Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/598

matic and carminative, and useful in diarrhœa, asthma and other affections caused by deranged phlegm. (U. C. Dutt.)

Among the Santals the fruit is applied externally for rheumatism. (Revd. H. Campbell.)

Syn. :— S. Pertusus, Schott. Pothos pertusus, Roxb. 145.

Vern. : — Ganeskanda (Mar.).

Habitat: — The Dekkan Peninsula; Coromandal, Malabar; Ceylon rather rare.

A tall perennial climbing shrub rooting on trees. Stem cylindric 1½in. diam., green, smooth, leafy for the greater part of its length. Leaves 8-18in. long, and 6-10in. broad ; young small, ovate, entire ; old pinnatifid to below the middle or perforate, base truncate or subcordate, lobes few, broad, falcate, acuminate, primary nerves 5-8 pairs connected by anastomosing veinlets. Petiole about as long as the blade deeply. channelled, young winged, wings not auricled at top, basal sheaths 4-5, oblong, obtuse, brown. Spathe shortly stoutly peduncled, yellow, 5-7in. ovate-oblong or cylindric, cymbiform, acuminate, or cuspidate. Spadix sessile, shorter than the spathe, very stout, cylindric, ⅔in. diam., top rounded. Flowers hexagonal. Stamens 8 ; filaments very stout, sometimes bifid ; anthers small. Ovary 6-gonous. Stigma linear, raised on a short stout style. (Trimen.) The ovary is 4-angled, stigma sessile, pulvinate, says J. D. Hooker.

A closely allied plant, says Trimen, cultivated in gardens always, has perforated leaves.

Uses :— -The juice of the plant with black pepper is given to people who are bitten by Kusreyia ghannas {Daboia russellii, a viper), a snake so called because the part bitten by it mortifies. The juice, with that of the roots of Croton oblongifolium, and of the fruit of Momordica charantia is also applied to the bitten part. (Dymock.)