Bromoapoharmine C 3 H 7 N. 2 Br, crystallises in long needles, m. p. 229°, and
bromomethylapoharmine, CjHjN^Br, in nedles, m. p. 196°.
On brominating, harmine in presence of sulphuric acid, and suspending the product, Fischer's supposed tetrabromide, in hot dilute alcohol, slender needles of dibromoharmine monohydrobromidp. are obtained ; when treated with ammonia this gives dibromoharmine, C 13 H 10 ON. 2 Br. 2 , m. p. 209°. Fischer's compound appears to be the dihydrobromide of this base. J. Ch. S. 1912, A. I. p. 209.
221. Dictamnus albas., Linn, h.f.b.i., i. 487.
Habitat : — Temperate Western Himalaya, from Kashmir to Kunawur, and according to Royle, Jumnotrie in Garwhal.
A strong- smelling herb ; shrubby below, clothed with pustular glands. Stem stout but not woody, branched. Leaves 1ft. and upwards, alternate, unequally pinnate. Leaflets opposite, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, serrulate, 2-3½in., sessile, dark green, base wedge-shaped, nerves slender, petiole very stout, angular, margined. Racemes terminal, 4ft. and upwards, stout, strict, erect. Flowers white or rose-coloured, 1½in. long, erect; pedicels 1-3in. ; glandular, bracteate at the base and bracteolate usually above the middle. Calyx 5-partite ; deciduous. Sepals small, lanceolate. Petals 5, 4 upper in pair, ascending, lower declinate ; elliptic-lanceolate, glandular on the back. Stamens 10, inserted at the base of a thick annular disk ; filaments long, slender, somewhat thickened and very glandular below the slender tip ; anthers subglobose. Ovary shortly stipitate, deeply 5-lobed, 5-celled. Style hispid, filiform, declinate. Stigma terminal. Ovules 3-4 in each cell, inserted on the ventral suture. Fruit of 5 carpels compressed, broad, truncate, long-beaked, elastically 2-valved, 2-3 seeded, hispid 1 in. long. Endocarp horny, separable. Seeds subglobose ; testa thin, black, shining, albumen fleshy; cotyledons thick, radicle short.
Uses : — Indian writers do not appear to have paid much attention to this plant. The bark of the root was once upon a time a favorite aromatic bitter. Storck prescribed it for most nerous diseases, also for intermittent fever, amenorrhœa, hysteria, etc. (WATT).
