SGROrnULA ViINEM 9 



stoppage of urine wliicli is accompanied witli obstinate costiveness. 

 Roxburgh, mentions the use of the juice mixed with petroleum 

 as an external remedy in rheumatism. These accounts do not 

 agree with the jjroperties ascribed toBralimi by Sanskrit writers. 

 Rheede says of it: — '^Ex frcqucnti hujus plantae usu, vaccarum 

 ubera lacte turgent ; sit et dccoctura ex ilia in lacte vaccino et 

 recenti butyro, contra delirium temporibus inunguendum ; 

 Pipere, Oalamo aromatico, Myrobalanis et aqua oryzse trita et 

 assumpta, vocem reddit sonomm/' In Pondicherry it is considered 

 to be aphrodisiac, and in Ceylon, under the name of Loonoo^ 

 tceehj it is prescribed in fevers. 



Description, — Stems several, annual, cn^ping, round, 



jointed, smooth, succulent; leax^es opposite, sessile, obovate, 

 wedge-shaped, or oblong, smootb, entire, obtuse, fleshy, dotted 

 with, minute spots ; peduncles axillary, alternate, solitary, round, 

 smooth, shorter than the leaves, one-flowered ; flowers blue ; bracts 

 2-awled, pressing on the calyx laterally; calyx 5 -leaved, the 

 exterior three leaflets largo, oblong, the two interior small, linear, 

 all are concave, smooth, pointed and permanent, corol campanu- 

 late, border 5 -partite, nearly equal; anthers 2'cleft at the base, 

 bbie; stigmo large, soniewljat 2-lobed ; capsule ovate, 2-ceUed, 



2-valved; ^eeds very numerous. {Roxh^^ Flora Ih(L, L, p. IIL) 



Chemkal composUmK — For Uie analysis the whole plant was 

 used, dried at a low temperature and cxliaustod wath 80 2>ercent, 

 alcohoh The alcohol freed extractive was then agitated with 

 petroleuui ether ; ether from an acid solution, and again with 

 ether from an alkaline solution, and /5nally with chloroform from 

 an alkaline solution. Operating in this manner, a trace of oily 

 matter wa.s obtained, sohible in alcoliol with acid reaction; two 

 resins, one easily soluble in ether, the other soluble with difficulty, 

 but both soluble in alkaline solutions and re2)recipitated by acids ; ^ 

 an organic acid, and a tannin aflordinn^ a screen coloration with 



O "" o 



ferric chloride. An alkaloidal principal was also isolated, soluble 

 in ether and m chloroform, and affording a cherry red colora- 

 tion m the culd with Frohde^s reagent. Ko other reuctioni 

 were noted. 



ILL 



