Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/305

Vern. : — Baghachura (Beng.) ; Háti-ánkusá (Uriya) ; Karu- indu (Tam.) ; Kunki-pootri, embudi chettu, konki (Tel.).

Habitat : — South Concan, and elsewhere in the Deccan Peninsula.

A large, woody, thorny, straggling or climbing shrub, often forming impenetrable thickets. " Young shoots and inflorescence pubescent armed with sharp axillary, more or less curved thorns" (Brandis). Bark light-brown, thin. Wood light brown, soft, of peculiar structure (Gamble). Trunk very short. Branches subopposite, horizontal. Leaves 2-3in., elliptic obtuse, entire, base cuneate, glabrous. Blade 2-3in. ; petiole ¼-⅓in. long. Flowers greenish white, in compact, sometimes paniculate, axillary cymes. Male flower campanulate, pedicelled, 5-toothed. Stamens 7-8. Female flower ovoid, obscurely toothed. Stigma lacerate. Fruit long-pedicelled, ⅓-½in., narrowly oblong or clavate, 5-ribbed, ribs muricate, with several rows of glands (J. D. Hooker). The gland protuberances are viscid, says Brandis.

Uses : — The bark and the leaves are used as a counter-irritant for swellings and rheumatic pains (T. N. Mukherji). The juice mixed with pepper and other ingredients is given to children suffering from pulmonary complaints (Watt's Diet.).

Vern. :— Chinai Sálit (Bomb.)

Habitat : — Cultivated in India.

An evergreen unarmed tree of middle size, 30-40ft , glabrous, except the youngest shoots and inflorescence. Leaves large, pale green or bright greenish yellow, those of the ends of the branches often nearly white, somewhat resembling the lettuce in taste, but is an " indifferent substitute' (Gamble). Eaten in Ceylon by the Singhalese (Trimen) and by the European-Jews of Bombay (K. R. K.). The male tree has much darker leaves and not much brown as the lighter leaved are in gardens in coast towns in India, as in Calcutta, Madras, Colombo and Bombay.