Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/106

856 branches. Leaves membranous l-2½in., linear-oblong, shortly petioled, acute at both ends, glabrous but slightly ciliate on the margin. Flowers in racemes very numerous, bright light-blue. Pedicels rather long, curved, glabrous or with numerous short glandular hairs. " Inflorescence " says C. B. Clarke, " patently viscidly hairy, or (in Ceylon form) nearly glabrous." Racemes l-2in,, bracts ¼-½in,, narrower. Cymes racemose, bracts leafy ; sepals about ¼in., oblong-linear, glabrous or with copious glandular hairs. Corolla nearly ½in. diam, lobes ⅓in. ovate, acute. Stamens exserted, filaments dilated at base or nearly filiform. Styles long, spreading. Capsule ovoid, oblong, shorter than the persistent enclosing striate (Trimen), Seeds many, minute, oblong.

Use : — The leaves, beaten into a pulp and applied as a poultice, are considered to have a cleaning and healing effect on neglected and callous ulcers. They apparently possess some antiseptic property.

Vern. :— Lasora, bhokar (Gondi and Hind.); Dábk (Arab.) ; Sugpistan (Pers.); Bohari, buhul, boho-dari (Beng.); Ninut (Lepcha) ; Vidi (Ta.) ; Thanet (Burm.); Bhokar (Mar.).

Habitat : — Throughout India.

A moderate-sized, deciduous, tree, 40 or 50 ft. high and usually, with a crooked trunk. Bark ½ to ¾in. thick, grey or brown rough, with shallow longitudinal wrinkles and furrows. Wood greyish brown, moderately hard, no heartwood. Branch lets glabrous; young shoots silvery grey. Leaves alternate, thinly coriaceous l-5in. diam., entire or slightly obscurely hairy beneath when young, dentate from slightly scabrous to glabrous above, variable in shape from elliptic-lanceolate to broad-ovate, often with a rounded or cordate base, basal nerves 3, rarely 5, the first pair sub-basal. Petiole l-2in. long. Flowers small, male and hermaphrodite, often on the same tree, mostly pentamerous, white, in loose ebracteate corymbose cymes 2-8in. ;