1242 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
Habitat : — Plains of India ; from the Punjab to Oudh, Bengal, 
Chittagong, and the Deccan. 
Roots tuberous; hypogteal. Leaves elliptic-lanceolate. Scape 
6-18in., stout or slender, unbranched, from a deformed tuber. 
Sheaths sub-suppressed, acute. Flowers many, subsecund 
appearing before the leaves. Racemes many-fid. Sepals J-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. nuda Lindl., h.f.b.i., 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 hypogmal ; tall. Tuber large. Leaves 10-14im, 
elliptic-lanceolate, very variable in breadth. Scape l-3ft., 
stout. Sheath appressed ; bracts scarcely equalling the ovary. 
Sepals lin. Menturn rounded or conical. Lip shorter than the 
sepals. Capsule l|in., 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 Eiilophia, vis., E. canipestris, 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 XUgiri hills and Ceylon are 
said to furnish part of the Indian supply. The salep of European commerce 
is procured chiefly from the Levant, 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 sot 
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. 
