Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/558
fever, jaundice and deafness. It is also an antidote to poisons, and regarded as a cure for snake-bites. " Root-bark dried in the shade is said to have been employed with benefit in asthma. Also used in colic, piles and infantile convulsions. It is used for incontinence of urine. The dried powder, mixed with sugar, is used as an aphrodisiac. With the juice of the tulsi leaves, it is administered for pains in the kidneys, and one of the chief remedies used by the Hakims in spermatorrhœa. (Watt's Dictionary.)
1294. Cyanotis tuberosa, Schultes., h.f.b.i., vi, 386.
Syn. : — Tradescantia tuberosa, Roxb. 280.
Habitat : — In damp sandy grounds of Ceylon, the Dekkan Peninsula ; on the west side, from the Konkan to Travancore.
Stems 6in.-3ft., sub-erect or procumbent and creeping below, more or less hirsute. Roots of fleshy, cylindric fibres or tubers. Radical leaves sessile, ensiform, 6-10in. by ½-lin., often purple beneath, scaberulous. Cauline leaves narrowly oblong, distant or in distant fascicles, falcate, short, often purple beneath, linear or ensiform, villous; sheath of radical lin. long, glabrous or of the cauline leaves, softly silky. Cymes villous or densely hirsute, ½-lin., usually peduncled in the axils of short, ovate, acute leaves, upper often corymbose, strongly falcately decurved. Bracts ovate or lanceolate, falcate, shorter than the cyme. Bracteoles ½-⅔in. (J. D. Hooker), 1/6-⅓in. (Trimen), dimidiate-ovate or lanceolate, acute, falcate, villous or densely hirsute. Sepals ¼ by 1/16in., linear, oblong, acute, villous. Corolla ⅓in. long, tube funnel-shaped ; lobes rounded, short, 1/10-⅓in. long, blue-purple. Filaments bearded, fusi-form towards the tips ; anthers 1/10in. long, yellow. Style thickened at the tip, with a tuft of hairs near the apex. Capsule 1/6 by 1/10in., softly hirsute, hairy above. Seeds 1/16in. long and broad, brown, conic, obscurely rugose. A most variable plant in habit, foliage and pubescence.
Use : — The root is used by the Santals in long continued fevers and also worms in cattle. (Campbell.) — Watt ii, 674.