326 



MEDICAL BOTANY. 



being sown, produced this plant. In this he is followed by Nees and Eber- 

 maier; but as the Galbanum of commerce is principally imported from India 

 and the Levant, the ports of which it reaches by way of the Persian Gulf, it 

 is almost certain that it has another origin. (See Galbanum.) Pereira (ii. 

 490) describes the African gum as very like the Persian, except in odour. 



In addition to the above, several other species of Ferula have been noticed 

 as affording analogous products ; thus the F. hooshee of Upper India yields a 

 gum resembling Opoponax (Lindley, Fl. Med. 46) ; and the F. glauca of the 

 Levant abounds in an acrid, lactescent juice, of a strong odour. 



Narthex. — Falconer. 



Margin of calyx obsolete. Petals ? Stylopodium plicate-urceolate. Styles filiform, 

 finally reflexed. Fruit plano-convex, with a dilated border. Mericarps with 5 primary 

 ridges ; the 3 intermediate ones filiform, the 2 lateral obsolete, immersed in the con- 

 tiguous margin. Vittae in the dorsal furrows usually single ; in the commissures 4 — 6, 

 unequal and variable.' Seed flat. Carpophore bipartite. 



This genus was established, by Dr. Falconer, on the Ferula assafoetida^ 

 Linn., from a careful investigation of wild specimens and cultivated plants. 

 It certainly differs in many essential characters from Ferula, and appears 

 to be distinct and well marked. The above characters and the ensuing de- 

 scription of the only species yet discovered of it, are extracted from Dr. Fal- 

 coner's remarks, as published by Dr. Royle [Mat. Med. 407, et seq.) 



N. assafostida. — Stem simple, terete. Radical leaves fasciculated. Petioles trifurcate. 

 Divisions bipinnatisect. Leaf segments linear-ligulate, obtuse, unequilateral, entire, sinu- 

 ate, de current. 



Ferula assafaztida, Linn., Mat. Med. 79; De Candolle, Prod. iv. 173; 



Lindley, Flor. Med. 45 ; Assafxtida disgunensis, Ksempfer, Amocn. Exol. 



535. 



Description. — Peren- 

 Fig. 156. nial. Root simple, or 



divided, fusiform, large, 

 with a dark-grayish, 

 transversely corrugated 

 bark ; the upper part 

 above the soil, covered 

 with dark, hair-like, fi- 

 brous processes, which 

 are the persistent exuvias 

 of former years ; cortical 

 portion tough and thick, 

 white or ash-coloured 

 when cut, easily separa- 

 ble from the central part, 

 and with it abounding in 

 a milky, opaque, very 

 foetid, alliaceous juice. 

 Stem erect, simple, te- 

 rete, striate, solid, the 

 spongy medulla tra- 

 versed by bundles of 

 tough, fibrous vessels ; 

 the surface invested with 

 N. assafcetida. the remains of persistent 



leafless petioles. Leaves 



