Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/109

Rh across, divisions broadly deltoid or the outer trapezoid up to 4·5 cm. broad, shortly 3-or (the outer) 2-lobed, lobes coarsely crenate or dentate. Inflorescence tomentose, with spreading hairs. Carpels quite glabrous.

Properties and uses:—Evidently poisonous.

23. ''A. spicatum, Stapf., sp. nov.''

Ann. Roy. Bot. Gard. Calc, Vol. X., pp. 165-166.

Vernacular names:—Bikh, Kalo Bikhoma Donghi; Guiong Mot and Shodduk Mot.

Habitat:—Alpine zone of the Himalaya of Sikkim and Chumbi.

Roots biennial, paired, tuberous, daughter- tuber conic or conic-oblong, often rather elongated, 10-20 cm. long, 1·8-3 cm. thick, simple or sometimes deeply divided, with filiform root-fibres, the bases of which are sometimes abruptly thickened and persist as conical ovoid stumps, brown or blackish externally, fracture horny, yellowish or brown in the dry state, taste slightly sweetish bitter, followed by a tingling sensation; cambium continuous, forming in cross-section a more or less sinuous ring; mother-tuber similar, shrunk and wrinkled. Innovation-bud a very broad, much depressed cone, with broad clasping scales, decaying soon after sprouting. Stem erect, up to 1·5 m. high, straight or slightly flexuous above, simple terete or sometimes slightly angular, robust, sometimes as much as 3 cm. in diam., adpressedly greyish-pubescent, with deflexed hairs, glabrescent or quite glabrous in the lower part, brown or almost black when dry. Lowest leaves 5-8, decayed at the time of flowering, their scars rather distant; intermediate and upper leaves as many as 12, approximate or congested, petioled; petioles 2·5-7·5 cm. long, dilated at the base, blades somewhat fleshy, more or less finely pubescent, or at length glabrous above orbicular-cordate or reniform or broadly ovate (particularly the upper), with a usually shallow sinus, 3-partite to $4⁄5$ - $6⁄7$ or the upper to $2⁄3$, intermediate division rhomboid or ovate from a linear cuneate base, sometimes acuminate, 5-10