20 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
Hahitat : — Subalpi'ne and Alpine zone of the Western Hima- 
laya from Chitral and Hazara to Kashmir, between 7,000 and 
12,000 ft. 
Roots: — Biennia], paired, tuberous; daughter-tuber conic to 
conic-cylindric from a broad base, 2'5-3'7 (rarely 5) cm., 12-18 
mm. thick, bearing more or less numerous root-fibres, leaving 
behind the indurated bases when breaking off, bark brown to 
blackish brown, smooth or wrinkled wdien dry, fracture cartila- 
ginous, hard, white within the cambium ring, brownish without ; 
taste slightly bitter, followed by a very persistent strong tingling 
sensation, cambium continuous, forming a wide central strand, 
sinuous in cross-section ; mother-tuber shrunk, deeply grooved 
and wrinkled, black outside, brown right through. Innovation- 
bud conic, short from a very broad base. Stem erect, simple, 
inclusive of the inflorescence, 60-120 cm. high, rather stout, 
crispo-pubescent above, glabrous below, or almost glabrous 
all along. Leaves numerous, usually more distant in the lower 
part and crowded in the upper, or more equally distributed, 
the lowest on petioles up to 7'5 cm. long, the upper shortly 
petioled or subsessile, passing into the floral leaves, quite 
glabrous, somewhat fleshy, lower and intermediate blades 
orbicular, reniform in outline, 4-6 cm. high, 5-9 cm. across, 
3-palmati-partite almost to the very base, intermediate segment 
obovate-cuneate, long attenuated at the base, 3-lobed to the 
middle or beyond, lobes liciniate, or the middle lobe pinnati- 
partite, ultimate liciniae linear, acute to very acute, lateral 
segments deeply 2-partite and liciniate with the inner division, 
similar to the intermediate segment and the outer 2-lobed 
and smaller, uppermost lobes similar to the preceding, but 
smaller, relatively longer and more sparingly divided. In- 
florescence a long, narrow, stiff, dense or loose raceme, often 
over 30 cm. long, often leafy below, and sometimes with slender, 
erect additional branches from the base, crispo-pubescent ; 
rhachis stout ; floral leaves like the preceding leaves, but still 
less divided or entire, passing into the linear to filiform bracts ; 
bracteoles, if any, small ; pedicels slender, the lowest at length 
2'5-3'5 cm. long and adpressed to the rhachis when mature. 
Sepals blue or whitish and variegated with blue, crispo-pubescent 
