Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/771

Rh

Syn. : — Verbesina Boswellia, Roxb. 607.

Sans. : — Pithari.

Vern. : — Phatara-suva (Bomb.); Pitta-pâpadâ (Poona) ; Seri (H.) ; Para palavum (Tel)

Habitat : — Rohilkhund ; at Delhi ; Banda ; Central India and the Deccan.

An annual herb, prostrate or erect, glabrous, diffusely branched from the base. Branches 3-10in, long, strict or flexuous. Leaves ½-2in., 2-pinnatisect, petiole, long slender, blade broadly- ovate in outline, segments filiform. Heads ⅓in. long, shortly peduncled ; outer involucre bracts small, usually 3, with a greenish midrib and membranous ciliate margins ; inner involucre bracts large, obtuse, with a striated disk glabrous, and with pale membranous margins. Achenes ¼in. long, odour of fennel, densely bearded especially on the edges with stiff hairs. Pappus awns spreading.

Use : — According to Dalzell and Gibson it is much used in female complaints (Dymock).

Vern, :-- Barangone bir barangone (Santal).

Habitat :— Plains of India, from Jammu and Garhwal to western Bengal and Behar, and southwards to Madras.

Perennial, glabrous herbs. Root fusiform, woody. Stems usually many from the root, erect or ascending, 6-18 in. high. Branches slender, forked. Leaves mostly radical, pinnatifid, triangular in outline, segments linear acute, few, often recurved, coriaceous ; petiole l-2in. ; veins prominent beneath. Flowering branches 6-12in., strict, stiff, grooved, nearly leafless. Heads in flower ¼in. diam. Involucre-bracts linear, obtuse, glabrous, 1/6in. long. Achenes ¼-⅓in., deeply grooved, black.

Use : — A preparation from the root is employed by the Santals as an application to snake-bite and scorpion-sting (Rev, A Campbell).