An erect, nearly glabrous, herb. Stems 2-4ft., corymbose upwards. Leaves 4-6 by 3in., irregular, ovate-oblong, sinnate, base cuneate or cordate on the same branch. Petiole l-4in., corymb 2-8in. diam., compound, lax, viscid, pubescent. Flowers all pedicelled ; pedicels ¼-1½in. Calyx in flower ⅓in., lobes ⅛in. lanceolate ; in fruit 1¾ by ⅓in., striate. Corolla 1¼ by 1/5in., tubular, funnel-shaped in the majority of wild examples, sometimes shorter (C. B. Clarke), in the cultivated examples wider, subcampanulate. Stamens and styles equalling the Corolla, or ⅓in. longer, distinctly exserted in all wild examples. Capsule ½in. diam. Seeds 1/12in. diam., scorbiculate-reticulate.
Uses: — " In the hills the leaves are applied to boils, and are also said to be poisonous, the month swelling from their touch, and the head and throat being affected when they are eaten. A man was poisonously affected by eating the plant gathered in the Lahoul habitat, and the Negi of Lahoul, when at Leh in 1867, suffered from its narcotic effects for two or three days, some of its leaves having been gathered by mistake with his ság. At the same time, they can hardly be very poisonous to all animals, for in Lahoul they are browsed by cattle. In a recent communication to the Agri-Horticultural Society of India, Dr. Christison of Edinburgh states that this has the same property of dilating the pupils as Belladonna" (Stewart).
876. Hyoscyamus niger, Linn, h.f.b.i., iv. 244.
Vern. : — Bazrul ; Khorasani ajowan (B. and H.) ; Kurashani Yomam (Tam.) ; Kurásani-vamam (Tel.).
Habitat : — Temperate Western Himalaya, from Kashmir to Garwhal.
An erect, coarse herb, pubescent and more or less hairy. Leaves cauline, sessile, ovate or oblong, sinnate or lobed 5 by 2in. Flowers subsessile. Lower pedicels in fruit scarcely ⅛in. Calyx in flower ⅔in., softly hairy, teeth mucronate, short, triangular, somewhat rigid, the fruit 1 by ½in., subcontracted in the middle. Corolla purple in the base, lin., lurid green,
