328 



UMBELLIFERJi. XCII. FERULA. XCIII. DOREMA. 



Pastinaca nudicaule, Spreng. in Schultes, syst. 6. p. 587. Root 

 fusiform. Plant having the odour of fennel, but more aromatic. 

 This plant differs from the genera Ferula, Pastinaca, and Smyr- 

 nium, in the flowers being white, not yellow, as in those genera. 

 Nuttall's Giant-fennel. Fl. July, Aug. Clt. 1817. PL 1J 

 to 2 feet ? 



31 F. ? PALME'LLA (Hook, in fl. amer. bor. amer. 1. p. 268.) 

 plant glabrous, nearly stemless ; leaves bipinnatifid, on longish 

 petioles, glaucous ; leaflets linear, bluntish : lower ones often 

 again pinnatifid ; peduncles rather shorter than the leaves ; in- 

 volucrum none ; involucel unilateral, dimidiate, palmate, with 

 the disk floriferous. Tf.. H. Native of North America, about 

 Carlton House on the Saskatchawan. Root large, thick, rather 

 fusiform. The involucels are very remarkable, truly palmate, 

 gradually tapering into the broad petiole or ray, and bearing a 

 small umbellule of white flowers on the disk. 



Palmella Giant-fennel. PI. -| foot. 



32 F. AFFI'NIS (Bess. cat. hort. crem. 1816. p. 57.) Native 

 near Odessa. This species is not described. 



Allied Giant-fennel. PL 2 to 3 feet. 



Cull. Any common garden soil answers the species of Fe- 

 rula ; and they are only to be increased by seeds. 



XCIII. DORE'MA (from Soprj^a, dorema, a gift or benefit; 

 not that the plant is considered pre-eminently deserving that 

 title, but that the name is also agreeable to the ear). D. Don, 

 in Lin. trans, vol. 16. p. 601. 



LIN. SYST. Pentandria, Digynia. Flowers sessile, immersed 

 in wool. Margin of calyx 5-toothed. Petals ovate, with an in- 

 flexed point. Disk epigynous, cup-shaped, fleshy : with a pli- 

 cate, rather lobulate margin. Style complanate, recurved at the 

 apex. Stigmas truncate. Fruit elliptic, much compressed from 

 the back, girded by a complanate broadish margin ; raphe very 

 narrow, usually closed. Mericarps 5-ribbed ; the 3 intermediate 

 ribs distinct, filiform, at equal distances : lateral 2 confluent 

 with the margins ; vittse prominent, one in each furrow, and 4 

 in the commissure, which is flat. Carpophore bipartite, filiform. 

 Seed flat. A robust, greenish, glaucous, Persian herb, with a 

 perennial root, and clothed with glandular down, almost with the 

 habit of Opopanax Chirbnium. Leaves large, petiolate, some- 

 what bipinnate, 2 feet long ; pinnae usually 3 pairs, each pair 

 rather remote : lower leaflets distinct ; superior ones confluent, 

 deeply pinnatifid : segments oblong, mucronate, quite entire, or 

 rarely a little lobed, coriaceous, veined beneath, 1-5 inches long, 

 and half an inch to 2 inches broad. Petioles and rachis terete, 

 ribbed, pubescent, very much dilated at the base, and sheathing 

 a little, with the upper margin winged and stipulaceous. Umbels 

 proliferous, racemose ; umbellules globose, on short peduncles, 

 usually disposed in a spit-ate manner. Peduncles terete, woolly. 

 Involucra and involucels wanting. Petals white. Stamens and 

 styles yellow. Ovarium densely woolly. Fruit naked. 



1 D. AMMONI'ACUM (D. Don, 1. c.) 7(.. H. Native of the 

 south of Persia, in the vicinity of Jezud Khast, a town of Irak El 

 Ajam, the ancient Parthia, about 42 miles south of Ispahan. 

 To discriminate and characterize those plants which more imme- 

 diately administer to the wants and comforts of man, is one of 

 the chief objects of practical botany ; but it is a task replete with 

 difficulties ; the countries whence many of the substances are 

 derived, particularly those belonging to the Materia Medica, 

 being generally remote, and often inaccessible to travellers. 

