Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/840

760 the Calyxlimb, usually 1-seeded, black when ripe, embryo curved, oxile (Kanjilal).

Use : — The bark is considered tonic. It is also used in. ophthalmia (Dr. Stewart).

Sans. : — Lodhra.

Vern. : — Lodh (H. and B.) ; Chamlani (Nepal) ; Palyok (Lepcha); Kaiday (Mechi) ; Singyan (Bhutia).

Habitat : — Throughout North-East India, common from the Terai of Kumaun to Assam ; common throughout Chota Nagpore.

A small evergreen tree. Bark soft, Branchlets soon glabrous. Leaves glabrous, coriaceous, elliptic-lanceolate, obscurely crenate. Blade 4-6in. Petiole ⅓-⅔in. Flowers yellow, fragrant, in simple hairy axillary, more or less lax racemes ; pedicels as long as Calyx-tube, which is glabrous; lobes rounded, equalling the tube, slightly pubescent and with ciliate edges. Stamens about 100-115. Disk glabrous. Corolla 3 times longer than calyx. Fruit cylindric, nearly ½in. long, smooth, 1-3 celled. Calyxrim nearly as wide as the fruit, with erect teeth. Ovary 3 celled, hairy. Embryo straight.

Uses : — In Hindoo medicine, the bark is described as cooling, astringent, and useful in bowel complaints, eye diseases, ulcers, &c. A decoction is used as a gargle for giving firmness to bleeding and spongy gums (Dutt).

It is often used in Bombay in the preparation of plasters (lêp.); it is supposed to promote the maturation or resolution of stagnant tumors (Dymock).

Drs. Charles and K. L. Dey, recommend the bark in 20 grain doses mixed with sugar, as a remedial agent in monorrhagia due to relaxation of the uterine tissue; it should be given two or three times a day, for three or four days. Dr. K. L. Dey considers that the drug has a special action upon relaxed mucous membranes.