558 



FES 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



FES 



The florets of the sessile umbel are fertile, of the peduncled 

 umbel mostly abortive ; petals equal, flat, ovate, at first 

 spreading, then reflex, with the tip ascending; filamenta 

 awl-shaped, longer than the corolla, curved in; antherac 

 roundish ; fruit oblong. Every part of the plant, when 

 wounded, pours out a rich milky juice, resembling the im- 

 ported drug in smell and taste; and at times a smell like 

 garlic, such as a faint impregnation of Assa-foetida yields, was 

 perceivable at the distance of several feet. Assa-foetida is the 

 concrete juice of the root, and is procured by the peasants 

 who live in the neighbourhood of the mountains of Persia, in 

 the province of Chorasan and Laar. It seldom flowers till it 

 arrives at twenty or thirty years of age ; and when it does, 

 and has ripened its seeds, the plant perishes. In the latter 

 end of April, when the leaves begin to decay, the Persians 

 go in search of the plants, and after having cleared away the 

 earth from the roots, to the depth of six or seven inches, they 

 twist off the leaves, and then earth up the root again nearly 

 to the top, which they cover with weeds, in order to keep 

 off the heat of the sun, that would otherwise greatly preju- 

 dice, if not totally destroy it. In this state they leave the 

 plant for the space of a month or six weeks ; at the end of 

 which time they take away the covering, and with a sharp 

 knife cut about an inch in length from off the top of the 

 root. They then cover the wounded root again with weeds, 

 and leave it for two or three days ; at which time they return, 

 and find the wound covered with the exudated juice of 

 the root ; this they carefully gather, and preserve in vessels. 

 They then clear away the earth a little lower from the root, 

 cut a second slice from its top, and cover it up again with 

 weeds for another gathering; which having made, they 

 cover them up for eight or ten days more, and during this 

 time they spread the gum which they have already collected 

 in the sun to harden, and then carry it home. Four or five 

 men generally go in a company, for the purpose of collecting 

 this gum, and it is no uncommon thing for them to carry 

 home forty or fifty pounds weight at each excursion they 

 make. When the roots have remained covered up eight or 

 ten days, they pay them another visit, take off the weeds, 

 and collect the gum. They then cut another slice from the 

 roots, and after that a third ; this is done at the distance of 

 two or three days betwixt the times of cutting, and the 

 whole process is managed as in the first gathering 1 . When 

 they have thus made their third collection in this second 

 expedition, they cover up the roots again for three or four 

 days, and return home with their stores. They then return, 

 and cut them three several times as before, after which they 

 leave them to perisli. Assa-foetida is well known by its pecu- 

 liarly nauseous fetid smell, the strength of which is the 

 surest test of its goodness : this odour is extremely volatile, 

 and of course the drug loses much of its efficacy in keeping. 

 It is imported in large irregular masses, composed of various 

 shining little lumps or grains, partly whitish, partly brownish 

 or reddish, and partly of a violet hue : those are accounted 

 the best which are clear, of a pale reddish colour, and varie- 

 gated with many fine white tears. It is a gummy resin, but 

 has the gum in largest quantity. This drug is an excellent 

 medicine in all nervous and hysteric disorders. It removes 

 flatulencies, helps the colic, promotes the menses, expels 

 the after-birth, and is a powerful sudorific. It is likewise 

 serviceable in asthmatic and hypochondriacal complaints, con- 

 vulsions, and other fits. Joined with opium, it considerably di- 

 minishes the efficacy of that narcotic drug ; and applied ex- 

 ternally in form of a plaster, it softens and disperses hard 

 swellings. Though Assa-foatida has been used in medicine for 

 many ages, having been introduced by the Arabian physicians 



nearly a thousand years ago, yet there was no satisfactory ac- 

 count of the plant which produces it, until Keempfer described 

 and figured it in his Amcenitates Exotica;, published in J712. 

 Kaempfer travelled over a great part of Asia, towards the end 

 of the last century, and was in Persia, upon the spot where 

 this drug is collected ; where it is called Hingisch. His 

 plant differs in many respects from that above described; and 

 as his fidelity has never been impeached, we must conclude 

 that this gum, like many others, is the produce of more than 

 one species. According to Keempfer's account, the root of the 

 Assa-foetida is perennial, tapering, ponderous, increasing to 

 the size of a man's arm or leg, covered with a blackish bark, 

 and near the top beset with many strong rigid fibres : the in- 

 ternal substance is white, fleshy, and abounds with a thick 

 milky juice, yielding an excessively strong, fetid, alliaceous 

 smell : stem simple, erect, straight, round, smooth, striated, 

 herbaceous, six or seven inches in circumference at the base, 

 and rising luxuriantly to the height of two or three yards or 

 more; root-leaves six or seven, nearly two feet long, bipin- 

 nate ; pinnules alternate, smooth.variously sinuated, lobed, and 

 sometimes lanceolate, of a deep green colour, and fetid smell; 

 umbels compound, plano-convex, terminating, many-rayed ; 

 seeds oval, flat, foliaceous, reddish-brown, rough, marked with 

 three longitudinal lines, having the garlic smell, and a sharp 

 bitter taste. It varies much from soil and situation, not only 

 in the form of the leaves, but in the quality of the juice. 



Fescue Grass. See Festuca. 



Festuca; a genus of the class Triandria, order Digynia. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: glume many-flowered, two- 

 valved, upright, containing the floscules in a slender spikelet ; 

 valves awl-shaped, acuminate, the lower smallest. Corolla : 

 two-valved, lower valve largest, of the same form with the 

 calix, but larger, roundish, acuminate, ending in a dagger- 

 point; nectary two-leaved; leaflets ovate-lanceolate, acute, 

 gibbous at the base, or one-leafed, plano-concave, horizontal, ' 

 emarginate. Stamina: filamenta three, capillary, shorter than 

 the corolla; antherse oblong. Pistil: germen turbinate; 

 styles two, short, reflex ; stigmas simple. Pericarp : none. 

 Corolla : very closely shut, growing together, and not gaping. 

 Seed: single, slender, oblong, very sharp at both ends, 

 grooved longitudinally. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: 

 two-valved; spikelet oblong, roundish, with acuminate 

 glumes. For the propagation and culture of this genus, see 

 Grass. The species are, 



1. Festuca Bromoides; Barren Fescve Grass. Panicle 

 directed to one side; spikelets upright, one valve of the calix 

 entire, the other acuminate. It is about half a foot high ; the 

 culms are inclined ; the leaves thin and smooth, the lower 

 part of them quickly drying up : the panicles branch at the 

 base ; they are composed of smooth Hatted spikelets, con- 

 taining six or seven flowers; the outer valve of the corolla 

 terminates in a long awn ; the calix has the outer base very 

 small, the inner is large, and ends in an awn like the corolla. 

 Annual : flowering in June and July. Native of England : | 

 and trance, where it is found on walls, and in sandy 

 pastun-s. 



2. Festuca Ovina; Sheep's Fescue Grass. Panicle directed 

 to one side, contracted, awned; culm four-cornered, almost 

 naked ; leaves bristle-shaped. This is a small grass, scarcely 

 exceeding six inches in height; perennial, flowering m June 

 and July. Floscules three to six in each spikelet, generally 

 acuminate, or acuminate awned ; culms somewhat angular, 

 with two or three coloured joints ; root-leaves hirsute; stem- 

 leaves smooth; lower spikelets peduncled, linear, four-flower- 

 ed, with the rudiment of a fifth ; glumes unequal, the larger 

 ovate, the smaller sharp. It is chiefly found on dry sandy 



