﻿4!0 ON THE SPIKENARD 



not a part of it, and received its Sanscrit names 

 from its resemblance to locks of hair ; as it is called 

 Spikenard, I suppose, from its resemblance to a spike 

 when it is dried, and not from the configuration of its 

 flowers, which the Greeks, probably, never examined. 

 The Persian author describes the whole plant as re- 

 sembling the tail of an ermine ; and the Jatamansi, 

 which is manifestly the Spikenard of our druggists, 

 has precisely that form, consisting of withered stalks 

 and ribs of leaves, cohering in a bundle of yellowish 

 brown capillary fibres, and constituting a spike about 

 the size of a small" finger. We may, on the whole, 

 be assured, that the nardus of Ptolemy, the Indian 

 Sumbul of the Persians and Arabs, the Jatamansi of 

 the Hindus, and the Spikenard of our shops, ufi one 

 and the same plant ; but to what class and genus it 

 belongs in the Linnean system, can only be ascei :ained 

 by an inspection of the fresh blossoms. Dr. Patrick 

 Russel, who always communicates with obliging fa- 

 cility his extensive and accurate knowledge, informed 

 me by letter, that " Spikenard is carried over the de- 

 " sert" (from I ndia, I presume) " to Aleppo, where 

 " it is used in substance, mixed with other perfumes, 

 *' and worn in small bags, or in the form of essence, 

 *' and kept in little boxes or phials, like atar of roses." 

 He is persuaded, and so am I, that the Indian nard 

 of the antients and that of our shops, is one and the 

 same vegetable. 



Though diligent researches have been made at my 

 request on the borders of Bengal and Behar, yet the 

 Jatamansi has not been found growing in any part of 

 the British territories, Mr. Saunders, who met with 

 it in Bntan, where, as he was informed, it is very 

 common, and whence it is brought in a dry state 

 to Rangpur, has no hesitation in pronouncing it a 

 species of the Baccharis ; and, since it is not pos- 

 sible that he could mistake the natural order and 



