Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/628

Sans. : — Râjika (according to Paddington), râji (according to U. C. Dutt).

Vern. : — Maruâ, (Beng.) ; Kode (Sant.) ; Manduâ, maruâ, makra, rotka (H.) ; Mandal, chalodra (Pb.) ; Kodon, koda, kodra, kutra (Pb. Him.) ; Nangli, nachni (Sind) ; Nagli, nachiri (Mar.); Nâvto nâgli, (Guz.) ; Kayur, kelvaragû (Tam.) ; Tamidelu, râgulu (Tel.) ; Ragi(Kan.); Kurakkan (Sing.) ; Mandwah (Pers.).

Habitat : — Cultivated in many parts of India.

A medium-sized annual grass. Stems several, erect, 2-4ft. high, somewhat compressed, smooth, sulcate. Leaves with long finely sulcate sheaths ; ligule shallow, densely bearded ; blade l-2ft., linear, smooth, striate. Spikes 4-6, digitate, incurved, with usually one or more isolated ones placed lower down and representing a second verticil ; spikelets sessile, 2-5in., arranged in two rows on one side of a flattened somewhat flexuose and minutely toothed rachis. Florets sessile, distichous. Glumes lanceolate, boat-shaped, with membranous margins, keel prominent, edged with minute forward prickles ; outer one about twice as long as the inner ; lower pale ovate mucronate, the middle nerve forming a prominent keel ; inner pale smaller, bifid, the two principal nerves keeled and armed with small prickles. Lodicules very small, entire or bilobed at the apex. Ovary smooth, shortly stalked ; styles 2, with long feathery stigmas. Seed globular and about the size of mustard, dark reddish brown, transversely wrinkled, enclosed in a loose membranous pericarp. Var. stricta (E. striata, Roxb. 1. c. 115), stems 2-5 ft. high, spikes straight. (Duthie and Fuller.)

Mandua is a native of India. Its specific name is founded on the Cinghalese word kourakhan. There is an allied species (Eleusine œgyptiaca) bearing the vernacular name (makra), and occurring commonly throughout Upper India, which presents to a superficial examination hardly any points of difference from the cultivated plant ; the seed of this wild plant is collected by the poorer classes as an unpalatable, though often very serviceable, food. The grain of the cultivated mandua is anything but popular diet. Cakes made from it are very dry eating, and little satisfies an empty stomach. For this reason it is recknoned an economic grain by the poor. But no one eats mandua cakes