the Nardus Indica , or Spikenard* 289 
fame fubjeft, fays, his addit teneras Nardi pubentis ariftas, 
where the epithet pubentis fee ms even to point out that it be- 
longed to the genus andropogon , a name given to it by Lin« 
njevs from this circumftance. Galen fays, that though 
there are vanous forts of Nardus , the term or 
Spikenard, ffiould not be applied to any but the Nardus Indica. 
It would appear, that the Nardus Celtica was a plant of a quite 
different habit, and is^ fuppofed to be a fpecies of Valeriana . 
The defcription of the Nardus Indica by Pliny does not in- 
deed correfpond with the appearance of our fpecimen ; for he 
fays it is frutex radice pingui et crajjd ; whereas ours has fmail 
fibrous roots. But as Italy is very remote from the native 
country of this plant, it is reafonable to fuppofe, that others, 
more ealiiy procurable, ufed to be fubftituted for it ; and the 
fame author fays, that there were nine different plants by 
which it could be imitated and adulterated. There would be 
ftrong temptations to do this from the great demand for it, and 
the expence and difficulty of diftant inland carriage ; and as it 
was much ufed as a perfume, being brought into Greece and 
Italy in the form of an unguent manufactured in Laodicea, 
Tarfus, and other towns of Syria and Afia Minor, it is proba- 
ble, that any grateful aromatic refembling it was allowed to 
pafs for it. It is probable, that the Nardus of Pliny, and 
great part of what is now imported from the Levant, and 
found under that name in the (hops, is a plant growing in the 
countries on the Euphrates, or in Syria, where the great em- 
poriums of the eaftern and weftern commerce were fituated. 
There is a Nardus Ajfyria mentioned by Horace; and Dios- 
corides mentions the Nardus Syriaca , as a fpecies different 
from the Indica , which certainly was brought from fome of 
the remote parts of India ; for both Dioscorides and Galen, 
Vol. LXXX. Q^q by 
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