuineness is tested 

 by its lightness, the redness of its colour, its sweet smell, and 

 the taste more particularly, which parches the mouth, and 

 leaves a pleasant flavour behind it ; the price of spikenard is 

 one hundred denarii per pound. 



Leaf 82 nard varies in price according to the size ; for that 

 which is known by the name of hadrosphaerum, consisting of 

 the larger leaves, sells at forty denarii per pound ; when the 

 leaves are smaller, it is called mesosphaerum, and is sold at 

 sixty. But that which is considered the most valuable of all, 

 is known as microsphaerum, and consists of the very smallest 

 of the leaves ; it sells at seventy-five denarii per pound. All 

 these varieties of nard have an agreeable odour, but it is most 

 powerful when fresh. If the nard is old when gathered, that 

 which is of a black colour is considered the best. 



In our part of the world, the Syrian 83 nard is held in the 



80 From the Greek, o^aiva, " a putrid sore." Fee suggests that this 

 may have been the Nardus hadrosphaerum of the moderns. 



81 Fee supposes that this is not lavender, as some have thought, but the 

 Allium victorialis of modern naturalists, which is still mixed with the nard 

 from the Andropogon. He doubts the possibility of its haying been adul- 

 terated with substances of such a different nature as those mentioned here 

 by Pliny. 



82 Fee is of opinion, that the Greek writers, from whom Pliny copied 

 this passage, intended to speak of the ears of nard, or spikenard. 



83 According to Dioscorides, this appellation only means such nard as is 

 cultivated in certain mountains of India which look toward Syria, and 

 which, according to that author, was the best nard of all. Dalechamps and 

 Hardouin, however, ridicule this explanation of the term. 



