An annual herb, 4-10in. high, brittle, slender, glandularly villous or glabrate. Stem sometimes simple ; with all the flowers solitary in the axils of large leaves, at others branched, the branches running out into leafy racemes. Leaves 1-1½ (rarely 2½)in. long, membranous, obtuse, ovate, crenate-serrate, petiole ¼-¾in. Flowers shortly pedicelled unilateral, all axillary and solitary or 2-nate, or in lax, leafy, slender spikes or racemes. Calyx shorter than the ovate leafy bracts, 1/6in., lobes recurved. Corolla twice as long as the Calyx, sparsely hairy, yellow ; ovary pubescent. Capsule hairy above the middle.
Use : — The juice is given in chronic bronchitis, and mixed with that of the coriander, is applied to skin eruptions. The plant has a faint aromatic odor, and a slightly bitter taste (Dymock).
886. Stemodia viscosa, Roxb. h.f.b.i., iv. 265 ; Roxb. 489.
Vern. :— Nnkachuni (B.) ; Boda-sarum, gunta kaminam (Tel.).
Habitat : — From Central India and the Sone river through-out the Deccan.
An erect annual herb, viscidly pubescent, branched from the base, 6-18in. high, aromatic. Stem angular. Leaves ¼-2in. rarely ovate, sessile, oblong, base cordate serrulate, sometimes shortend, sometimes very small throughout the plant. Flowers pedicelled, axillary, and in terminal racemes, very numerous, nearly ½in. long, 2-bracteate. Bracts shorter than the pedicels ; pedicels equalling or exceeding the Calyx. Corolla twice as long as the Calyx. Sepals lanceolate, acute, half as long as the violet Corolla. Anther-cells all polleniferous. Capsule ¼-in⅓. long, equalling the Calyx, acuminate. Seeds ellipsoid, terete, black, or, brown, most minute.
Use : — The dried plant, which is slightly fragrant and mucilaginous, is used by the natives of Bengal in infusion as a demulcent (Irvine).
