THE ODOUR OF MUSK. a 
gathered up to 19,000 feet, the vegetation is excessively scanty and 
only found on the margins of rills by the melting snow. The 
flora of these arid regions includes some plants of great interest... . 
amongst others the Delphinium Brunonianum.” The species of 
this genus generally smell of musk, but the authors discredit the 
fact of the plant furnishing food to the Musk Deer, which is quite 
believed by the mountaineers. The Delphinium moschatum grows 
at an elevation of 14,000 feet; its flowers are pale blue. OD. 
glaciale is found at an altitude of 18,000 feet; its flowers, which 
are pale blue, appear in August and September. D. Brunonianum 
is found on the mountains of Eastern Thibet at an altitude of 
18,000 feet ; its flowers are also pale blue and appear in August 
and September. 
Delphinium Brunonianum is apparently abundant, as the juice 
of the plant is used in Afghanistan to destroy ticks in animals, 
especially in sheep. 
Hooker’s ‘ Flora of British India’ says :—‘‘ D. glaciale grows 
on the Eastern Himalaya at an elevation of 16,000 to 18,000 feet, 
the whole plant has a rare musky odour, and D. Brunonianum in 
Western Thibet at 14,000 feet ; it is synonymous with D. moschatum 
of Munro”’*. 
If these plants were more accessible they could doubtless 
be turned to some commercial practical use, especially as some 
plants which have appeared even more difficult to obtain are now 
successfully grown. As an instance of this may be mentioned 
the “Sumbul” root, EHuryangium Sumbul, a plant which was 
jealously guarded, and only obtained after a reward had been 
offered for a root by the Russian Government. It was discovered 
in 1869 by a Russian traveller in the Maghian mountains near 
Pianjkent, a small village eastward of Samarkand, whence a 
living plant was forwarded to the Botanic Garden, Moscow, and 
it flowered there in 1871. It is a perennial umbellifer, growing to 
the height of 9 or 10 feet, and has a branched fleshy root about 
11 inches in circumference at the base, with numerous rootlets. In 
1876 it was reported by Wittmann that the plant was found in 
large quantities in the extreme Kastern regions of Siberia which 
border on the Amoor river+. ‘The word ‘‘ Sumbul ” seems to be 
employed in Arabic to designate various substances, especially the 
* Jacq. Voy. Bot. viii. t. 7, and Bot. Mag. t. 5461. 
t+ Pharm. Journ. 1876, p. 329. 
