EUPEORBIACE^. 271 



and the mixture becomes red on the addition of ammonia. An 

 alkaloid is also present, giving a purplish-red colour, afterwards 

 turning to green^ with Frohde's reagent, and a violet colour 

 with strong sulphuric acid and permanganate of potassium. 

 The alkaloid is soluble in excess of alkalies. The infusion was 

 somewhat frothy, but no sapogenin could be isolated from it 

 after boiling with acid. 



The bark of Flueggia miCfOCarpa, Bhme, Wight Ic, 



t. 1994, supplied by Mr. Hollingsworth as one of the South 

 Indian fish-poisons, was in thin papery light-brown strips, and 



r 



the powder had no odour and very little taste. Air-dried, it 

 afforded 11'4 per cent, of mineral matter, and contained 8'9 per 

 cent, of a tannin, giving a blue-black colour with ferric salts. 

 The aqueous solution of the alcoholic extract furnished an 

 alkaloidal principle similar in its reactions to that obtained 

 from the bark of F. Leucopi/nis. 



Breynia rhamnoides, Milll-Arg., Wight. Ic.^ 1. 1898, is 



a shrub or small tree of tropical India. According to Ainslie, it 

 was brought to Dr. F. Hamilton, while in Behar, as a medicine 

 of some note ; the dried leaves are smoked like tobacco, in cases 

 in which the uvula and tonsils are swelled. The bark is 

 astringent. 



Description. — Shrubby; young shoots angiilar; leaves 



alternate, short-petioled, spreading, broad-oval ; exterior ones 

 largest, below whitish, entire, half to three-quarters of an inch 

 long; male flowers racemed from the lower axils ; female 

 flowers in the upper axils, solitary^ short-peduncled, drooping ; 

 capsule size of a pea. 



The nuts of Putranjiva Roxburghii, TTa//., in Sanskrit 



Putra-jiva or Putram-jiva^ '^that which makes the child live '* 



are hung round the necks 

 health. Thev are mentioned 



m 



in 



the Nighantas as being also 

 Garbha-kara, "productive of impregnation," and medicinal pro- 

 perties are attributed to them. The hard wrinkled nuts are 

 generally worn only as a charm, but are sometimes given inter- 

 nally in colds on account of their suDnosed heafino- T^rnT^Ariioa • 



