Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/284

bell-shaped, upper calyx-lip entire, lower obtusely 2-toothed. Stamens very small whitish. Corolla-tube very short included upper lip short, nearly straight, slightly flattened, concave. Nutlets very minute, 1/30in. long, ellipsoid (J.D. Hooker).

Use. — The seeds are used in gonorrhœa and monorrhagia (Stewart). They are used in Bombay to increase sexual powers (Dymock).

Vern. — Tukhm malangá (Pb.).

Habitat. — The Punjab plains and hills, from Delhi westward ; and Scinde.

A very dwarf scaberulous, hispid or hoary much-branched undershrub. Branched from the base, straggling, divaricate, rigid. Leaves rarely lin., small, few, subsessile, linear or lanceolate, acute rigid, crenate whorls remote 2-3-fid. Flowers small-hardly ¼in. long. Calyx glandular hairy, nodding, pedicelled, ovoid campanulate, fruiting ¼in. long ; upper lip orbicular minutely 3-toothed, teeth of lower subulate. Corolla-tube very short, not exserted, limb very small, upper lip short, nearly straight, slightly flattened concave. Nutlets 1/12in. long, narrowly oblong, nearly black.

Var. pumila — This is a variety named in Hooker under Salvias gyptica. It is more scabrid and hispid. Leaves very rigid and rugose. Calyx villous with long hairs.

Use. — The seeds are used in diarrhœa, gonorrhœa and hæmorrhoids (Stewart).

In Mexico and in some other parts of the United States, a drink is made from the seeds of several species of Salvia. In his " Notes on Economic Botany of the Western United States " (reprinted in the Ph. J., 21-2-1880), Surgeon J. T. Rothrock writes :—

The seeds are collected, roasted and ground, in the native way, between two stones. This puts it in the condition in which I first saw it. It is used as a food by mixing it with water and enough sugar to suit the taste. It soon developes into a copious mucilaginous mass, several times the original bulk. The taste is somewhat suggestive of linseed meal. One soon acquires a fondness for it, and eats it rather in the way of a luxury than with any reference to the fact that it is exceedingly nutritious besides. It is in great demand among the knowing ones who have a desert to cross, or who expect to encounter a scarcity of water, and what there is, of bad quality. By preparing it so that it can be used as a drink, it seems to assuage thirst, to improve