Flora Medica

FERULA.FERULA.Calyx a short 5-toothed border. Petals ovate, entire, acuminate,with an ascending or incurved point.Fruit flattened atthe back, with a dilated flat border. Half-fruits with 3 dorsalfiliform ridges, the two lateral obsolete and lost in the dilatedmargin. Vittae in the dorsal channels 3 or more, 4 or manymore on the commissure. Root fleshy. Stem tall. Leavessupra-decompound ; generally cut up into linear segments. Involucresvariable. Flowers yellow.97. F. Asafeetida Linn. mat. med. 79. De Cand. prodr.iv. 173. Asa foetida Disgunensis Kcempf. Amcen. exot. 535.t. 536. copied in Nees and Eberm.pl. med. t. 293. Persia;hills and plains near Herat, mountains of Laristan, Beloochistan.*Root perennial, fleshy, with a coarse hairy summit either ; simple likea parsnip, or with one or more forks. Leaves radical, springing up inthe autumn, growing vigorously through the winter, and withering inthe end of spring; 1 Afoot long, shining, coriaceous, like those ofLovage, glaucous-green, pinnated, with pinnatifid segments whoselobes are qblong and obtuse ; petiole terete, channelled only at thebase. Stem 6-10 feet high, solid, clothed with membranous sheaths.General umbels with from 10 to 20 rays ; partial ones 5-6-flowered.Fruit flat, thin, reddish brown, like that of parsnip, only ratherlarger and darker, slightly hairy or rough (quadamtenus pilosumsive asperum) Kcempfer. Fruit obovate, 6 lines long, rather convex,but little thinned away at the edge ;the dorsal ridges slightlyelevated, the lateral undistinguishable ; vittae of the back about 20 or22, interrupted, anastomosing and turgid with asafcetida : of the commissure10. The irregularly elevated appearance of the vittag of theback of the fruit gives it an uneven aspect, which I presume is whatKcempfer means by asperum. A fetid alliaceous gum resin is obtainedby slicing the fleshy perennial roots; it is acrid, bitter, and antispasmodic.This is the most genuine Asafoetida plant, which is hardly knownto modern Botanists. Probably the substance is yielded by otherspecies of Ferula. Professor Royle says, he obtained two differentfruits from the Bazaars of India; see also Ferula persica andF. Hooshee. It has also been conjectured to have produced the Silphiumor Laser of the ancients, but I think on unsatisfactory evidence.See Thapsia.98. F. persica Willd. sp. pi. i. 1413. Bot. t.Mag. 2096.De Cand. prodr. iv. 173. Nees and Eberm. iii. 55. S.and C.ni. t. 169. Asafcetida Hope inphil. trans. 1785. 36. t. 3 and 4.Ferula sagapenum Fee cours. ii. 201. Persia.Root perennial. Radical leaves procumbent, ternate, supra-decompoundsegments ; decurrenlly pinnated with linear-lanceolate lobes,which are dilated cut and ciliated at the end. Stem about 2 feet high,* Lieutenant Burnes speaks of it as growing on the mountains of Hindoo Kush, at anelevation of 7000 feet He states that it rises to the height of 8 or 10 feet ; its milk is atfirst white, then turns yellow and hardens, in which state it is put into hair bags and exported; sheep browse upon the tender shoots, which are believed to be highly nutritious.(Travels, ii. 243.) But as he calls his plant an annual, it cannot be this species.45