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IRIDACEE.

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Crocus Sativus.

HIS little plant is perennial, having a rounded and somewhat flattened bulb root, from which the flower rises a little above the ground upon a long, slender, and tender tube. The flower is of several colors, in some places orange-yellow, bluish, and purple. Those that we saw growing wild in the Holy Land were of the former kind and were found upon Mount Tabor. A beautiful specimen in our possession still retains the yellow color it had when first gathered. The saffron of commerce is obtained from the stig mas or summits of the pistils, which, with a part of the stem or style, are gathered together, sometimes in masses, and dried in the sun or by artificial heat. The finest is dried loosely; and five pounds of the freshly-gathered stigmas are reduced to only one pound when dried. As the stigmas are always of the same rich orange tint, the color of the saffron will be the same whatever may be that of the flower from which it is gathered. It is a native of Greece and Asia Minor, and has been cultivated in those countries from the earliest ages. The plants now found in Palestine are not very odorous; but plants of the same inodorous variety become delicately fragrant after cultivation; and those which possess fragrance owe that property to an exhalation from the stigmas. These are threefold

and attached to the termination of the style, which hangs out on one side of the corolla from between two of its segments or petals. These stigmas form the medicinal part of the plant. By the ancients it was employed, under the name of crocus, both as a medicine and with their food: it was also highly esteemed by the Arabians. Hasselquist found great quantities near Smyrna, and between that place and Magnesia, blooming in early spring. They were of a deep-yellow and lighter shade. Russell speaks of a variety near Aleppo, and also of a scented kind which he says was common in Syria; and it is supposed that a mixture of this fragrant plant with the ordinary drug formed the saffron which Pliny says was scattered over the seats of the public theatres to form an agreeable perfume for the spectators.

The Scripture allusion to this plant, occurring only in Song of Solomon iv. 14, must have had regard to this fragrant kind, judging from the fact that all the associations in that poetical passage are those of fragrance :-"Spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices.. .. Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south: blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out."

VALERIANACEÆ.

(Valerian Jatamansi.)

Nardostachys Jatamansi.

HE ancients were acquainted with several aromatic roots bearing the name nardus, and distinguished, according to the country whence the root was obtained, by the name Indica, Celtica, or Montana. The general name "valerian" was given to the family or order under which this plant was classed. The Indica was the variety brought from Bengal in India, the Celtica from the Alps, and the montana from other mountain regions of Europe. The Indian specimen is the kind called jatamansi. It rises from the ground like a hairy spike of bearded wheat,-hence called spikenard. The drug is a small root, two or three inches in length, attached to a tuft of light-brown, slender fibres, having a bitter and aromatic taste but an agreeable odor. We are indebted to Sir William Jones for the identification of the names "spikenard" and "jatamansi," (which means a lock of hair,)—the name given to the plant by the Hindoo and Mussulman physicians, and that by which it is sold in the shops. His opinion appeared in the "Asiatic Researches," vol. iv. p. 117, as follows:

"I am persuaded that the true nard is a species of valerian produced in the most remote and hilly parts of India, such as

Nepal, Morang, and Butan,* near which Ptolemy fixes its native soil. The commercial agents of the Deva Rajah call it also pampi; and, by their account, the dried specimens, which look like the tails of ermines, rise from the ground, resembling ears of green wheat both in form and color,—a fact which perfectly accounts for the names stachys, spica, sumbul, and khushah, which the Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and Persians have given to the drug, though it is not properly a spike, and not merely a root, but the whole plant, which the natives gather for the sale before the radical leaves, of which the fibres only remain after a few months, have unfolded themselves from the base of the stem."

Great quantities were, in Sir William's time, exported from Butan, (or Bhotan,) where the mode of cultivation was a secret kept with scrupulous care. The Indian spikenard was so scarce that in the time of Hasselquist the Venetian merchants brought sixty tons of Celtic spikenard to Cairo and sold it to the Abyssinians and Nubians at the high price of one hundred rix-dollars per ton;† and even at this price it was much cheaper than the Indian, which was superior in quality.

After considerable research and criticism, and although the assertion has been lately made that Sir William did not receive the proper root, scholars are generally agreed that this jatamansi is the spikenard of the ancients. The root is rare, and probably was always difficult to procure; and, while at present some varieties are not very likely to convey the idea of per

*These provinces are on the northeast borders of Hindostan.
About $100 American money.

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