Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/477

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fragrant, moderately hard. In the Himalayas, the tree rarely attains more than C-7ft. in height, often with a disproportionately thick stem, 18-24in. in girth.

Uses : — The fruit and the oil are officinal in the Pharmacopœias of India and Great Britain.

The nuts are sold in the bazars of Northern India for medicine, and are prescribed as diuretic and stimulant. Irvine mentions that they are imported into Patna from Nepal, and are used in the treatment of gonorrhœa. (Watt.)

" Juniper fruit and oil possesses carminative, stimulant and diuretic properties. They are useful in different forms of dropsies, either administered alone, or in combination with other diuretics. They have been used in mucous discharges as gonorrhœa, gleet and leucorrhœa ; and in some cutaneous diseases. The wood has been regarded as sudorific in its action, and has been substituted for Guaiacum and Sassafras." (Bentley and Trimen.)

Vern. : — Tupi (Nepal) ; Deschû, chakbu (Sikkim) ; Bettar, bhedâra, bidelganj, thelu, phulu, jhora, gûggal, bil, ûrûn, agâni (U. P.) ; Wetyar, bettar, chûch, thelu, phulu (Pb.) ; Pama (Tibet.)

Habitat : — Temperate and Alpine Himalaya.

An evergreen graceful, blue, glaucous tree attaining 30ft. or straggling, gregarious shrub. Bark brown, thin, peeling off in long fibrous strips. Wood moderately hard, very fragrant ; sap-wood white; heartwood light-red. (Gamble.) Branches fastigiate, decurved and ascending, with pendulous branches in large plants. Leaves subulate, imbricate, more or less depressed, in whorls of 3, ⅓in. long, lanceolate, pungent, back convex. Branchlets more or less 6-sided. Male catkins and bracts at the end of short lateral leafy branchlets, ovoid, Yellow, Females small, ovules erect. Berries ovoid, pointed, ⅓-½in. long, shining, dark-brown or blackish-purple when ripe. Seed 1, oblong, not winged.

Uses : — Aitchison reports that the smoke from the green wood is known in Kashmir as a powerful emetic, producing long continued vomiting.