Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/56

806 segments minute, ovate, acute, slightly ciliate. Corolla ⅛in. long (J. D. Hooker), ½in. diam. (Trimen) ; lobes twice as long as the tube, narrow, falcate, obtuse, throat villous, scattered, white hair on upper surface. Stamens, with very short broad filaments, Stigmas sessile, pointed. Follicles 5-6in., divaricate, ovate-oblong, cylindrical, blunt, glabrous, hard and woody, black at times, narrowed from a base of ¾in. diam. to the obtuse point, terete. Seeds few, 8-12, 1¼in. long, flat ; beak long, about ¼ the seeds length, slender, coma white, 2in. long. The stems afford a very strong fibre.

Use : — The root possesses similar properties to Ipecacuanha (S. Arjun).

Sans. :— Sárivá.

Vern. : — Syâmlatâ (B.); Káli dudhi, belkamu (Saharanpur), bamar (Gorakhpur); Nalatiga (Tel.); Bhori (C. P.). Krishna Sarwa, Kantebhouri (Mar); Gorwi balli (kan).

Habitat : — Western Himalaya ; Sirmore to Nepal ; Upper Gangetic plain, from Dehli to Bengal, Assam, Sylhet, Chittagong, and the Deccan Peninsula.

An extensively climbing, evergreen shrub ; much-branched. Branchlets long, slender, white like finely fulvous-tomentose. Leaves l½-2½in., elliptic oblong-lanceolate, or ovate-oval, rounded at base, acute, 2-3 by ¾-1½in,; dark green glabrous and shining above, pale and more or less pubescent beneath, with slender reticulations between the main lateral nerves. Petiole ¼-⅓in. Cymes l-3in., axillary and in terminal panicles, rusty pubescent ; branches short, trichotomously divided, or 3-flowered. Pedicels longer or shorter than the Corolla. Flowers greenish-white, more or less scented (Brandis), yellow (Trimen). Calyx-lobes ovate, obtuse, or subacute, eglandular, hairy. Corolla about ½in., diam., purplish (J. D. Hooker), twice as long as the Calyx ; 1/5in. long, says Brandis ; lobes falcate, acuminate, woolly on the upper side. Disk of 5 linear lobes. Follicles spreading, 2-5in. long. Seeds not rostrate, with a tuft of hairs at the upper end; ½in. long, coma as long, scanty, white. Pericarp thinly coriaceous.