PACIIA D. PERS., PUSIITI.T. Land irrigated by small streams.
Pachak is a fragrant root, so designated in the price-currents of Calcutta and Bombay, whence it is exported to Canton, being highly esteemed by the Chinese as an incense. It is the Cosayphus Aucklandia, and a native of Kashmir. Kuth is described in Persian works on .Materia Medica with Kust as the Arabic, Kushta as the Syriac, and Kustus as the Greek name. Dr. Hoyle was only able to meet with two kinds in India, one called Kust-Ilindi, and the other Kust-Arabi. These evidently refer to two of the three kinds of costus described by Dioscorides as the Arabian, Indian, and Syriac. There can be little doubt, therefore, that the Kuth or Pachak is one of the kinds of costus of the ancients which formed an ingredient in their most famous com pound alexipharmic confections, such as the Theriaca and the Mithridatium. It was also highly esteemed by them as an incense. When burned it yields a fine smell. The Chinese beat it into a fine powder, which they burn as incense in the temples of their gods. Of the Pachak, 6697} bazar maunds, of the value of Rs. 99,903, were exported from Calcutta in the year 1837-38. Dr. Falconer subsequently found it growing in great abundance all round the elevated summits of Kashmir, and thought it could be produced to an unlimited extent, of the best quality, in the Himalaya at elevations of from 7500 to 0000 feet above the sea, and that the Chur mountain alone might be brought in a few years to produce thousands of maunds of it. Ile introduced it into
the Saharunpur Botanic Garden, and named it Aucklandia, in honour of Earl Auckland. It is a gregarious herb, 6 or 7 feet high. Its roots are dug up in September or October, chopped up into pieces from 2 to 6 inches long, and exported without further preparation vitt the Panjab to Bombay, whence it finds its way to the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and China, another portion being sent across the Sutlej and Janina to Hindustan. In Kashmir the cost of its collection and transport to a mercantile depot is about 2s. 4d. per cwt. but at Jugadree on the Jumna it has increased to about 16s. 9d. or 23s. 9d. per cwt., and in the Chinese ports it fetches nearly double that price the cwt. The Chinese attach great efficacy to as an aphrodisiac. The imports into Canton in 1850 were 854 pikuls, valued at 5150 dollars. In Kashmir it is chiefly used for the protection of bales of shawls against insects.—Royle's Prod. Res. ; Royle's Ill. ; O'Sh.; Simmonds.