in snake-bite. (Pharm. Indica.) Used in cases of abscess ; its ashes are used in cases of asthma and cough. (Ibbetson's Gujrat). In Sind, it is used by the native foresters as an application to
wounds caused by Babool thorns (Murray, p. 101). To an infusion of the root is ascribed a mild astringent virtue (Honigberger, Vol, I1. 3 p. 222). The flowering spike made into pills with a little sugar is a popular preventive medicine in Behar for persons bitten by rabid dogs. (Balfour.) As an
ash, however, there seems no reason to think it possesses any virtues other than those of the simple alkali of our shops.
" The drug may be useful in all conditions arising from nervousness. Thus it is used as a talisman in hysteria, and 1 know personally of cases that were benefited by it. How it acts in such a way, I cannot say ; it may be possible that the good effects are obtained by ionisation only, if anything of such nature there is in the drug. But that it is undoubtedly useful in hysteria and such nervous disorders, there is no gainsaying. In hysteria what we find is that there is extreme nervous sensibility attended with muscular contraction, either violent or mild ; it is preceded generally by irregular heart or palpitation" (Dr. Lai Mohan Ghoshal, in ' Food and Drugs ' for Oct. 1912 pp. 84-85.)
1040. Alternanthera sessilis, Br., h.f.b.l, iv. 731.
Syn. : — Achyranthes triandra, Roxb. 227.
Vern. : — Moku-nú-wanna (Singh.); Ghardughi (Rohilkhand); kánchari (Bomb.).
Habitat : — Throughout hotter India in damp places, ascending the Himalaya to 4,000 ft.
A prostrate or ascending, nearly glabrous, herb, branching from base, 6-18in. Leaves opposite, nearly sessile, narrowly oblong or ovate, l-3in., obtuse. Flowers minute, white, crowded in shining, very short head-like sessile axillary spikes. Perianth scarious 5-parted ; segments acute. Stamens 5, the alternate ones sometimes without anthers ; filaments united at base ; anthers 1-celled. Ovary ovoid, notched at top ; style very short, stigma capitate. Fruit a dry, flattened utricle, enclosed by the perianth and containing a single seed.
