﻿OF THE ANTIENTS. 411 



essential character of the plant, which he examined, 

 I had no doubt that the Jatamansi was composit 

 and corymbifcrous with stamens connected by the 

 anthers, and with female prolific florets, intermixed 

 with hermaphrodites. The word Spike was not used 

 by the antients with botanical precision, and the Stachys 

 its.li is wmcillated with only two species out of fif- 

 teen, that could justify its generic appellation. I there- 

 fore concluded that the true Spikenard was a Bac- 

 charis, and that, while the philosopher had been 

 searching for it to no purpose, 



the dull swain 



Trod on it daily with his clouted shoon ; 



for the Baccharis, it seems, as well as the Conyza, is 

 called by our gardeners, Ploughman s Spikenard. I 

 suspected, nevertheless, that the plant which Mr. 

 Saunders described was not Jatamansi', because I 

 •knew that the people of Butan had no such name for 

 it, but distinguished it by very different names in dif- 

 ferent parts of their hilly country : I knew also that 

 the Butias, who set a greater value on the drug than 

 it seems, as a prefume, to merit, were extremely re- 

 served' in giving information concerning it, and might 

 be tempted, by the narrow spirit of monopoly, to 

 mislead an inquirer for the fresh plant. The friendly- 

 zeal of Mr. Purling will probably procure it in a state 

 of vegetation ; for, when he had the kindness, at my 

 desire, to make inquiries for it among the Butan mer- 

 chants, they assured him, that the living plants could 

 not be obtained without an order from their sovereign 

 the Devaraja, to whom he immediately dispatched a 

 messenger with an earnest request, that eight or ten 

 of the growing plants might be sent to him at Rang- 

 put. Should the Devaraja comply with that request, 

 and should* the vegetable flourish in the plain of Ben- 

 gal, we shall have ocular proof of its class, order, ge- 

 nus, and species ; and if it prove the same with th$ 



