Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/333

Rh A tree, armed with prickles. " Bark greyish, brown ; young stems covered with thick, conical prickles from a corky base. Wood moderately hard, close-grained, white. Pores small, uniformly distributed, often in short radial lines. Medullary rays fine, short, numerous" (Gamble). Brandis says that it is an aromatic evergreen tree. Gamble says : — "It is a pretty tree. When young, the steins are leafless at the top, where the long pinnate leaves are put out umbrella-fashion." Leaflets 5-10 pair, glabrous, broadly crenate, with large glands in the sinus, base very oblique ; Cymes terminal, very large, glabrous (J. D. Hooker). Seeds aromatic, says Gamble.

Use. — The carpels can hardly be distinguished from those of Z. Rhetsa, and are used similarly in medicine (WATT.)

Syn. : — Scopolia aculeata, ''Sm. Roxb''. 207.

Sans. :— Kanchana ; dahana.

Vern. : — Kanj (H.) ; Dahan, Lahan (Rajputana) ; Meinkara (Nepal) ; Saphijirik (Lepcha) ; Milkaranai, Kandvi, (Tam).; Konda-Kashinda. (Tel.) ; Jangli-Káli-mirchi (Bomb.). Kudur-Miris (Sinhalese.)

Habitat : — Throughout India, in Java, Sumatra, China and the Phillippines and Mauritius. Subtropical Himalaya, from Kumaon eastwards to Bhotan ; Khasia Mountains, and throughout the Western Peninsula. Ceylon, bushy places, from sea-level upto 6,000ft., very common.

A large scandent shrub, the branches covered with prickles, on broad corky cones, often lin. high. Bark brown, thin, with prominent lenticels. Wood porous, yellowish white. Pores moderate-sized, often undivided, uniformly distributed. Medullary rays very fine, uniform and equidistant, bent where they touch the pores (Gamble). Prickles on branchlets sharp. The woody conical lenticels terminal, in short curved spines. Young shoots rusty, tomentose. Leaflets crenulate, greatly varying in length, in the semi-evergreen scrub, near Madras 1½-2in.,