Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/612

532 Flowers pendulous, cylindric, 2in. long, in a large terminal panicle. Calyx tubular, inflated, green, tinged with red and spotted with white, 4-toothed. Corolla tubular, twice as long as the Calyx; tube cylindric, green, lobes 4, tinged with red,. acute, spreading. Stamens 8, in 2 series, inserted about the middle of the Corolla-tube. Carpels 4. Follicles 4, many-seeded, enclosed within the dry persistent Calyx and Corolla. (Collett).

Sutlej Valley; Simla; throughout India. An introduced plant, spread throughout all tropical regions. Often much cultivated in gardens in Bombay and in the Dekkan. In Ceylon, says Trimen, it is a common plant on bare rocky places throughout the low and lower montane country. Believed to be a native of Tropical Africa.

Use :—The leaves slightly toasted are used by the natives as an application to wounds, bruises, boils, and bites of venomous insects. In the Concan the juice of the leaves is administered in ¼ to ½ tolá doses, with double the quantity of ghi; in dysentery. I have seen decidedly beneficial effects follow their application to contused wounds, swellings, and discolorations were prevented, and union of the cut parts took place much more rapidly than it does with the ordinary treatment by water dressing (Dymock).

Used in the form of poultice and powder for sloughing ulcers, it is a disinfectant (Surg. Barren, in Watt's Dictionary, Vol. I.)

Syn. :—K. Varians, Wall.

Vern. : — Tatára, rungru, haiza-ka-patta (Pb. and H.) ; Hâtho Kâne (Nepial) ; Pátkuári, bakal patta (Kumaon).

Habitat : — Tropical Himalaya, from Bhotan to Kashmir.

An erect, stout, perennial herb. Stems 4ft. high. Leaves glabrous, spathulate-oblong, crenate, upper distant and becoming very narrow, sometimes 3-foliate, with the petiole often 3-4 by ½in., frequently sessile ; lower commonly 3-4, sometimes 10in., long, besides the petiole. Lowest bracts linear, narrow,