Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/576

496 root in cases of piles and fistula ; the first are given in powder, in a little milk, to the quantity of two pagodas* weight or more during the day (AINSLIE).

In the Concan, the leaves are rubbed into a paste and applied to hydrocele ; and their juice, with an equal quantity of' horses' urine, is made into an anjan, used to remove films of the conjunctiva by setting up an artificial inflammation (Dymock).

The juice of the leaves is used to impregnate cotton wool for a dressing, in any form of sinus (CALTHROP).

Syn. : — M. mutabilis, Roxb. 423.

Vern. :— Agla-agl, kingli, kacheyta (H.) ; Râl, rianb, didriâr, arlu, alla, kikri (Pb.) ; Hajern (Sind.) ; Aradi (Nepal.) ; Sibriû (Lepcha); Chilatti (Bhil.) ; Shia-kanta, kuchi-kânta (B.) ; Sega janum (Santal). ; Allâ (Raj.) ; Hujiru (Sind.) ; Bida, chandra, undra, ventra (Tel.).

Habitat :— Western Himalaya, Kumaon, westward to Mishuir and Bhotan, and through India Proper.

A large, straggling, prickly, pubescent shrub or small tree. Bark grey. Wood hard, sapwood yellowish white, heart-wood red. Branches, petioles and peduncles, armed with short, curved, sharp yellowish prickles. Stem attaining 5in. diam. Leaves bipinnate, 5-7in. long ; stipules ¼in. long, setaceous ; pinnæ 5-12 pair, shortly stipulate ; the rachis without prickles ; leaflets 6-12 pair, membranous, ¼-3/10 by ⅛in., obliquely-oblong, shortly cuspidate, glabrous above, slightly pubescent beneath ; midrib excentric ; petiolules very short. Flowers 4-merous, pink, in fascicled, axillary, pedunculate heads ; peduncles l-2in. long, slender, pubescent, crowded at the ends of the branches ; bracts small, setaceous. Calyx minute ciliolate. Corolla ⅛in. long, shortly 4-lobed. Stamens 8, long-exserted. Ovary stalked, glabrous. Pod 3-4in. by ½in., stipitate glabrous, falcate, separating in 4-10 1 -seeded joints from the sutural frame which is usually without prickles (TALBOT).

Use : — In Chamba, the bruised leaves are applied to burns, and the fruit is also officinal (STEWART).


 * A Pagoda weighs 54 grains.