Use : — Used in a ghrita as a remedy for gonorrhoea, and the juice is given to children who pass green-colored stools (Pharmacographia Indica, iii. 14).
893. V. pedunculata, Benth. h. Fl. Br. i. iv. 282.
Vern. : — Gadagvel (Mar.).
Habitat : — Throughout India.
A glabrous, annual herb. Stem sometimes creeping at the base and rooting from the nodes, sometimes tinged with purple. Branches 4-10 in. long, procumbent, slender. Leaves shortly petioled, ½-lin., obtuse or subacute, obscurely crenate, toothed. Flowers solitary, axillary ; pedicels as long as the leaves sometimes 1½in., Sepals ¼in., narrowly lanceolate. Corolla ⅜in. long white, or pale blue with a white spot. Longer filaments, with a small obtuse tooth. Capsule ⅓in., much longer than the Calyx linear lanceolate. Seeds ellipsoid.
Use. : — It is used for the same purpose as V. erecta.
894. Picrorhiza Kurrooa, Benth. h.f.b.l, iv. 290.
Sans. : — Katuka ; Katurohini.
Vern. :— Katki (B. and (H.) ; Karrû (Pb.);Kâli kutaki, bâlakadû (Bom.); Kutki (Mar.) ; Kadu (Guz.); Kâli-kutki (Dec). ; Katuku-vogani (Tam.) ; Katuku-roni ; Kâtuka-rogani (Tel.).
Habitat : —Common in Alpine Himalaya, from Kashmir to Sikkim.
A low, more or less hairy, herb, with perennial woody bitter stock. Root-stock as thick as the little finger, 6-10in. long, clothed with withered leaf-bases. Leaves subradical, spathulate, serrate, 2-4in., rather coriaceous, tip rounded, base narrowed into a winged sheathing petiole. Flowering stems or scapes ascending, stout, longer than the leaves, naked or with a few bracts below the inflorescence. Spikes 2-4in. long subcylindric, obtuse, many-flowered, subhirsute ; bracts oblong or lanceolate, as long as the Calyx. Sepals ¼in. long, ciliate.
