642 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [ANNO 1785. 



pects from those now presented to the Society.* Six years ago, I received from 

 Dr. Guthrie, of St. Petersburg, 2 roots of the asafoetida, with the following 

 card from Dr. Pallas, addressed to Dr. Guthrie : " Dr. Pallas's compliments to 

 Dr. Guthrie; he sends him 2 roots of the ferula asafoetida, a plant which he 

 thinks never was cultivated in any European garden, and which nobody has been 

 so fortunate as to raise from seed but himself, though the seeds sent to the Aca- 

 demy from the mountains of Ghilan in Persia had been distributed among several 

 curious persons." 



Both these roots were planted in the open ground, in the Botanic Garden at 

 Edinburgh; one died; the other after some time did well, and last summer 

 flowered and produced seed. The plant was of a pale sea-green colour, and grew 

 to the height of 3 feet. The stem is deciduous, but the root is perennial. 

 Every part of the plant, when wounded, poured out a rich milky juice, resem- 

 bling in smell and taste asafoetida; and at times a smell resembling garlick, such 

 as a faint impregnation of asafoetida yields, was perceivable at the distance of 

 several feet. In Persia, at the proper season, the root is cut over once and again ; 

 from the incisions there flows a thick juice like cream, which, hardened, is the 

 asafoetida. As the plant grows in the open air, without protection, and even in 

 an unfavourable season produced a good deal of seed, and as the juice seems to 

 be of the same nature with the officinal asafoetida, there is some reason to hope, 

 that it may become an article of cultivation in this country of no inconsiderable 

 importance. 



VI. Catalogue of Double Stars. By IVm. Herschel, Esq. F. R. S. p. 40. 



The great use of double stars having been already pointed out in a former 

 paper, on the parallax of the fixed stars, and in a latter one, on the motion of 

 the solar system, I have now drawn up a 2d collection of 434 more, which I 

 have found out since the first was delivered. The happy opportunity of giving 

 all my time to the pursuit of astronomy, which it has pleased the royal patron of 

 this society to furnish me with, has put it in my power to make the present collec- 

 tion much more perfect than the former ; almost every double star in it having 

 the distance and position of its 2 stars measured by proper micrometers ; and the 

 observations have been much oftener repeated. The method of classing them 

 is in every respect the same as that which has been used in the first collection; 

 for which reason I refer to the introductory remarks that have been given with 



* Trobably Kaempfer's asafoetida plant is a different species from that described by Dr. Hope in this 

 paper. Knempfer was himself on the mountains where the drug is collected, and his fidelity in de- 

 scribing, as well as delineating, has not hitherto been impeached. Sanguis Draconis, and some other 

 gums, are indifferently the produce of various species of plants ; and why may not asafoetida be simi- 

 larly circumstanced? Jos. Banks. — Orig. 



