Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/144

894 beneath. Peduncles usually close below the leaves, short. Racemes densely stellately woolly and with needle-like hairs, not prickly. Flowers large, white. Calyx shortly funnel-shaped, shaggy, with long stellate hair, slightly enlarged in fruit ; segments ovate-acute ¼in., not acuminate. Corolla white, large, 1¼in. diam., very hairy outside; lobes ovate-oblong, acute, ¾-1in. long. Ovary hirsute. Berry yellow, globose 1-1½in. diam.; densely clothed with needle-like hairs, ⅛-1/6in. fulvous, spreading. Fruit pedicels ½-1in. . Calyx-lobes in fruit unaltered, hardly ¼ the length of the berry ; base of the Calyx in fruit very densely clothed with long, yellow, bristly hair. Seeds ⅛in. diam., nearly smooth.

Use : — The berries are used medicinally by the natives, but are not considered of much value (Watt).

Sans. : — Vrihati.

Vern. : — Barhanta (H.) ; Byâkura (B.) ; Mulli, papparamulli (Tam.) ; Kuk-mâchi (Tel.) ; Cheru-chunta (Mal.) ; Ringani, dorli (Bomb.) ; Kandyari (Panj.).

Habitat : — Very common throughout tropical India.

An erect under shrub, l-6ft., much- branched, very prickly ; prickles compressed, stout, often recurved. Leaves ovate-sinuate or lobed, 3-6 by l-4in., subentire or pinnatifid, stellately woolly beneath, nerves prickly. Petiole 1in. Peduncles short, often extra-axillary, pedicels ¼-½in., stellately woolly. Racemes many-fid. Flowers blue. Calyx lobes in flower 1/6in., triangular, acute, very woolly, unarmed or with slender, straight spines, Corolla ¾-1in., broadly triangular, tomentose without. Ovary usually glabrous ; style stellately pubescent. Berry yellow, ⅓in. diam., globose, much exceeding the woolly, patent, triangular, oblong Calyx lobes; prickles of the lobes often strengthened in fruit. Seeds ⅛in. diam. and upwards, smooth or very nearly so.

Parts used : — The root ; leaves.

Uses.:—" The root constitutes an igredient of Dasamula,