128 FERULA GALBANIFLUA 



the short stiffly reflexed styles, mericarps surrounded by a thin 

 flat wing, varying in width from not more than ^ to quite \ the 

 whole width of the fruit, greyish-yellow, smooth, ribs very slender, 

 prominent, vittse solitary in each groove, wide, swollen, in the 

 commissure either absent,* or more frequently two, small and 

 narrow. Embryo small, with ovate blunt cotyledons. (We have 

 not seen the flowers, the above description of them is taken from 

 the writings of M. Boissier, quoted below.) 



Habitat. This plant was originally found by Dr. Buhse in 

 1847 or 1848 at the foot and on the slopes, between 4000 and 

 8000 feet, of Demavend, a mountain to the north-east of Teheran^ 

 Northern Persia, and on the neighbouring hills at Kuschkak and 

 Churchura, flowering and fruiting in June; What is considered 

 by Boissier to be the same plant was also collected in 1858 by 

 Bunge, near Sebsewar, between Schahrud and Nischapur, in 

 Khorassan. This latter, of which we have seen only ripe fruit and 

 dry stems, appears to be more robust than Buhse's plant; from 

 which it also slightly differs in the larger and more orange-coloured 

 mericarps, which are rather obovate and twisted, and possess a 

 wider wing and invariably (?) 2 narrow vittas in the commissure ) 

 the specimens are covered with the exuded yellow gum-resin 

 abundantly. For examples of both plants we are indebted to 

 the courtesy of M. Boissier, of Geneva. 



Ferula rubricaulisj Boiss,, is, according to Borszczow, also a 

 source of Galbanum. This plant has been collected in the 

 Kuhdaena mountains of South Persia by Kotschy, and in Dalmkuh 

 in Northern Persia by Aucher-Eloy, and, no doubt, occurs else- 

 where in the same country. It is drawn from authentic speci-^ 

 mens in Berg and Schmidt's work, t. 31 b, under the name 

 F. crubescensj Boiss. Boissier places it in a different section 

 (Scorodosma) of the genus Ferula to the plant above described, in 

 consequence of the vittae being indistinct and numerous instead of 

 solitary in the grooves ; the petals are also somewhat broader, 

 oblong-ovate or oval. Borszczow, on the contrary, unites the 



* M. Boissier describes the commissure as without vittse in this species; 

 but this is far from constantly the case in the fruits examined by us. 



