EUPHORBTACEJS. 287 



Vernacular. — dmclca^ Bar^gacli {Beng.), Arjuna {Kind.), 

 Kote, Putol [MaL), Bhutan-kusam {Tel,)^ Ghanasura {Mar.), 

 Gote (Santal), Kurti, Konja, Kuli, Poter (ITol), Gonsurong 

 {Goa). 



History, Uses, &C^ — Brandishas noticed the use of 

 the bark, leaves and fruit of this plant in native medicine, and 

 Dr. Irvine the use of the seeds as a purgative. From the Diet, 

 Econ. Prod, of India we learn that the Santals use the bark 

 and root as a purgative and alterative. We have been unable 

 to find anj^ notice of the drug in native works on Indian Materia 

 Medica. Roxburgh, though he describes the tree as common in 

 forests near Calcutta, is silent upon the subject. Dalzell and 

 Gibson, in the Bomhay Flora (p, 231), remark that^"the plant 

 is used medicinally by the natives to reduce swellings.'^ The 

 author of the Mat. Med. of West. India remarks : — *^ When on a 

 visit to Goa in 1876, my attention was drawn by the native doc- 

 tors to the root-bark of a small tree as being one of the most 

 valuable medicines they possessed ; this plant, unknown to me 

 at the time, proved on subsequent iuA'estigation to be C. ohlongi^ 

 faints. The Goanese and inhabitants of the Southern Concan 

 administer the bark in chronic enlargements of the liver and in 

 remittent fever. In the former disease it is both taken internally 

 and applied externally • As an application to sprains, bruises, 

 rheumatic swellings, &c., it is in great request. In lai-ge doses 

 it is said to be purgative.*' Fliickiger and Hanbury {F/iar- 

 macographiay p. 510) state that the seeds are said to be sometimes 

 substituted for those of G. Tiglium. The tree is rare in the 



Bombay Presidency, 



Southern 



Concan, where it has a reputation as a remedy in snake-bites. 

 In Goa it is more common. 



Description. — Trunk straight; bark ash-coloured, and 



pretty smooth; leaves petioled, alternate, and thickly set about 

 the ends of the branchlets, spreading or drooping, oblong, 

 serrate, obtuse-pointed > very, smooth on both sides, from six to 

 twelve inches long, petioles roimd and smooth, with a lateral 

 gland on each side of their apices; stipules small, caducous; 



