NAPELLUS. 157 
shortly or obscurely beaked, 90—94 mm, high, 18—94 mm. long from the tip to the 
base, 10—12 mm. wide (seen from the side) lateral margin very slightly concave or 
almost straight; lateral sepals contiguous with the helmet, obliquely orbicular-quadrate, 
not clawed, 18—20 mm. long; lower sepals obliquely oblong or elliptic, obtuse to acute, 
12—15 mm, long. Nectaries glabrous, extinguisher-shaped; claw erect or the upper-end 
more or less leaning forward, 16—18 mm. long; hood subcylindric, 4—8 mm, long, 
oblique to almost horizontal, top gibbous posteriorly, honey-gland occupying the gibbosity 
or the whole top, lip extremely short, crenulate, very broad. Filaments glabrous, 8 mm: 
long, narrowly winged to or beyond the middle, wings gradually attenuated, Car pels 
5, subcontiguous in the flower, but soon diverging, narrowly oblong, gradually passing 
into the shorter style, quite glabrous. Follicles subcontiguous or somewhat diverging in 
the upper part, oblong, obliquely truncate, 2:5—3 cm. long, 5—6 mm. broad, loosely 
reticulate. Seeds blackish, obovoid, about 3 mm. long, round in cross-section, obscurely 
winged along the rhaphe, transversely lamellate, lamella dark, undulate, 
Distripotion: Alpine Himalaya of Nepal, Sikkim, and the adjoining part of South Tibet, 
from 10,000--16,000 ft. 
NEPAL: Gossaingthan, Wallichs Coll, Wallich 4723A! (Hb. Linn. Soc., Kew and 
Calc.); Headwaters of the Kosi river, Hamilion’s Coll. 1810; (Hb. Linn. S0c.).—Sikx1w: 
Tonglo range, 10,000 ft., in Rhododendron bush, Hooker! (Hb. Kew and Cale.), Thomson! 
(Hb. Kew), Kurz! (Hb. Cule.), Clarke 27597! (Hb. Kew and Brandis); Gamble 764! 
1605, C! (Hb. Calc.) Wati’s Coil. 139391 (Hb. Kew, Cale. and Sab.); Sandakhund, 
Rogers! (Hb. Cale. Phallut, 10,000 ft. Thomson! (Hb. Kew and Calc.); Phullalong, 
11,000 ft., Clarke 13110! 13414! (Hb. Cale.); Natoung, 12,000 ft. Pantling! (Hb. 
Cale.); Yak-la, 16,000 ft. Clarke 9900! (Hb. Kew).—'TrzsET: Yatung, Hobson! (Hb. 
Kew); боор near Phar’, King’s Coll.! (Hb. Cale.) 
VERNACULAR NAMES: Bikhma (Hind.) Hamilton, Account of Nepal, p. 99; Dymock, 
l. c.; Pharmacogr. Ind. p. 18; Watt, l. с. Wakhma or Vakhma (Bombay), Dymock, l.e., 
Pharmacogr. Ind. Ze; Watt, il. ce. 
PROPERTIES AND USES: The statements as to the properties of the root of this 
species are contradictory. Hamilton remarks in his Account of Nepal, p. 99, that “the 
Bikhma used in medicine is a strong bitter, very powerful in the cure of fevers,” 
and thus contrasts it with the bikh, “опе of the most virulent poisons.” Unfortu- 
nately no root-specimen of his “Bikhma” is preserved in his herbarium, which was 
subsequently incorporated in the Wallichian collections; but from the identity of the 
leaf-specimens of his “Caltha? Bikhma” (see below) with А. palmatum, which yields the 
Bikhma of the Indian bazaars as described by Dymock and others, it must be inferred 
that Hamilton’s bitter, non-poisonous Bikhmz actually is the root of A. palmaium. 
Moreover, Dymock, whose description of the drug (йла, bishma or waklma is un- 
mistakable, says in his Mat. Med. W. Iud. Ist ed. pp. 9, 10, that the root “is intensely 
bitter like quinine,” and he compares it for its “ sensible properties with Alees, 
suggesting (Le. 2nd ed., p. 7) the identity of its bitter alkaloid with “that contained 
іп Afecs.” 'This suggestion was afterwards confirmed by Y. Shimoyama [Pharm, Journ, 
and Trans. (1885) p. 86], who found in a sample of wakhma, communicated 57 Dymock, 
actually Atisino, adding that Dr. Kobert has proved that the alkaloid of Bikhma is “аз 
little toxic as the ateesine from A. heterophyllum” King also states, according to Watt 
(Dict. Econ. Prod. India, i. p. 99), that “in Sikkim the natives consider the root of 
Ann. Roy. Bor. Garp, Catc., Vor. x. 
