112 APPENDIX, 
in thickness ; taste mucilaginous and slightly pungent when chewed 
and swallowed, and their smell is slight, peculiar, and not unpleasant, 
When immersed in water, the seeds become coated with mucilage, 
CAPPARIDEZ. 
Meerua arenaria, H. f. and T. 
Fig.—Rozb, Flor. Ind. it., 570. 
Hab.—Central and Southern India. The root. 
Vernacular,—Poomichacarei (Zam.), Puta-tiga (Tel.). 
History, Uses, &c.—The earth-sugar root of the Tamils has 
been used in Sore medicine in Southern India for many years, In 
the Pedat: n e author says of it : “It cures skin eruptions, 
all venereal ‘Giections, fever, piles, and strengthens the human sys- 
em, inslie, in his Materia Indica, ii., page 330, says: “ This 
root in PONT appearance is not unlike hasitie root; it also some- 
what resembles it in taste, but is not nearly so sweet ; it is prescribed, 
in decoction, as an alterative and diet drink.” The drug is used by 
Mahomedans and Hindus as a sexual stimulant and tonic, anti- 
syphilitic, 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 Mr. Lawson, of the 
Madras Botanical Department, it was identified as Merua arenaria. 
Roxburgh describes the plant under the name of Capparts hetero- 
clita, R., and remarks that the unripe fruits are boiled and eaten by 
the natives. 
Description.—Merua arenariais a large, unarmed, climbing 
shrub; leaves elliptic ; corymbs terminal; calyx four-cleft; canals 
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 tbe 
fruit ; this is a beaked berry, 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 lobe of the compound 
ruit, 
roots are plump when fresh, from 1 to 14 inches in diameter, 
long, cylindrical, contorted, with alight brown surface. When dried 
they become darker in colour and wrinkled longitudinally, and several 
