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XIV.—Description of Asafetida Plants (Narthex Asafoetida, Falconer) hich 
have recently borne Flowers and Fruit in the Royal Botanic Garden of Edin- 
burgh. By J. H. Batrour, A.M., M.D., F.R.SS. L. and E. (With two Plates, 
XX. and XXI.) 
(Read 30th April 1860.) 
_ By means of my correspondents abroad, and more particularly through the 
kind offices of Dr Curisrison, I have been enabled from time to time to cultivate 
in the Botanic Garden some of the rarer plants of the Materia Medica. Several 
of these, such as the Jalap plant, the Quassia, and the Aconituin ferox, have been 
already described and figured by me. The present is an interesting addition, and 
at the suggestion of Dr Curistison I have brought it under the notice of the 
Royal Society. 
Since the time of K.amprer, who visited Persia in 1687, Asafoetida has been 
known to be the produce of an umbelliferous plant. The name is derived from 
Asa, the Persian word for a staff or cane, with the addition of a Latin word 
indicating its odour. Some suppose that Asa is a corruption of the word Laser 
or Lasar, used by Piixy to indicate the plant. Several plants have been supposed 
to yield this article of Materia Medica, and it is probable that it is furnished by 
at least two distinct species of ferula :—1. Ferula Asafeetida of Linnzeus, or Nar- 
thex Asafotida of Falconer; and 2. Ferula persica of Willdenow. Both these 
plants have been cultivated in this country for some time. Two roots of the 
latter plant were sent to Edinburgh in 1778, by Dr Gururie of St Petersburg, 
as the true Asafcetida plant. They had been collected by Pauuas, on the moun- 
tains of the province of Ghilan, on the southern border of the Caspian, in the north- 
west of Persia. Both roots were planted by Dr Joun Horr, Professor of Botany, 
in the open ground of the Edinburgh Botanic Garden. One of them died, but the 
other bore flowers and fruit. A drawing was made of the plant by Mr Fire, 
which was published in the 75th volume of the “ Philosophical Transactions of 
the Royal Society of London,” along with a description of the plant by Dr Horr. 
Ferula persica is figured in “ Curtis’s Botanical Magazine,” plate 2096. The 
plant has flowered and fruited frequently in Britain. The former species, or the 
F. Asafetida of Linnzeus, had never done so in any part of Europe till the year 
1858, when two specimens flowered in the Botanic Garden here. This species 
was found by K amprer, growing in the province of Laristan towards the Persian 
Gulf, not far from Gambroon, and near the territory and town of Disguun; and 
he also states that the plant grows on the eastern confines of Persia, in the pro- 
vince of Khorassan near Herat. Kauprer speaks of it as ‘‘ Umbellifera Levistico 
affinis, foliis instar Peeonia ramosis; caule pleno, maximo; semine foliaceo, nudo, 
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