N. 0. LIUACE/E. 
1301 
yellow anthers. Style filiform, much longer than the perianth. 
Capsule l-ljin. ; valves with long, recurved beaks. 
Uses : — C. Masson, in- his narrative of an excursion into 
the Hazavali country in 1832 iTrans.-Bombay Geograph. Soe. 
i i . , p. 60), notices a small bulbous root, which the Afghans dug 
up at Bad Assiar on the banks of the Helmund, and which 
appeared to be a kind of Colchicum, for the purpose of pre- 
paring Haran-tutiha, a medicine of great repute among the 
Afghans. He also remarks : — “It is sold in small pieces of 
a dark-brown colour, and resembles a dry extract.’’ Masson 
travelled through a great part -of Afghanistan on foot, mixing 
with all classes of the people, and his experience of their 
manners and customs is very interesting. (£harmacogr. Indica 
III , 499-500). 
The conns (or bulbous roots) constitute the bitter hermodaetyl of the later 
Greeks, and are the surinjan of the Indian bazars. The true Colchicum (C. 
autumnale) does not occur in India, but in the bazars there are two forms sold, 
the bitter and the sweet. The latter is imported from Persia. European phy- 
sicians in India consider the sweet root as inert, but they would seem to hold 
that the bitter one possesses similar properties to the true colchicum and may 
be substituted for it. Recently a few children were reported to have been 
poisoned at Kuldana in Rawalpindi through eating the seeds of this Indian 
colchicum. The seeds were accordingly chemically analysed at Calcutta 
(as also the roots), and tested physiologically. It was found that both possses- 
sod colchicine, of which the hundredth part of a grain proved fatal to cats. 
[Of. Hooper, Rept. Labor. Ind. Mus. (Indust. Sec.), 1902-3, 28 ] Watt. Com. 
Pro., p. 398. 
In the Ph. J. for April 1, 1871, pp. 784-785, Dr. M. C. Cooke gave drawings 
of the starch granules of the tasteless and bitter hermodaetyl, but he was 
not acquainted with the source of the latter, since he concluded his paper by 
saying “ what is the source of bitter hermodactyls ? ” — B. D. B. 
The seeds and roots contain c.olchicine. 
1288. Gloriosci superba, Linn., h.f.b.i., vi., 358. 
Sans. : — Langalika, agnisikha, kalikari. 
Vern. : — Nat-ka-bachhnag, karihari, languli (H.) ; Bisbalan- 
guli, ulatchandal, bisha (B.) ; Siric-samano iSantal); Mulim, 
kariari (Pb.) ; Rajahrar (Ajmere) ; Nagkaria, indai(Mar.); Kalai- 
paikishangu, kartikaikishangu (Tam.) ; Agui-rfhikha, kalappa- 
gadda, adavi nabhi, potti dumpa (Tel.) ; Ventoni mendoni, 
(Malay) ; Sima-don, hsee-touk (Burm.) ; Neyangalla (Sing.). 
