SPIKENARD OF THE ANTIENTS. 1 19 



cial agents of the Devardja call it also Pampi; and, by 

 their account, the dried specimens which look like 

 the tails of ermine.., rise from the ground, resembling 

 ears of green wheat, both in form and colour : a fact 

 wHch perfectly accounts for the names Stachys, Spica, 

 Sumbut, and Khushah, which Greeks, Romans, Arabs, 

 and Persians have given to the drug, though it is 

 not properly a spike, and not merely a root, but the 

 whole plant, which the natives gather for sale, before 

 the radical leaves, of which the fibres only remain 

 after a few months, have unfolded themselves from 

 the base of the stem. It is used, say the Butan 

 agents, as a perfume, and in medicinal unguents, but 

 with other fragrant substances, the scent and power 

 of which it is thought to increase : as a medicine, 

 they add, it is principally esteemed for complaints in 

 the bowels. Though considerable quantities of 

 Jatamdnsi are brought in the caravans from Butan y 

 yet the living plants, by a law of the country, can- 

 not be exported without a licence from the sove- 

 reign ; and the late Mr. Purling, on receiving this 

 intelligence, obligingly wrote, for my satisfaction, to 

 the Devardja, requesting him to send eight or ten 

 of the plants to Rangpur : ten were accordingly 

 sent in pots from Tasisudan 9 with as many of the 

 natives to take care of them, under a chief, who 

 brought a written answer from the Rdjd of Butan ; 

 but that prince made a great merit of having com- 

 plied with such a request ; and my friend had the 

 trouble of entertaining; the messenger and his train 

 for several weeks in his own house, which they seem 

 to have left with reluctance. An account of this 

 transaction was contained in one of the last letters 



1 4 that 



