782 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS.
them in the preparation of cooling bitter infusions. Dr. Stocks describes the infusion as a good and peculiar bitter tonic, and recommends it for trial (Ph. Ind., p. 139).
The fruits and leaves are considered efficacious in cases of boils and eruptions (Stewart).
In Afghanistan, the roots, stem, leaves and flowers, are dried and used in infusion for the treatment of syphilis, in all its stages, and of chronic rheumatism, old joint affections and pains of every kind (Duthie, in Watt's Dictionary).
The leaves are reputed to be a bitter tonic for fevers and general debility, and they have been reported as poisonous. The leaves contain a large quantity of alkaloids, one of which is volatile and has the odour of conine, the alkaloid of hemlock. The non-volatile alkaloid resembles in some particulars one of the bases of Aspidiosperma ; it dissolves in sulphuric acid with a red colour, changing to purple, and contains 8'01 per cent of nitrogen.
751. Vinea rosea, Linn, h.f.b.l, hi. 640.
Vern. : — Ainskati (Uriya) ; Rattanjot (Pb.) ; Sadapul (Mar.) ; Billa-ganeru (Tel.).
Habitat : -- A West Indian plant, much cultivated about pagodas, &c, in India.
Leaves obovate, flowers white, rosy or pink, axillary, l|-2in. diam., grown here in Andheri, and in my Thana and Ratnagri gardens, with four varieties : — (1) vinca alba, plain white, with a cream coloured throat ; (2) vinca alba, with the throat green ; (3) vinca alba, with throat deep crimson ; (4) Pink throated or deep crimson throated vinca rosea (K. R. Kirtikar). This is what Asa Gray says :— Tropical, erect, somewhat woody, at base: flowers produced at all seasons. House and bedding plant from West Indies, with oblong-petioled veiny leaves, and showy Corolla, with slender tube and very narrow orifice, rose-purple or white, with or without a pink edge (Field, Forest and Garden Botany, New York, p. 275, 1868.)
Use :— The juice of the leaves is employed in Orissa as an
