Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/447

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The commonest Maple of the West Himayalan range.

Current name : Acer cultratum. Wall.

Vern. : — Kilpattar, trekhan, tarkhana, Kakru, Kanjar, Kunzal, jerimu, laur, tian (Pb.) ; Kanchali, Kainjli (N. W. P.), Kainchli, Kabûsi, Dûdh Kainju (Jaunsar) ; Dhadonjra (Simla) ; Tikta, pata, bankima (Kumaon) ; Gudkima, potli, dumitha (Garhwal) ; Chindia, tilani, Chitulia, (Dotial).

Habitat : — Outer and Middle Himalaya, from the Indus to Assam at 4-9,000ft. Tibetan drinking-cups are made out of the knotty excrescences.

A handsome, moderate-sized tree. Bark thin grey. Wood white, soft to moderately hard, close-grained. Pores very small, scanty. Medullary rays fine and very fine, dark, with a pretty, fine silver-grain (Gamble). Leaves 2 to 5 by 2½ to 7in., broader than long, 5-7-lobed, rather membranous, glabrous, turning red before falling ; margins quite entire ; base usually deeply cordate, rarely truncate. Petiole l-6in. long, slender, flexuous. Flowers glabrous, on slender pedicels, arranged in terminal or lateral corymbs. Sepals about 1/10in. long, oblong. Petals as long as the sepals, spathulate. Stamens shorter than the petals. Fruit glabrous ; nuts thin ; wings 1-1⅓in. long, very divergent, with the back sigmoidly curved. Flowers, April to May. Fruit, June and July.

Uses : — The knots on the stems are made into the curious water-cups supposed by some of the hill tribes to have a medicinal influence over the water.

The leaves are said to yield an acrid juice in Kanáwar which blisters the hands.

Syn.: — D. angustifolia, Willd and D. diodea, Roxb. 324.

Vern. : — Bandari, zakhmi (Bomb.); Alíar (H.); Sanatha (Hazara) ; Dhásera, dawa ka jhár, latchmi, Sanatha, mendru banmandú, Sántha, mendar (Pb,) ; Ghuráské, vera-vena (Pushtu) ; Pipalu (Simla) ; Virali (Tam.) ; Bandaru, golla pulleda bandédu (Tel.); Bandurgi, bandrike (Kan.) ; Eta and Werella (Sinhalese).