N. 0. RANUNCUI ACE.E. 
9 
(Ravi); laskar, spet, panni supalfi, ruskar, liokpa (Sutlej) ; La- 
dara (Ladakh) ; Mundwal (Pangi). 
Habitat : — Alpine, West Tibet. 
An erect herb. Stem glabrous or downy below, glandular 
pubescent above, 6-12 in., simple below, leafy. Leaves 5-fid to 
the middle, lobes sharply cut or toothed, 3-4 in, diam. lobes 
cuneate-ovate, petioles very long. 7 n florescence corymbose; 
corymbs sometimes compound. Flowers large, pale blue, hairy; 
tracts 3-5 — partite, upper simple, oblong or linear, Sepals conni- 
vent, 1 in., membranous, orbicular, veined ; longer than the conic 
and inflated spur. Follicles 5-6, fin., viscidly pubescent. 
Uses: — The juice of the leaves of this plant is used in 
Kurram to destroy ticks in animals, but chiefly when they affect 
sheep. In Leh it is considered so poisonous that the dew from 
the leaves falling on grass is said to poison cattle and horses. 
(Aitchison). 
“ It is remarkable for the very powerful odour of musk, 
which is not peculiar to this species of the genus, but exists 
in other high alpine species, which form a peculiar group, 
with large half-closed membranaceous flowers, whence the 
mountaineers erroneously suppose that the musk-deer feed upon 
them, and thereby communicate the peculiar odour to their 
glandular secretions. The D. Moschatum, Mtinro- is now, by 
Hooker and Thomson, rightly referred to the present plant.” 
Some other species of Delphinium are also used me- 
dicinally, or their roots are employed to adulterate Aconites. 
Thus Delphinium Cashmirianum, Royle, (h. F.br.i., j. 26), 
Fig: — Royle 111. t. 12, found in West Tibet and Tibetan 
Himalaya, from Kumaon to Kashmir, and called in Punjabi 
Amlin , is used to adulterate Aconites ; since, according to 
Atkinson, the cylindrical tuberous roots of this plant are abso- 
lutely identical with the ordinary nirbisi roots. 
ACONITE. 
There are about 24 Indian species of Aconite which may be 
classified as (a) non-poisonous and (7) poisonous. The poisonous 
2 
