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PROFESSOR BALFOUR ON THE ASAFG@TIDA PLANT. 365 
This, however, was not necessary. The plant was thus protected from the 
effects both of very high winds and of cold. On the 13th April, or in about forty- 
five days, it had attained the height of 7 feet 8 inches. From the 2d to 13th 
April, the total growth was 30 inches. The first anther was obse rved fully 
developed at 11 a.m. on 7th April, and in the course of that day the anthers 
expanded by hundreds. The plant produced about forty-five compound umbels, 
some of which were 5 to 6 inches across. The plant progressed well and yielded 
a large quantity of fruit, which has been partly distributed to botanic gardens in 
various parts of the country, and has also been sent, by request, to M. DEcAISNE, 
of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris; to M. PLANcHoN and M. Cuartes Martins, 
at Montpellier; to Dr Recent, St Petersburg; and to M. Van Hourre at Ghent. 
The seeds of this plant germinated freely in the Edinburgh garden in the spring 
of 1860. 
The Asafoetida plant belongs to the Natural Order Umbelliferze, Section 
Peucedanez, and to the Class Pentandria, order Digynia of Linnazus. The 
plant was referred by Linnzus to his Genus Ferula, but Dr Fauconer thinks 
that the character of the vittze, combined with the obsolete limb of the calyx, 
and the absence of any involucre are sufficient to constitute a new genus, 
which he has named Narthex, from the word »%e672, applied by Dioscoripes to a 
species of Merula (Dioscord. lib. ili. cap. 75). Hooker and Bennerr, however, 
consider the characters of the vittze of little value, when unaccompanied with 
others of importance. The former says,—“ The number and length of the vittz 
vary extremely in the specimens examined. The habit of the species is entirely 
the same with that of various Ferulas, which themselves vary greatly in habit 
and vittze. We may add, that the individual species or varieties further differ 
in the smoothness or pubescence of their leaflets, their entire or serrated margins, 
in the shape of the mericarps, and in the position of the smaller umbels of male 
flowers, which are often extra-axillary. Plants growing in arid climates (and, like 
the Narthex, on the borders of moist ones) are eminently variable, both as to 
sensible properties, form of organs, and habit; and we suspect that the discre- 
pancies between the specimens and descriptions of several of the plants yielding 
Asafoetida may be attributed to climate.’’* 
The following are the generic characters,;—Calycis margo obsoletus, vel 
5-denticulatus. Petala oblonga, apice unica inflexa. Stylopodium, plicato-urceo- 
latum. Siyli, reflexi. Fructus, a dorso plano-compressus, margine dilatato. 
Mericarpia, jugis primariis 5, 3 intermediis filiformibus, 2 lateralibus obsoletiori- 
bus margini contiguis immersis. Vditw, in valleculis dorsalibus. plerumque 
solitarize (lateralibus nunc 13—23 vittatis) ; commissuralibus 0—6, variis. Semen, 
complanatum. Genus inter Peucedaneas, fructiis vittis magnis, commissurali- 
busque inzequalibus, et involucro utroque nullo distinctum. 
* Hooker, loc. cit. + Fatconer, in Linn. Trans.xx. 285. 
VOL. XXII. PART I. 5B 
