110 ODOROGRAPHIA. 
It is identical with Aplotazis auriculata, DeCandolle, and Auclandia 
Costus of Falconer. 
It is a composite plant inhabiting the North-western Himalayas. 
According to Stewart it grows at from 10,500 to 13,000 feet 
elevation, in parts of the basins of the Jhelam and the Chenab. 
Under the name of Saussurea hypoleuca, Sprengel, it is mcluded 
in Clarke’s ‘ Composite Indice,’ and is said to extend from Sikkim 
to Kashmir at an elevation of from 7000 to 12,000 feet. It is 
described by Dr. Falconer * as growing on the mountain slopes of 
the Kashmir valley at an elevation of 8000 to 9000 feet, and he 
was the first to trace the drug to its true source. The plant has 
no relation whatever to Costus speciosus, Sm., or Costus Arabicus, 
Linn.t+, as some dealers in drugs imagine. 
The native synonyms of the root are :—Arabic, Qust or Koost ; 
Persian, Kosht, Kost; Sanskrit, Koshtam; Tamil, Joshtam; 
Telinga, Goshtamu; Bengalee, Pachak. In Bombay it is called 
Ouplate; in Kashmir Koot. In China it is known as Muh-hiung 
and Kwang-muh-hiang. 
In ‘Powell’s Punjab Products,’ the writer, quoting from the 
recorded observations of Dr. Johnstone, who collected the plant in 
Kashmir, says :—“ As the snow melts at the end of March the 
rootstock appears, its caudal leaves develop in the beginning of 
June, and it comes to full fruition in September. It is a peren- 
nial, leaves and stem dying yearly to the rootstock ; the exstipulate 
caudal leaves rise in threes, the two lateral spathing the centre ; 
the centre sheathing the stem as it shoots above the ground. The 
stem, two or three of which may arise from the rootstock, stands 
in adult growth forty inches, is fluted, lined internally with pith, 
and sheathed with exstipulate tristichous leaves. The rootstock 
varies in size from nine to fifteen inches in length, and from three 
inches upwards in thickness. The caudal leaves spring straight 
from the rootstock and are supported on petioles eighteen inches 
long. The leaves are simple, obcordate, eight by five inches in 
adult growth and strongly veined.” Guibourt says t :—‘‘ The 
thickness of the root varies from that of the little finger to 54 
millimetres.” The roots are dug up in the months of September 
and October, when the plant begins to be torpid; they are chopped 
* Trans. Linn. Soc. xix. p. 23. 
+ Cooke, in Pharm. Jul. [3] viii. p. 41. 
t Hist. des Drogues, iil. p. 29. 
