150 Aitckison. — On the Source of Badskct, 
wrongly labelled ; and also owing to its being an only live 
specimen (the undetermined species of Allium of mine from 
Afghanistan hereafter referred to) a close inspection was not 
permissible ; but, I think, almost the very next day the error 
was detected, after another more careful inspection of the 
wrongly-labelled bulb, which subsequently Mr. Baker and I 
were both satisfied was that of an Allium , and one very likely 
to represent in a dried state the form of Salep now under 
consideration. 
During 1881, Dr. Wilson Johnston, F.R.S.E., of the Bengal 
Medical service, placed in my hands at Kew, for identification, 
a collection of plants from Afghanistan that had been made 
on the line of march between the Kojak Pass, Kandahar, 
and Cabul. In this collection was an Allium to which 
was attached the note ‘ Plant said to yield Salep in these 
parts.’ When identifying this collection I had not heard of 
Badsha-Salep, and the above note I had utterly forgotten 
when investigating the subject during 1886. Only some 
months subsequently did I remember it, in connection with a 
large-bulbed herbarium-specimen of my own, belonging to 
my last Afghan collections. 
During October 1888 I was in Edinburgh, and upon visiting 
the Royal Botanic Garden there, I asked Professor Bayley 
Balfour, the Keeper of the Garden, if he could show me a 
living bulb of Allium Macleanii. Not only did he do so, but 
most liberally presented me with two specimens of it. The 
moment I handled the bulb of this species, I recognised at 
once that there could now be no doubt as to this being the 
living condition of the dried product under discussion. 
The original specimens at the Edinburgh Garden came 
from Mr. Wilson of St. Andrews, who had received them 
from Colonel (now General) Maclean, C.B. from Afghanistan, 
with a note attached, stating that they were given to him by 
an Afghan chief as the plant that yielded Salep. Mr. Wilson 
also sent a flowering plant to the Royal Gardens at Kew, 
which afforded material for its description and delineation as 
a new species by Mr. Baker in the Botanical Magazine, Plate 
