Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/778

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INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS.


able to start back up country again, and could hardly express his gratitude for the very great relief afforded."— Louis C. Jockel.

" I find from a communication of Baron Mueller, that for some time past he has had an idea that Myriogyne might be used for medicinal purposes, and that he had actually submitted it to Dr. Springthorpe, an eminent' physician in Melbourne, for purposes of experiment. The Baron, however, was not aware of its efficiency in simple opthalmic inflammation, and he regarded the discovery as interesting. I mention this as a matter of justice to Dr. Jockel, who, I believe, is the first medical man in Australia who has proved the value of Myriogyne, in a case of ophthalmia. This weed, growing as it does on the banks of rivers and creeks, and in moist places, is common to all the Australian colonies and Tasmania, and it may be regarded as almost co-extensive with the disease which it is intended to relieve. In the document relating to the Inter- Colonial Exhibition of 1886-7, it is noticed as remarkable for its sternutatory properties, and recommended for the manufacture of snuff."

The Rev. Mr. Hartmann says (Brough-Smyth's ' Aborigines of Victoria,' ii., 173) that this plant is used as medicine by the aborigines of Lake Hind-marsh, but he does not say for what complaint

Baron Mueller prepared a snuff from this plant many years ago (J. H. Maiden, F. L. S., &c, Ph. J. Sept. 1, 1888, p. 178-179).


662. Artemesia scoparia, Waldst and Kit. h.f.b.i., iii. 323.

Syn. : — A. elegans, Roxb., 599.

Vern. : — Jhan, lasaj, biur, durumga, donâ, marûa, pila jan, king khak durunga (Pb.). Churi saroj ; Danti (Bâzar name).

Habitat: — Upper Gangetic Plain and westwards to Scind and the Punjab, Western Himalaya, from Kashmir to Lahaul.

A faintly scented, very slender-branched, glabrous or pubescent annual or perennial herb, l-2ft, (or 3-6ft. Duthie) high. Stems slender, grooved, usually tinged with purple; branchlet often almost capillary, glabrous below, hoary or villous. Radical leaves l-3in. long, petioled, broadly ovate, 1-3-pinnatisect, segments linear, distant, spreading ; cauline leaves filiform or setaceous. Heads sessile, or on short capillary pedicels, minute, 1/12-1/10in. secund in slender, panicled racemes, involucre-bracts glistening oblong, obtuse scarious, with narrow green disks. Outer female flowers fertile, inner hermaphrodite flowers sterile and with larger corollas. Achenes 1/60in. long ("perhaps,"