Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/37

Rh glabrous, coriaceous, shining above, dull and pale-green beneath, oblong or ovate-oblong, elliptic-oblong or oblanceolate, subsessile or narrowed into a short petiole, ¼-½in. long ; lateral nerves numerous, straight, terminating in an intramarginal vein. Flowers greenish-white in compact umbellately corymbose pubescent, pedunculate cymes; the umbels whorled. Peduncle l-2in. long. Calyx small, 1/10-⅛in. long, pubescent 5-lobed lobes 1/12in, oblong, ciliate. Corolla ⅓-½in. diam., villous inside ; tube 1/6-⅓in. long ; constricted in the middle, hairy on both sides; lobes rounded, spreading, twisted in bud. Stamens above the middle of the Corolla-tube, included, anthers acute. Ovary of two distinct carpels. Fruit of two long slen-der follicles, over a foot long, slender, flattened, peltately attached ; densely ciliate, with long hairs all round (Kanjilal).

The tree has obtained the trivial name scholaris from the facts of its planks covered with a layer of sand being used as school-boards on which children trace their letters, as in the Lancastrian system. The natives have a superstitious fear of it, and say, it assembles all the trees of the forest once a year to pay homage. (Graham.)

Uses : — It is officinal in the Pharmacopoeia of India. The bark of this is medicinally used as an astringent tonic, anthelmintic, alterative and antiperiodic. It is a valuable remedy in chronic diarrhœa and the advanced stages of dysentery. It is also useful in catarrhal fever. The milky juice is applied to ulcers, and, mixed with oil, in ear-ache. "The tender leaves, roasted and pulverised and made into poultices, act as a useful local stimulant to unhealthy ulcers with foul discharges" (Surg. Thompson, Madras).

"The bark of this tree contains a bitter principle, known as dâtain, which has been reported to be equal to quinine, while free from its secondary effects. Largely used in the hospitals of Manilla, but never been experimented within India."

In the Concan, the bark is given in leprosy, an extract being prepared from the fresh bark and given in milk ; it is also prescribed in dyspepsia as an anthelmintic ; and the juice of the leaves with that of fresh ginger root or zedoary is administered to women after confinement. (Pharmacographia Indica, Vol. II, p. 387.)