Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/296

216 Uses: — It is given in accordance with the "doctrine of signatures" as a remedy for leprosy in the Concan ; it appears to be simply mucilaginous like most of the gums. (Dymock).

Its roots are used by the Goanese as the substitute of Althæa.

Vern : — Gaphni (Kol) ; Tarse kotap (Santal) ; Jalidar kaskusri, thamther (Pb.) ; In zarra, pastuwanne (Pushtu) ; Dhoban (Ajmer). Kharmati (Mar). Pâde Khado (Gujrat and Porebunder) ; Luskanú jhâd (Cutch).

Habitat :— Western and Southern India, extending from Panjab and Sind to Travancore. Gujrat, Porebundar, Kutch.

A shrub often gregarious. Branches, leaves and inflorescence densely silky, with long stellate hairs. Leaves not hoary beneath, nearly orbicular, from a cordate base ; 1-4 in. diam., rugose, transverse veins numerous, prominent and parallel, tufts of sikly hairs in the serratures. Secondary nerves not arched. Petiole ½-1 in. Base of leaves 5-nerved. Stipules broad, leafy. Flowers dull-yellow, peduncles very short, in compact axillary clusters, sometimes opposite the leaves. Bracts oblong. Sepals oblong or linear-acute, villous, membranous, ⅓ in. long, clothed on both sides with short stellate hairs, outside also with simple hairs, the tips often with a long-branched and stellate process. Blade of petal thin, twice the length of a claw, oblong, notched, much shorter than the sepals. Fruit globose, size of cherry, with a distinct crustaceous brown rind, with tufts of long stellate hairs ; pulp pleasant. Stones 4, 1-2- seeded.

The sweet acid fruit is used as dessert by the poor of Porebunder. The juice of fresh bark is used with sugar and water for gonorrhœa and urinary complaints attended with irritability of the bladder.

Part used : —The root.

Use: — The root is employed for diarrhœa in Chutia Nagpur (Revd. A. Campbell.)