SPIKENARD AND YALERIAX. 265 



words cannot be made intelligible by our Western alphabets. The 

 jdtdmdnsi, Mansi, Bhutakesi ("Demon's hair"), Pisitd, Tapasvini 

 and Mislii, applied to this root, are all of Sanskrit origin and date 

 from a very remote period. Eoyle says (Illustrations of the Botany 

 of the Himalayan Mountains, p. 241) " On consulting Avicenna we 

 are referred from the Greek word Xarden to Sumbul and from the 

 Latin translation " Nardum " to " Spica," under which, the Eoman, 

 the Mountain, the Indian and Syrian kinds are mentioned and 

 " Senbel " is given as the synonymous Araljic name. This proves 

 that " Sumbul " in Persian dictionaries translated " the Hyacinth," 

 — the Spikenard, to which the hair of a woman is compared, — an 

 ear of corn, etc., was always considered by Arabian authors as 

 synonymous with the Nardos of the Greeks. On consulting the 

 Persian works on Materia Medica in use in India, and especially 

 the Mukhzun-ul-Udwieh, we are referred from " Xarden " in the 

 Index to " Sumbul " in the body of the work. Under this name, 

 however, four separate articles are described : 1st — Sumbul- 

 hindee ; 2nd — Sumbul- roomee, called also " Sumbul-ukletee " and 

 " ISTardum-ukletee," evideixtly the vapho^ X^^'^'^XV o^ Dioscorides, — 

 said also to be called " Sumbul-italioon," that is, th Nard which 

 grows in Italy ; 3rd — " Sumbul-jilmllee " or Mountain Xard 

 (vapSo^ opecvrj) ; 4th — " Sumbul farsee," which is a bulbous plant 

 and probably a kind of hyacinth. Polyanthes tuberosa is described 

 as being one of the kinds of Persian Sumbul." The Sanskrit name 

 " Balchur " has reference to its resemblance to locks of hair. 



The plant which produces the "True Spikenard," "Indian 

 Nard " or " Mountain I^ard " of Dioscorides (i., cap. vi.) has been 

 proved beyond all doubt to be the Nardostachys Jatamansi of 

 De Candolle, and is botanically described and figured by him in 

 his Seventh Memoir, " Sur la famille des Yalerian^es," t. 1 ; and 

 Prodomus, iv., p. 624 ; also Chatin, " Etude sur les Valerian^es " 

 (Paris, 1872), p. 69, t. 2. K grandiflora, D.O., Mem., 1. c. p. 8, t. 2, 

 Prodr., iv., p. 624 ; Wall. PL, As. Ear., iii., p. 40. Pcdrinia 

 Jatamansi, Don Prodr., p. 159, and in Lambert, " Description 

 of the genus Cinchona," p. 177, with fig. Valeriana Jatamansi, 

 Wall. Cat., 431 (not of Jones or Eoxburgh, in As. Ees., ii., p. 405 

 and iv., p. 433, which represent V. Wallichii, D.C., a plant which 

 is considered identical with V. Hardwickii, Wallich) ; also Fedia 

 grandiflora, Wall. Cat., 1187. 



