Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/266

Annual prostrate herbs. Stems many, from a woody stock, slender, glabrous, pubescent or hirsute. Leaves in distant pairs very variable, from by ¼in. by ⅓in. to 2 by ¾in., rather thick, base narrow, sessile or petioled, ovate-lanceolate or oblong, or linear, sparingly toothed. Spikes elongate, slender ; whorls close or distant, in slender racemes 2-6in. long ; bracts ovate, acute, reflexed. Flowers green, occasionally white, minute, pedicelled. Calyx hairy, upper lip very variable in size, throat hairy. Corolla 1/16in., hairy. Filaments exserted. Fruiting Calyx 1/12in., subcampanulate, ribbed, tube not pitted ; calyx- throat with a ring of hairs. Nutlets very minute, elliptic, smooth, naked.

Use. : — It is regarded as febrifuge at Pondicherry. (Ph. Ind.).

Syn : — Ocimum grandiflorum, Blume. 0. longiflorum, Ham.

Habitat : — Assam and Southern India.

Undershrubs, slender, glabrous or pubescent. Stems l-2ft., 4-angled. Leaves in distant pairs, 2-4in., narrowed into the petiole, ovate, acuminate or coarsely toothed, base cuneate. Racemes very lax-fid. Calyx 1/6in,, campanulate, Calyx-throat naked ; 2 lower teeth subulate. Corolla lin., glabrous, white or purplish. Corolla-tube very slender, thrice as long as the Calyx. Filaments far exserted, capillary, twice as long as the corolla. Nutlets broadly oblong, compressed, rugulose.

Dr. Hooker writes in Curtis Bot. Mag. for April 1st, 1870 : —

" It is a very wide-spread Eastern plant from Assam and Burma to the Philippine islands, and from the Nicobars and Siam to Java, Borneo and Cape Goole in North-East Australia. It is a stone plant, a profuse flowerer, and of very pretty appearance."

Uses : — Dr. Van Itallie uses the leaves for gout and in renal disorders (Ph, J. Oct. 2, 1886, p. 267). In Java, the leaves are made into a tea and used in the treatment of diseases of the kidneys and bladder. In Holland and France, they have been