112 APPKNDir. 



i 



in thickness ; taste mucilaginous a.nd slightly pungent when chewed 

 and swallowed, and their smell is slight, peculiar, and not unpleasant. 



When immei'sed in water, thp. sppVIft hp<-nmp, o.onipd with ■nmo.ilacre. 



CAPPARIDE^, 



Mserua arenaria, H. /. and T. 



Pig. — Eoxb. Flor, LkL ii, 570. 



Hab- — ^ Central and Southern India. The root, 



Ve ma culm^-'Voomidiacarei (Tain.), Puta-tiga (TeL). 



History, Uses, &C. — The earth-sugar root of the Tamils has 

 been used in Hindu medicine in Southern India for many years. In 

 the Pedatadnth irmine^ the author saj'S of it : " It cures skin eruptions, 

 all venereal afiections, fever, piles, and strengthens the human sys- 

 tem." Dr, Ainslie, in his Materia Indica^ ii., page 330, says: •' This 

 root in external appearance is not unlike liquorice root; it also some- 

 what resembles it in taste, but is not nearly so sw^eet ; it is prescribed, 

 in decoction, as an alterative and diet drink." The drug is used by 

 IVIahomedans and Hindus as a sexiial stimulant and tonic, anti- 

 sj-philitie, and alterative. It can be used either in a fresh or dried 

 state. The outer brown covering is supposed to be harmful, and 

 is removed previous to use. Dr. P. S. Mootoosawmy, of Tanjore, has 

 used the root in his medical practice, and on his forwarding a 



flowering and fruiting specimen of the plant to ]\fr. Lawson, of the 

 Madras Botanical Department, it was identified as Ma^rna arenaria. 

 Roxburgh describes the plant under the name of Copparis hetero- 

 cliiay R., and remarks that the unripe fruits are boiled and eaten by 

 the natives. 



Description^ — Ma^ma arenarlaU a large^ unarmed, climbing 

 shrub; leaves elliptic ; coiymbs terminal; calyx four-cleft; corolla 

 regular, four-petalled; stamina on the receptacle, which is as long as 

 the tube of the calyx. The most remarkable part of the plant is the 

 fruit ; this is a beaked beny, two to five inches long, deeply constricted 

 between the seeds, fleshy, elongate, moniliform, one or more seeded. 



There is only one seed in each single berry or lobo of the compound 

 fruit. 



The roots are plump when fresh, from 1 to I| inches in diameter, 



thev 



.1, contorted, with a liffht brown surface. When 



