PROFESSOR BALFOUR ON THE ASAFG@TIDA PLANT. 367 
The petioles divided in a trifurcate manner. From the axils of ‘the petioles com- 
pound umbels were produced. The largest flowering branch was 19 inches long, 
and the others varied from 6 to 12 inches. The umbels had neither involucre 
nor involucel. The rays of the general umbels varied in length from 2 to 24 
inches, and in number from thirty to fifty. Besides the fructiferous umbels, there 
were others below them which appeared first in a globular form, and the flowers 
of which were unisexual, usually male, and sterile. The peduncles bearing these 
barren umbels were very long, and they sometimes exhibited small bractlets at 
their base. Similar bractlets were seen occasionally on the other peduncles. The 
limb of the calyx was obsolete—a mere rim with five slight projections or denti- 
cular points; petals yellowish, somewhat ovate, entire, one of them with the point 
inflexed. In the barren flowers, the petals were oblique and unequal, and acute 
at the apex. Stylopode urceolate and plicate, with asinuous margin. Styles fili- 
form, at length recurved and deflexed. Fruit, with single vittz in the dorsal 
valleculz; occasionally in the lateral valleculze the vittze were more than one, 
and divided. 
The Asafoetida plant grows in a very dry climate. Besides the gum-resin, 
Fatconer states that the fruit of Narthex is imported into India from Persia and 
Affghanistan under the name of Anjoodan, being extensively employed by the 
native physicians of India. Anjoodan or Andsjudaan and Halteet are the terms 
* applied to the seed of Heengseh or Hingiseh by AvicENNA, and used by the Indo- 
Persians and Arabic writers generally in describing the Asafoetida plant. 
The gum-resins procured from umbelliferous plants were in high repute in 
ancient times, and they are noticed by ancient authors. One of these is Gal- 
banum, the Chelbenah of Scripture, used for compounding various ointments; 
another, Opoponax, the produce of a plant called Tlavazes ‘Heaxaesov, by Dioscor- 
IDEs; a third, is Sagapenum, described by the same author as being furnished 
by a species of Ferula ; a fourth is Ammoniacum, yielded by a plant called Aga- 
syllis; anda fifth is the gum-resin, now under consideration.* There was also a 
gum-resin, called by the Greeks ores xveqvaixog, or Cyrenaic juice, which appears 
to have been the produce of an umbellifer called Thapsia Sylviwm. Pury, in re- 
ferring to this says, “ Laserpitium, quod Greeci 2+Agsoy vocant, in Cyrenaica pro- 
vincia repertum ; cujus succum vocant Laser.”} There appears, however, to have 
been another Laser; for Puiny says, ‘“ Diuque jam non aliud ad nos invehitur 
Laser, quam quod in Perside aut Media et Armenia nascitur large, sed multo 
infra Cyrenaicum.” This Laser of Persia is by some supposed to be the Asafce- 
tida. AvIcENNA, in his ‘“‘ Canon Medicine,” says, that there are two species of Asa 
or Laser, “quarum una est foetida, et alia est odorifera non fortem habens 
odorem.” + 
* Dioscorides lib, iii. ¢. 94, 95, 97, 98. } Pun. Nat, Hist. xix. c. 15. 
t Avicenna, lib, ii. tract 2, c. 53. 
