Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/320
" The plants are dried in the sun for two or three days, care being taken not to overdo this. They are then burnt in round pits 3 to 4 feet in diameter and 2 to 3 feet in depth. As the stuff burns more of it is continually added to the burning mass which is always kept stirred. The fused alkali now comes out as a liquid and collects at the bottom of the pit in a separate mass which on cooling forms the " barilla " ready for export."
1050. Salsola Kali, Linn., h.f.b.l, v. 17.
Vern. :— Sajji bûti (Pb.).
Habitat : — N.-W. Punjab, common in Baluchistan.
Annual spinescent herbs ; pubescent, scabrid or glabrous, usually glaucous. Stem 6-18in., rarely erect, branches soft and pithy within, striped green white ; diffusely branched from the base. Leaves short, subulate, lanceolate from a ½-amplexicaul base, thick rigid, pungent, ½-1½in., spreading and recurved. Flowers 1-3 together, axillary or subspicate, bracts sepals sub-equal pungent. Fruiting perianth cartilaginous, ¼-½in., diam transparent, often rose coloured ; base rounded, wings obovate, orbicular or reniform, scarious, sometimes obsolete. Seed adherent to the utricle.
Use : — This plant is used in the manufacture of sajji.
1051. Basella rubra, Linn., h.f.b.i., v. 20. Roxb. 275.
Vern. : — Pói, lál-bachhe (H.) ; Rakto-púi, púisák {B.) ; Lál bachle-kí-bhájí (Duk.); Shirappu-vasla-kire (Tam.) ; Alla-batsalla, pedda-mattu-neatku-batsala, erra-allu-bach-chali (Tel.) ; Chovva- una-basella-kira (Mal.); Kempa-basale (Kan.); Mayák bháji, Velgond (Bomb.).
Habitat : — Throughout India under cultivation.
A much-branched, twining fleshy herb, glabrous. Leaves petioled, broadly ovate, or cordate-orbicular, 2-7in. diam., narrowed into the petioles. Spikes l-6in., axillary peduncled, simple or branched. Flowers red. Fruit size of a pea, purple when mature.
" Roxburgh regards two varieties of this, a red and a regen-