436 GENTIANEiE. 



Uses — Gentian is much used in medicine as a bitter tonic. Ground 

 to powder, the root is an ingredient in some of the compositions sold for 

 feeding cattle. 



Substitutes — It can hardly be said that gentian is adulterated, yet 

 the roots of several other species possessing similar properties are occa- 

 sionally collected ; of these we may name the following : — 



1. Gentiana "purpurea L. — This species is found in Alpine meadows 

 of the Apennines, Savoy and Switzerland, in Transylvania, and in South- 

 western Norway ; a variety also in Kamtchatka.^ The root is frequently 

 collected f it attains at most 18 inches in length and a diameter of 

 about 1 inch at the summit, from which arise 8 to 10 aerial stems, 

 clothed below with many scaly remains of leaves. The top of the 

 root has thus a peculiar branched appearance, never found in the root 

 of G. lutea, with which in all other respects that of G. i^urjpurea agrees. 

 The latter is perhaps even more intensely bitter. 



2. G. punctata L. — Nearly the same description applies to this 

 species, which is a native of the Alps of South-Eastern France, Savoy, 

 the southern parts of Switzerland, extending eastward to Austria, 

 Hungary and Roumelia. 



8. G. paimonica Scop. — a plant of the mountains of Austria, un- 

 known in the Swiss Alps, has a root which does not attain the length 

 or the thickness of the root of G. p>urpurea, with which it agrees in 

 other respects. It is officinal in the Austrian Pharmacopoeia. 



4. G. Gatesboii Walter {G. Saponaria L.) — indigenous in the United 

 States. Its root, usually not exceeding 3 inches in length by -J- inch in 

 diameter, has a very thin woody column within a spongy whitish 

 cortical tissue and a bright yellow ej)idermis. This root is less bitter 

 than the above enumerated drugs ; the same remark applies also to 

 those European Gentianae which like G. Catesba^i are provided with 

 blue flowers. 



HERBA CHIRAT^. 



Herha CJiirettw vel Ghiraytce ; Chiretta or Ghirayta. 



Botanical Origin — Ophelia^ (7AM'a^a Grisebach {Gentiana Ghir- 

 ayita Roxb.), an annual herb of the mountainous regions of Northern 

 India from Sinda through Kumaon to the Murung district in South- 

 eastern Nepal. 



History — Chiretta has long been held in high esteem by the 

 Hindus, and is frequently mentioned in the writings of Susruta. It 

 is called in Sanscrit Kirata-tilcta, which means the hitter plant of 

 the Kirdtus, the Kiratas beinof an outcast race of mountaineers in the 

 north of India. In England, it began to attract some attention about 



^Grisebach {Die V erf elation' der Erde, i. sweetroot, "^%Yro<,"accor(lingtoSchubcler, 



1872. 223) gives very interesting particulars PJlanzenivelt N orwerfens, 1873-1875, p. 259.' 

 relating to tlie area of growth of Gentiana * '0<j>i\\tLu, to bless, in allusion to the 



purpurea, G. punctata and G. pannonica. medical virtues of the herb. — Fig. in 



He is decidedly of the opinion that they Bentley and Trimen, Med, Plants, part 7 



are distinct species. (1876). 



2 In Norway it is, strange to say, called 



