the Nardus Indica, or Spikenard. 2 g 
“ accom P an ied with fome degree of that kind of glow in the 
** mouth which cardamoms occafion.” 
Befides the drawing, a dried fpecimen has been fent, which 
was in fuch good prefervation as to enable Sir Joseph Banks, 
P. R. S. to a fcer tain it by the botanical characters to be a fpe- 
cies ot ' ^ndropagon, different from any plant that has ufually 
been imported under the name of Nardus, and different from 
any of that genus hitherto deferibed in botanical fyftems. 
There is great reafon, however, to think, that it is the true 
Nardus Indica of the ancients ; for, firft, the circumftance, in 
the account above recited, of its being difeovered in an unfre- 
quented country from the odour it exhaled by being trod upon 
by the elephants and horfes, correfponds, in a ftriking man- 
ner, with an occurrence related by Arrian, in his Hiftory 
of the Expedition of Alexander the Great into India. It is 
there mentioned, lib. VI. cap. 22. that, during his march 
through the defarts of Gadrofia, the air was perfumed by the 
Spikenard, which was trampled under foot by the army } and 
that the Phoenicians, who accompanied the expedition, col- 
leded large quantities of it, as well as of myrrh, in order to 
carry them to their own country, as articles “of merchandife. 
This I aft circumftance feems further to afeertain it to have 
been the true Nardus ; for the Phoenicians, who, even in war 
appear to have retained their genius for commerce, could no 
doubt diftinguifh the proper quality of this commodity. I am 
informed by Major Rennell, F. R. S. whofe accurate re- 
learches in Indian geography are fo well known to the publick 
that Gadrofia or Gedrofia anfwers to the modern Mackran or 
Kedge-Mackran, a maritime province of Perfia, fituated be- 
tween Kerman (the ancient Carmania) and the river Indus 
being of courfe the frontier of Perfia towards India; and that 
It 
