Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/566

486 Applied locally in apthæ. The fruit is diuretic ; an infusion of the bark is used as an astringent gargle. The seeds made into a paste with vinegar are said to be efficacious as a local application to wounds inflicted by poisonous animals (DR.EMERSON).

Syn. : — B. parviflora, Vahl.

Sans. : — Svetakânchan.

Vern. : — Kachnâl, gûrial, thaur, astha, makkûna, manla, dhorâra, marvil, ghila (H.); Banraj, banraji (B.) ; Kaimu (Kol.); Beriju (Santal.) ; Ambhota (Uriya) ; Manla, dhorâra (C. P.); Kosûndra, taur (Pb.) ; Astra, bosha (Gond.) ; Jhinja (Ajmere) ; Amba bhósa (Bhil.) Are-kâ-jhâr (Duk.); Areka, are-maram (Tam.); Ari, âre, adda (Tel.); Apta, apatâ, Wanrâja, Seyâra (Mar.) ; Supta (Kan.).

Habitat : — Met with in the Sub-Himalayan tract, in the Punjab, Oudh, Bengal, Central and South India.

A small, crooked, deciduous, bushy tree. Bark ¼in. thick, blackish, very rough, with deep vertical cracks. Wood brown, hard, with irregular dark patches near the centre ; in alternate concentric wavy band of dark hard and pale soft tissue, of nearly equal widths, the soft bands anatomosing (Gamble). Branches drooping. Leaves broader than long, small, deeply cleft, 7-9-nerved, rigidly coriaceous, lobes rounded, clothed more or less densely beneath with grey pubescence. Racemes short-peduncled, lax, terminal and leaf-opposed, ¼-½ft. long, with densely grey downy rachises ; pedicels ⅛-¼in. ; erecto-patent. Calyx-tube turbinate, not more than 1/12in. long; limb ¼-½in. not splitting up. Petals oblanceolate, yellow (J. G. Baker), as long as the Calyx-limb, unequal. ' Flowers small, white,' says Brandis. Pale-white, says Kanjilal. Stamens 10, all perfect, united at the base. Filaments and anthers with long hairs. Stigma sessile. Pod thick, generally curved, 4-12in. long, 4in. broad, not venulose, falcate, firm, glabrous, turgid, stalk above an inch long. Seeds 10-20.

Parts used : — Gum and leaves.