DIVISION I. 



Class 2. B, 



DRUGS. 



N.O.I. RANUNCULACE^E. CROWFOOTS. 



Aconitum ferox. Wall. 



Aconitum Napellus. W. Monkshood, or Common TFolfs-bane. 



Aconitum palmatum. Don. 



Aconitum luridum. H.f. et T. 



Linn. Si/ft. Polyandria Trigynia. 



The root. 



Vernacular. Bikh, Bish, Bishnak, Ati-singeea-bish, Nep. Bish, 

 Butsnab-bish, Beng. Mahoor, Hind. Butchnab, By. Ativassa, Tel. 



Habitat. The Himalayas, Sirmoor, Kemaon, Nepaul. 



Remarks. Bikh is indifferently applied to the dry roots of all the 

 above species of Wolf's-bane, hut probably the root of Aconitum ferox 

 has become more extensively distributed throughout the Bazars of Asia 

 than those of any other species, and although no characters have yet been 

 described by which it may be specifically recognised, in general estimation 

 it is Bikh, par excellence. Meetha, Doodhya, and Meetha-teelia are 

 names of preparations of Bikh. 



Dr. Buchanan, in his " Account of the Kingdom of Nepaul," enumerates 

 four kinds of Bikh ; the first, Singya-bikh, he refers to a Smilax ; the 

 second, Bikh, and third, Nirbisi, Royle refers to Aconitum ferox ; and 

 the fourth, Bikhma, the latter author attributes to Aconitum palma- 

 tum. In the Mukhzun-ul-Udwieh, twelve kinds of Bikh, according to 

 Royle, are enumerated, ail of which it would be futile to attempt identi- 

 fying, and they are only adverted to in connection with the second, 

 namely " Buchimg like Judwar." Judwar, Zudwar, or Nirbisi is the 

 Zedoaria of old writers, which some recent writers, on insufficient grounds, 

 consider one with the Zedoaria rotunda of modern druggists, the root, 

 according to Roxburgh, of Curcuma Zedoaria, the Buldi, or Bun- 

 huldi of this country. In Sirmoor, however, Royle found the name 

 JNirbisi applied to Delphinium pauciflorum, " but that,'* says he, 

 " which is reckoned the best kind of Nirbisi in the Indian Bazars is of a 

 1 A 



