Indian Medicinal Plants/Natural Order Dipsaceæ

by Kanhoba Ranchoddas Kirtikar and Baman Das Basu

N. 0. DIPSACEÆ.

624. Morina persica, Linn, h.f.b.i.,iii. 216.

Vern. : — Bekh ahmar (H.)

Habitat : — Western Himalaya, from Kashmir to Kumaon.

Glabrous or softly pubescent herbs. Stems tall, 1½-4ft. Leaves 6 by lin., sessile, up to 9in., doubtly spinous-toothed hard, pubescent or glabrous. Flowers in axillary clusters ; white or faintly tinged with pink. Spikes elongate. Bracts free or nearly so, and involucels hairy or villous. Calyx-lobes subequal, obovate, oblong, entire or emarginate. 1/6-⅓in., by ⅛-¼in. Corolla-tube 1-1½in. Stamens 2 perfect, 2 rudimentary. Filaments longer that the Corolla-lobes. Stigma broad, disk-like. Achenes free within the involucel. In Kerner's Natural History of Plants 11,352. Oliver's English Translation, 1895, London, the flower of Morina persica is cited as instance of Autogamy " by the bending of the style to bring the stigmas into direct contact with the anthers belonging to the same flower or to place them in such a position beneath the anthers as to ensure their catching any pollen that may fall out of the loculi " (K. R. Kirtikar).

Use :— Mentioned in the ' Punjab Products ' amongst drugs, but no medicinal properties are given. Dr. Dymock, in a letter to Dr. Watt, states that he suspects the same species may prove the source of the Red Behen or Bahman of the Persians (Watt).

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