1152 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS.
A glabrous tree-like shrub. Bark light -brown, shining. Leaves orbicular, palmately cut into numerous narrow, entire or sub-divided, caudate, acuminate segments, 3-9in. diam., glaucous beneath. Petiole about as long as the blade. Stipules capillary, multifid, eglandular ; bracts and entire sepals glabrous. Cymes long, peduncled. Flowers and peduncle, scarlet ; petals free ; anthers linear. Disk of female flower areolate. Observe the presence of the corolla in this plant unusual in the Euphorbiacæ.
Uses : — The seeds are regarded as a powerful purgative. Dr. Waring once saw a case of poisoning from three of these nuts. Violent vomiting and purging, intense pain and heat in the stomach, with great prostration of the vital powers, were the principal symptoms. The patient recovered under the use of lime juice, diluted with water, and stimulants. (Ph. Ind.)
1144. J . curcas, Linn., h.f.b.i., v. 383 ; Roxb. 689.
Vern. : — Bagberenda, safedínd (H. and B.) ; Kadam (Nepal) ; Kaat-amunak (Tam.); Nepalam (Tel.') ; Thinbankyeksu (Burm.); Mogali-eranda (M.); Yerand, Jepal (Bomb).
Habitat: — Common near villages, cultivated and naturalized throughout India.
An everegreen shrub. Trunk short, irregular. Young shoots and cymes glandular, tomentose, with an opaque, saponaceous juice ; bark grey or light-brown, smooth, shining, peeling off in thin papery flakes. Wood white, or greyish-white, spongy, solt, corky in texture, loaded with starch. Pith well-marked and dense in young and topmost branches. Leaves angular or 3-5- lobed or broadly cordate, 4-6 by 3-5in. Lobes acute or obtuse, quite entire. Petiole 5-9in. long. Flowers yellow or yellowish- green, monoecious in terminal or sub-terminal corymbose cymes. The central flower in the cyme or in its fork is always female. Bracts small, entire, one below each sub-di vision of the cyme, and generally one pressing on the calyx. Sepals 5 imbricate, slightly puberulous, lanceolate, greenish. Corolla tubular, villous within ; limb 5-lobed. Stamens 10 in 2 series. (Kanjilal.)
