N. 0. RANUNCULACE.E. 25 



the rest much reduced, coarsely and sparingly dentate, the upper- 

 most very small ; pedicels erect, slender, lower up to 6'5 cm. long, 

 upper much shorter ; bracteoles linear, up to 4 mm. long, or on 

 the lower pedicels broader and sparingly dentate. Sepals blue, 

 crispo-puberulous ; uppermost helmet-shaped, helmet more or 

 less oblique, depressed, 15-20 mm, high, 17-22 mm. from the tip 

 to the base, about 7 mm. wide (in profile'', slightly concave 

 towards the base in front and produced into a short beak and 

 broadly clawed ; lateral oblique, sub-orbicular, scarcely ungui- 

 cnlate, ciliate, 14-18 mm. long; lower oblong, 10 mm. long, 

 obtuse, deflexed. Sectaries hispiclulous all over ; claw almost 

 straight, 12-13 mm. long ; hood leaning forward, gibbous near 

 the top on the back, 5 mm. long, lip short, broad, emarginate. 

 reflexed. Filaments hairy in the upper part, 8-10 mm. long, 

 winged beyond the middle, wings abruptly contracted. Carpel* 

 3, oblong, conniving in the flower, then sub-divaricate, acl- 

 pressedly greyish-pubescent, contracted into the rather long- 

 style, Follicles unknown. Seeds obconic, 3 mm. long, terete 

 with numerous small, short transverse lamellae. 



Properties and uses. — Watt quotes in Agric. Leclg., G. G\ 

 Minniken as saying that in Bashahr the poisonous aconites 

 are collectively called Mohra. The poisonous principle of this 

 aconite is pseudo-aconite. 



21. A. Balfourii, Stapf, sp. nov. 



Vernacular names .—-Gobriya (Darma) ; Go/xm (West Nepal); 

 BanwfX (British Garhwal). 



Habitat: — Subalpine and Alpine Himalaya, from British 

 Garhwal to Nepal 



Roots biennial, paired or ternate, tuberous ; daughter-tubers 

 sometimes paired or divided from the base, conic or elongate, 

 conico-cylindric, 3-7 cm. long, 1-2 cm. thick with a few root-fibres 

 which are either slender-filiform or conspicuously thickened (up 

 too mm. diam.) at the base, externally greyish-brown, fracture 

 white, almost horny, taste rather indifferent, followed by a ting- 

 ling sensation ; cambium discontinuous, broken up into strands 

 arranged in a ring, the smaller circular in transverse section, 



4 



