Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/567

much ramified panicle, the branches in the axils of coriaceous sheaths narrowed into a lanceolate blade. Calyx and petals thinly membranous. Stamens 6, sometimes 9in. in the male flower. Stamens in the male flower inserted in the corolla-tube in the hermaphrodite flower in its throat ; anthers deeply sagittate. Ovary 3-celled, narrowed into a style. Drupe globose, ellipsoid or oblong. (Beccari and Hooker). 1-seeded, globose, ¾in. diam.

Uses : —The delicate young leaves are given in diarrhœa and dysentery. They are also purgative ; chiefly used in veterinary medicine. (Bellew.)

Sans. : — Tála.

Vern. :— Tál, tár, (H.) ; Tâl (R); Tale (Santal) ; Tâd, Dral (Guz.); tâda, talat-mâd (Mar.); Potu-tati, tâti-chettu (Tel.); Panaimaram panam, pampai (Tam.); Panâ (Mal.); Tâll, tâlé pané-mare (Kan.)

Habitat : — Cultivated throughout Tropical India, "Bengal and southern part of the United Provinces.

Trunk attains 100ft. high and 2ft. in diam. near the ground, with a dense mass of long rootlets, often swollen above the middle, when young covered with dry leaves or the bases of petioles, when old marked with the black narrow scars of the latter. Leaves 3-5ft. in diam. ; segments 60-80, shining, folded along the midrib, linear-lanceolate ; petioles 2-4ft. long, semiterete, the margins with hard spinescent serratures. Flowers dioecious. Spadix very large, simply branched, sheathed with numerous open spathes. Male flowers small ; spikes 1-3 at the ends of the branches, cylindric, densely clothed with imbricating bracts ; numerous minute secund spikelets concealed by the bracts so as to appear immersed in the spike, the flowers coming to the surface one by one as they successively open. Stamens 6 ; filaments connate with the corolla into a stalk. Female flowers larger, globose, lin. in diam. ; perianth fleshy, greatly accrescent. Sepals imbricate. Petals smaller, convolute. Staminodes 6-9.