spikenard

[ Eng.spike, and nard; Mod. Lat. spica nard i.] 1. Botany : (1) Nardostachys jatamansi , called in Hindu stan Jatamansi and Balckhar. The root, which is from three to twelve inches long, sends up many stems, with little spikes of purple flowers, which have four stamens. It grows in the Him a lay as at an elevation of from 11,000 to 15,000, or in Sikkim to 17,000 feet. [2.] [PLOWMAN'S SPIKENARD.] (2) Valerian a celtic a, and in various countries other plants. 2. Perfumes : An aromatic substance derived from the root of Nardostachys jatamansi [(1)]. (Song i. 12, iv. 13, 14.) It was highly prized by the ancients, and used by them both in baths and at feasts as an unguent (cf. Hor . Carm ., II. xi. 16, 17; IV. xii. 16, 17), and the women of Nepaul still employ oil in which the root has been steeped for perfuming their hair. The "ointment of spikenard," with which our Lord was anointed as He sat at meat in the house of Simon of Bethany (Mark xiv. 3; John xii. 3) was prepared from it. Its costline may be inferred from the indignant surprise of Judas (John xii. 5; cf. Hor ., ubi sup . ). Sometimes applied to the ointment itself, as in the example. "She bows, she bathes her Savior's feet With costly spikenard and with tears." Tennyson: In Memoriam , xxxii. 12. spik'-ỹ, spik-eў, a . [Eng. spik ( e ) (1), s.; -y.] 1. In the shape of a spike; having a sharp point or points. 2. Set with spikes. "The spiky wheels through heaps of carnage tore." Pope: Homer's Iliad, xx. 585. 3. Resembling the spike of a gra . ( Nature , xxxiii. (1886), p. 500.)