DR. JOHN STENHOUSE ON VEGETABLE PRODUCTS FROM INDIA. 
157 
European botanists. To Ajwain Persian authors assign nankhwah as tlie Arabic 
name. This is the (Nankhwah) of Avicenna, written nanachua and nanachue 
in the marginal translation of Ammi, in the Latin edition of his works ; which names 
are quoted under Ammi by Mathiolus, in his Commentaries on Dioscorides. But 
in Persian works on Materia Medica, Aammi is also given as the Greek synonym 
of nankhwah, that is, of Ajwain, which Dr. Roxburgh justly supposed could not be 
unknown to Europeans. This plant has been referred by M. DeCandolle to the 
genus Ptychotis, which brings it near P. copticum, called at one iuweAnmii coptlcum: 
the Ammi itself is called Cuminum JEthiopicuni and regiiim ; the latter name is 
translated by Kumoon Mullookee, and is given as a synonym of nankhwah in 
Persian authors.” — L. c. p. 230. It is probable therefore that this Indian species of 
Ptychotis has long been employed as the Aammi of the Greeks. 
Decamalee. 
“ This is the gum of the Gardenia lucida. It exudes in amber-coloured trans- 
parent drops, at the ends of the young shoots, and from thence is collected. It is 
most useful in preventing vermin from breeding in wounds. It is brought to Bombay 
from the interior.” — Bombay List of Articles for Exhibition of \d>b\, p. 30. 
MDCCCLVI 
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