Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/300

The root and leaves possess slightly bitter and astringent qualities and were formerly much used as a febrifuge. They are still employed as a domestic remedy in England, and in Tuscany a decoction of the leaves is believed to form an excellent eye wash, and to have styptic properties. The seeds are used as diuretic in China.

Contains a fair proportion of sugar and oxalic acid ; whilst in the leaves of the plant, T. Roller found albumen, pectin, with citric and oxalic acids, J. Ch. I. 1887 P, 49

Vern. :— Baltanga (H.); Baltung, bartung(B); Parhar pangri, parbar pangi, bartang (Pushtu).

Habitat : — Western Himalaya, from Kashmir to Simla, the Salt Range and Waziristan.

Perennial scapegerous herbs, very variable in size. Root-stock tapering. Leaves all radical, shortly petioled 1-12in., lanceolate, entire or toothed, 3-5-ribbed, woolly. Scape as long as the leaf, deeply furrowed. Spikes very short, ½-3in, ovoid subglobose or cylindric ; bracts acuminate. Sepals usually ciliate, corolla glabrous ; filaments long. Capsule 2-celled ; cells 1-2-seeded.

Uses : — The leaves are used as an application to wounds, inflamed surfaces and sores. The seeds are used with sugar as a drastic purgative. Said to act as a hæmostatic. (Ph. J., 24th Feb, 1883. p. 683.)

Vern. : — Parhar pangi (Pushtu).

Habitat : — Western Himalaya, from Kumaon to Kashmir ; Western Tibet, and Afghanistan.

Perennial glabrous herbs. Leaves elliptic ovate, subsessile or petioled, 3-5-ribbed, axils glabrous. Scapes stout, glabrous, larger than the leaves and cylindric spikes. Much resembling a smaller state of P. Major, but the seeds are l-2in, each cell, oblong and plano-convex.

Use : —The leaves, slightly bruised, are, in Ziarat, used as an application to wounds. (Lace, in Watt's Dic.)