AMARYLLIDEM 465 



Hindustan for earache. The name Sukhdarshan, «* pleasant to 

 the sight/' is loosely applied to several species of Crinum iu 

 most parts of Northern India, In the Concan the leaves smeared 

 with mustard oil or Miitel^ are warmed and bound round inflam- 

 ed joints. Rheede says : — '^ Ex planta concisa et tosta bini sunt 

 noduli, qui utrinque maxillae appositi, spasmum curantcynicum." 

 Ainslie states that the natives of Southern India bruise the 

 leaves and mix them with a little castor oil, so forming an ap- 

 plication which they think useful for repelling whitlows and 

 other inflammations that come at the ends of the toes and 

 fingers ; also that the juice of the leaves is employed for earache 

 in Upper India. Rumphius, who calls it Radix toMcavia, speaks 

 highly of its virtues in curing the disease occasioned by the 

 poisoned arrows of the Macassers in their wars; the root chewed 

 is emetic, provided a little of the juice is swallowed, Crinum 

 asiatieiun is the Man-sy-lan of the Cochin- Chinese, and its 

 virtues are lauded by Loureiro. {Ainslie ^ Mat, Ind.^ YoL II., 

 p. 464.) Sir W. O'Shaughnessy remarks (Bengal Bisj:)., p. 656) 

 that this is the only indigenous and abundant emetic plant, of 

 which he has experience, which acts without producing griping, 

 purging, or other unpleasant symptoms. In the IViarmaoo2)CBia 

 of India^ the root has been made ofiicial as an emetic, nauseant, 

 and diaphoretic ; directions for making a juice and syrup are 

 given : the former to be given in doses of 2 to 4 fluid drachms 

 every 20 minutes until emesis is produced, the latter in doses 

 of 2 fluid drachms as a nauseant and emetic for children. 



Description. — Caulescent or stemless ; leaves linear- 

 lanceolate^ very smooth ; margins entire, striated beneath, 3 to 4 

 feet long and 5 to 7 inches broad; scapes axillary, shorter than 

 the leaves, a little compressed ; flowers numerous, 1 2 to 50 in 

 an umbel, white, almost inodorous ; berries roundish, the size 

 of a pigeon's ^g^. [Bomb. Flora, Pt. I., p. 257.) The root is 

 bulbous, white, with a terminal stoloniferous fusiform portion 

 issuing from the crown of the bulb; it varies greatly in size; 

 odour narcotic and disagreeable. 



* The oil obtained from fresh rasped coeoaiiuts. 



111—50 



A 



