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fertile cell, with 2 minute imperfect cells at the base, dark- orange colour. Seed solitary, broadly ovoid, white; albumin horny.

Uses: — It is described as purgative, heavy, sweet, pungent, tonic, and cardiacal ; a remedy for bile, heat of blood, gonorrhœa, tridosha (a corruption of the three humors), thirst, heart disease, itch, leprosy, fever, rheumatism, and glandular enlargements.

Ainslie (Mat. Ind. ii) remarks—

" This fleshy creeping root is, in a slight degree, warm to the taste, and of a not unpleasant odour; and is prescribed, by the native practitioners, in the form of an electuary, in consumptive complaints and coughs of long standing, to the quantity of a small tea-spoonful twice daily. The juice of the tender shoots of the plants they administer to children to clear their throats of viscid phlegm. The plant is cultivated in great abundance at Cumbum, and on the Vursenand Mountains in the Dindigul district." (Pharmacogr. Ind. Vol. III., p. 493.)

Vern. : — Irisa, sosun (H.) ; Tesma (Bhote) ; Krishun, unarjal, marjal (Kashmir).

Habitat: — Common on the temperate N.W Himalaya and Kashmir, in damp places ; often grows in gardens.

Root-stock stout, prostrate and creeping. Stems tufted, short, or l½-2ft., stout or slender ; sheaths fibrous. Leaves l-2ft. by ¼-⅓in., linear, rigid, grooved, glaucous. Spathes 3-4in., 1-3-fid ; valves lanceolate, green. Flowers pedicelled, lilac. Perianth tube 0. Sepals neither crested nor bearded, blade 1½-2 by ½-¾in. rhomboidly ovate, obtuse, entire, shorter than the claw. Petals oblanceolate, erect, ¼in. broad. Ovary lin., cylindric style ; arms lin. linear ; tip acutely 2-fid, crests large, deltoid. Capsule 1½-3in. by ½-⅔in., 6-ribbed, beaked, ribs rounded. (J. D. Hooker.)