COCCULUS. 



C. convolvulaceus DC. 1. c. Menispermum cordifolium Roxb. 

 fl.'ind. iii. 811. (Rheede vii. t. 21.) One of the most common 

 wild plants in India. 



Stem twining, perennial, very succulent, running over the highest 

 trees. Bark thick, corky, with many elevated scabrous specks ; from 

 the branches there frequently drop filiform fibres, which continue 

 lengthening till they enter the ground, and form additional stems and 

 roots ; sometimes they are 30 feet long, and in no part thicker than, 

 a pack-thread. Leaves alternate, petioled, broad-cordate, 5-nerved, 

 entire, curved, smooth, about 4 inches each way. Petioles round, 

 smooth, swelled at the base. Racemes axillary, or terminal, or from 

 the tuberosities of former leaves, with frequently a few flowers in 

 separate axils. Flowers numerous, small, yellow. $ . Calyx 6-leaved; 

 leaflets oval. Petals (inner sepals) 6, wedge-formed, half the length of 

 the calyx ; margins inflected and embracing the filaments. Filaments 

 6, clubbed, spreading, rather longer than the petals. Anthers twin, 

 immersed in the fleshy extremities of the filaments. ? . Calyx, &c. as in 

 the male. Filaments 6, fleshy, sterile. Ovaries 3, superior, resting on 

 a tumid receptacle. Style single, very short. Stigmas torn. Berries 

 1, 2, or 3 ; generally 1 or 2, rarely all the 3, come to maturity, of the 

 size of a small cherry, smooth, red, succulent, with very glutinous pulp, 

 each resting on a tumid receptacle. Seed single, kidney-formed ; on 

 the inside there is a deep pit, which receives its receptacle. Roxb. 

 Root large, soft and spongy, like the China Root of the Materia 

 Medica. It is employed by the natives of India, when fresh, in sub- 

 stance, mixed up with sour-rice gruel and sweetened with sugar, for 

 the cure of heat of urine in gonorrhoea. Roxb. Under the name of 

 Gulancha ( Goluncha-luta, Roxb.) it is used in Bengal extensively in a 

 variety of diseases, especially such as are attended by febrile symptoms 

 not of a highly inflammatory kind, and in fevers of debility. The parts 

 used are the stems, root, and leaves from which a decoction called 

 Pachana is obtained. A sort of extract called Palo is procured from 

 the stem, and is considered an excellent remedy in urinary affections 

 and gonorrhoea. Trans. M. and P. soc. Cole. iii. 298. 



766. C. palmatus DC. syst. i. 523. Hooker in Bot. mag. 

 tt. 2970, 2971. Menispermum palmatum Lam. diet. iv. 99. 

 Berry in as. research, x. 385. Thick forests on the shores of 

 Oizo and Mozambique for 15 or 20 miles inland. (Kalumb or 

 Calumba.) 



Root perennial, composed of a number of fasciculated, fusiform, 

 somewhat branched, fleshy, curved, and descending tubers, of the thick- 

 ness of an infant's arm, clothed with a thin, brown epidermis, marked, 

 towards the upper part especially, with transverse warts ; internally 

 they consist of a deep yellow, scentless, very bitter flesh, filled with 

 numerous, parallel, longitudinal fibres or vessels. Stems annual, her- 

 baceous, 1 or 2 proceeding from the same root, about the thickness of 

 the little finger, twining, simple in the male plant, branched in the 

 female, rounded, green fin the full-grown plant, below, thickly clothed 

 with succulent longitudinal hairs, which are tipped with a .gland. 

 Leaves alternate, the younger ones thin, pellucid, bright green, gene- 

 rally 3-lobed, upwards gradually more numerous ; older ones remote, 

 a span in breadth, nearly orbicular in their circumscription, deeply 

 369 B B 



