Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/712

632 2-3in., stout ; bracteoles oblong, obtuse. Pedicels 10-11, ½-⅔in. Petals yellow or whitish-yellow. Ovary glabrous. Fruit narrowed to the base, and not there emarginate, nearly as broad as long, ¼-⅔in. long ; Dorsal and intermediate ridges triangular, small, obtuse, lateral narrowly winged ; dorsal furrows 1-vittate, lateral 2-1-vittate. Vittæ nearly as long as the fruit or the abbreviated, commissural 4 abbreviated. Seed much broader than thick.

The specimens examined for the plate, figured in this work, is drawn for the first time by me for this work from nature, after examining hundreds of plants from the Matheran Hill, in the Colaba District, and supplied by the Hospital Assistant Surgeon in charge, Matheran Dispensary (K. R. Kirtikar).

Use : — It was considerd by the ancients as carminative, stimulant and tonic (Watt).

The fruit is used in curries in Bombay as a flavouring agent, but some consider it mawkish. K. R. K.

Sans : — Dhanyaka.

Vern. : — Dhania (H and B.) ; Kotamalli (Tam.); Dhan yabu (Tel.) ; Kothmir, Dhanû (Bomb.) ; Dhanû (Sind.) ; Kotambari, havija (Kan.).

Habitat : — Cultivated throughout India.

An annual herb, branched, glabrous. Leaves decompound ; ultimate segment of the lower leaves ovate or lanceolate, of the upper linear. Umbels compound, rays few ; bracts 0, or small, linear ; bracteoles few, filiform. Calyx-teeth small, acute, often unequal. Petals obovate, emarginate, white or purplish, of the outer flowers unequal, often radiant. Fruit sub-globose ; ridges not prominent, dorsal primary and adjacent secondary strongest, lateral primary, and secondary obscure ; vittae obscure, solitary, under the secondary ridges ; carpels slightly concave on the inner face, commissure distinctly 2-vittate ; carpophore 2-partite. Seed convexo-concave, about thrice as broad as thick.