510 GENTIANACRAL. 
GENTIANA KURROO, foyie. 
_ Fig.— Royle Illus., t. 68, f. 2; Bot. Mag., t. 6470. 
Hab.—Cashmere and N.-W. Himalaya. The root-stock. 
~ Vernacular.—Kara, Nilkant, Kamal-phél (Hénd.). 
History, Uses, &c.—This drug is not mentioned by 
Sanskrit writers on Materia Medica. Their Katuki, in the ver- 
naculars Katki and Kart, which is in general use all over India, 
is undoubtedly the root.of Picrorhiza Kurrooa. In the Dietion- 
ary of the Economie Products of India (iii., p. 486,) it is stated 
that G. Kurroo is largely exported to the plains along with 
P. Kurrooa as the officinal Karu or Katki, but we have been 
unable to find anything like the root of a Gentian in the origi- 
nal parcels of that drag which arrive from the hills. We 
believe that all the references to this plant, asa drug in use 
in the plains, belong properly to Picrorhiza, and that G. Kurroo 
is only used in the Himalayas and northern districts of the 
Punjab. 3 | 
Description.—The root-stock is perennial and creeping, 
terminating in knotty crowns from. which spring numerous 
vertical rhizomes from 3 to 6 inches in length; the latter, which 
form the bulk of the drug, are bluntly quadrangular, about as 
thick as a goose-quill, and marked on each face by the remains 
of a closely set single vertical row of rootlets; they are also 
transversely wrinkled, and terminate in a scaly tuft consisting 
of the remains of leaves and flower stems. A transverse section 
shows that the rhizome consists of a central quadrangular 
woody portion, surrounded by a thick cortex, both of a light 
yellow colour, tough, and having the odour and taste of 
but is precipitated by ammoniacal aceta 
* 
ome 
and alcohol, and is not thrown down 
ES 
