Tab. 6293 . 
THAPSIA GARGANICA. 
Native of the Mediterranean Region. 
Nat. Orel. UmbelliferjE. — Tribe Laserpitie^e. 
Genus Thapsia, Linn. ; ( Benth . et Hook.f. Gen. Plant, vol. i. p. 930). 
Thapsia garganica ; glaberrima v. foliis parce setoso-pilosis, caule robusto tereti, 
foliis crasse petiolatis ambitu late ovatis 2-3-pinnatisectis laciniis linearibus 
oblongisve decurrentibus obtusis subacutisve integerrimis v. 2-8-fidis mem- 
branaceis supra nitidis marginibus ssepe revolutis, supremis ssepius ad 
vaginas tumidas reductis, umbellis crasse pedunculatis am pi is longe 
6-15-radiatis, involucro involucellisque obsoletis, floribus flavis interioribus 
in qusevis umbellula masculis, fructu §-f poll, longo basi et apice 2-lobo, 
nucleo anguste ellipsoideo 5-costato alis latis undulatis nitidis transverse 
striolatis. 
T. garganica Linn. Mant. p. 57 ; DC. Prod. vol. ii. p. 202 ; Desf. FI. Atlant., vol. 
i. p. 262 ; Boiss. Flor. Orient, vol. ii. p. 1067 ; Gouan, 111. et Obs. Bot. p. 18, 
t. 10 ; Sibth. Flor. Graec. t. 287 ; Ait. Port. Kew , eel. 2, vol. i. p. 156. 
This plant, the Sa^ta of Dioscoiides, has been celebrated 
for its healing powers from very early times, and has further 
been supposed, but on insufficient grounds, to be the Silphium 
of Cyrenaica, where it abounds. It inhabits the whole 
Mediterranean region, from the south of Spain and Morocco 
to Greece, Turkey, Khodes, and Crete, growing in fields and 
in good soil. The root is used externally as a specific against 
pains of all kinds, and in the reduction of tumours by the 
Moors of N. Africa, where it is known under the name of 
Dreeas ; but I am not aware that it has a place in the 
Pharmacopoeia of any civilized people. That it cannot be the 
famous Silphium of the ancients has been demonstrated by 
Oersted of Copenhagen, who shows that the plant represented 
on the coins of Cyrenaica as the Silphium has the remarkable 
character of growth of the true Asafoetida, and wholly differs 
from that of Thapsia ; whence it follows, either that a plant like 
Asafoetida was formerly native of Cyrenaica, but is no 
longer found there, or that the true Asafoetida was cultivated 
there, which seems to me not to be impossible. 
For the opportunity of figuring the Thapsia I am indebted 
APRIL 1st, 1877. 
