Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/221

Rh obliquely truncate, apex triangular, acute, adpressed. Sheath and apex with impressed glands. Flowers bisexual or monœcious, loosely scattered on long slender spikes which are generally collected at the ends of branches in loose panicles. Bracts shorter than flowers; stamens 5. Disk entire or indistinctly 5-lobed. Capsules ⅛ in. long. Flowering time, May to September. The extremities of branchlets and the leaves on older branchlets are shed during the cold season; new shoots and leaves come out about May.

Parts used : — The bark and galls.

Uses : -The galls are employed as an astringent (Royle). The bark is bitter, astringent and probably tonic. (Ph. Ind.. p. 20.)

The bark powdered and, in combination with oil and Kamala, is used as an aphrodisiac by the natives. It is also employed as an application in eczema capitis, and other diseases (Watt).

Vern. ;-Humbu? Umbu (Pb.) Habitat : — Western Himalaya from Garwhal to Ladak. A bush, with smooth, striate slender stem. Leaves oblong- ovate or oblanceolate, narrowed at the base, often crowded. Bracts, ovate, about twice as long as the pedicels, but short acuminate, with narrowly membranous margins. Flowers 3 in., lateral lax; white (Brand is.) Sepals connate below, much shorter than petals, obtusely triangular at apex. Stamens connate for one- fourth of their length, 10, alternately long and short, monadelphous. Ovary tapering, with 3 sessile stigmas; placentas basal, very short, adnate to the middle of the valves; ovules many. Seeds exalbuminous, with a usually stalked plume. Embryo ovoid.

Use : — The leaves form an application to bruises, &c, in Lahoul (Aitchison).