Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/207

Rh A small diffuse undershrub. Stems 6-18 in. long, prostrate, or climbing, amongst bushes, much branched, internodes long, the nodes more or less hairy and often tinged with purple. Leaves ¾-3 in. long, ovate or elliptic, acute at both ends, entire, glabrous or slightly hairy, petioles, ¼-¾ in. long. Flowers subsessile, solitary or few together ; bracteoles similar to the leaves but smaller. Calyx in. long, divided to below the middle ; segments linear-subulate, acute, hairy. Corolla pale greyish-purple, 1¼ in. long, caducous, pubescent outside ; tube narrowly cylindric below, funnel-shaped above ; lobes subequal obovate-oblong, rounded. Capsule ¾ in. long, clavate, pointed, pubescent. Seeds 16-20, subglabrous but with a dense fringe of hygroscopic hairs on the margin. (Duthie)

Uses : — The juice of the leaves, boiled with a little salt, is supposed on the Malabar Coast to correct a depraved state of the humors (Rheede). They are sometimes given with pundum or liquid copal as a remedy for gonorrhœa (Ainslie.)

Vern. : — Chanlia (Santal.).

Habitat : — Dinajpur ; (Bengal; ; throughout Chota Nagpore. Upper Gangetic Plain, and Moradabad.

An erect pubescent undershrub, 1-2 ft. high. Roots stout, often with fusiform swellings. Stems herbaceous, annually produced from a short creeping woody rhizome. Leaves petioled lanceolate elliptic or oblanceolate, the lower ones usually smaller and often suborbicular, obtuse or subacute, entire, villous with white hairs on both surfaces especially on the nerves and veins beneath, margins ciliate. Flowers solitary, terminal, subsessile ; bracteoles resembling the leaves but smaller and narrower, ¾in. long, stalked. Roxburgh states that the flowers open at sunset and drop off on the following morning. Calyx-segments ¼ in. long, linear, puberulous or nearly glabrous. Corolla white, 1½-2 in. long, tube slender, limb subregular. Capsule 1½ in. long, oblong, glabrous, often tinged with purple. Seeds few, (Duthie)