103. PEDALIACE^. [3. Marttnia. 



1. P. murex, L. Gokara, Or. ; Bara-gokhru, Beng. 



A sub-fleshy herb with ascending branches 6-18" long, repand- 

 dentate alternate leaves 1-2" long and axillary primrose-yellow 

 flowers 1" long. Fruit broadly pyramido-conical above the spines, 

 •3" diam., siicculent Avith crustaceous endocarp. There are 2 curious 

 button-shaped glands at the insertion of the pedicels which secrete a 

 drop of fluid. 



Common on sandj- soil near the coast. From Cuttack to Puri ! Fl., Fr. Aug- 

 Oct. 



Leaves with minute glistening glands beneath which give the plant rather a 

 foetid smell ; these also occur on the young shoots, pedicels and calyx ; otherwise 

 glabrous. Calj-x 5-partite, lobes lanceolate, 'OZ-'OS". Corolla-tube minutely gland- 

 pubescent, broadly tubular beyond the calyx, limb spi'eading oblique '75-1" diam., 

 2 upper lobes exterior in bud, lobes sub orbicular, 2 upper omer in bud. Filaments 

 thinlj- glandvilar-hairy. 



The whole plant ha^ the property of I'endering water or milk mucilaginous, and 

 the mucilaginous infusion is a valuable demulcent and diui'etic, useful in many 

 disorders of the genito-urinary system. 



2. SESAMUM, L. 



Herbs with leaves mostly opposite, upper alternate. Flowers 

 axillary, solitary or few fascicled, short pedicelled. Corolla zygo- 

 niorphic, tubular-campanulate, slightly gibbous at base, limb 2-lipped 

 with 5 rounded lobes. Stamens included, anthers sagittate. Ovary 

 2-celled with false septa making it 4-celled when mature. Ovules 

 many 1-seriate in each cell. Fruit a loculicidal 2-valved or finally 

 4-valved, 4-celled capsule. Seeds obliquely oblong. 



1. S. indicum, L. Tilming, K.; Til, fl". ; Easa, Or; The Oingeli-oil 

 Plant, 

 Erect 1-3 ft. high, more or less foetid and glandular, usually also 

 pubescent. Leaves simple above, lanceolate or oblong or uppermost 

 linear and alternate, lower opposite often lobed or pedatisect, inter- 

 mediate usually ovate and gashed or toothed. Flowers purple or 

 whitish with purjDle or yellow marks, suberect or drooping, 1-1-25" 

 long, pubescent. Sepals narrow-lanceolate •2--25", hairy. Capsule 

 1" long, oblong, bluntly 4-gonous, erect, dehiscent from above down- 

 wards, but rarely to the base. 



Very widely cultivated in all districts. Fl, Oct.-Dec Fr. Dec-Jan. Native 

 country not known with certainty ; De CandoUe thinks it was probablj- from the 

 Sunda Islands. 



Three varieties of seeds are known— black, white and red. The black yields the 

 best oil and is best suited for medicinal purposes. Besides being used in cooking, 

 the oil is emollient, demulcent and laxative. The plant is also mucilaginous and 

 used in bowel affections, Kadkar»i. 



3. MARTYNIA, L. 



Coarse glandular herbs mostly dichasially branched with opposite 

 broad leaves and drooping red flowers in short racemes terminal and 

 from the forks of the branches. Calyx unequally 5 -lobed, slit in 

 front. Corolla tubular-campanvilate zygomorphic Avith broad lobes. 

 Stamens 5 of which the anterior 2 only perfect with long filaments 



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