248 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



Bromoaptiharmine C 3 H 7 N. 2 Br, crystallises in long needles, m. p. 229°, and 

 bromometliyla.-poharmine, CjHjN^Br, in nedles, m. p. 196°. 



On brominating, harmine in presence of sulphuric acid, and suspending the 

 product, Fischer's supposed tetrabromide, in hot dilute alcohol, slender 

 needles of dibromoharmine monohydrobromidp. are obtained ; when treated 

 with ammonia this gives dibromoharmine, C 13 H 10 ON. 2 Br. 2 , m. p. 209°. Fischer's 

 compound appears to be the dihydrobromide of this base. 

 J. Ch. S. 1912, A. I. p. 209. 



221. Dictamnus albas., Linn, h.f.b.i., i. 487. 



Habitat : — Temperate Western Himalaya, from Kashmir to 

 Kunawur, and according to Royle, Jumnotrie in Garwhal. 



A strong- smelling herb ; shrubby below, clothed with 

 pustular glands. Stem stout but not woody, branched. Leaves 

 lft. and upwards, alternate, unequally pinnate. Leaflets oppo- 

 site, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, serrulate, 2-3|in., sessile, dark 

 green, base wedge-shaped, nerves slender, petiole very stout, 

 angular, margined. Racemes terminal, 4ft. and upwards, 

 stout, strict, erect. Flowers white or rose-coloured, ljin. long, 

 erect; pedicels l-3in. ; glandular, bracteate at the base and 

 bracteolate usually above the middle. Calyx 5-partite ; deci- 

 duous. Sepals small, lanceolate. Petals 5, 4 upper in pair, 

 ascending, lower declinate ; elliptic-lanceolate, glandular on the 

 back. Stamens 10, inserted at the base of a thick annular disk ; 

 filaments long, slender, somewhat thickened and very glandular 

 below the slender tip ; anthers subglobose. Ovary shortly 

 stipitate, deeply 5-lobed, 5-celled. Style hispid, filiform, decli- 

 nate. Stigma terminal. Ovules 3-4 in each cell, inserted on 

 the ventral suture. Fruit of 5 carpels compressed, broad, 

 truncate, long-beaked, elastically 2-valved, 2-3 seeded, hispid 

 1 in. long. Endocarp horny, separable. Seeds subglobose ; 

 testa thin, black, shining, albumen fleshy; cotyledons thick, 

 radicle short. 



Uses : — Indian writers do not appear to have paid much 

 attention to this plant. The bark of the root was once upon 

 a time a favorite aromatic bitter. Storck prescribed it for 

 most neiwous diseases, also for intermittent fever, amenorrhoea, 

 hysteria, etc. (Watt). 



