Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/644

Vern.:— Alombe, khumba (Bom.) ; Kagdana chhatra (Guj.); Kuti lenbhâ, Khumba (Sind). Bheœphore (Pb) ; Mânskhel (Kashmir) ; Moksha (Chamba) ; Khûmbah, shâmbûr, chattri (Afg. Bazar names) ; Kûmbh samarogh (Stewart) ; Herar, poisonous forms.

Habitat :— Abundant in fields in many parts of India, especially in the Pan jab. Very largely prevalent in the Thana district, Salsette Island near Bombay. (K.R.K.)

Pileus 3-6 inches across, globose, then convexoplane, dry, silky, floccose or squamulose, white becoming reddish-brown when cut, giles free but rather close to the stem, ¼-⅔ inch broad pink then flesh-colour, finally blackish-brown, sub-deliquescent ; stem 3-4 inches long, ⅔-1 inch thick, subequal, white stuffed, ring median persistent, more or less torn. Spores purple-brown, elliptic, 7-9 by 6 inches.

Use.— The small dried mushrooms are officinal in the Panjab and are sold as " Mokshai" being regarded as alterative.

Vern. : — Phanasa-alombe, or vulgarly phansamba.

Habitat: — Is common on old jack trees in Bombay.

Uses.: — It is ground to a paste with water and applied to the gums in cases of excessive salivation. It appears to have much the same properties as amadon, and to be a useful styptic. It is also given internally in dysentery and diarrhœa, and applied to the mouths of children suffering from aphthæ (Dymock.)

In form this fungus resembles the hoof of a horse. Externally it is of a rich orange-brown colour when fresh, and has a sweetish, styptic taste, but when long kept it turns to a dull brown colour. The fungus consists of a number of laminae upon the under surface of which the hymenium is situated.

Colonel K. R. Kirtikar wrote the followiug note published at p. 73 of the First Volume of the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society :—

" The fungus described by Dr. Dymock in his Vegetable Materia Medica of Western India (p. 704, 1st Edition) * is called Phanasamba in Marathi and

• P. 898, 2nd Edition, and p.