[ 28 4 J 
XIV. decount of the Nardus Indica , or Spikenard . 
By Gilbert Blane, M . D. F. R . & 
Read March 18, 1790. 
I T is much to be regretted, that the records of antiquity afford 
fuch imperfeft defcriptions of natural objefts, particularly 
of thofe of the vegetable kingdom. Moft of the writings of 
the ancients have come down to us either mutilated by the 
accidents of time, or diftorted and corrupted by unfaithful and 
ignorant transcribers. There is rea'on to think, that the 
learned works upon profeffional lubjedls have been more unfor- 
tunate in thefe refpedts than works of imagination and general 
fcience, for the former are in fa£t more obfeure and confufed ; 
and as they would be lefs generally interefting, and lefs intelli- 
gible, to transcribers, they would or courfe be more liable to 
negleft and miftake. But fuppoffng the works of Theo- 
phrastus, Dioscorides, and the other ancient phyficians 
and naturalifts, to be extant in tneir utmoft completenefs and 
purity ; their method ot describing plants and other natural 
bodies was fo defective, that very few of them could now be 
recognized. We have not only to contend with the G~fcurity 
belonging to a dead language, in fo far as the name merely is 
concerned; but it would be impoffible, even in a living lan- 
guage, to perpetuate the knowledge of any obje£t in nature, 
fuch as a plant, without fome defeription to diferiminate it 
from 
1 
