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Rh substituted. The dried plant appears also to be used for the same purposes (Ph. Ind.).

This and other species of Ophelia are common throughout the Himalaya, and several others occur in the mountains of the Madras Peninsula. They all possess strong bittter properties, and may, therefore, where they are indigneous, be substituted for the officinal Chiretta, which is rare to the west of Nepal, and is not found in Central or Southern India.

Habitat : — Western Himalaya ; Kashmir.

Perennial herbs. Stems covered by lax sheathing petioles ; the lower leafless. Leaves alternate, 3-foliate, leaflets elliptic or oblong-obtuse, entire or obscurely wavy, subsessile 2 by 1 in. Petioles 3-8in. Peduncle 3-6in. . Raceme l-6in. Pedicels ⅓-¾in. Flowers white or bluish. Sepals 1/5in. Corolla ⅓-½in. Style ¼in. Capsule ¼-⅓in., sometimes bifid nearly to the base. Seeds 1/10in.

Use : — The leaves, the Buckbean or Boybean, are considered a valuable tonic and reckoned as one of the best of gentians.

On the entire plant being extracted with boiling alcohol, a glucoside, meliatin, C15H22O9 was isolated from the extract. The yield was about 30 grins, from 23 kilos of the plant. It has a bitter taste which becomes stronger after a short time. It melts at 223° C. on the Maquenne block, and at 222"C in a capillary tube. The optical rotation in aqueous solution is [a]D=— 81.96°. It has no reducing action upon Fehling's Solution, and when hydrohysed by emulsion, dextrose is produced.— [M. Bride], Comptes rend, 1911, abstracted in J. Ch. I., July 15, 1911, p. 429].

Sans : — Langali.

Vern. : — Kasschara, isha-langulya (B.) ; Tsjeru-vallel (Malay).

Habitat : — Throughout India, in wet places.

An annual, unarmed herb. Stem 6-18in., usually decumbent and rooting at nodes below, glabrous, rather succulent, with short