Plants of the Punjab. 



313 



Hekbs, Erect, with Alternate Exstipulate Simple Leaves. 



Leaf Margins Entire. 

 Petals none. 

 Flowers in terminal chaffy spikes. 



Celosia argentea, 



Sarwali, sil, 



sarpankha. 



Amarantace^. 



F. B. I. iv. 714. 



The Plains to 



4,000 ft. 



Valleys below Simla 



(Collett). 



Dharmpur. 



medium size to large, annual, smooth, stem stout or 

 slender ; leaves 1-6 in., linear or lanceolate, stalked or sessile ; 

 flowers -|-| in., white or pinkish, ghstening in long-stalked, 

 simple or branched, cylindric, oblong or ovoid spikes, 

 1-8 by f-l 4n., looking hke the flowering top of a grass, 

 sepals 5, thin, shining, lanceolate, short-pointed, longer 

 than the bracts, petals none, stamens 5, united below 

 into a tube, style long, tip 2-lobed ; fruit dry, ovoid, en- 

 closed in the sepals, short-pointed, seeds few. This 

 plant is found in fields or near cultivation. The seeds 

 are an excellent remedy for diarrhoea. 



Celosia ciistata) 

 Cock's combr 



Lal-murgha, mawal, 

 dhura-dru. 

 Amarantace^. 

 F. B. I.iv. 715. 

 The Plains. 



like the last species, but leaves broader and longer, 

 flowers much smaller, |-| in., pink, red or yehow, spikes 

 often branched with flattened united stalks. This plant 

 is cultivated or found as an escape. The flowers are 

 astringent and used in diarrhoea and menorrhagia. The 

 seeds are demulcent. 



Digera arvensis, 



see Herbs, Prostrate, Alternate, Exstipulate, Simple. 



Amarantus spinosus, 

 Prickly Amaranth, 



Kanta-nutia. 



Amarantace^. 



F. B. I. iv. 718. 



The Plains 



to 6,000 ft. 



Choa Saidan Shah 



(Douie). 



Sainj . 



Valleys below Simla 



(Collett.) 



medium size to large, annual, green, sometimes 

 red, stem hard, spines | in. and less, straight ; leaves l|-4 

 by f-2 in., ovate or oblong, blunt, long-stalked, base 

 wedge-shaped, 5 spines in each leaf axil ; flowers -J?- iii* 

 long, male and female separate in axillary clusters and 

 in long dense or loose-flowered spikes, bract one, bristle- 

 hke, bracteoles 2 at the base of each flower, longer 

 than the sepals, sepals of males long-pointed, of females 

 blunt with a short point, stamens 5, stigmas 2 ; fruit 

 ^vl•inkled, nearly as long as the sepals, chviding by a cir- 

 cular fissure below the top, top tliickened, and divided into 

 2 or 3, seeds j\j in. diam., black, shining, border blunt, 

 not thickened. A weed of cultivation. The root is given 

 as a demulcent. The plant is used as a pot herb. 



