N. O. RANUNCUIACEiE. 9 



(Ravi) ; laskar, spet, panni supalu, ruskar, liokpa (Sntlej) ; La- 

 dara (Ladakh) ; Mundwal (Pangij. 



Habitat :— Alpine, West Tibet. 



An erect herb. Stem glabrous or downy below, glandular 

 pubescent above, 6-12 in., simple below, leafy. Leaves 5-fid to 

 the middle, lobes sharply cut or toothed, 3-4 in, diam. lobes 

 cuneate-ovate, petioles very long. Inflorescence corymbose ; 

 corymbs sometimes compound. Flowers large, pale blue, hairy; 

 tracts 3-5 — partite, upper simple, oblong or linear, Sepals conni- 

 vent, 1 in., membranous, orbicular, veined ; longer than the conic 

 and inflated spur. Follicles 5-6, f in., viscidly pubescent. 



Uses: — The juice of the leaves of this plant is used in 

 Kurram to destroy ticks in animals, but chiefly when they affect 

 sheep. In Leh it is considered so poisonous that the dew from 

 the leaves falling on grass is said to poison cattle and horses. 

 (Aitchison). 



" It is remarkable for the very powerful odour of musk, 

 which is not peculiar to this species of the genus, but exists 

 in other high alpine species, which form a peculiar group, 

 with large half-closed membranaceous flowers, whence the 

 mountaineers erroneously suppose that the musk-deer feed upon 

 them, and thereby communicate the peculiar odour to their 

 glandular secretions. The D. Moschatum, Munro is now, by 

 Hooker and Thomson, rightly referred to the present plant," 



Some other species of Delphinium are also used me- 

 dicinally, or their roots are employed to adulterate Aconites. 

 Thus Delphinium, Gashmirianum, Royle, (h. f.br.i., j. 26), 

 Fig:— Royle 111. t. 12, found in West Tibet and Tibetan 

 Himalaya, from Kumaon to Kashmir, and called in Punjabi 

 Amlin, is used to adulterate Aconites ; since, according to 

 Atkinson, the cylindrical tuberous roots of this plant are abso- 

 lutely identical with the ordinary nirbisi roots. 



ACONITE 



There are about 24 Indian species of Aconite which may be 

 classified as (a) non-poisonous and ib) poisonous. The poisonous 

 2 



