Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/111

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N. O. RANUNCULACEÆ.
31

is, however, introduced erroneously as A. Napellus. The poisonous principle is pseudoaconitine. The amount of pseudoaconitine found in the tubers of this species may, according to Prof. Dunstan, reach as much as 0·50 per cent (Stapf).


24. A. laciniatum, Stapf. sp. nov.

Vernacular name:—Kalo Bikhmo.

Habitat: — Subalpine and Alpine Himalaya of Sikkim and adjoining Tibet.

Roots' biennial, tuberous, paired; daughter-tuber conic-oblong, often rather drawn out into a slender point, 3·5-6 cm. long, about 1·5-2 cm. thick, simple or divided, with filiform root-fibres, which are generally not much thickened at the base, brown externally, fracture whitish or pale brownish, almost horny, taste indifferent or very slightly bitterish, followed by a tingling sensation; cambium continuous, forming a sinuous ring in cross-section; mother-tuber similar, usually much shrunk and thinner. Innovation-bud an acute cone, up to 1 cm. high, outermost scales are very short, clasping, soon decaying after sprouting. Stem erect, stiff or flexuous, 6 to 9 dm. high, simple terete, slender to rather robust, finely pubescent in the upper part, with adpressed reversed hairs, otherwise glabrascent or quite glabrous and shining, drying usually chestnut-brown. Leaves scattered; basal 5-6, rarely 8, decayed at the time of flowering, rather distant; intermediate and upper leaves up to 10, approximate or congested, petioled, petioles rather slender, 2·5-7·5 cm. long; blades somewhat fleshy, finely pubescent or almost glabrous, reniform, rarely cordate-orbicular in outline, with an usually wide and shallow sinus, 4-7, rarely to 10 cm., from the sinus to the tip, 7-12 cm. across, 5-pedati-partite almost to the base in the inner, to 3/4 - 5/6 in the outer incisions, inner divisions sub-equal, rhomboid from a narrow cuneate base up to 5 cm. wide, 3-lobed to the middle, lobes narrow, inciso-dentate or laciniate, lacinias lanceolate or linear, acute or acuminate, outermost divisions asymmetric, mostly unequally 2-lobed, otherwise similar to the inner, but smaller. Inflorescence racemose or usually loosely paniculate, few to many-