40 
Plants  of  Afghanistan. 
/  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I        Jan.,  1887. 
plains  during  winter  are  perfectly  treeless,  arid,  and  bare,  the  only 
signs  of  a  past  vegetation  being  the  gnarled  remains,  scarcely  over  a 
foot  in  height,  of  a  few  shrubs.  As  one  gazes  on  this  desert-like 
-country,  extending  on  all  sides,  one  wonders  whether  it  could  possibly 
produce  even  a  blade  of  grass  in  summer.  To  make  things  worse, 
there  is  little  or  no  water,  which  to  the  traveller  is  a  matter  of  risk 
and  difficulty,  owing  to  the  distances  between  the  springs  and  the 
uncertainty  of  the  supply.  As  summer  advances  a  complete  change 
comes  over  the  scene ;  these  bare  plains  become  rapidly  covered  with 
a  mass  of  splendid  verdure  produced  chiefly  by  the  presence  of  the 
following  umbellifers,  viz.,  Ferida  foetida,  Regel,  Dorema  Ammoniacum, 
Don,  and  Ferula  galbaniflua,  Boissier  and  Buhse.  The  two  former 
usually  occur  associated  together,  whereas  the  latter  is  generally  found 
alone.  The  habit  of  growth  of  these  three  species  is  much  the 
same;  they  all  produce  a  great  show  of  foliage  thrown  out  from  their 
perennial  root  stocks.  This  foliage  spreads  out  on  the  ground  to 
nearly  three  feet,  forming  a  circle  round  the  base  of  the  flowering 
stems,  little  under  six  feet  in  diameter,  and  it  is  the  close  approxima- 
tion of  the  foliage  of  adjacent  plants  that  gives  to  the  country  in 
which  they  grow  its  wonderful  appearance  of  a  never-ending  pastu- 
rage. Upon  each  species  throwing  up  its  own  peculiar  form  of  inflo- 
rescence, the  landscape  becomes  much  altered,  more  especially  with 
regard  to  the  appearance  presented  by  Ferula  galbaniflua.  When  this 
is  in  full  flower,  with  its  golden-colored  panicled  inflorescence  from 
three  to  four  feet  in  height,  representing  a  miniature  forest,  the  sight 
is  one  to  be  dreamed  of  rather  than  believed  in  or  described.  This 
wonderful  verdure  lasts  from  the  end  of  April  to  the  beginning  of  July, 
by  the  end  of  that  month  it  has  as  suddenly  disappeared  as  it  originated, 
even  to  the  fruit-bearing  stems.  The'  hot  sun  dries  the  plants  to  a 
cinder,  and  the  prevailing  winds  finish  the  work  of  destruction  so  thor- 
oughly, that  by  August  not  a  trace  of  the  past  season's  vegetation  is  left. 
Ferula  foetida,  Regel,  syn.  Ferula  Scorodosma,  Bent,  and  Trim. ; 
Scorodosma  foetida,  Bunge. — The  plate  in  Bentley  and  Trimen's  '  Medi- 
cinal Plants'  is  a  most  excellent  one  of  the  plant  in  fruit.  The  native 
name  for  the  asafoetida  plant  near  Herat  is  Anguza-kema,  Kurne-kema, 
Khora-kema.  Kema  may  be  considered  the  generic  term  for  all  the 
Fcrulas  and  Doremas.  Anguza  is  the  term  for  the  product  asafoet- 
ida, and  is  what  in  India  is  called  uhing."  This  last  name  is  also 
applied  to  it  by  traders  in  these  parts. 
