Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/579

Syn : — Typha angustifolia, Linn.

Sans : — Eraka.

Vern :— Pater Râmabâna, (H.) ; Hoglâ (B.) ; Bora (Kumaon) ; Kûndar, dib, dab, pitz, yira, boj, lûkh, patira gond, pan, borî (Pb.); Pitz, yira (Kash.) ; Pun, pollen = bûr, bûri (Sind) ; Râmbâna (Mar.) ; Ghabajarin (Guz.) ; Jammu gaddi, emigajunum (Tel).

Habitat : — Marshes from N.-W. India to Assam and southward, very common in Bombay marshes along the B. B. & C. I. Railway, between Mahim and Dadar. In the Thana District abundant at Bhiwandi and in Banganga River on the way to Chinchan Tarapur. ( K. R. Kirtikar.)

Annual marsh herbs. Stems 6- 12ft. Leaves erect spongy, 1-1½in. broad, trigonous above the sheath, margins often undulate above the middle. Flowers bracteolate. Male spike 8-12in. rachis clothed with short, often forked hairs, bracts 3 or more, anthers, 1-5, 1/10in. long. Pollen 4-globate. Female spike much shorter 6-10 by ⅓-lin. diam. Flowers mixed with clarate pistillodes, bracteoles with fasciate tips much longer than the hairs, which are shorter than the stigmas. Stigmas lanceolate (J. D. H.)

Uses :--The down of the ripe fruit is used as an application to wounds and ulcers, which acts in the same way as the medicated cotton wool.

" The root-stock, which abounds in starch is somewhat astringent and diuretic, and is employed in Eastern Asia in dysentery, gonorrhœa and measles." (Mr. Maiden in Ph. J., 1st Sep., 1888, p. 180.)

Syn. : — Ambrosinia spiralis, Roxb, 623,