302 E UP HO RBI A CEM 



4 



is also prescribed, and most compoimd medicines given in 

 rheumatic and neuralgic affections contain the root. The leaves 

 are applied to the breast to stop the secretion of milk, and, 



in 



as a local application in ophthalmia. When applied to the 

 abdomen they are popularly thought to promote the menstrual 

 flow; in Oovardhana (203), the halikavadhUy or *' peasant 

 woman," is represented as lying in pain upon the leaves of the 

 Eranda. 



In the proverbial language of the Indians the Castor plant is 

 emblematic of frailty ; they say : — Naukri arand ki jar hai (ser- 

 vice IS like the root of the Castor plant). The Arabs appear to 

 have first become acquainted with the tree in India, as they 

 call the seeds Simsim-el-hindi, "Indian Sesamum, '^ and the 

 plant Khirvaa (^j>i-), a word which signifies any weak or 

 frail plant ; the properties they attribute to it are also those 

 mentioned by Sanskrit writers. Again, in the Saptamtalia of 

 Hala, we find the large and swelling breasts of the peasant 

 girl likened to the Eranda leaf, and in Arabic we have the 



expression ^^jj^ 1 1^-*' api)lied to a beautiful and tender girl. 



R. communis is the Bidanjir and Kinnatu of the Persians ; it 



MX 



District, and Buzanjir, ^'goat's fig/' in Khorasan. 



Aitchison notices its cultivation round the borders of fields 

 in the latter province, and in the Harirud District, for the sake 

 of the oil Avhich is used as a lamp oil, and says that the peasantry 

 are unacquainted with its purgative properties. The plant was 

 cultivated in Southern Europe at a very early date ; it is the 

 'ctVi of Herodotus, the 'cporwi/ of Theophrastus(H.P.i,,16 ; C.P. ii-)> 

 and the kIki or Kpon^p of Dioscorides (iv., 158), who observes 

 that the name ^poTai/ is given to the seed on account of its 

 resemblance to an insect known by that name {Ixodes Fdcinus 



f 



Latr.). He 



It 



is the Hieinus or Cicus of Pliny (15, 7), "a tree which grows 



abundance 



again, as wild sosamum 



