Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/205

Rh

Syn. :— Ruellia uliginosa, Linn. f. Roxb. 475 ; Adenosma ulginosa, Nees.

Habitat : — In dry-up rice-swamps ; S. Madras, frequent. Sikkim Terai.

An annual herb, 1-2½ft., erect or decumbent, branching from the base. Stem pubescent upwards. Leaves 1 by ⅓in., glabrous, sub-pubescent, subsessile, oblong or subovate, entire or crenate. Spikes 1-3in., scarcely interrupted at the base even in fruit. Flowers mostly in opposite axils. Bracts ¼in., from elliptic to cordate, glabrous or puberulous, 4-ranked, imbricated in fruit, bracteoles 1/5in, ovate or elliptic. Sepals 1/5in., linear, pubescent. Corolla ⅓in., puberulous. Stamens 4, fertile. Anthers of the posterior stamens half as large as of the anterior. Capsule 1/5in., minutely pilose upwards.

Use : — The juice of its leaves mixed with salt, is used on the Malabar Coast as a blood purifier. (Balfour.)

Syn :— Ruellia longifolia, Roxb, 475 ; Asteracantha longifolia, Nees.

Sans. : — Ikshugandha ; Kokilâksha.

Vern. : — Tâl-makhânâ, gokshura (H.) ; Kuliakhara, kante-kalikâ (B.) ; Niramalli (Tam.) ; Nirguri veru (Tel.) ; Tâlima-khána, Kolasunda (Mar.) ; Ekharo, gôkhru (Guz.) ; Kalavan kabija (Kan.).

Habitat : — Abundant throughout India in ditches ; from the Himalaya to Ceylon. Very common in the Konkan.

An annual marshy herb, with an ascending rhizome. Stems numerous, stout, erect, hispid, 2-5ft., usually fascicled and undivided or unbranched, somewhat compressed, thickened at nodes with long hair below each node. Leaves sessile, 6 at a node, 2 outer 4-5 in., 4 inner about 1½ in. each having a nearly straight