Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/720

640 or oblong-rhomboid, glabrous above, 2 by 1½in., scarcely acuminate ; with, the base cuneate or rounded, 3-nerved ; margins remotely toothed ; axils of the primary nerves, with tufts of hair secondary nerves, 3 or 4 pairs, transverse, conspicuous beneath Petiole ⅓-½in. long. Corymbs terminal, subumbellate, stellate pubescent, 2-4in. diam. 4-8-rayed, peduncled ; bracts and bracteoles numerous, hairy, from linear-oblong to spathulate-oblong Calyx-tube glabrous. Calyx-teeth minute, triangular. Corolla lobes 1/16 in. diam., round, white. Drupe 1/5 by 1/6in., compressed subacute, red. Seed dorsally 2-grooved, ventrally 3-grooved, and hardly concave.

Use: — It is acrid, bitter and astringent, and used as an emmenagogue. (S. Arjun)

" It is customary for Hindoo women, who have been confined to hang a branch over the room in which they lie, as a protection against evil spirits and post-partum hæmorrhage."

Another superstition is, that if seven pieces of the stem of this plant are knotted into a thread made from cotton picked by a virgin, the necklace thus formed will cure scrofulous-glands. A cake made from the flour of eighteen kinds of grain with narwel juice, is scraped on one side while hot, well moistened with the juice and applied to the head in headache. A wine-glassful of the juice of the leaves is administered internally in menorrhagia daily, also in post-partum hæmorrhage. It is remarkable that V. primifolium, an American plant, has also been found useful in all uterine diseases characterised by loss of blood and in threatened abortion (Dymock).

Vern. :— Shingtik ; Shea ; Shewa (Pb. and Hindi).

Habitat : — Temperate N.-W. Himalaya ; Nubra, Zanskar and Piti. Titail in Kashmir ; Garwbal and Kumaon.

An erect, glaucous, densely-branched, wiry undershrub, glabrous except as to the margins of the leaves. Leaves ⅔ by ¼in., obtuse, oblong, base hardly rounded. Petioles 1/12 in. Bracts large, ovate, flat ¼-⅓in., glaucous, hispidly ciliate on the margins, usually free, or, when the fruits coalesce, sometimes much connate.