PIa?ii yielding Ala fcstlda. -^^ 



**' thinks never was cultivated in any European garden, and 

 *' which nobody has been fo fortunate as to raife from feed but 

 *' himfelf, though the feeds fent to the Academy from the 

 ** mountains of Ghilan in Perfia had been diftributed among 

 ** feveral curious perfons." 



Both thefe roots were planted in the open ground, in the 

 Botanic Garden at Edinburgh ; one died ; the other after fome 

 time did well, and lafl fummer flowered and produced feed. I 

 had an accurate drawing of the plant made by IVIr. Fife, which 

 I now have the pleafure of laying before the Society. It ex- 

 preifes very well the general habit of the plant, which was of 

 a pale fea-green colour, and grew to the height of three 

 feet. The ftem is deciduous, but the root is perennial. 

 Every part of the plant, when wounded, poured out a rich 

 milky juice, refembling In fmell and tafte Afa foetlda ; and at 

 times a fmell refembling garllck, fuch as a faint impregnation 

 of Afa foetida yields, was perceivable at the diftance of feveral 

 feet. 



In Perfia, at the proper feafon, the root is cut over once and 

 again ; from the incifions there flows a thick juice like cream, 

 which, thickened, is the Afa foetida. 



I have only further to obferve, that as the plant grows in 

 the open air, without protedion, and even in an unfavourable 

 feafon produced a good deal of feed, and as the juice feems to 

 be of the fame nature with the officinal Afa foetida, there i» 

 fome reafon to hope, that it may become an article of cultiva* 

 tion in this country of no inconfiderable importance, 



Edinburgh, Jan. 1783. 





