Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/530

has experience, which acts without producing griping, purging, or other unpleasant symptoms. In a communication to the Editor, he remarks that it is a good emetic and diaphoretic whenever ipecacuanha is not at hand, but that it should be regarded, not so much as a substitute for that article, as a resource in case of need] — Ph, Ind.

The leaves bruised and mixed with castor oil useful in whitlows and local inflammations. The juice of the leaves is used in ear-ache. In Java, it is used as an emetic. (Drury).

Syn. : — Crinum zeylanicum, Linn ; Roxb. 286.

Vern. : — Sukh-darsan (B. and H.) ; Gadâmbikanda (Bomb.) ; Vishamungil (Tam.).

Habitat : — Plentiful throughout the peninsula of India.

Perennial herbs, with large coated bulbs. Bulbs 5-6in. long, globose or ovoid, elongate ; neck stout, short. Leaves many, 2¾ft. by 3-4in., lorate or oblong-linear, acuminate, flat ; margin slightly scabrous. Scape inserted on the neck of the bulb, about as long as the leaves, stout, tinged with purple. Bracts 3-4in., oblong or broadly lanceolate, inner linear. Umbel 10-20-iid ; pedicels very short ; perianth-tube 3-6in., curved, cylindric, limb nodding, 3-4in. long, funnel-shaped ; segments about 3-4 by lin., oblong-lanceolate, acute. Stamens decimate, about ⅓ shorter than the perianth segment. Athers ½-¾in. long ; style longer than the stamens. Ovary cells 5-6 — ovuled. Fruit sub-globose, l½-2in. diam. Flowers white with purplish or pink stain down centre of perianth-segments. Trimen says this is an extremely variable plant.

Uses : --The bulb is extremely acrid, and is used for blistering cattle, a slice being bound upon the skin. When roasted, it is used as a rubefacient in rheumatism. The juice of the leaf is used in earache.

Rheede states that the crushed and toasted bulb is applied to piles and abscesses to cause suppuration, and that if given to dogs it causes their teeth to fall out. According to Loureiro, it has the properties of squills.