Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/525

Rh much curved, acute, 4-5 times as long as the Calyx. Pod distinctly stalked.

Use : — As a remedy for the poisonous bites of animals, the people of the Concan use the root with an equal proportion of the root of Nyctanthes and Woodford ia floribunda, the seeds of Cassia tora and Vernonia anthelmintica and the stem juice of Trichosanthes palmata made into a paste with cow's urine, as a local application, and administer Aristolochia indica internally. In the heat-eruptions of children the leaf-juice is given with curds and yellow zedoary (Dymock).

Syn. : — Hedysarum tuberosum, Roxb. 580.

Vern. : — Bidari-kand, bilai-kand (H.) ; Shimeeya, batrajee (B.) ; Sural, siali (Pb.) ; Daree, goomodee (Tel.); Gorabel (Raj.) ; Dari (Bomb.) ; Karwia-nai (Guz.).

Habitat : — Hills of the Konkan, Dekkan, Canara, West Himalaya, Simla, Kumaon, Orissa, Nepal, Circars, Behar, Chota Nagpore.

A large-deciduous, pubescent climber, with woody tuberculated stem, tuberous rooted- Bark brown ½in. thick, peeling off in vertical strings. Wood very porous, soft, perishable, white when fresh cut, afterwards turning brown, fibrous. The pretty purple blue flowers appear before the leaves. Leaves of 3 leaflets. Leaflets broadly ovate, entire or sinuate, pointed, long stalked ; smaller equally sided. Flowers ⅔in. long, in small clusters, crowded in long, panicled racemes. Calyx ⅓in. densely covered with red brown hairs ; teeth short acute, 2 upper nearly or quite united. Standard orbicular ; keel nearly straight, obtuse, slightly shorter than the wings. Upper stamen free at both ends, but connected at the middle with the sheath formed by the others. Ovary hairy ; style glabrous, abruptly incurved at base ; stigma small capitate, pod flat, densely grey, hairy, 2-3in., deeply constricted between the seeds, tipped with persistent style- base. Seeds 2-6, separated by partitions.

Parts used : — The roots.

Use: — The root peeled and bruised into a cataplasm is