Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/812

732 coriaceous, glabrous, often pilose beneath when young, petiole ⅛-½in. Racemes axillary, simple, rarely falsely panicled by the suppression of leaves towards the ends of the branches (C. B. Clarke), more or less pubescent. Pedicels ⅛-⅓in. long. Bracts 1/5in., lanceolate or linear, deciduous. Flowers white ; " sometimes pink or bluish," says Brandis. Calyx-lobes 5, triangular lanceolate, 1/10-⅛in., connate at the base. Corolla ⅓-1/6in. or 1/5-2/5in. long, elongate ovoid, pubescent without ; lobes 5, short, recurved. Stamens 10, hypogynous ; filaments subulate, ciliate, with two filiform appendages, called " horns," at the apex ; anthers open by terminal pores. Ovary 5-celled, ovules many in each cell. Capsule 1/5in. diam., globose, loculicidally 5-valved ; seeds many, minute, linear-oblong (Kanjilal).

Use : — The young leaves and buds are poisonous to goats, they are used to kill insects, and an infusion of them is applied in cutaneous diseases (Gamble).

Syn : — R. puniceum, Roxb. 373.

Vern. : — Ardáwal, mandál, chiu, áru, brás, broa, chacheon (Pb.) ; Chhán (Hazara) ; Ardáwal, mandál, chiu, bras (Himalayan names) ; Trikhgandera (Trans-Indus) ; Billi, pumaram (Nilghiris) ; Brus (Kumaun); Bhorans, gurâs, ghonás, taggu, lalgurás (Nepal) ; Etok (Lepcha).

Habitat : — Temperate Himalaya, from Kashmir to Bbotan, and the Khasia Mountains.

An evergreen tree, 25ft. Bark lin. thick, reddish brown, peeling off in small flakes. Wood soft, reddish-white, or reddish-brown, close and even-grained, apt to warp and shrink. Leaves crowded at end of branches, 4-6in. long, lanceolate or elliptic-oblong, acute at both ends, coriaceous, glabrous above, rusty-tomentose or covered with small silvery scales beneath. Nerves and midrib prominent beneath, depressed above ; buds viscous. Flowers large, very showy, commonly deeply crimson, rarely pink or nearly white, in corymbose fascicles at the ends of the branches. Pedicels O-to ⅓ the length of the Corolla-tube.