20 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



Habitat : — Subalpine and Alpine zone of the Western Hima- 

 laya from Chitral and Hazara to Kashmir, between 7,000 and 



12,000 ft. 



Roots: — ■Biennial, paired, tuberous ; daughter-tuber conic to 

 conio-cylindric from a broad base, 2'5-3"7 (rarely 5) cm., 12-18 

 mm. thick, bearing more or less numerous root-fibres, leaving 

 behind the indurated bases when breaking off, bark brown to 

 blackish brown, smooth or wrinkled when dry, fracture cartila- 

 ginous, hard, white within the cambium ring, br.ownish without ; 

 taste slightly bitter, followed by a very persistent strong tingling 

 sensation, cambium continuous, forming a wide central strand, 

 sinuous in cross-section ; mother-tuber shrunk, deeply grooved 

 and wrinkled, black outside, brown right through. Innovation- 

 bud conic, short from a very broad base. Stem erect, simple, 

 inclusive of the inflorescence, 60-120 cm. high, rather stout, 

 crispo-pubescent above, glabrous below, or almost glabrous 

 all along. Leaves numerous, usually more distant in the lower 

 part and crowded in the upper, or more equally distributed, 

 the lowest on petioles up to 7*5 cm. long, the upper shortly 

 petioled or subsessile, passing into the floral leaves, quite 

 glabrous, somewhat fleshy, lower and intermediate blades 

 orbicular, reniform in outline, 4-6 cm. high, 5-9 cm. across, 

 3-palmati-partite almost to the very base, intermediate segment 

 obovate-cuneate, long attenuated at the base, 3-lobed to the 

 middle or beyond, lobes liciniate, or the middle lobe pinnati- 

 partite, ultimate liciniae linear, acute to very acute, lateral 

 segments deeply 2-partite and liciniate with the inner division, 

 similar to the intermediate segment and the outer 2-lobed 

 and smaller, uppermost lobes similar to the preceding, but 

 smaller, relatively longer and more sparingly divided In- 

 florescence a long, narrow, stiff, dense or loose raceme, often 

 over 30 cm. long, often leafy below, and sometimes with slender, 

 erect additional branches from the base, crispo-pubescent ; 

 rhach is stout ; floral leaves like the preceding leaves, but still 

 less divided or entire, passing into the linear to filiform bracts ; 

 bracteoles, if any, small ; pedicels slender, the lowest at length 

 2*5-3 5 cm. long and adpressed to the rhachis when mature. 

 Sepals blue or whitish and variegated with blue, crispo-pubescent 



