436 GENTIANS^. 



■ 



Uses — Gentian is much used in medicine as a bitter tonic. Ground 

 to powder, the root is an ingredient in some of the compositions sold for 

 feeding cattle. 



Substitutes — It can hardly be said that gentian is adulterated, yet 

 the roots of several other species possessing similar properties are occa- 

 sionally collected ; of these we may name the following : 



1. Gentiana purpurea L. — This species is found in Alpine meadows 

 of tlie Apennines, Savoy and Switzerland, in Transylvania, and in South- 

 western Norway ; a variety also in Kamtchatka.^ The root is frequently 

 collected ;- it attains at most 18 inches in length and a diameter of 



about 1 inch at the summit, from which arise 8 to 10 aerial stems, 

 clothed below with many scaly remains of leaves. The top of the 

 root has thus a peculiar branched appearance, never found in the root 

 of G, lutea, vfith which in all other respects that of G^. jmr^^itv-ea agrees. 

 The latter is perhaps even more intensely bitter. 



2. G. punctata L. — Nearly the same description applies to this 

 species, which is a native of the Alps of South-Eastern France, Savoy, 

 the southern parts of Switzerland, extending eastward to Austria, 

 Hungary and Roumelia. 



3. G. 'pannonica Scop.— a plant of the mountains of Austria, un- 

 known m the Swiss Alps, has a root which does not attain the length 

 or the thickness of the root of G. piirpurea, with which it agrees in 

 other respects. It is officinal in the Austrian Pharmacopoeia. 



4. G. Gateshoii Walter ((?. Saponaria L.)— indigenous in the Utiited 



Mates Its root, usually not exceeding 3 inches in length by i inch in 



diameter, has a very thin woody column within a spongy whitish 



cortical tissue and a bright yellow epidermis. This root is less bitter 



than the above enumerated drugs ; the same remark applies also to 



those European Gentianae which like G. Cateshcei are provided with 

 blue flowers. 



HERBA CHIRAT^. 



Hei 



Chiretta or Chirayta. 



.,^<^^^|cal OTigm—Ophella^ Ghirata Grisebach {Gentiana Chir- 

 ayita Koxb.) an annual herb of the mountainous regions of Northern 

 India from Simla through Kumaon to the Murun^ district in South- 

 eastern Nepal. 



^** ^^i^iiAXCtWlA lj\,J UHO JJXtiX LiXllf 



H 



Chiretta has long been held in high esteem by the 





.1 t;: _ " '-""^^liu ^yiraia-Ziiaa, wnicn means tne uiuti /'"";'",,' 

 ; i ??''',' ^^^ ^iy^^ts^s being an outcast race of mountaineers in the 

 north of India. In England, it began to attract some attention about 



187? 2'3)'±!?"^ ^T'"''"^" ^^'"- ^'*' >• sweetroot. '^%■^ro^ " according to Sclntbel^r, 



pur2V^ C^'^^ i ^*^T"^ *^^ ^^"^'«'« ' 'O^. AA«., to bless, in aHusum o t 



Hel dSiaeklfrf if" ""^ •^- -?'''""°»''^«' "^^Ji'^^l virtues of the herb.-:Fig^ 



are disS spJcies ''P''''^" *^^* ^^'^ ^^"^^'^^ ^"^ Crimen, Med. rianW V''' 



" I« ^^orway it is, strange to say, called ^^^'^^' 



