Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/605

Rh membranous. Leaflets 3-9, opposite and alternate oblong, obtuse, lobate or serrate. Stipules ovate entire, very broad or narrow. Petiole slender ½-2in., pedicels axillary, solitary, slender, 1/6-½in. Calyx-lobes obtuse or acute, as are the bracteoles. Petals smaller than the calyx, oblong, yellow. Achenes very many, minute, smooth or rigid ; receptacle globose, villous; style subterminal.

Use : — The roots are employed in Sind as a febrifuge (Murray, 143). The medicinal properties depend upon tannin ; they are astringent and tonic (Dymock).

Syn. ' — A. nepalensis, Don Prodr.

English : — Agrimony.

Habitat : — Temperate Himalaya, from Murree and Kashmir, altitude 3- 10,000ft. ; Sikkim, alt. 7-10,000ft. ; Khasia Mts., 4-6,000ft. Mishmi Hills. Westwards from Persia to the Atlantic, Siberia and Java. N. America. Java ? (J. W. Hooker).

A slender, erect, leafy perennial herb. Rootstock woody, short or long. Leaves 4-7in. Leaflets 6-21, sessile, alternate, often small hairy on both surfaces, larger 1-⅓in. elliptic-ovate or obovate rarely orbicular ; smaller often orbicular and minute; petiole slender. Stipules large, leafy, lunate entire or toothed. Racemes slender, lengthening in fruit ; pedicels reflexed in fruit ; bracts 3-fid or 3-partite. Flowers ¼in. diam. Petals oblong-ovate, yellow. Calyx-tube -Jin., hardened in fruit, grooved, lobes conniving in fruit ; top of tube with a dense ring of spines which become hooked in fruit and are erect, with the outer spreading.

Use : — From the remotest times Agrimony has enjoyed a high reputation among the herbalists of Europe; it is strange that it should be apparently quite unknown to the native doctors of India. The root is a powerful astringent, a useful tonic, and a mild febrifuge (Watt).

Vern :— Gulâb ; Sudburg (H. and Bomb.) ; Gulâppâ irro-