Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/560

480 long ; petiole ½-1½in. Flowers small, numerous, fasciculate or inbracteate racemes, inflorescence in bud, enclosed in imbricate deciduous scales. Calyx-tube very short, segments 4 or 5, oblong. Petals 5, equal, stamens 10, rarely indefinite, anthers versatile. Ovary with 2 ovules. Pod turgid, very' rugose, indehiscent, subsessile, with thick valves, ½-lin. long, seed generally 1, exalbuminous, filling the cavity of the tree pod,

Use : — The root is purgative. A lotion is made from the leaves boiled in cow's milk, which, mixed with honey, is applied externally in scabies, leprosy and other cutaneous diseases. An oil is also prepared from the seeds and used for the same purpose (Rheede).

Vern. : — Matâyen Samprâni (Travancore; ; Kolâvu (Tinnevelly) ; Genue (Manjarabad).

Habitat : — The ghats of Kanara, Travancore and Carnatic.

A very large, unarmed tree. Wood moderately hard ; sap-wood large ; heartwood dark-red. or reddish-brown, exuding a red, sticky resin. Leaves, abruptly pinnate, with few leaflets. Leaflets 4-6, alternate, petiolate, not oblique, oblong, rigidly coriaceous, acute, 2-4in. long, venulose, the upper of the uppermost pair sometimes apparently terminal ; midrib central veining pinnate ; petiolules l/6-l/4in. Panicles copious, axillary and terminal; formed of dense slender, cylindric racemes ; pedicels spreading, 1/24-1/12in. Calyx broadly campanulate, under l/12in long, whith a pair of minute adpressed bractioles. Filaments twice as long as the sepals. Stigma minute. Pod turgid, l½in. long, obovoid or oblong, nearly or quite filled up by the seed, sublignose, rigid.

Use : — The balsam of Hardwiekia has been used in India for gonorrhoea and with as much success as copaiba (Watt). —

The oleoresin of Hardiwickia pinnata was steam distilled and 34 per cent, by weight of oil was obtained. The oil was very thick and its specific gravity