OPHELIA ELEGANS. Roxb. ; 1Vight, Ic. Salaras, Silajitu, TEL. Grows plentifully in several parts of the Madras Presidency, flower ing August and September ; and a very handsome species when in full flower, forming as it does a rich panicle of light blue flowers streaked with deeper coloured veins. Grows plentifully in the Pulney Hills, in the Jeypore zamindari of Viza gapatam, and is largely exported as salaras or silajit, the amount being valued at about Rs. 2500 a year. It is preferred by the hakims or native practitioners to the Himalayan chiretta, and is considered febrifuge. The samples of the drug, seen as exported in bundles, are about 16 inches long and 4 inches deep, and are always tied up with the tough bark and large leaves of Banhinia Vahlii (W. ?i• A.), which abounds in the Northern Circars. The drug is exceedingly cheap ; the amount exported is considerable, and is con founded in the bazars with chiretta. Several plants closely allied to the chiretta are used for the same purposes. Ophelia angustifolia, Don, in Northern India is called Pahari (i.e. hill) chiretta, to dis
tinguish it from the true or Dakhani (southern) chiretta, also O. multiflora, Dakell. Justicia paniculata, likewise, is one of the chiretta plants. Exacum tctragonum is called Ooda (that is, purple) chiretta. The cold infusion of Exacum bicolor, although a pure bitter, is much milder than that of Ophelia elegans, which possesses a powerful bitterness, remaining for several minutes in the mouth. It exercises atonic influence on the digest ive organs, thereby improving the general health, while it appears also to have a febnfugo property. Ophelia alata and O. chirata seem to be used simi larly; they grow in the Himalaya. O. paniculata, O. purpurasceus, and O. speciosa are all known as chiretta or cheraeta ; they are found in the Sutlej valley, between Rampur and Sungnam, at an elevation of 7000 to 9000 feet. These annual plants supply the chief portion of the bitter root exported to the plains.—Cleghora's Panj. Rep. ; Ind. Ann. of Med. Sc. ; Cleghorn in M. E. J. R.