reticulate, nerved, purple. Capsule ½in. diam. Seeds 1/24in diam. (C. B. Clarke).
Officinal in both Pharmacopeias.
The Chemical results agreed with those obtained with the European plant. Leaves, 0.062 ; seeds, 0.081 per cent, of total alkaloid.— [Bull. Imp. Inst. 1911].
The seeds yield about 35 per cent. of oil, which is yellow, slightly fluorescent, somewhat viscous, and dries readily.
877. H. muticus, Linn, h.f.b.l, iv. 245.
Syns. : — H. insanus, Stocks.
Habitat : — West Punjab and Seinede.
Erect coarse herbs. Stem l-3ft. Leaves 9-4in., pubescent or somewhat woolly. Cauline leaves petioled, ovate or oblong, entire toothed. Petioles ¼-3in. Lower flowers pedicelled. Lower pedicels in fruit ¼-lin. Calyx striate pubescent, ⅔in., in fruit 1 by ½in., funnel-shaped, ribbed, somewhat reticulate, villous or ultimatel glabrous. Calyx-teeth short-triangular, not acute in fruit, Corolla 1-1½in., 'lurid yellow or nearly white. Capsale ¼in. diam. Seeds 1/24in. diam.
Uses : — A common plant of Baúchistan, where it is known by the name of Kohí bung or Mountain Hemp. Its powerfully poisonous properties are well known, and it is stated to be smoked in small quantities by debauched faquirs, and to be used also for criminal purposes. The chief symptoms produced by it are dryness and constriction of the throat, and furious delirium (Stocks in Hooker's Journ. of Bot., 1852. vol. iv., p. 178).
The alkaloid in this is chiefly, if not entirely, hyoscyamine, which possesses mydriatic properties which can be very easily isolated.
Similar to atropine is another well known mydriatic alkaloid of wide use, viz. : — hyoscyamine— which is obtainable from the Hyoscyumus niger— the henbane of the English country lane. The writer recently had occasion to analyse sample of Indian Hyoscsamus (probably the Hyoscyamus muticus —an allied species of the genus Hyoscyamus) grown in the Punjab where large quantities of the plant occur in the wild state along the river sides. The assay showed the dried plant to contain the very high amount of 0.827 per cent, of mydriatic alkaloids. This is very much richer than the English
