SPIKENARD AND YALERIAX. 273 



Nard " which Chatin* calls the *' Faux Xard Eadicant," and 

 Nardus Ccltica or " False Celtic Nard."t Nevertheless, Eo}de's 

 figures are considered by eminent botanists of the present day to 

 represent a form of the true plant, though perhaps not correct in 

 all details. The extreme forms of Nardostachys differ considerably 

 but they are connected by intermediate varieties. Also the plant 

 has a very different appearance at different stages of its growth. 

 The particular plants illustrated by Eoyle were possibly not so 

 judiciously selected as a pure type of the true plant as the example 

 figured by the more experienced botanist, De Candolle. Eoyle's 

 plants may have been more mature as regards the root (which he 

 says is crowned by the bases of several stems in the larger plant), 

 and may have been taken early in the year, before the full 

 development of the leaves. 



Considering the acknowledged mistakes, differences of opinion, 

 etc., amongst various writers, to say nothing of the confusion of 

 vernacular names, apd the vague ideas conveyed in the writings 

 of the Ancients, the subject is a very difiicult one. 



Dioscorides (i., cap. 6) distinctly mentions three kinds of Nard : 

 the " Celtic," the " Mountain " (now taken to be the i\" Jatamaiisi, 

 D.C.), and the third being of two varieties, the '' Syrian " and the 

 "Indian." The latter is also called " Gangites," from the river 

 Ganges, near which, flowing by a mountain, it is found. This 

 plant is in all its parts larger than the mountain plant, and has 

 several hairy spikes growing out of one root ; these are rather 

 dark in colour when dry, and smell something like Cyperus roots. 

 It is considered that this plant furnishes what is known as the 

 "False Indian Nard." There are two sorts of the root of this 

 plant met with in commerce, the one termed " radicant " and the 

 other " feuillu.'' The last is gathered in a younger state of the 

 plant and consists of a spike covered with yellow foliations, or 

 the remnants of the petioles of withered leaves, terminating in a 

 short, ligneous root furnished with yellowish, fibrous rootlets. 

 As the plant ages the remnants of leaf formation decompose 

 and assume the form of hairy filaments. 



Dr. Dymock (Pharmacographia Indica, ii., p. 238) states that 

 the dried root of V. Wallchii, D.C., furnishes the Indian perfume 



* Etudes sur les Valerian ees, p, 130, t. ill., B. 

 t Ibid. p. 141, t. xi. 



T 



