Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/164

84 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. According to Hooker, " a more stately and beautiful plant can hardly be imagined, except the Hollyhock, which it some-what resembles in miniature."

Part used:—The root.

Use:—The root is regarded as a narcotic in Kashmir.

65. M. Wallichii, Hook.; h.f.b.l, i. 119.

Habitat : — Temperate Himalaya, Nepal and Sikkim.

Welsh Poppy.

A prickly perennial herb ; slender, stellately pubescent and softly hairy in tender parts. Stem 4-6 ft., leafy, branched. Leaves 8-12 in., pinnatifid, oblong or obovate. Lanceolate, glaucous beneath, long-petioled. Flowers much panicled, purple 1-1 J in. diam., many, pedicels short. Sepals densely pubescent, not setose. Petals 4. Stamens numerous ; filaments slender ; anthers erect. Style distinct, persistent, stigmatic lobes clubbed. Capsule 1 in., elliptic-oblong, 5-valved, densely bristly, seeds many, small, rugose.

Part used:—The root.

Use:—The root is used as a narcotic in Kashmir.

  66. Hypecoum procambens, Linn, h.f.b.l, i. 120.

Habitat:—Drier parts of the Punjab, Peshawar, Multan and the Salt Range.

A low, annual glaucous herb. Stems procumbent, many, 3-12 in., slender. Leaves 2-3-pinnatisect, 2-4 in.. Segments linear or oblong, upper sessile, whorled. Flowers few, 1 in. diam., yellow, pedicelled. Outer petals 3-lobed. Inner petals with the lateral segments iinear-oblong, obtuse, midlobe entire, retuse or 2-fid, toothed or fimbriate (H. /. and Th. . Fruit 1-2-2 J in., i in. broad, curved, sub-compressed, at length break- ing up into 1-seeded joints.

Parts used : — The leaves,

Uses ; — The juice has the same effect as opium. The leaves act as diaphoretic (Murray). 