GNETACU^. 369 



GNETACEiE. 



EPHEDRA VULGARIS, Htch. 



Fig^ — Beichh. Ic. FL Oerm,y t, 539; Bertolon.^MkcelL xxiiuy 

 t. 3. 



Hab. — Temperate and Alpine Himalaya, Europe, W. and 

 Central Asia, Japan, 



EPHEDRA PACHYCLADA, Boiss. 



Hab, — "Western Himalaya, Afghanistan, E, Persia, 



Vernacular. — E, vulgaris — Amsania, Butshur, Cheva (Pw«;\), 

 Khanda, Khama {Kiinatoar), Pliok {8ntleJ), Ma-oh (Japan), 

 E. pachyclada — Hum, Huuia {Pers,^ Bomb.). 



History, Uses, &C» — These two species are hardly 

 different; E* pachyclada is rather more rohust than E. vulgaris and 

 more scabrid. Of the former. Sir J. D. Hooker remarks : 

 **I can find no good characters in the spikes and flowers, except 

 the more or less margined bracts." A specimen of the Persian 

 plant kindly furnished to one of us by Mr. K. E. Cama of Bom- 

 bay, was identified at Kew as E, vulgaris. Dried branches of the 

 Huma are still brou£?ht from Persia to India for use in Parsi 

 ceremonial,and it is considered to have medicinal properties. The 

 plant was used by the ancient Arians, and is probably the same 

 as the Soma of the Yedas. Aitchison (Proc. Linn. Soc, x., 77) 

 notices the medicinal use of E. vulgaris in Lahoul^ and he and 

 Griffith state that the ashes of E, pachyclada are used as a snuff 

 and dye in Afghanistan. Dr. N. Nagai of Tokio, Japan (Berl. 

 Klin. Wochenschr.j 1887, 706), first drew attention to the fact that 

 E. vulgaris contains an alkaloid [ephedrine) which possesses the 

 property of dilating the pupil of the eye, and which may be used 

 in the place of atropine- T. V. Biektine {Bolnitch. Gaz. Bot- 

 kina, 1891, No. 19, pp. 473 — 476) has brought to notice the use 

 of a decoction of the stems and roots of E. vulgaris as a popular 

 remedy for rheumatism and syphilis in Hussia, and of the juice 

 of the berries in affections of the respiratory passages. After 



JII.— 47 



