1072 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
Habitat : — Temperate Himalaya, from Kashmir and Hazara 
to Bhutan. 
A nearly glabrous, erect herb. Stems 3-5ft., robust, succu- 
lent. Leaves alternate, broadly lanceolate, 6-10in., entire long- 
pointed, narrowed into a short stalk ; stipules none. Flowers 
|in. diam., pale-green, 2-sexual, in leaf opposed, cylindrical ; 
racemes 2-6in., long ; bracts linear. Perianth 5, nearly separate 
segments. Stamens 8- 10, filaments united at the base ; anthers 
2-celled, soon falling off. Ovary composed of 6-8 carpels 
arranged in a whorl, each with a short recurved stigma. Fruit 
dark-purple, succulent, crowded in an erect, thick raceme, 4-8in. 
long ; carpels separating when ripe, each containing a single 
black shining kidney-shaped seed. 
Uses : — The natives do not appear to use any part of the 
plant as a medicine, but in every district in which it is cultivated 
they seem to be fully aware of its power of producing delirium. 
It is commonly stated that the poisonous property is only de- 
stroyed by complete boiling. The narcotic virtues of certain 
American species are well-known, and it is possible that the 
Indian plant may be equally valuable. (Watt). 
, N. 0. POLYGON ACEiE. 
1054 . Calligonum polygonoides, Linn., h.f.b.i., 
v. 22. 
Vern . : — Balanja, berwaja, tatuke (Trans-Indus); Phok, 
phog, phogalli (flowers) ; tirni (root) (Pb. and Sind). 
Habitat: — Punjab, Sind and Rajputana. 
An almost leafless shrub or small tree with terete pale flexu- 
ous branches and very slender branchlets. Leaves most minute, 
bristles at the distant nodes. Flowering branches about as 
thick as a crow-quill or less ; internodes l-ljin. long. Pedicels 
4-£in., sepals 5, flat, about as long. Stamens 12-18. Ovary 
4-angled. Fruit £-lin diam., a nut, 4-angled, oblong, hard, 
densely clothed with many series of branching intricate, rigid, 
red-brown flexuous bristles ; seed about iin. 
