Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/409
N. 0. EUPHORBIACEÆ 1159
Habitat : — The Punjab, Salt Range, Sindh and the Deccan.
An annual, prostrate herb. The whole plant softly clothed with stellate tomentum. Root stout. Branches 6-10in. Leaves thick, softly tomentose on both surfaces, 1½-2½in. long, from ovate and sinuate-toothed or entire to rounded and obtusely-lobed. Petiole often Sin Racemes short, lengthening in fruit. Male flowers numerous ; calyx globose, segments 5, valvate ; petals 5 ; disk obscure ; stamens 5-20. Female flowers : — pedicels at length decurved and sometimes 3in. long in fruit ; calyx and petals of the male. Ovary and capsule stellately tomentose and clothed with silvery scales; capsule ⅓in. diam. (J. D. Hooker.)
Uses: — Lindley mentions it as possessing emetic, drastic and corrosive properties.
Dr. J. Hornsey Casson, Physician to Her Majesty's Legation in Persia, called the attention of the Director of Kew gardens to this plant which caused the death of 6 persons with symptoms of severe jaundice, abdominal pain, bilious vomitting, dilatation of pupil, bleeding from the nose, bloody urine tinged with bile and stupor. (Ph. J. Dec. 28, 1889, p. 504.)
1151. C. plicata, Muell., Arg., h.f.b.l, v. 409.
Syn. : — Croton plicatum, Willd, Roxb. 687.
Vern. : — Shahdevi, súbali, sonballi (H. and Sind) ; Okharada (Guz.) ; Khúdiokra (B.) ; Pango nari (Santal) ; Pút kanda, nilkhanti, nil-ak-rai (Pb.) ; Gurugu chettu, linga miriyam (Tel.).
Habitat : — Throughout India, from the Punjab to Travancore and from Bengal to Pegu and Burma.
An erect hoary annual herb up to 2ft. high, with a long straight slender tap-root. Stem usually naked below, sparingly branched above. Leaves 2-4 in. long, ovate to orbicular, often obscurely 3-lobed, thick, rugose, pale-green, stellate-hairy on both surfaces ; petioles l-2in. long. Male flowers : — Calyx ⅛in. long. Petals smaller, very thin, ovate-lanceolate. Stamens 15, in two whorls. Fern, flowers : — Sepals 1/12in. long, triangular. Petals shorter and narrower. Capsules ⅓in. in diam., densely stellate-hairy, but without silvery scales. (Duthie).