Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/700

620 palmately divided into spinnulose segments. Bracts 5-6, 1in., linear, with a few spines on the margins, sometimes short exterior spines alternating with them ; bracteoles linear, spinulose, simple, exceeding the flovers ; a few (in the outermost row but one) sometimes spinous, subtrifid. Calyx tube densely scaly ; teeth lanceolate-subulate, spinescent. Fruit ⅛in.

Use: — The root is considered nervine tonic, and aphrodisiac. In Kandahar, the seeds are said to be officinal.

The alkaline salt of the ashes recommended in hæmorrhoids (Honnigberger),

Vern : — Kâli Zewar ; Sipil (Pb.)

Habitat : — Himalaya, from Kashmir to Bhotan and Khasia Mountains.

Glabrous herbs.. Stem l-4ft. erect, corymbose upwards. Radical leaves, linear broader upwards, middle cauline linear, acute, narrowed at the base, more or less amplexicaul. Bracts usually in the Indian forms, sometimes a few scarcely ¼in.; bracteoles 4-5, distinctly shorter than the fruiting umbellule, narrowly lanceolate ; rays 5-8, l½in. ; pedicels 5-15, usually distinct. Disk yellow or brownish, not prominent. Carpels narrowly oblong, ridges not prominent ; furrows 3-vittate.

Use : — They are reputed to have stimulant properties (Watt).

Vern. :- Ajmûd, bori-ajmûd karafs(H.); Chanû, rândhuni (B.); Bori-ajamoda, or ajmud (Bomb.) ; Ajwankapute, budiaji waie (Cutch); Bhût-jhata (Pb.).

English name : — Celery.

Habitat: — Base of the north-west Himalaya, and outlying hills in the Punjab.

Annual herbs, glabrous. Biennial, says C. B. Clarke. This is the wild celery. (The garden celery of the European dinner-table is a special cultivation). Stem l-8ft., erect, branched. Radial leaves pinnate, with large deeply-lobed segments, cauline