lAVRINEM. 211 



calycina. The third sample was sent by the Conservator of 

 Forests for Travancore, who supposed it to he from a species of 

 Cordia. It was light coloured, very fibrous and free from odour 

 and taste, and is used in native medicine in the State under its 

 Malyalim name avi-thoU. Mucilaginous barks are largely em- 

 ployed in India by arrack makers in regulating the fermentation 

 of toddy and precipitating albuminous matters. 



The Tanjore phMn-puttai gave no reaction indicating the 

 presence of an alkaloid, but i\ie red bark from Travancore gave 



marked 



LITS^A SEBIFERA, Pers. 



mg,—Bot. Reg., i. 893 ; Roxh. Cor. PL il, t 147. S^/n.; 

 Tetranthera laurifolia, Jacq. 



Hab.— Throughout the hotter parts of India. The bark. 



Fernacif^ar. — Maida-lakri [Hind.], Mushaippe-yetti, Maida- 

 lakti (T^m.), Naiamamidi, Meda {TeL), Kukur-chita {Benj.), 

 Meda-lakadi {Mar.), Maeda-lakari (Guz.). 



History, Uses, &C. — We have been unable to trace 

 the history of the use of this bark as a medicine. It is one of 

 the best known and most popular of native drugs, being used 

 internally, on account of its demulcent properties, in diarrhoea 

 and dysentery, and externally as an emollient application to 

 bruises, &c. Maida-lakri, as far as we know, is not men- 

 tioned by Sanskrit writers, but from the vernacular names it 

 would appear to be used as a substitute for the 31' la of the 

 ancient Hindu physicians, one of the Ashtavarga, and unkaown 

 to the modern Hindus. In Bengal A-wagaudha is used. In 

 Mahometan works it is briefly noticed under the names of 



Magi 



The author of the Makhzan-d- 



Adwiya states that it has the same essential properties as 

 Mao-hath, being resolvent, astringent, and a nervine tonic useful 

 in paralysis. It would appear then to have been adopted by 

 Mahometan physicians in India as a substitute for an Arabian 

 drug called Maghath, the botanical source of which is uncertain. 



