APIACEJE OR UMBELLIFER^E. 



erect, taper, smooth, with concave membranous sheaths. Lower 

 branches alternate, middle ones verticillate. Rays of the general umbel 

 20-30, of the partial 10-20. Involucres 0. Flowers in the sessile 

 umbel fertile, in the stalked ones sterile. Hope and Sprengel. This 

 plant is said by Willdenow, Sprengel, and Fee, to produce Sagapenum, 

 but without sufficient evidence. Michaux sent its fruit from Persia as 

 of Asafcetida. Nees and Ebermaier regard it as one of the plants 

 yielding the latter substance, and probably with justice. 



99. F. orientalis Linn, sp.pl. 356. Tournef. voyage ii. 154. 

 De Cand. prodr. iv. 173. Fashook Jackson Morocc. t. 7. ? 

 Ferula ammonifera Lemery diet, des dr. Fee cours. ii. 198. 

 'A/A/xavta/co'y (the drug) * Ayaa-vM.lt, (the plant) Discorid. Asia 

 Minor, Greece ; perhaps the empire of Morocco. 



Root large, as thick as the arm. Stem 3 feet high, 1| inch thick, 

 purplish. Lower leaves very large, downy, 5 or 6 times pinnated, the 

 principal pinnae naked at the base; all bright green, setaceous; the 

 upper stem-leaves smaller, with a sheathing inflated stalk of unusual 

 size. Flowers yellow. Involucres subulate. Fruit oblong, or ellip- 

 tical, brownish, bitter, oily. What is supposed to be this plant yields 

 in the state of Morocco a gum resin similar to Ammoniacum ; whence 

 it has been thought to be really the origin of that substance, and I 

 think with good reason, so far as the drug of Dioscorides is concerned ; 

 for certainly there is no ground whatever for regarding Ammoniacum a 

 corruption of Armeniacum, as Professor Don supposes; Dioscor- 

 ides expressly points to the meaning of the word when he says, ytwarai 

 ck iv Atvy Kara *Ap,[j,wva. Mr. Don seems however to have produced 

 evidence of the Ammoniacum of the shops being obtained from a Per- 

 sian plant. See Dorema. 



100. F. hooshee Beloochistan. 



Fruit obovate, 9 lines long, with the dorsal ridges distinctly elevated, 

 the lateral more depressed, but evident and within the margin. Vittae 

 of each channel 3, of the commissure 8-10. " Resembles the F. asa- 

 foetida in size and appearance, and has a gum, but it is not collected ; 

 it is called Hooshee, and resembles the Opoponax of the European 

 shops." Mrs. MacneiWs letter March 1833. Apparently very near 

 F. Szovitziana, but its seed is smaller in proportion to the fruit, and it 

 has a distinct smell of asafcetida, which the former has not. This is 

 what is referred to in Professor Royle's Illustrations p. 231. as 

 resembling Opoponax ; not however in the structure of the fruit, but 

 in the quality of the produce. 



101. F. ferulago Linn. sp. pi 356. DC. prodr. iv. 171. 

 F. nodiflora Jacq. austr. app. t. 5. F. galbanifera Lob. 

 Nees and Eberm. iii. 49. Coasts of the Mediterranean, Tran- 

 sylvania, Galicia, the Caucasus. 



Stem terete, striated. Leaves supra-decompound with pinnatifid 

 divaricating segments, and linear cuspidate lobes. Leaflets of involucre 

 numerous, oblong-lanceolate, reflexed. Rays of general umbel about 

 12, of the partial umbels rather more. Fruit 6 lines long, obovate; 

 the three dorsal ridges thick and elevated, the lateral ones less distinct, 

 the margin somewhat thickened. Vittae indefinite in number on both 

 sides the fruit, very slender. Yields abundantly a gum-resinous 



46 



