Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/736

656 Uses : — The bark is used by the Santals in fever (Revd. A. Campbell). Watt, ii. 129.

Syn. : — Webera tetrandra, Willd.

Vern : — Kirni (Bomb.; ; Karai-cheddi (Tam.) ; Tsjêron kâra (Mal.) ; Bâlusu chettu, bâlsu (Tel.)

Habitat : — Western Peninsula, from the Concan southwards.

A rigid, glabrous shrub ; branches stiff, spreading ; spines numerous, axillary or subaxillary, straight, stout and sharp. Wood hard, close-grained. Spines l-2in. long. Leaves glabrous, crowded on shortened lateral shoots, small, ovate, obovate or orbicular-obtuse, ½-1in. long, rather coriaceous, dirty-green when dry, opaque, base cuneate ; stipules small, with long cuspidate points ; petiole slender, 1/10-¼in. long. Cymes ¼-¾in. Peduncle and pedicel slender, short or long. Flowers 4-merous, yellowish, in many-flowered peduncled cymes. Calyx-teeth minute. Corolla-tube broad, campanulate, 1/10in. long, a little longer than lobes, " subglobose lobes obovate," says J. D. Hooker. Style glabrous, stigma capitate, tuberculate, " globose," says Brandis. Fruit yellow, edible, subquadrate or obcordate subdidymous, ½in. diam., enclosing 2 hard stones. "Spines sometimes three-fold " (Roxburgh).

Use : — A decoction of the edible leaves, as well as the root of this plant, is prescribed in certain stages of flux, and the last is supposed to have anthelmintic qualities, though neither have much sensible taste or smell (Ainslie, Mat. Med. ii. 63).

Sans. : — Pindu, Pinditaka.

Vern. : — Alu (Mar.).

Habitat : — From Northern Bengal to Canara. Common in the Ghâts, in Bombay and throughout the Konkans, Khandesh, Bengal, Tenasserim and Burma,

A small handsome tree, or large bush, thorny. Spines simple