Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/233

Rh Uses :— According to Rheede, the whole of the plant, macerated id an infusion of rice, is said to be a useful remedy in poisonous snake-bites. Dr. Sakharam Arjun, in his' List of Bombay Drugs, says that this plant is supposed to have the properties of Fumaria parviflora and is used in its stead, but has not the bitterness of that plant.

Vern. :— Ghaneri ; Pâpar-dani (Ajmer).

Habitat: — Roxburgh writes: — " A native of Mysore, from thence Dr. B. Heyne sent the seed to the Botanic garden at Calcutta, where the plants thrive luxuriantly, and blossom during the rains."

It is common throughout India and Ceylon in the warmer parts ; on the river banks of Bengal one of the commonest weeds.

A shrub, 3-8 ft. high ; branches roughly hairy, long and straggling, 4 angular, sometimes prickly, yellowish brown. Leaves 1½-2½in. long, opposite or in whorls of 3, ovate, acute or subobtuse, crenate-serrate, rugose and finely pubesent on upper suface, softly white-pubescent or subvillous beneath, narrowed or somewhat rounded at the base, petioles ¼-⅜ in. long. Flowers inodorous, sessile, arranged in axillary peduncles heads or spikes ½-¾ in, long and elongating in fruit ; peduncles 1-3¼ in., usually in opposite axils, 4-angled, thickening upwards ; bracts up to ⅜ in. long, ovate, acuminate, softly hairy on both sides. Calyx 1/16 in. long, truncate, membranous, densely hairy. Corolla with a pale purplish limb ⅓ in. across, hairy outside ; tube ¼ in. long, yellowish ; lobes 4, rounded. Filaments very short. Ovary glabrous. Drupe purple when ripe, enclosed in the thin transparent calyx (Duthie).

Uses : — Mr. Duthie (Flora of the Upper Gangetic Plain, Vol. II. p. 216) writes :— "The leaves are regarded by the natives as a cure for snake-bite."

Indraji, in his valuable book " Vanaspati Shastra" speaks