66 
produced: by the water in a fluid 
ftate; on the 31ft, having become 
thicker, the found, upon fhaking, 
was very ob{cure; on the 2d of 
November, no found was percep- 
tible; and when the reed was {plit, 
the water was found reduced to a 
mucilage. The fourth and fifth 
joints contained the drug in a more 
advanced ftate. In the firft, it was 
thicker than a mucilage, of a 
brownifh colour; in the fecond, 
more of the fluid part having eva- 
porated, the colour was whiter, and 
it wanted but little of the confif- 
tence of the perfeét Tabafheer 
found in the fecond joint. 
lam, &c. 
Vizagapatam, ; 
Nov. 26, 1783. P. RussEiu. 
Four of the feven reeds pre- 
fented to the Society on the night 
this paper was read, being carefully 
fplit, the contents, upon comparing 
them with the fpecimens fent from 
‘India, then on the table, were found 
to agree in all refpeéts, as well as 
with the defcription of the more 
recent drug given in the above pa- 
per. The ipecimen, N® 3. fent 
from Hydrabad, and reckoned the 
prime fort, differed fomewhat -in 
hardnefs, as mentioned above, from 
the pureft particles in the Tabafheer 
collected by myfelf; but in the opi- 
nion of feveral of the members pre- 
fent, who compared them, were the 
fame fubftance with the particles 
mixed, in a {mall proportion, in 
~ fome of the other fpecimens, as 
lihewife with a few particles taken 
from the reeds opened in their pre- 
feuce ; which puts it beyond doubt, 
that the {ubftance is produced in the 
cavity of the bamboo. 
The feveral {pecimens are now 
under chemical trial ; and the re~ 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1790. 
fult of the experiments will, I hope, 
be communicated to the Society. 
Account of the Nardus Indica, or 
Spikenard. By Gilbert Blane, 
M.D. F.LR.S. From the fame. 
‘Ardus Indica, or Spikenard, isa 
name familiar in the works of 
the ancient phyficians, naturalifts, 
and pdets ; but the identity of which 
has not hitherto been fatisfactorily af- 
certained. My brother fays, ina letter © 
dated Lucknow, December 1786, 
that, “ travelling with the Nabob 
Vizier, upon one of his hunting ex- 
curfions, towards the northern moun- 
tains, I was furprifed one day, after 
crofing the river Rapty, about 
twenty miles from the foot of the 
hills, to perceive the air perfumed 
with an aromatic fmell; and, upon 
afking the caufe, I was told it pro- 
ceeded from the roots of the grafs 
that were bruifed or trodden out of 
the ground by the feet of the ele- 
phants and horfes of the nabob’s 
retinue. The country was wild and 
uncultivated, and this was the com- 
mon grafs which covered the furface 
of it, growing in large tufts clofe 
to each other, very rank, and in ge- 
neral from three to four feet in 
length, As it was the winter fea- 
fon, there was none of it in flower. 
Indeed the greateft part of it had 
been burnt down on the road we 
went, in order that it might be no 
impediment to the nabob’s encamp- 
ments. : , 
« I colleéted a quantity of the 
roots to be dried for ufe, and care- 
fully dug up fome of it, which I. 
fent to be planted in my garden at — 
Lucknow. It there throve exceed- 
ingly, and in the rainy feafon it 
fhot 
