Il6 ADDITIONAL REMARKS ON THE 



phoenix, which never existed, from their fancy alone; 

 and their descriptions ought not seriously to be ad- 

 duced as authorities on a question merely botanical •> 

 but, if all the naturalists of Greece and Italy had con. 

 curred in assuring us that the nard of India bore an 

 ear or spike, without naming the sourse of their own 

 information, they would have deserved no credit 

 whatever ; because not one of them pretends to 

 have seen the fresh plant ; and they have not even 

 agreed among themselves, whether its virtues resi- 

 ded in the roof, or in the husky leases and stalks that 

 were united vvith it. Pietro del la Valle, the 

 most learned and accomplished of eastern travellers, 

 does not seem to have known the Indian spikenard, 

 though he mentions it more than once by the obso- 

 lete name of Spigonaido\ but he introduces a Sumbul 

 from Khaidy or a part of China, which he had seen 

 xlrv, and endeavours to account for the Arabic name 

 in the following manner : — " Since the Khatdian 

 * c Sumbul" says he, " is not a spike, but a root, it was- 

 . " probably so named, because the word Sumbul may 

 " signify, in a large acceptation, not only the spike, 

 " but the whole plant, whatever herb or grass may be 

 i( sown; as the Arabic dictionary *, entitled Kdm'(S> 

 " appears to indicate/' The passage, to which he 



• Giacche il Sombol del Cata'io e radice e non e Sp'ga, pot rem mo 

 dire, che cosi s'i chiami, perche forse la parclaS/Wx?/ possa piu lar- 

 gamente signiiicarenon solo la spiga, ma tuttu la fianta di ogni erba 

 6 biada, che si semini ; come par, che il Camus, vocabolario Ara- 

 bico, ne dia Indizio. Lett. 18 di Baghdad, 



alludes, 



