Pee, nullum : fructiis oblongus, plano-compreflus, utrinque 3. 
linels elevafis norat us eft. 
Sem. duo, oblonga, magna, utrinque plana, 3 lineis elevatis 
notata. 
Planta odorem alliaceum diffundit. Folia, rami, pedun- 
culi, radix, truncus, fe£ti fuccum fundunt ladteum, 
i'apore et odore Afiu foetida^ 
THOUGH Afa foetida has been ufed in medicine for many 
ages, having been introduced by the Arabian phylicians near a 
thoufand years ago.; yet there was no fatisfa&ory account of 
the plant which yielded it, till Kjempfer publifhed his Amceni- 
tates Exotica about feventy years ago. 
Kjempfer, towards the end of the laft century, travelled 
over a great part of Aha, and was in Perfia, and upon the fpot 
where the Afa foetida is collected. He gives a full account of 
the manner of collecting it. He defcribes the plant ; and alfo 
gives a figure of it, differing in many refpeCts from thofe which 
X now prefent to the Society 
Six years ago, 1 received from Dr. Guthrie, of St. Peterlburg, 
F. R. S. two roots of the Afa foetida, with the following card 
from Dr. Pallas, addrefled to Dr. Guthrie : 
66 Dr. Pallas’s compliments to Dr. Guthrie ; he fends 
“ him two roots of the Ferula Afa foetida, a plant which he 
* Probably Kjempfer’s Afa foetida Plant is a different fpecies from that 
defcribed by Dr. Hope in this paper. K.-empfer was himfelf upon the mountains 
where the drug is collected, and his fidelity in defcribing, as well as delineating, has 
not hitherto been impeached. Sanguis Draconis, and fome other gums, are 
indifferently the produce of various fpecies of plants ; and why may not Afa 
foetida be fimilarly circuroftanced ? Jos. Banks. 
66 thinks 
