TJMBBLLIFER2E. 



185 



serious accidents.^ T. Asclepium,'^ a Levant species, doubtless also 

 acts as an irritant and substitutive when employed, as it was by the 

 ancients, to reduce and modify obstinate ulcers. T. villosa ' has the 

 same properties as the two preceding species ; the Moors use its 

 root as a drastic* From all these species gum-resins can be 

 extracted which operate like the plant itself. What are called in 

 therapeutics the five gu7n-resins of the Umbellifers are furnished 

 chiefly by the Ferulas. The first, Asafoetida,^ notorious for its 

 repulsive odour and antispasmodic properties, was formerly extracted 

 in Persia from the root of Peucedanum Asafoetida^ (^g. 87). That 

 imported from India by England is from P. Narthex,'^ and it is thought 

 that a certain quantity of this drug may be furnished in Persia by P. 

 alliacea,^ in Songaria by F. teterrima^ and by other species. Galhanuin,^^ 

 accounted stimulant and expectorant and entering into the composi- 

 tion of certain healing and adhesive plasters, was formerly attributed 

 to plants of the genera Galhanum ^^ and Opoidia ; ^^ it is now believed to 

 be produced in Persia and neighbouring countries from P. galhcuiifluum}^ 



1 The utmost precaution should be taken 

 against those wlio sell this plant under the 

 name of Silphium cyrenaicum. Either their 

 preparations contain only an inert extract, of 

 variable origin, or they contain the true resin 

 of Thapsia garganica which is extremely irri- 

 tant. ViviANi {Fl. Lyb. 17) believed that the 

 Silphium cyrenaicum of the ancients, about 

 which there has been so much discussion, was 

 a Thapsia, and De Candolle, following the 

 opinion of Gussone, made it a var. 7 of T. gar- 

 ganica. Others think that there was, in Cyre- 

 naica, a valuable plant similar to that which 

 gives the Asafoetida, especially in habit, inflo- 

 rescence and probably also in properties, but 

 which has now disappeared from that country. 



2 L. Spec. 375.— SiBTH. Fl. Grccc. t. 286.— 

 Guss. Frodr. FL Sic. i. 370.— DC. Frodr. n. 3.— 

 Eosexth. op. cit. 550. 



3L. Spec. 375.— Lamk. III. t. 206.— DC. Fl. 

 Franc;, iv. 342 ; Prodr. n. 2.— Gren. et Godk. 

 Fl. de Fr. i. 679.— Rosenth. op. cit. 550. 



^ Cited as having the same properties are T. 

 maxima Mill, and foetida L. from southern 

 Europe. The root of Ourivali, employed in 

 Portugal as an antidiarrhoetic, has been attri- 

 buted to a Thapsia (Rosenth. op. cit. 551). 



* GuiB. Ifc. cit. 239.— Pereira, Flcm. Mat. 

 Med. ed. 4, ii. p. ii. 175.— H. Bn. Diet. Encycl. 



Sc. Med. vi. 409. — FLiicK. et Haxb. Phanna- 

 cogr. 280. 



6 Ferula Jsa-foetida L. Mat. Med. 79.— DC. 

 Proc^r. iv. 173, n. 18. — Borscz. Pharmac. 

 Ferul. t. 1, 2.— Boiss. Fl. Or. ii. 994.— H. Bn. 

 Bict.Fneycl. Sc. Med. ser. 4, i. 730. — Asa-foetida 

 disgunensis K^empf. Amoen. Exot. 335, tab. — 

 Scorodosma fcetidum Bge. PI. Lehm. 309 (Sassyk- 

 Kurai or Karai of the Kirghiz, Kawar of the 

 Bokhares) . 



' Boiss. Fl. Or. ii. £94. — Narthex Assafcetida 

 Falc. Trans. Linn. Soc. xx. 285 ; Bot. Mag. t. 

 5168.— H. Bn. Diet. Encycl. Sc. Med. ser. 4, i. 

 "iZl.— Ferula Asa fc&tida B H. Gen. 918 (not L.) 

 {Sif.^ Sup, Anjoodan). 



* Ferula alliacea Boiss. Fl. Or. ii. 995. — F. 

 Assa-fcetida Boiss. et Bvusb, Jufz. 100 (notL.), 

 {Angusch, Yandebuy). 



3 Kar. et Kir. Enum. Fl. in Song. Or. 94, n. 

 177. — Fluck. et Hanb. Pharmacogr. 281. — H. 

 Bn. Diet. Encycl. Sc. Med. ser. 4, i. 737. 



'» GuiB. loc. cit. 248. — Fluck. et Hanb. 

 Pharmacogr. 285. 



11 Don, Trans. Linn. Soc. xvi. 603 (see p. 171, 

 note 12, 30). 



12 Lindl. Bot. Reg. (1839) Misc. 66 (see p. 171, 

 note 12, 40). 



1' Ferula galbanijlua Boiss. et Buhse, Aufz. 

 99.— Boiss. Fl. Or. ii. 988.— H. Bn. Diet. Encycl. 



