Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/604

524 Flowering stems with few leaves, and 1-6 flowers. Flowers ½-1½in. diam. Calyx-tobes deltoid-ovate, acute, silky, spreading in fruit. Petals orbicular, yellow, much exceeding the Calyx. Carpels sessile on the base of the Calyx, clothed with long, silky hairs. Achenes elliposoid, acute at both ends, hairy. Style |in., slender, straight in fruit.

Use : — The root of this plant, officinal in Kashmere, is one of the most valuable of remedies (Honnigberger). Its uses are similar to those of G. urbanum.

Vern.:— Rattanjot (Pb.)

Habitat : — Western temperate Himalaya, from Murree to Kumaon.

Herbs, with perennial woody root-stock. Leaves long petioled, digitately 5-foliate, or upper 3-foliate. Stems erect, leafy- branched, 3-flowered, stout or slender, from densely villous to glabrate. Radical leaves 12 by 3in. ; leaflets sessile ; 1-3 by ¼-1¼in., membranous, rarely acute, teeth obtuse or acute, base entire, cuneate ; obovate or elliptic obovate, green. Petiole slender, cauline stipules ¾-lin., ovate or oblong, lower entire, upperlobed. Flowers pedicelled in dichotomous panicles, 2/3-in. diam., petals obcordate, purple. Fruiting pedicels sometimes 3in., divaricate. Calyx-lobes acute ; bracteoles obtuse. Achenes very numerous, minute, wrinkled on a globose, hairy receptacle.

Use : — The roots are officinal, being considered depurative. They are used externally in the Yunani system, the ashes being applied with oil to burns (Dr. Stewart).

Syn.: — Comarum flavum, Roxb. 409.

Habitat : — Throughout the warmer parts of India, from Kashmir to Malacca and the Nilghiri Hills.

Root annual. Stems very numerous from the root. 6-1 8in., hairy, spreading, leafy dichotomously branched, prostrate or suberect, stout or slender. Leaves pinnate, ½-3in., flaccidly