N. 0. SOLANACKiE. 919
reticulate, nerved, purple. Capsule Jin. diam. Seeds ^in diam. (0. B. Clarke).
Officinal in both Pharmacopeias.
Tlie Chemical results agreed with those obtained with the European plant. Leaves, 0'062 ; seeds, 0*081 per cent, of total alkaloid.— [Bull. Imp. Inst. 1911].
The seeds yield about 35 per eent. of oil, which is yellow, slightly fluores- cent, somewhat viscous, and dries readily.
877. H. mutieus, Linn, h.f.b.l, iv. 245.
Syns. : — H. insanus, Stocks.
Habitat : — West Punjab and Seine! e.
Erect coarse herbs. Stem l-3ft. Leaves 9-4in., pubescent or somewhat woolly. Cauline leaves petioled, ovate or oblong, entire toothed. Petioles J-3in. Lower flowers pedicelled. Lower pedicels in fruit J-lin. Calyx striate pubescent, fin., in fruit 1 by Jin., funnel-shaped, ribbed, somewhat reticulate, villous or ultimatel glabrous. Calyx-teeth short-triangular, not acute in fruit, Corolla I -If in., 'lurid yellow or nearly white. Capsale Jin. diam. Seeds ^in. diam.
Uses : — A common plant of Baluchistan, where it is known by the name of Kohi bung or Mountain Hemp. Its powerfully poisonous properties are well known, and it is stated to be smoked in small quantities by debauched faquirs, and to be used also for criminal purposes. The chief symptoms produced by it are dryness and constriction of the throat, and furious delirium (Stocks in Hooker's Journ. of Bot., 1852. vol. iv., p. 178).
The alkaloid in this is chiefly, if not entirely, hyoscyamine, which possesses mydriatic properties which can be very easily isolated.
Similar to atropine is another well known mydriatic alkaloid of wide use, vis. : — hyoscyamine— which is obtainable from the Hyoscyiimns niger— the henbane of the English country lane. The writer recently had occasion to analyse sample of Indian Hyoscsamus (probably the Hyoscyamus mutieus —an allied species of the genus Hyoscyamus) grown in the Punjab where large quantities of the plant occur in the wild state along the river sides. The assay showed the dried plant to contain the very high amount of 0'827 per cent, of mydriatic alkaloids. This is very much richer than the English
