1252 
INDIAN’ MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
cylindric. Leaves sub-orbicular, sub-sessile 3-6in. long, rroma- 
tic, spreading flat on the. ground, tip deltoid, thin, deep green, 
10-12-ribbed, margin not thickened nor coloured. Petiole 
shoi-t, channelled. Flower 6-12in. fugitive, sweet-scented, 
opening successively ; bracts lanceolate, green, small. Calyx 
as long as the bract. Corolla-tube lin. ; segments lanceolate, 
jin. Stamiuodes half an inch long and broad, obovate — cune- 
ate white ; lip white with a lilac throat deeply bifid below in 
middle, lin. bx-oad, 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 tatty uiatty 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 2 76 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 quantity of starch is present, and 414 
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. 410.) 
1238. K. angustifolia , Bose., h.f.b.i., vi. 219'. 
Roxb. 6. 
Vern. Kanjan-bura, madu-nirbisha (H. & BA 
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-jin. Lip i-eflexed, § by fin., lilac, deeply cut into 