 Although the gum Ammoniacum has held a place in the Materia 

 Medica from a very early period, yet the plant from which it is 

 obtained has hitherto remained almost totally unknown ; and the 

 same may be said of the analogous gum Galbanum, and many 

 other articles derived from the vegetable kingdom, enumerated 

 in the Pharmacopoeia. It is true Dioscorides and Pliny mention 



the plant which yields the gum Ammoniacum, the former under 

 the appellation of Agasyllis, and the latter under that of Meto- 

 pium, and give Libya as its native country ; but if the gum was 

 anciently imported thence, it must have been the produce of a 

 different plant than ours ; and probably identical with the species 

 of Ferula, represented by Jackson in his account of Morocco, as 

 the gum now comes to Europe by way of the Levant and India. 

 Dioscorides, whose opinion is adopted by all subsequent writers, 

 derives the name Ammoniacum from Ammon or Hammon, the 

 Jupiter of the Lybians, whose temple was situated in the desert 

 of Cyrene, near to which the plant vnas said to grow. But it 

 appears that Dioscorides was altogether mistaken as to its native 

 country; and that the name Ammoniacum or Armoniacum, as 

 it is indifferently written, is really a corruption of Armeniacum ; 

 for it is now ascertained beyond all doubt, that the plant is a 

 native of Persia, and that the gum must have been anciently 

 brought to Europe by way of Armenia ; and we sometimes 

 find the name of the apricot written Malum Armoniacum. 

 Willdenow, having sown some seeds picked from the gum- Am- 

 moniacum, a species of Heracleum came up, which he called 

 Herlcleum gummiferum, but this appears to be identical with 

 Heracleum Pyrenaicum ; but as the plant possesses no smell 

 analogous to Ammoniacum, and affords no gummy substance 

 whatever, it is probable it was only an accidental weed. 



The materials from which the description was drawn were 

 procured by Lieut. -Colonel Wright, of the royal engineers, in 

 the district where the gum Ammoniacum was collected, which is 

 given above, and presented by him along with other dried plants 

 to the Linnaean Society. Every part of the specimen is covered 

 with drops of a gum possessing all the properties of Ammonia- 

 cum ; and this circumstance alone, independent of any other 

 evidence, would seem sufficient to remove all doubt on the sub- 

 ject ; besides the specimen has been compared with the portions 

 of inflorescence and fruit, which are found abundantly^inter- 

 mixed with the gum in the shops, and they are found to' agree 

 in every particular. The name applied to the plant by Dios- 

 corides is already pre-occupied by another genus of Umbelliferee, 

 and that of Pliny is scarcely unexceptionable, as originating in a 

 mistake, Metopium having been used by some ancient authors 

 to denote the Galbanum, and by others the gum-Arabic tree ; 

 but most writers seem to agree in considering it the appellation 

 of an ointment, or some oleaginous substance, rather than of a 

 plant. The name Dorema has been given to avoid confusion. 



The first volume of the Dictionnaire Universel de Matiere 

 Medicale, by Merat and De Lens, published at Paris in 1829, 

 contains some valuable notices on the Ammoniacum plant, from 

 which it appears that the plant was already known to Mr. 

 Brown, and had been determined by him to constitute a new 

 genus. We also learn from the same work that M. Fontanier, 

 a geologist sent into the Levant by the French government, had 

 visited the district where the plant grows spontaneously, and 

 transmitted a drawing, together with specimens of the herb and 

 gum, to the museum of natural history at Paris. M. Fontanier 

 was informed that the plant grows likewise in Khorassan. 



In the appendix to the first volume of the transactions of the 

 Medical Society of Calcutta, p. 369. is an extract of a letter ad- 

 dressed to Dr. Wallich by Lieut. -Colonel Kennett, accompanied 

 by a rude figure of the plant, which yields the gum-Ammonia- 

 cum, of which the following is a copy : " I have the pleasure to 

 forward you a drawing and description of Oshac, a Persian 

 plant that produces the gum Ammoniac. It was procured by 

 Capt. Hart, of the 5th battalion Bombay native regiment, whilst 

 on sick certificate in Persia ; and understanding it was a deside- 

 ratum in botany, he has requested me to send it to you in his 

 name. It is to be regretted that Capt. Hart did not know 

 enough of botany to give a particular description of the plant, 



