of Western Afghanistan and North-Eastern Persia. 71 



Asafoetida plains where this drug is chiefly collected, except 

 for the small domes over each root there was not a leaf or a 

 stem or anything left to point to the fact that any such 

 plant had ever existed there, the heat and winds of July and 

 August having removed every trace. 



" In Northern Beluchistan, after much difficulty and 

 searching, I came across one root of Asafoetida, which I 

 believe belonged to a different species ; but I did not see a 

 single stem, or even the remains of one, although we 

 traversed immense plains upon which these fragments of 

 leaves still existed, and where, I believe, during summer the 

 plant must have grown in abundance." 



On the road to Meshad from Turbat-i-haidri, about four 

 miles from the latter is a mountain called Koh-surkh, or the 

 red hill ; in the vicinity of this hill, yearly a large amount of 

 Asafoetida is collected and sent on to Meshad. Lieut.-Col. 

 H. B. Lumsden, now Sir Harry Burnett Lumsden, K.C.S.I., 

 says, " the low ranges adjacent to the Anardara basin are the 

 great Asafoetida producing tracts during the three hottest 

 months of the year, numbers of Kakars resort there to collect 

 that gum " (Appendix to Davies' Rejjort on the Trade and 

 Resources of the Countries on the North- Western Boundary of 

 British India, viii. page xlix). 



The following is an account given of the collecting, &c., of 

 Asafoetida by Dr Bellew, now Surgeon-General Bellew, C.S.I., 

 when he was attached to the Kandahar Mission in 1857, 

 from Davies' Beport on the Trade, &c.. Appendix vii. page 

 xli:— 



" The frail vaginated stem, or the lower cluster of sheathing 

 leaves, the former belonging to old plants, and the latter to 

 young ones, is removed at its junction with the root, around 

 which is dug a small trench about 6 inches wide and as 

 many deep. Three or four incisions are then made round 

 the head of the root, and fresh ones are repeated at intervals 

 of three or four days, the sap continuing to exude for a 

 week or a fortnight, according to the caliber of the root. In 

 all cases, as soon as the incisions are made, the root head is 

 covered over with a thick bundle of dried herbs or loose 

 stones as a protection against the sun ; when this is not done 

 the root withers in the first day and little or no juice exudes. 

 The quantity of Asafoetida obtained from each root varies 



