1058. P. glabrum, Willd., h.f.b.i., v. 34 ; Roxb 334.
Vern. : — Sauri arak, jioti (Santal) ; Larborna, bih agui, bih langaui, patharua (Assam); Rakta rohida sheral (Bomb.); Atalaria (Tam.).
Habitat : — In ditches, etc., from Assam, Sylhet and Bengal Westward to the Indus and Sindh, and southward to Burma, ascending the Himalaya to 6,400ft. in Garhwal.
Glabrous herbs. Stem2-5ft., stout, slightly branched, somewhat swollen above nodes, shining purplish-red. Leaves usually large, 3-JOin., linear-lanceolate, much tapering at both ends, entire, glabrous or slightly rough with minute prickles, minutely glandular ; midrib prominent, broad, lateral veins numerous, pellucid. Petiole very short (⅛-½in ), stout ; stipules about lin., membranous, veined, truncate, not ciliate. Flowers bright-pink, numerous all the year round on short glabrous pedicels ; racemes l-3in., erect; bracts short, truncate, glabrous. Perianth ⅛-¼in., long, pink or white, not glandular ; segments broadly oval, acute. Stamens usually 8 (sometimes fewer), shorter than perianth. Styles 2 divergent, sometimes 3, united above the middle ; stigmas globose. Nuts black shining, ⅛in. in diam., usually rounded and flattened, 3-angled in the 3 styled flowers.
It is difficult to separate this from smooth forms of P. Persicaria, of which it is the tropical representative ; it is, however, much larger, less branched, with more attenuate leaves brown when dry, and normally ciliate bracts and stipules. (Hooker.)
Uses : —An infusion of the leaves is used by the country people of Bombay to relieve pain in colic (Dymock). In Chutia Nagpur, it is employed as a cure for " stitch in the side," and in Assam as a remedy for fever (Watt).
1059. P. persicaria, Linn , h.f.b.i., v. 35.
""Habitat"" :— Western Himalaya, Kashmir, etc.
Use :— It may be put to the same uses as the other species of this genus.
Annual, erect or ascending, leaves subsessile, elliptic-oblong or lanceolate eglandular, stipules usually hirsute and ciliate,
