Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/441

N. 0. URTICACEÆ. 1191

length of blade 4-6in. of which the acuminate apex forms only about one ; petioles 2.5 to 3.5in. Stipules ovate-lanceolate, from ½ to lin. long ; receptacles sessile, in pair in axils of leaves or of leaf scars, globular, smooth when young, whitish with dark spots, when ripe nearly black ; 5in. across ; basal bracts 3, rotund, small. Male flowers few, and only near mouth of the receptacle, the perianth of 3 spathulate pieces, anther single, on a filament about as long as itself ; gall and female flowers with perianth of 3 lanceolate pieces ; the gall ovary, smooth and usually ovoid ; achene minutely tubercled, mucilaginous ; style in both elongate, stigma clavate. (King.)

Uses: — The Santals use the fruit as a drug. The juice is used in the Concan to kill worms and is given internally with -turmeric, pepper and ghi, in pills, the size of a pea, for the relief of asthma ; it causes vomiting. The juice is also burned in a closed vessel, with the flowers of mudar and 4 gunjas weight of the ashes mixed with honey, is given for the same purpose. (Dymock.)

Sans. : — Aswaththam.

Vern. :— Pipal (H.) ; Ashathwa, (B.) ; Hesar, pîpar (Kol.) ; Hesak (Santal) ; Jári (Uriya) ; Bor-bur (Kachar) ; Pipli (Nepal) ; Ali (Gond.) ; Pipri (Korku) ; Pîpal, bor (Pb.) ; Pimpala (Mar.) ; Pîpul (Guz.) ; Arasa ; Aswartham (Tam.) ; Rai, raiga, ragi, râvi or kulla rávi (Tel.) ; Rangi, basri, arali, arle, haspath, rági, asvalta (Kan. )

Habitat.: — Wild in the Sub-Himalayan forests, in Bengal and in Central India.

A large, glabrous, usually epiphytic tree. Bark grey, nearly ½in. thick, exfoliating in rounded, irregular flakes of varying size, often leaving rounded depressions. Wood greyish-white, moderately hard ; having narrow bands of soft tissue, which alternate with broader bands of firmer substance. Pores moderate-sized and large, often sub-divided, rather scanty.