Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/688

608 or acute, irregularly or slightly dentate. Wight says : "The leaves are sometimes only obtused-angled, densely covered on both sides with short bristly hairs." This is something more than being pubescent as described by Trimen. Wight's description is more accurate as regards Indian species. Petiole more than half the length of the leaf, stout glabrous, and some-what round, often bent to give the leaf a deplexed appearance. Flowers unisexual, monoecious, yellowish green. Male flower's very small, on short pedicels, more yellow than the female flowers. Inflorescence. " A small corymb at the apex of a long peduncle " (C. B. Clarke). Peduncle roundish, smooth, straight, stiff. Bracteoles present at the insertion of the pedicels. Pedicels short, ¼-½ in., sometimes lin. Calyx campanulate, lobes 5, short. Corolla 5-partite. Stamens 5 (arranged 2+2+1), that is, 2 sets of stamens united, forming a bundle each of two filaments and one solitary, nearly sessile, at the mouth of the Calyx-tube. Connective very small. Anthers free, 1-celled, straight, oblong, not produced ; no rudimentary gynoecium in the male flowers. Females axillary, solitary, in the same or different axils from those of the male flower, or accompanied with a small raceme ; larger than the male. Ovary inferior, ovoid, of three carpels united into one cell. Ovules 6-9, horizontal; stigmas 3, styles 3, distinct, short. Fruit ⅜in., often ½-¾in., roundish or ovoid, mostly conical, with a bent-beak, which is hardly perceptible in most flowers. Fruit smooth, of orange or brick-red colour when ripe. Seeds elliptical or nearly globose, little margined, 6-9, in an orange-coloured pulp, very slightly compressed, pale-brown, adpressed, says Trimen, Wight, on the other hand, says the seeds are white. In the specimens I have examined, the pulp is distinctly whitish, and the older the seeds, the browner their colour [K. R. K.J

Uses : — Ainslie remarks that the Vytians hold it in great estimation, and prescribe it in the later stages of dysentery, and old venereal complaints. It is usually administered in powder, the dose being about one draham in 24 hours, and continued for eight or ten days together ; this quantity produces