CLap, 26.1 
IsTATlD. 
119 
CHAP. 24. — THE VAEIOUS USEFUL PKODUCTS OE TREES. 
Arabia, which is in the vicinity of these islands, requires 
that we should make some distinction in its vegetable products, 
seeing that here the various parts of trees which are em- 
ployed for useful purposes are the root, the branches, the 
bark, the juices, the gum, the wood, the shoots, the blossoms, 
the leaves, and the fruit. 
CHAP. 25. (12.) — COSTUS. 
A root and a leaf, however, are the productions which are 
held in the very highest estimation in India. The root is that 
of the costus ; it has a burning taste in the mouth, and a 
most exquisite odour ; in other respects, the branches are good 
for nothing. In the island of Patale,''® situate at the very 
mouth of the river Indus, there are two kinds of costus found, 
the black and the white ; the last is considered the best. The 
price of it is five denarii per pound. 
CHAP. 26. NAED. THE TWELVE VAEIETIES OF THE PLANT. 
Of the leaf, which is that of the nard,*^^ it is only right to 
speak somewhat more at length, as it holds the principal place 
among our unguents. The nard is a shrub with a heavy, 
thick root, but short, black, brittle, and yet unctuous as well ; 
'"^ According to most commentators, this is the Costus Arabiciis of Lin- 
naeus. Dioscorides mentions three varieties of costus : the Arabian, which 
is of the best quality, and is white and odoriferous ; the Indian, which is 
black and smooth ; and the Syrian, which is of the colour of wax, dusky, and 
strong smelling. Fee, however, doubts whether the modern costus is the 
same thing as that of the ancients ; for, as he says, although it has a sweet 
odour, it does not deserve the appellation of a " precious aromatic," which 
we find constantly given to it by the ancients. 
78 See B. vi. c. 23. 
'^^ It is probable that the nard of the ancients, from which they extracted 
the famous nard-oil, was not the same plant which we know as the Indian 
nard, or Andropogon nardus of Linnaeus. Indeed, it has been pretty con- 
clusively established by Sir William Jones, in his " Asiatic Researches,'* 
that the Valeriana Jatamansi is the plant from which they obtained the oil. 
Among the Hindoos, it is known as djatamansi, and by the Arabs under 
the name of sombul, or spike," from the fact of the base being surrounded 
with ears or spikes, whence, probably, the Roman appellation. This spe- 
cies of valerian grows in the more distant and mountainous parts of India, 
Bootan and Nepaul, for instance. 
