royle's manual of materia medica, etc. 1 271 
he deseribes them as being very variable in form, and some of the 
numerous leaf-specimens in his herbarium correspond with the figure 
which, I have given. Koempfer mentions the umbellulas as having 
only 5 or 6 rays, whereas I found them as numerous as 25 to 30 in the 
sterile capitula, and from 1.0 to 20 in the fertile ones. But he states 
that he never saw the plant in flower, and his description was probably 
drawn from the ripe state, in which the partial umbels occasionally 
present no more than 7 fruit-bearing stalks. There are two mericarps 
in his herbarium, agreeing exactly in form and in the developement 
of the dorsal juga with those met with by me in the Astore plant; but 
Keempfer's specimens are glued down on paper, and they seem to 
have undergone some decay or alteration by which the viitas have 
been emptied, so that their number and size cannot be distinctly made 
out. But they appear to be solitary in the dorsal valleculas, and there 
is no indication of the numerous striee represented in the figures of the 
fru-it given in the Amaenitates, which may have confirmed authors in 
the belief that Kaempfer's Assafoetida plant belonged to a species of 
Ferula. These mericarps are perfectly smooth, and exhibit nothing of 
the " quadatenus pilosum sive asperum," described in the Amoenitates. 
p. 538. Dr. Lindley, in his Flora Medica, p. 45. after an abridgment 
of Kaempfer's description, states, (it is not mentioned upon what evi- 
dence.) the vittae of the back to be " about 20 or 22, interrupted, anas- 
tomosing, and turgid with Assafoetida: of the commissure 10." This 
account will apply to the fruit of a species of Ferula, but is entirely at 
variance with the characters presented by the fruits of the plants 
observed by Ksempfer in Persia, and by myself in Astore. 
Koempfer in his description says: u Folia sero autumno ex vertice 
progerminant, sex septem, et pro radicis magnitudine plura vel pau- 
ciora: quae per brumam luxuriose vigent adultoque vere exarescunt. ; ' 
From the information which T gathered on the spot, confirmed by 
subsequent observation upon the growing plants introduced into the 
Botanic Garden at Saharunpore, the leaves of the Astore Assafoetida 
plant make their appearance in spring, and not in autumn, surviving 
through the winter, as stated by Ksempfer, respecting the Persian form. 
With these slight discrepancies, his description might serve for the 
Astore plant. 
Narthex, both in the characters of the flowers and fruit, and 
in its " PaBony-leaved" habit, differs widely from any known 
species of Ferula, and appears to constitute a distinct and 
well-marked genus. 
In the Dardoh or Dangree language (the Dardohs being the 
Daradi of Arrian) the plant is called " Sip" or " Sup." The 
young shoots of the stem in spring are prized as an excellent 
and delicate vegetable. 
The species would appear to occur in the greatest abun- 
dance in the provinces of Khorassan and Laar in Persia, and 
thence to extend on the one hand into the plains of Toorkes- 
tan on the Oxus north of the Hindoo Khoosh mountains^ 
