Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/153

 56. Euryale ferox, Salisb. 115.

Habitat:—Sweet water lakes and ponds of East Bengal, Assam, Manipur, Oudh and Kashmir.

Sansk. Mukhauna; padma.

Vern.:—Makhana (H & B); Kunta padma (Uriya); Jewar (Pb.); Melluni padman (Tel).

A densely prickly aquatic. Rootstock short. Leaves peltate, corrugate, 1-4 ft. diam., elliptic or orbicular, green above, downy, deep bluish-purple beneath (Curtis PI. 1447), with strong spiny ribs. Spines sharp-curved on the under and upper surfaces. Ribs dichotomously branched over the whole leaf. The leaf, while in bud, is curiously folded up and enclosed in an involucre, which bursts as the leaf expands. Petiole long, wavy, spiny. Flowers 1-2 in. long, bright-red inside, green and shining outside. Sepals 4, erect, inserted on the edge of the torus above the carpels. Petals numerous, violet, 3-5 seriate, shorter than the sepals Stamens many, many-seriate, fascicled in eights; filaments linear, pollen spherical, 3-nucleate. Ovary 8-celled, sunk in the dilated top of the torus. Stigma sessile; discoid, concave. Berry spongy, 2-4 in. diam., crowned with persistent sepals. Seeds 8-20, from a pea to a cherry in size, much eaten roasted. Aril pulpy. Testa thick, black. Albumen mealy; embryo small.

Use:—The seed is considered as possessed of powerful medicinal virtues, such as restraining seminal gleet, invigorating the system, &c. (Roxburgh).

A light and invigorating food, suited for the sick (U. C. Dutt).

57. Nelumbium speciosum, Willd. . 116. Roxb. 450.

Sansk.:—Kamala (A lotus), sweta (white), Ambhoja (born from water), saraja (born from a lake), sarsiruha (growing in a lake), sahasrapatra (Thousand-leaved), srigeha (Abode of beauty), satapatra (Hundred-leaved), Pankeruha (growing in mud), Tamarasai (copper colour), Rajina (Lotus), Push-