garment submitted to it; objects which would be best, if not solely, obtained by the use of Soap compounded of some kind of ashes with oil or fat, though the use of ashes alone, for woollen cloths, probably prevailed in the most ancient times.

SPIKENARD.

Song of Solomon, i. 12.; iv. 13. 14. St. Mark, xiv. 3. St. John, xii. 3.

THE Spikenard of the Scriptures, and of the Greek and Roman writers, had long been forgotten as a living plant, if indeed it was ever known excepting as an Indian drug until our own days.

Clusius first figured the dried Spikenard of the shops, and the figure was copied by Gerard in his Herbal.* This cut so exactly corresponds with the description given of the Spikenard by the Arabian and Indian writers on medicine, as to afford a strong presumption that the drug described, and the figure given, belong to one and the same plant. The appearance of the drug is compared to a bundle of the tails of ermines, but not so dark in colour; and such, it appears, is the figure.

* It was not uncommon for the printers of one country to lend their wood-blocks to those of another, and it is therefore likely that the figures of Clusius and of Gerard are identical. A similar cut, though evidently taken from a different specimen, is in Camerarius's edition of Mathiolus's Epitome.

When Sir William Jones went to India, he was naturally anxious to promote whatever science and whatever learning could throw light on that interesting, and then comparatively unknown, country. The books of the ancient classical writers were full of references to Indian odours, and spices, and drugs: but what trees produced them, what plants or roots might contribute to their number or efficacy, were

questions to which few plausible, and fewer true, answers could be returned.

One of the first botanical enquiries of Sir William was concerning the Spikenard of the ancients. From both Hindoo and Mussulman physicians, he received descriptions agreeing remarkably with the figure of Clusius; and was told that in the Indian bazaars it was commonly sold by the name of Jatamansi, which means a lock of hair, to which the dried Spikenard has a stronger resemblance than even to a bundle of ermines' tails. Sir William applied his philological skill in tracing the various names of Spikenard through the Greek, Arabian, Persian, Sanscrit, and several vernacular dialects, so as to satisfy himself and others that Spikenard and Jatamansi were one. In consequence of his conviction, he published the following opinion in the Asiatic Researches, vol. iv. p. 117.

“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

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