Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/727

Rh Habitat : — Khasia Mountains and Assam. Mountains of the Western Peninsula.

A suffrutescent herb, erect, glabrous, or stem petiole cymes and leaf-nerves beneath puberulous. Stipules small. Leaves 2-5 by 1-2½in., very thin, elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, long- acuminate, narrowed into the petiole. Cymes l-3in. diam., flat-topped, glabrous or pubescent. Cyme-branches sub-umbellate, very spreading. Bracts absent. Calyx-teeth very short. Corolla white, glabrous round at the tip, in bud ⅓in., mouth not dilated ; lobes very short, obtuse, keeled at the back. Capsule 1/6-⅓in. diam., pedicelled. Seeds many, minute, angled.

Use : — The root is intensely bitter and may be used as a tonic Popularly believed to be a remedy against the bites of venomous snakes, mad dogs, &c.

Vern. : — Asari (Nepal); Tumberh (Lepcha) ; Bhûta-kesa, Lâudachúta (Bomb.) ; Shivardole (Mar.) ; Bebina (H.) ; Vellaellay (Tam.).

Habitat : — Tropical Himalaya, from Nepal eastward. Assam, Khasia Mountains, and the Western Peninsula, from the Concan southwards.

A large shrub, tomentose, hirsute or nearly glabrous. Bark grey, smooth, but granular. Wood white, soft, but moderately hard, close and even-grained. Leaves sessile or petioled, elliptic oblong or ovate, acuminate ; stipules long or short, often 2-fid. Cymes contracted or open, softly silkily-tomentose ; bracts and caducous calyx-lobes elongate-lanceolate, much larger than the ovary, twice the length of the ovary or longer. Corolla orange- yellow, pubescent, silky or hirsute; lobes broadly ovate, acute or acuminate. Berries obovoid, glabrous ; areole broad.

Uses : — In the Concan, a tola of the root is given with cow's urine in white leprosy.

In jaundice, 2 tolâs of the white leaves are given in milk (Dymock).