1252 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



cylindric. Leaves sub-orbicular, sub -sessile 3-6in. long, rroma- 

 tic, spreading flat on the ground, tip deltoid, tbin, deep green, 

 10-12-ribbed, margin not tbickened nor coloured. Petiole 

 sbort, channelled. Flower 6-12in. fugitive, sweet-scented, 

 opening successively ; bracts lanceolate, green, small. Calyx 

 as long as tbe bract. Corolla-tube lin. ; segments lanceolate, 

 Jin. Staminodes half an incb long and broad, obovate — cune- 

 ate white ; lip white with a lilac throat deeply bifid below in 

 middle, lin. broad, lobes obtuse. Anther-crests, small, quadrate, 

 with 2 shallow obtuse lobes. Fruit not seen by me among the 

 Bombay grown species. (K. R. K.) 



Uses : — It is probable that the tubers of this species as well 



as of K. rotunda are used indiscriminately in Hindu medicine. 



They are fragrant and of a warm, bitterish, aromatic taste. 



(Ph. Ind.) Used by the Hindu ladies as a perfume for the hair. 



The tubers reduced to powder and mixed with honey are 



given in coughs and pectoral affections. Boiled in oil it is 



externally applied to stoppages of the nasal organs. (Rheede.) 



Chem. comp. — The fatty matty matters dissolved out of this tuber 

 by either consisted of a fragrant liquid oil, and a solid white crystalline 

 substance separated by petroleum ether. The alcoholic extract, amounting 

 to 276 per cent., contained some white transparent prisms of an alkaline 

 nitrate, and a few nodules of a circular-shaped crystals of a yellowish colour. 

 This extract contained a small quantity of alkaloid, and some sweet body 

 reducing Fehling's solution. A large quautity of starch is present, and 4*14 

 per cent, of gum. The tubers dried at 100°C lost 411 per cent, of moisture, 

 and yielded 1373 per cent, of mineral matter. (Pharmacogr. Ind., III. 416.) 



1238. K. angustifolia, Rose, h.f.b.i., vi. 219. 

 Roxb. 6. 



Vern. :— Kanjan-bura, madu-nirbisha (H. & B.). 



Habitat : — Foot of the Eastern Himalayas ; also in Bengal. 



Rootstock tuberous ; root fibres slender or cylindric. Leaves 

 ascending, lanceolate, many, 6-8in. by lin. or less sessile. 

 Flowers few, in a central sessile spike ; bracts small. Calyx lin. 

 Corolla-tube white, twice as long as the calyx ; segments lin., 

 linear, very narrow, white, reflexing. Staminodes erect, oblong, 

 white, i-f in. Lip reflexed, \ by fin., lilac, deeply cut into 



