Perennial herbs, climbing, with 2-fid tendrils. Rootstock large, tuberous. Stems very slender, glabrous, often spotted with darker green ; internodes very long. Leaves 3-5in., ovate-rotundate in outline, very deeply cordate at base, cut nearly to the base into 5-lanceolate or linear-acute, coarsely serrate segments, the two basal ones deeply pedate, glabrous, thin, the upper surface slightly rough, with minute scattered scales. Petiole 1-l½in. Flowers very pale yellow, in small clusters of 3-6, on short pedicels. Calyx-segments linear, filiform. Corolla-
segments oval-oblong, acute, pubescent. Fruit globose, over ¾in. diam., smooth, bluish green, with broad, white, vertical stripes. Seeds ¼in. gibbous at sides, with a prominent raised band round the edge.
Use : — The whole plant is collected when in fruit for medicinal use. It is bitter and aperient, and is considered to have tonic properties (Dymock).
550. Mutia scabrella, Arn. h.f.b.i., ii. 623.
Syn. : — -Bryonia scabrella, Linn., f. Roxb. 702.
Vern. : — Bilari, agumaki (H.); Gwâla-kakri (U. P.); Chirâti, bellari (Sind.) ; Musu-musuk-kai (Ta.); Kutarubudama, putribudinga (Tel.) ; Chirâti (Mar.).
Habitat : — Common throughout India.
Perennial herbs ; tendrils simple. Stems climbing, long, slender, much-branched, angular, very hispid, with spreading bristly hairs, young parts covered densely with white hair. Leaves variable in size, usually 3-4in., but often only lin. or less, deltoid-ovate, very deeply cordate at base, with a white sinus, and the rounded lobes often overlapping, acute or obtuse at apex, rather shallowly 5-lobed, coarsely dentate-serrate, usually scabrous, with stiff hairs on both sides. Petiole fully half as long as the leaves, cylindric, very hispid. Flowers very small, males on sessile peduncles as long as calyx ; females nearly sessile. Calyx hairy, segments linear. Petals ovate, ciliate, a little longer than Calyx-segments. Berry about ½in., broadly ovoid, apiculate, with a few scattered hairs. Fruit scarlet
