Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/335

pedicels slender, jointed about the middle or unjointed. Flowers sometimes 2-nate and connate, valves large, orbicular, 2-lobed at each end, very membranous and reticulate without a marginal nerve. Fruit ½in. diam., white or pink ; valves hyaline.

Uses :— It has obtained the name of Sorrel in India, and is considered by the natives as cooling and aperient, and, to a certain extent, diuretic (Ainslie). The juice is said to allay the pain of toothache, and by its astringent properties to check nausea, promote the appetite and allay morbid craving for unwholesome substances. It is also considered very cooling and of use in heat of stomach, and externally as an epithem to allay pain, especially that caused by the bites or stings of reptiles and insects. The seeds are said to have, similar properties, and are prescribed roasted in dysentery, and as an antidote to scorpion stings. The root is also medicinal (Dymock).

Vern. :— Alpam (Mal.).

Habitat : — Deccan Peninsula ; in the western forests, from the Southern Concan southwards.

An erect slender shrub, 6-10ff. Bark smooth, yellowish. Twigs swollen above the nodes. Young parts finely pubescent. Branches angled. Leaves distichous, 5-7in., linear-lanceolate, acute at base, attenuate, very acute, entire, glabrous above, minutely pubescent and paler beneath, 3-nerved at base, veins, prominent beneath. Petiole very short, stout. Flowers purple or greenish on rather long pubescent pedicels, in shortly stalked, irregularly umbellate cymes. Bracts small, linear. Perianth segments over ¼in., ovate, pubescent, concave. Capsule 3-4in., obtuse, 4-seeded. Seeds acute at both ends, deeply rugose. Leaves slightly aromatic when bruised (Trimen).

Uses : —The juice of the leaves, like that of many plants of this Natural Order, is valued as an antidote in venomous snake bites, especially in that of the Cobra. Fra Bartolomeo (Voyage,