1858.] SPIKENARD. 437 



Clatterbatch and the Warden hills during all that time, and for 

 a long previous period. I could not perceive the least difference 

 between those growing in the dry woods and those growing 

 alongside the rills that flowed from the hills, or under the hedges, 

 or by the waysides and thoroughfares of the valleys. In both 

 habitats the plants were equally rough and bushy. Many years 

 ago I noticed a slender and smooth variety of Cardamine hirsuta 

 or sylvatica in dry sandy woods of West Surrey, very different 

 in habit from our Worcester acquaintance. The Surrey plants 

 never assumed the bushy appearance of the Clent plants, and as 

 they were early flowerers few of them survived the month of 

 April. The branchy form of the plant continued in flower in the 

 vales of Surrey all the summer. Has any reader of the ' Phyto- 

 logist' any remarks by him on these two forms, or spare speci- 

 mens of them in his herbarium ? Either would be very accept- 

 able to the subscriber. I. 



SPIKENAED. 



" Then Mary took a pound of ointment of Spikenard, very costly, and anointed 

 the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair : and the house was filled with 

 the odour of the ointment." — Jo7m xii. 3. 



The marginal note to Bagster's Comprehensive Bible, on 

 Spikenard, is as follows : — " Spikenard is a highly aromatic 

 plant, growing in India, whence was made a very valuable un- 

 guent or perfume, used at the ancient baths and feasts. It is 

 identified by Sir W. Jones with the Surubul of the Persians and 

 Arabs, and Jatamansi of the Hindoos; and he considers it a 

 species of the Valerian, of the Triandria Monogynia class of 

 plants. The root is from three to twelve inches long, fibrous, 

 sending up above the earth between thirty and forty ears or 

 spikes, from which it has its name. Stem, lower part perennial, 

 upper parts herbaceous, suberect, simple, from six to twelve 

 inches long; leaves entire, smooth, fourfold, the inner radical 

 pair petioled, cordate, the rest sessile and lanceolate ; pericarp 

 a single seed, crowned with a pappus." 



Whether the above is correct or not I cannot say, but I think 

 the following, from Dr. Pickering's [Prichard's ?] ' Races of Man,' 

 is important : — " With respect to the Nard or ' Spikenard^ of 



