FERULA. 



FERULA. 



Calyx a short 5-toothed border. Petals ovate, entire, acumi- 

 nate, with an ascending or incurved point. Fruit flattened at 

 the back, with a dilated flat border. Half-fruits with 3 dorsal 

 filiform ridges, the two lateral obsolete and lost in the dilated 

 margin. Vittae in the dorsal channels 3 or more, 4 or many 

 more on the commissure. Root fleshy. Stem tall. Leaves 

 supra-decompound ; generally cut up into linear segments. In- 

 volucres variable. Flowers yellow. 



97. F. Asafeetida Linn. mat. med. 79. De Cand. prodr. 

 iv. 173. Asa foetida Disgunensis Kcempf. Amcen. exot. 535. 

 t. 536. copied in Nees and Eberm.pl. med. t. 293. Persia; 

 hills and plains near Herat, mountains of Laristan, Beloochistan.* 



Root perennial, fleshy, with a coarse hairy summit ; either simple like 

 a parsnip, or with one or more forks. Leaves radical, springing up in 

 the autumn, growing vigorously through the winter, and withering in 

 the end of spring; 1 Afoot long, shining, coriaceous, like those of 

 Lovage, glaucous-green, pinnated, with pinnatifid segments whose 

 lobes are qblong and obtuse ; petiole terete, channelled only at the 

 base. Stem 6-10 feet high, solid, clothed with membranous sheaths. 

 General umbels with from 10 to 20 rays ; partial ones 5-6-flowered. 

 Fruit flat, thin, reddish brown, like that of parsnip, only rather 

 larger and darker, slightly hairy or rough (quadamtenus pilosum 

 sive asperum) Kcempfer. Fruit obovate, 6 lines long, rather con- 

 vex, but little thinned away at the edge ; the dorsal ridges slightly 

 elevated, the lateral undistinguishable ; vittae of the back about 20 or 

 22, interrupted, anastomosing and turgid with asafcetida : of the com- 

 missure 10. The irregularly elevated appearance of the vittag of the 

 back of the fruit gives it an uneven aspect, which I presume is what 

 Kcempfer means by asperum. A fetid alliaceous gum resin is obtained 

 by slicing the fleshy perennial roots; it is acrid, bitter, and antispas- 

 modic. 



This is the most genuine Asafoetida plant, which is hardly known 

 to modern Botanists. Probably the substance is yielded by other 

 species of Ferula. Professor Royle says, he obtained two different 

 fruits from the Bazaars of India; see also Ferula persica and 

 F. Hooshee. It has also been conjectured to have produced the Sil- 

 phium or Laser of the ancients, but I think on unsatisfactory evidence. 

 See Thapsia. 



98. F. persica Willd. sp. pi. i. 1413. Bot. Mag. t. 2096. 

 De Cand. prodr. iv. 173. Nees and Eberm. iii. 55. S.and C. 

 ni. t. 169. Asafcetida Hope inphil. trans. 1785. 36. t. 3 and 4. 

 Ferula sagapenum Fee cours. ii. 201. Persia. 



Root perennial. Radical leaves procumbent, ternate, supra-decom- 

 pound ; segments decurrenlly pinnated with linear-lanceolate lobes, 

 which are dilated cut and ciliated at the end. Stem about 2 feet high, 



* Lieutenant Burnes speaks of it as growing on the mountains of Hindoo Kush, at an 

 elevation of 7000 feet He states that it rises to the height of 8 or 10 feet ; its milk is at 

 first white, then turns yellow and hardens, in which state it is put into hair bags and ex- 

 ported ; sheep browse upon the tender shoots, which are believed to be highly nutritious. 

 (Travels, ii. 243.) But as he calls his plant an annual, it cannot be this species. 



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