204 
of Bengal," A. parcial Roxb., was referred to A. vulgaris, 
L., in Fl. Bri t. Ind., iii., 325, probably on the strength of the fact 
that a specimen fro i Bo ombay being named A. paniculata in the 
Kew Hoe Nota is A. vulgaris. 'Thus, the question as 
to the origiu of the plant was unsolved so far. Sir Jos eph Hooker 
suggested. that Wallich's examples were from a garden, and so are» 
Woodrow's; but what is then the native country of A. pallens? 
Artemisia is an essentially boreal genus. The only species found 
in a wild state in the Dekkan Peninsula are A. parviflora, Roxb., 
and A. vulgaris, Linn., both very different from A. pallens. On 
e other hand, í Ti 
the section Abrotanum, numbering over 5 ies, comes i 
consideration. Besser (/.c.) and De Can dolle (Prod. vi. 120) have 
already stated that A. pallens is a rather cheese type 2 no 
section Abrotanum, pedi. no distinct affinity towards 
the other species, on acc of the particular sivticthine of die 
involucre. "This is, no Tabt true, in so f lative size 
a elirutoscent species «mem Lower Egypt a nd the Sinai 
Peninsula. The native country of A. pre Ets therefore be 
sought for rather in the Orient than in the Himalayas or in 
Central Asia. "This hypothesis is further supported b y eroe men 
original ees that the plant was of Persian origin and by 
curious statement in Dymock’s Materia Medica of Western T dia, 
2nd ed., 435. Speaking of A. sieversiana, Willd., he says: 
* The drug current in Bombay is derived from the plant at the 
head of this article; it is imported from Persia, and has for many 
years been cultivated at Bandora, in the neighbourhood of Bombay, 
for the sake of the fresh herb, which is always obtainable in the 
market, and is much valued by the Hindus, The cultivation 
appears to have been i in the hands of a few Christian families for 
j The 
two plants are called Azarona and Mazarona by the native 
Christians, and were no doubt introduced into the country by the 
Portuguese.” Now, . sieversiana does not grow in Persia ; but 
phoraceous and very aromatic.” I have therefore very little 
doubt that at least a part of Dymock's 4. sieversiana, namely, the 
fresh herb sold as downa in hé Bombay markets, is A. pallens, 
and that, if it was really introduced by the Portuguese or at the 
time of the ortuguese ascendency in the East, it came from the 
Persian Gulf. Graha m (Pl. Bomb., 102) mentions also a species of 
Artemisia as cultivated in gardens near Bombay. e calls it 
A. Abrotanum ; but a aee is no other evidence of this species 
occurring [n India, either in a cultivated or a spontaneous form, 
