Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/489

Rh pubescent, oblong, 1/6in. long, globose 1-2-seeded, (1-seeded, says J. G. Baker).

Use : — The seeds are employed as a nutritive tonic.

Sans. : — Vasuka.

Vern. : — Cheppoo-neringie (Tam.) ; Cherragaddaun (Tel.) ; Bhiuguli (Mar.) ; Kenneggilu (Kan.) ; Cheru-pullate (Mal.).

Habitat : — From the Himalayas throughout the plains of India.

A thinly, silvery-hoary annual or biennial. Stems densely cæspitose, 1-1¼ft., trailing, much-branched; leaves nearly sessile, 7-11-foliate, ½-1½in. long. Leaflets firm, oblanceolate, alternate ; stipules minute, setaceous. Heads 12-20- flowered, dense, short peduncled or .sessile. Calyx 1/12-⅛ in. hoary ; teeth long, setaceous. Corolla slightly exserted. Pod oblong, 2-seeded, ⅛-1/6in. long, cylindric, thinly hoary.

Use: — The juice of this plant is used as an antiscorbutic, alterative and. diuretic ; and is considered alterative in old venereal affections (Ainslie).

Syn. : — I. aspalathifolia, Roxb. 582, 583.

Vern. : — Shevenar-vaymboo (Tam.); Manueli (Mal.); Nil (Pb.) ; Shiva-malli (Kan.) Habitat : — Plains of Carnatic.

A low undershrub, with copiously spreading, rigid, terete, woody branches and argenteo-canescent branchlets. Leaflet 1-5, pale green, with a few obscure adpressed hairs, oblanceolate, 1/12-¼in- long, often complicate. Pedicels erecto-patent, ⅛-¼ in., almost as long as the leaf, much shorter than the pod. Calyx scarcely 1/24 in. ; teeth long, linear. Corolla red, ⅛in. Pod straight, glabrous, turgid, ½-⅝ in. long. 6-8-seeded.

Uses :—The leaves, flowers and tender shoots are said to be cooling and demulcent, and are employed in decoction, in leprosy and cancerous affections. The root is chewed as a