Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/189

Rh of Sindh, p. 154) The fruit is pickled by Banyas of Bombay, i.e., natives of Surat.

Dr. Dymock says that the plant possesses somewhat similar properties to C. spinosa,

Sanskrit— Kâkâdani, Gridhranakhi.

Vern. :— Iliun, garua hins (Pb); Kanta-gur-Kâmai, Kalia Kara (B.); Kanti Kapali (Uriya); Kanthar (Guz.); Nella-uppi (Tell.); Kanthârrel (Marathi).

Habitat: — Dry places throughout India, from the Punjab and Sindh to Burma and Carnatic.

A straggling large, wiry-branched shrub or small tree. Branchlets pubescent, hoary or tomentose. Dark-brown, ⅛ in. thick, often studded with thorns in pairs. Wood white, hard, sometimes with occasional rings of dark liber-like tissue. Pores moderate-sized, scanty, in white rings. Medullary rings short, fine to moderately broad. Faint white concentric bands across the rays (Gamble). Thorns recurved, being modified stipules. Leaves ovate-oblong, obovate or oblong lanceolate, subacute or retuse, elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, penni-nerved, downy (rarely glabrous) beneath; ¾-1¼ by ½-¾ in. ; petiole 1/12 in. Flowers white ⅓-½ in. diam., in many flowered sessile or shortly peduncled umbels; pedicels slender or filiform, ½-¾ in.; sepals oblong or ovate; petals narrow, oblong. Ovary ovoid, pointed; gynophore ¼-½ in. Fruit pisiform, black when ripe. Flowering time — February -May; "Rainy season" — says Kanjilal, in Upper India.

Uses : — Said by the Sanskrit writers to be useful in fevers caused by deranged bile and wind. Also considered alterative and tonic and useful in skin diseases (U. C. Dutt.)

The plant possesses febrifugal properties.

Syn. : — C. zeylanica, Roxb. 425,

Sans.:— Hunkaru.