268 ODOROGRAPHIA. 



often glabrate below. Eadical leaves, 6 to 8 inches by one inch, 

 longitudinally nerved, glabrous or slightly pubescent, narrowed 

 into the petiole ; cauline, 1 or 2 pairs, 1 to 3 inches long, sessile, 

 oblong or sub-ovate. Flower heads usually 1, 3 or 5 ; bractes, 

 J inch, oblong, usually pubescent ; corolla tube, ^ inch long, 

 somewhat hairy within, as are the filaments below. Fruit, -g- inch 

 long, covered with ascending white hairs, crowned by the ovate, 

 acute, often dentate calyx-teeth. There are two forms of this 

 plant ; a large- flowered (see illustration on preceding page), with 

 usually glabrous bractes, and a smaller one, with the corolla tube 

 scarcely \ inch long, and the bractes densely, shortly hairy ; 

 various intermediate forms occur." 



The plant is found in the Alpine Himalaya, at altitudes of 

 11,000 to 15,000 feet; from Kumaon to Sikkim, ascending to 

 17,000 feet in Sikkim. 



N. jatamansi is a plant of easy cultivation, in the open air, in 

 this country. A specimen supplied to me from Messrs. Ware and 

 Sons Nurseries, at Tottenham, agrees with tab. i. in De Candolle's 

 Memoire, above given. The plant is quite hardy in England. 



With regard to the objection that the fragrance of the 

 Jatamansi is not such as to warrant the probability of its having 

 been so highly esteemed by the ancients, Eoyle observes that it 

 might be sufficient to reply, that it is both incorrect and 

 unphilosophical to infer that the tastes of another time and country 

 must be those of the age and place we live in. In the present 

 instance, however disagreeable it may be to some, there is no 

 doubt that the jatamansi is highly esteemed in the present day 

 throughout the East, both as a perfume and a stimulent medicine. 



The part of the plant which is collected for the market is the 

 perennial, hairy portion of the stem immediately above the root.* 



Dr. Dymock saysf : — " It is very desirable that further trials 



* The hair wash in common use among Indian Avomen and called 

 Angalepan, Angodvartan, Sugkandi-j^uH or Utnen, is composed of Gavala 

 (seed of Prunus Mahalib) ; Kapurkachri [Hedychium spicatum, -which see); 

 Vala [Andropogoyi Muricatits, see 1st Series) ; Pc'ich (Pogostemon Patchouli) ; 

 Jatamansi ; Upalet [Aplotaxis Lappa " Costus ") ; Ndgannoih {Cyperus 

 scariosuSy which see). [C. perteyiuis is sometimes used) ; Daiuia {Artemisia 

 sieversiana) and Bluriva {Origanum, several species). Other articles are 

 sometimes added. 



t Mat. Med. W. Ind., 2nd ed., p. 347 ; Notes on " Indian Drugs," Pharm. 

 Journ. [3], ix., p. 1034. 



