24 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



20. A. deinorrhizum, Stapf. sp. nov. 



Fig. : — Stapf. Annals Roy. Bot. Gard. Calcutta, Vol. X, pt. v. 

 t 103. 



Habitat: — Alpine Himalaya of Bashahr. 



Vernacular name — mohra, maura bikh. 



Roots : —Biennial, tuberous, paired ; daughter-tuber conical, 

 rather elongated, up to 6'5 cm. long, and at the upper end 

 up to 18 mm. thick, with very few filiform root-fibres, brown 

 externally, fracture scarcely farinaceous, whitish, taste indifferent, 

 followed by a strong tingling sensation, cambium discontinuous, 

 broken into strands, arranged in a ring, the smaller circular in 

 cross-section, the larger tangentially flattened ; mother-tuber 

 similar, more or less shrunk, wrinkled, with long filiform root- 

 fibres. Innovation-bud a very low, broad, obtuse cone ; scales 

 very broad with a clasping base, decaying after sprouting. 

 Stem several feet high, erect, straight, simple, terete, sparingly 

 and finely crispo-pubescent in the upper part, otherwise 

 glabrous, shining, or in young plants sparingly pubescent all 

 along. Leaves up to 10 or 12, scattered, lower usually decayed 

 at the time of flowering, the upper 6-8 rather distant, sparingly 

 hairy when young, especially towards the margins and on the 

 nerves below, soon glabrescent ; petioles slender, mostly 5-7 cm. 

 long, dilated at the base ; blade reniform or ovate-reniform in 

 outline, with a very wide sinus or an almost truncate base, 

 5-pedati-partite almost to the base (to xf4§ m the inner, to f-| 

 in the outer, incisions), inner divisions subequal or intermediate, 

 distinctly longer, rhombic from a cuneate base, up to 8 cm. (or 

 the intermediate to 10 cm. long), 5-Q'5 cm. broad, 3-lobed to 

 the middle, intermediate lobe much longer than the lateral, 

 lobes deeply laciniate, laciniaB linear or broad-lanceolate, entire 

 or sparingly inciso-dentate, shortly acute or subobtuse, outer 

 divisions asymmetric, usually to or beyond the middle, otherwise 

 similar to the inner, but smaller. Inflorescence straight, racemose, 

 simple or sometimes with an additional branchlet from near its 

 base, 30-40 cm. long, narrow, not very dense, greyish, crispo- 

 pubescent ; lowest bracts similar to the preceding leaves, or like 



