308 COMPOSIT A. 
Tricholepis glaberrima, DC., Dene in Jacq. Voy. 
Bot. 98, ¢ 106, a plant of Central India, Marwar, the 
Concan and Deccan, Vern.—Bramhadandi, is believed by the 
natives to bea nervine tonic and aphrodisiac. It is a tall, 
erect, smooth plant, stem angled, leaves linear-lanceolate, acu- 
minate, stem-clasping, distantly spotted with black specks, flo- 
rets 7 lines long, heads of flowers small, terminal, purple. 
CARTHAMUS TINCTORIUS, Linn. 
Fig.—Reich.. Ic. Fl. Germ. t. 746; Bot. Reg. t. 170; 
Rumph. Amb. V. 79. Safflower, Parrot seed (Hng.), Safran 
batard, Graine de perroquet (/r.). 
Hab.—Cultivated throughout India. (C. ozycantha, Bieb., 
is perhaps the wild form of this plant.) The flowers and seeds. 
~ Vernacular. —Kar, Kusumba (Hindi, Guz.), Kusum (Beng.), 
Kushumba (Tam., Tel.), Kusumbe: ene: ), Kardi (Mar.). 
History, Uses, &c. ae Sant is the Kusumbha of 
Sanskrit writers, who describe the seeds as purgative, and 
mention a medicated oil which is prepared from the plant for 
external application in rheumatism and paralysis. It is’ the 
kvixos of the Greeks,* who used the leaves like rennet to curdle 
milk in making cheese. Pliny (21, 53,) calls it Cnecos. Maho- 
metan writers enumerate a great many diseases in which the 
seeds may be used asa laxative ; they consider them to have | 
the power of removing phlegtratic and adust humours from 
the system. 
_ The-author of the Makhzan states that Kurtum, Hab-el- 
ash: and Bazr-el-ahris are the Arabic names for the ae 
and Khasakdanah and Tukm-i-kafshah the Persian.~ He als 
says that in Ghilan they are called Tukm-i-kajrah or Tuleme-- 
_ kazirah, in Syria Késhni, and in Turkey Kantawdras, and that 
the Greeks call them Atraktus_ (atpakrvdis), and Dioscorides 
Knikus («vixos). Ainslie has the following notice of the plant :— 
“A fixed oil is =: from it which the 2 ie = S an 
