550 CARYOPHYLLACE.E— MALVACEAE. App. C. 



common horse-radish, for which they are substituterl by European residents 

 in both the East and West Indies. They are also used medicinally by the 

 native doctors as a stimulant in paralysis and intermittent fevers, and are 

 also considered valuable as a rubefacient. " Morunghy," from which the 

 generic name adopted by modern botanists has been derived, is the Tamul 

 name ; and " Sujna" or " Salijuna," the Hindu. It is a small tree, seldom 

 more than twenty feet high, and has large compound three-times pinnated 

 leaves, and axillary bunches of whitish flowers, producing long pendulous 

 three-sided fruits, containing numerous winged seeds, which some authors 

 regard as the source of the celebrated Ben-oil. 



CARYOPHYLLACEJi:. 



MoLLUGO Cerviana, 8er, (= Pharnoceum Cervianum, Linn.), 



This little herb is used as a medicine in fevers in Ceylon, where it is 

 called " Pat-paadagan ;" and as the plant is also found in the Indian 

 peninsula, it is most probably employed in a similar manner by the Hindu 

 doctors. The order to which it belongs is remarkable for little besides the 

 presence of saponine in several species. 



MALVACE^, 



SiDA ACUTA, Burm. (= Sida lanceolata, Pietz.). 



The roots of this have an intensely bitter taste, and their infusion, in 

 conjunction with ginger, is prescribed in cases of intermittent fever, for 

 which they have also been tried in the Indian hospitals, but without satisfac- 

 tory results, though they were found to possess some medicinal virtues as a 

 tonic. The plant is called " Pata " in Sanscrit ; and " Malaytanghie " in 

 Tamul, It is a shrub with narrow lance-shaped, pointed leaves, coarsely 

 toothed along the edges, and either smooth or sprinkled with bristly hairs, 

 especially on the veins underneath. 



Pavonia Zeylanica, Cav. (= Ilihiscus Zeylanicus, Linn.), 



A tall annual plant, with variable leaves, the lower ones being roundish 

 heart-shaped, and the upper deeply three to five lobed, and whitish or 

 pale-red flowers. It is called " Sittamootie " in Tamul, and an infusion of 

 the root is administered in fevers, but Ainslie states that it does not 

 appear to possess any virtues. 



