ORD, VI. Umbeltaie. ‘Fak 
FERULA ASSAFCETIDA, ASAFCETIDA GIGANTIC 
FENNEL. 
SYNONYMA. Planta umbellifera, tripedalis, erecta, ramosa, 
glauca, flore luteo, Hope, Phil. Trans. vol. 75, p. 36. Asafcetida 
umbellifera Levestico affinis, foliis instar Poconia ramosis; caule 
pleno maximo; semine foliaceo nudo solitario; Brance ursinz t 
vel pastinace simili; radice asam foetidam fundente. Kaempfer 
Amenit. Exot. p. 535. Gummi-resina, Asafoetida, Pharm. Lond. 
& Edin. Hingiseh Persarum. Altiht Arabum, et a quibusdam 
creditur xiguy Vel os cing Dioscor.. Theophrast. -Hippoc. §c. 
Laser et Laserpitium, Latinorum. 
Class Pentandria. Ord. Digynia. Lin. Gen. Plant. 343. 
Liss. Gen. Ch. Fructus ovalis, compresso-planus, striis utrinque 5. 
Spec. Ch. F., Foliis alternatim sinuatis obtusis. 
_LINNEUS has given the specific character according to 
Kaempfer’s representation of the Asafcetida plant, which differs in 
many respects from the figure here annexed, which is taken from 
that communicated to the Royal Society by the late Dr. Hope, and 
published in the 75th volume of the Philosophical Transactions: 
and this difference being so considerable as to indicate more than a 
mere botanical variety, Sir Joseph Banks thinks it probable that 
Asafcetida may be produced from different species of the ferula. 
Dr. Hope was undoubtedly the first who cultivated the Asafoetida 
plant in Britain, or perhaps in Europe, and his accurate description 
of it, as it grew in the botanical garden near Edinburgh, in the 
} Branca ursina is the Heracleum SphondyHum of Linneus. | 
