Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/208

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INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS.


Use : — The root is used medicinally by the Santals in gonorrhœa, syphilis and renal affections generally (Campbell).

It is also used by them Santals for producing fermentation in the grain from which they manufacture their beer.

916. Dœdalacanthus roseus. T. Anders, h.f.b.l, iv. 419.

Vern. : --Dasamúli (Mar.)

Habitat : — W. and S. Deccan Peninsula, from the Bombay Ghats to Mangalore.

A perennial, glabrous herb. Stems 2-6ft, Leaves 5 by 2in ., elliptic, acuminate at both ends, glabrous, lineolate. Spikes linear, subinterrupted, often 6in Peduncles 0-2in., axillary and terminal. Bracts all but the lowest imbricated, ½-¾ in., shortly rugose by raised inarching green nerves ; margins entire, glabrous, ciliate or very hairy. Corolla 1-1½in. rose subglabrous. Seeds ⅛in. diam., much compressed. Roots usually ten in number, tuberous, spindle-shaped, as thick as a quill, several inches in length and covered by a dark brown bark.

Uses : — The root boiled in milk is a popular remedy for leucorrhœa ; dose one drachm. In the Southern Concan, it is given to pregnant cattle to promote the growth of the fœtus (Dymock).

917. Strobilanthes callosus, Nees. h.f.b.i., iv. 451.

Vern. : — Kárvi (Bomb.).

Habitat—S. Deccan Peninsula; common in the Ghats; Central India.

A shrub, 6 ft.; branches glabrate, often warted or scabrous-tubercled. Leaves 7 by 3 in., sometimes much larger, crenate, conspicuously lineolate above; nerves 8-16 pair ; petiole 2 in. Spikes 1-4 in., often densely or laxly cymose : bracts ½-l in., orbicular or elliptic. Calyx ½ in., in fruit often exceeding ¾ in., lobed nearly to the base, segments oblong, obtuse, softly hairy. Corolla 1½ in., subsymmetric glabrous without, very hairy within, deep-blue (Dalzell) : cylindric base as long as the ventricose