1242 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



Habitat : — Plains of India ; from the Punjab to Oudh, Bengal, 

 Chittagong, and the Deccan. 



Roots tuberous ; hypogaeal. Leaves elliptic-lanceolate. Scape 

 6-1 8in., stout or slender, unbranched, from a deformed tuber. 

 Sheaths sub-suppressed, acute. Flowers many, subsecund 

 appearing before the leaves. Racemes many-fid. Sepals i-fin., 

 linear-lanceolate, acute 5-7-nerved, slightly attached to the base 

 of the lip, acute or acuminate, yellow or green, striped with 

 pink. Petals oblanceolate, 3-5-nerved, narrower. Lip as long as 

 the sepals, cuneate-obovate or oblong ; side-lobes short, mid-lobe 

 orbicular, usually purple. Spur conical. Disk with 3 central 

 nerves lamellate at base and tubercled and spinulose on 

 the mid-lobe. Column rather slender. Capsule fin., ellipsoid. 



Use :— It furnishes Salep which is esteemed as a tonic and 

 aphrodisiac. 



1227. E. nnda Lindl., h.f.b.l, vi. 5. 



Vern. : — Ambarkand (H.). 



Habitat : — Tropical Himalaya, from Nepal eastwards, 

 Assam, the Khasia Hills, and Mainpur ; the Deccan Peninsula, 

 from the Concan southwards. 



Roots tuberous hypogasal ; tall. Tuber large. Leaves 10-14in., 

 elliptic-lanceolate, very variable in breadth. Scape l-3ft., 

 stout. Sheath appressed ; bracts scarcely equalling the ovary. 

 Sepals lin. Men turn rounded or conical. Lip shorter than the 

 sepals. Capsule ljin., fusiform. Flowers large, green or purple. 



Uses : — It furnishes salep. Sir George Watt, in his work 



" Commercial Products of India," p. 963, writes regarding 



Salep, that 



The article obtained in the Indian bazars has been ascertained to be 

 chiefly the product of several species of Eulophia, vis., E. campestris, E. nuda 

 and E. virens (mankand or Lahore salep of the shops), though probably also 

 from the species of a few other genera, and is produced on the hills of Afghan- 

 istan, Baluchistan, Persia and Bokhara ; but the Nilgiri hills and Ceylon are 

 said to furnish part of the Indian supply. The salep of European commerce 

 is procured chiefly from the Levaut, and to some extent from Germany, etc., 

 derived mainly from the tubers of Orchis mascula. The tubers are dug up 

 after the plant has flowered, and the plump, firm ones are washed and set 

 aside, and subsequently strung on threads, scalded, and dried in the sun or by 

 artificial heat. The commercial article is met with in three forms— palmate, 

 large ovoid, and small ovoid. 



