Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/165



Sans.:—Bhutakesi.

Vern.:—Bhutkis, bhutkesi (H. and B.)

Habitat:—Western Himalayas, 8-120,00 feet, from Kumaon to Kashmir.

Herbs with a presistent woody rootstock. which latter is often branched, crowded with red leaf-sheaths. Stem stout, 1-2 ft., as thick as the thumb, almost naked, or with 1-2 leaves near the top. Radical leaves nearly equaling the stem, many oblong, 2-pinnatisect, long-petioled, cuneate, lanceolate, cut into linear segments, 2 near the base. Cauline leaves 1-2 or 0. Racemes 2-4 in. long, terminal, dense, many-flowered. Bracts broadly cuneate, exceeding the pedicels cut about the middle. Flowers 1 in. long, bright yellow, posticous petal convex, back wing very broad, limb shorter than the curved slender spur. Capsule ½-⅛ in. Style persistent, half its length.

Part used:—The root.

Uses:—The root is supposed to be tonic, diuretic and alterative, and is prescribed in syphilitic, scrofulous and cutaneous affections, in the dose of from 10 to 30 grains. The drug is also often used in the form of a decoction or tincture. (Watt).

Habitat:—Alpine Himalaya, from Sikkim to Kashmir.

A glaucous herb. Stem procumbent, weak-branched, 1-2 ft. (dwarf at high elevations), often leafy, flexuous. Radical leaves few or many, long-petioled, 2-3-times divided ; alternate segments small, narrow-oblong or linear. Leaves finally decompound. Racemes terminal, many, lax, many-flowered. Bracts cut into linear lobes, 1-5 in., flowers ½ in. long, yellow ; posticous petal dorsally winged, hooded or shorter than the obtuse spur. Style persistent, pedicels deflexed. Capsules ovate-oblong, obtuse. Seeds shining, numerous.

Hooker mentions 3 varieties.

Use: — Dr. Aitchison, in his Flora of the Kurram Volley, says that in Kurram this is employed by the natives in the treatment of eye diseases, like all other plants, with yellow sap. It is there called Mamiran.