198 RUBIACEA. 
History, Uses, &c.—This plant, called in Sanskrit — 
Kshetraparpata, or field Parpata, from its frequent occurrence — 
in cultivated fields about the end of the rainy season, is the 
Oldenlandia biflora of Roxburgh and the O. herbacea of De 
Candolle. It is frequently mentioned in Sanskrit medicinal 
works, and is considered a cooling medicine of importance in 
the treatment of fevers supposed to be caused by deranged air 
and bile, that is, remittent fever with gastric irritability and 
nervous depression. The entire plant is prescribed in decoc: 
tion, and is combined with aromatics as in the Panchabhadra, 
which is a decoction of Parpata, Mustaka, Gulancha, Chireta — 
and ginger, of all equal parts, two tolas (360 grains) being 
given for a day’s consumption. a 
-  Rheede, who calls it Parpadagam, notices its use in decoction — 
with aromatics, for spasmodic fever, and also its application a8 
an apozem with sandalwood and honey in the same disease. 1! 
must not be confounded with the Pitpdpra of the Mahometans, 
which is Fumitory, and is distinguished in Sanskrit as Yavanda- 
parpata, or Greek Parpata, or with the various substitutes 
that drug which are in use in India under the name of Pi 
papara, ; 
Description.—An annual, slender herb, glabrous, rarely 
scaberulous, leaves linear or narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, 
margins often recurved, nerveless; peduncles solitary, ee 
flowered, pedicel long, capillary, calyx-teeth subulate, rath 
shorter than the corolla-tube, crown of capsule low. It is 
Leaves from § to 2 by 7; to } in., erect, spreading, or recurved, 
sometimes as broad as in narrow leaved forms of OQ. crystallin; 
stipules small, membranous, irregularly-cut, with a long 
several shorter teeth or bristles. Capsule usually broad didy 
mous, sometimes hemispheric or narrowed below the calyx: 
teeth, base acute or rounded, crown usually not rising above the 
base of the calyx-teeth, at others hemispheric and ap 3 
ing that of O. Heynii. (Fl. Br. India.) 
