﻿412 ON THE SPIKENARD 



Jatarnansi of Nepal, which I now must introduce to 

 your acquaintance, the question with which I began 

 this essay will be satisfactorily answered. 



Having traced the Indian Spikenard, by the name 

 of Jatamansi, to the mountains of Nepal, T requested 

 my friend Mr. Law, who then resided at Goya, to 

 procure some of the recent plants by the means of the 

 Nepakse pilgrims ; who, being orthodox Hindus, and 

 possessing many rare books in the Sanscrit language, 

 were more likely than the Butias to know the true 

 Jatarnansi, by which name they generally distinguish 

 it. Many young plants wer, accordingly sent to Gaya, 

 with a. Persian letter specifically naming them, and 

 apparently written by a man of rank and literature ; so 

 that no suspicion of deception or of error can. be justly 

 entertained. By a mistake of the gardener they were 

 #// planted at Gaya, where they have blossomed, and 

 at first seemed to flourish, F must therefore, describe 

 the Jatarnansi from the report of Mr. Burt, who fa- 

 voured me with a drawing of it, andjn whose accu- 

 racy we may perfectly confide; but, before I produce 

 the description, 1 must endeavour to remove a preju- 

 dice, in regard to the natural order of the Spikenard, 

 which they, who are addicted to swear by every word 

 of their master Linrueus, will hardly abandon, and 

 which I, who love truth better than him, have aban- 

 doned with some reluctance. Nard has been gene- 

 rally supposed to be 2. grass; and the word stachys or 

 spike, which agrees wuh the habit of that natural or- 

 der, gave rise, perhaps, to the supposition. There 

 is a plant in Java, which most travellers and some 

 physicians call spikenard ; and the Governor of Chin- 

 sura, who is kindly endeavouring to procure it thence 

 in a state fit for examination, writes me word, that a 

 il Dutch author pronounces it a grass like the Cypiras, 

 " but insists that what we call the spike is the fibrous 

 W part above the root, as long as a man's little finger, 



