44: ARISTOLOCHIACEM. [ARISTOLOCHIA. 



ARISTOLOCHIA, Linn. ; FL 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. 

 *0vary 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, 

 "lantern-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. bract eat a, Retz. Obs. Bot. fasc. v, 29 ; Roxb. FL Ind. in, 

 490 ; Royle III. 330 ; F. B. I. v, 75 ; Watt E. D. ; Prain Beng. PL 

 890 ; CooJce FL Bomb, ii, 524. Vern. Kiramar. 



A slender decumbent glabrous perennial herb. Stems 12-18 in. long, 

 weak, prostrate ; branches striate, glabrous. Leaves 1J-3 in. long 

 and broad, reniform or broadly ovate, usually widely and shallowly 

 cordate at the base, glaucous beneath,, finely reticulate- veined, 

 glabrous ; petioles J-l J in. Flowers solitary ; pedicels with a large 

 sessile orbicular or subreniform bract at or near the base. Perianth 

 1-lf 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 |-1 in. long, 

 oblong-ellipsoid, 12-ribbed, glabrous. Seeds J in. long, triangular with 

 a cordate base. 



Banks of Jumna and Ganges (Royle), Bundelkhand (Eclgeworth), 

 Gwalior (Maries). Flowers at the end of the rainy season. DISTRIB. : 

 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. INDICA, Linn.; Roxb. FL Ind. in, 489 ; Royle III. 330 ; F. B. I. v, 75 ; 

 Watt E. D.; Prain Beng. PL 891 ; CooJce FL Bomb, ii, ,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. 



