Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/384

Vern :- Shanda laghuue (Afg.); Chikri (Kashmir) ; Papri, papur, paprang, shamshád, shumaj (Pb.).

Habitat : — Temperate Himalaya, from Kumaon to Simla and Bhotan. Punjab on the Salt Range, etc.

A small, evergreen shrub or tree. Bark grey, soft, corky, cut into small plates by deep horizontal and vertical cracks. Wood yellowish-white, hard, smooth, very close-and even-grained. Branchlets and young leaves pubescent. Branchlets 4-sided. Leaves opposite, coriaceous, varying from lanceolate to ovate, quite entire, l-3in. long, narrowed into a short petiole. Flowers yellowish, monoecious, in dense, short, axillary spikes ; smell unpleasant ; the terminal flowers usually female. Male flowers : — Sepals 4, biseriate, imbricate ; stamens 4 free, opposite to sepals, inserted round a 4-sided rudimentary ovary. Female flowers : — Sepals 6, in two circles of 3 each ; ovary 3-celled, 3-cornered ; top flat ; the corners terminating in thick, short styles. Capsules coriaceous, 3-valved, each valve ending in 2 horns, being the halves of 2 styles ; dissepiments attached to the valves. (Brandis) ; seeds oblong, trigonous, with a black shining testa and fleshy albumen.

Uses : —The wood is diaphoretic ; leaves bitter, purgative and diaphoretic, useful in rheumatism and syphilis. Said to be poisonous to camels. A tincture from the bark is used as a febrifuge (Stewart).

Syn. : — B. spinosa, Roxb. 706.

Vern. : — Pathor, mark (Pb.) ; Khâja, kâj, kassi, gauli (H.) ; Kharaka, kaka (Kol.) ; Kûj (Mongyr) ; Kadrû pala (Santal) ; Gaya (Dehra Dun) ; Gauli (Garhwal) ; Lamkana, augnera (Rajputana); Geio(Nepal); Pengji (Lepcha) ; Kashi (Garo) ; Kamkûi (Chittagong) ; Kasi, kosi (Uriya) ; Mulluvengay, kamanji (Tam.) ; Kormânu, pedda-âvem, danki-bura, dudi mâddi, kora madi, (Tel.) ; Kassei (Gond.) ; Gûnjan, kati ain, asána (Bhil.) ; Phatarphod, asana, asauna (Bom.) ; Sun (Duk.) ; Asuna, goje (Kan.) ; Adamarathu (Tinnevelly).