SPIKENARD OF THE ANTIENTS. Ill 



makes it extend to the river Indus, and then infers, 

 from the long march westward and the distresses of 

 Alexander's army, subsequent to the discovery of 

 the. spikenard, that it must have grown in the more 

 eastern part of the desert, and consequently on the 

 very borders of India ; but, even if we allow Gadro- 

 sia, or Gadrosis, to have been the same track of land 

 with Mar can (though the limits of all the provinces 

 in Persia have been considerably changed) yet the 

 fiontier of India could never with any propriety be 

 carried so far to the west; for not only the Qritce 

 and Arab l ice ; but, according to Mela, the whole 

 province of Ariana were between Gadrosis and the 

 Indus \ and, though Mac-ran (for so the word should 

 be written ) may have been annexed to India by such 

 whimsical geographers as the Turks, who give the 

 name of White Indians to the Persians of Arachosia, 

 and of Yellow Indians to the Arabs of Yemen, yet the 

 river Indus, with the countries of Sind and Mditarz 

 on both sides of it, has ever been considered by the 

 Persians and Arabs as the western limit of Hind or 

 India ; and Arrian himself expressly nam:s the In- 

 dus as its known boundary. Let Gadrosis, however, 

 be Macran, and let Macidm be an Indian province, 

 yet it never could have been a remote part of India in 

 respect of Europe or Egypt, and, consequently, v. 

 not meant by Gale n and D i o s c o r i d e s , when they 

 described the true spikenard. It must be admitted, 

 that, i f the Siree of R u M p h i u s , w hi th d i lie rs little 

 from the nardus of Garcias, which corresponds for 

 the most part with the new Andropog>m y was ever 



brought 



