44 ARISTOLOCHIACE. [ARISTOLOCHIA. 
ARISTOLOCHIA, Linn. ; FI. Brit. Ind. v, 74. 
Shrubs or perennial herbs, often twining. Leaves with the petioles 
dilated at the base, and often with a stipule-like leaf of an undevel- 
oped bud in the axil. Perianth coloured, tube inflated below, 
then contracted, hairy within; limb dilated, oblique, usually 
2-lipped. Stamens 6, rarely 5 or more than 6; adnate in 1 series 
above the ovary, filaments or connectives not distinguishable from 
the style; anthers adnate to the column, dehiscing extrorsely. 
Ovary inferior, more or less perfectly 6-celled, rarely 5- or 4-celled, 
style or column short and thick, divided above into 3 or 6 (rarely 
more) obtuse or linear lobes, ovules 2-seriate. Fruit a capsule, 
Jantern-like, septicidally 6 (rarely 5) -valved, or splitting through 
the placentas. Seeds horizontal, often covered by the remains of 
the placenta.—Species about 180, chiefly tropical. 
A. bracteata, Retz. Obs. Bot. fasc. v, 29; Roxb. Fl. Ind. ivi, 
490 ; Royle Ill. 330; F. B. I. v, 75 ; Watt E. D. ; Prain Beng. Pl. 
890 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb. ti, 524.—Vern. Kiramar. 
A slender decumbent glabrous perennial herb. Stems 12-18 in. long, 
weak, prostrate ; branches striate, glabrous. Leaves 13-3 in. long 
and broad, reniform or broadly ovate, usually widely and shallowly 
cordate at the base, glaucous beneath, finely reticulate-veined, 
glabrous ; petioles 4-11 in. Flowers solitary ; pedicels with a large 
sessile orbicular or subreniform bract at or near the base. Pertanth 
1-12 in. long, base subglobose ; tube cylindric, with a trumpet- 
shaped mouth, villous inside with purple hairs ; lip as long as the 
tube, linear, dark-purple, margins revolute. Capsule 3-1 in. long, 
oblong-ellipsoid, 12-ribbed, glabrous. Seeds } in. long, triangular with 
a cordate base. 
‘Banks of Jumna and Ganges (Royle), Bundelkhand (Edgeworth), 
Gwalior (Maries). Flowers at the end of the rainy season. DistTRIBs. : 
Bengal, W. and S. India and in Ceylon, extending to Arabia and 
Tropical Africa. The whole plant is intensely bitter, and it is 
much used by Hindu doctors for its purgative and anthelmintic pro- 
perties. 
A. rixpica, Linn.; Roxb. Fl. Ind. iii, 489 ; Royle Ill. 330; F. B.1.v,75 ; 
Watt E. D.; Prain Beng. Pl. 891 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb. ti, 594 ; Brandis 
Ind. Trees 522. (Indian Birthwort).—A climbing perennial herb 
with the under surface of the leaves green. It occurs in Nepal and 
over the greater part of Bengal, also in W. and S. India, and in Ceylon. 
