CN SELECT INDIAN PLANTS. 273 



Cylindric. Stigmas expanded. Flowers terminal 

 and axillary umbel - fascicled ; amethyst -coloured, 



• with some darker shades of purple on the petals 



• and nectaries ; the starred corpuscle bright yellow. 

 leaves opposite, heart oblong, mostly inverse-eg- 

 ged, subtargeted, very rarely stem -clasping, pointed, 

 villous on both sides, hoary beneath, with soft 

 down; peiiols very short, concave and bearded 

 abDve, with a thickish conical stipule. The whole 

 plant filled with caustic milk. A variety of this 

 species has exquisitely delicate milk-white flowers ; 

 it is named Alarca or Pratapsa, and highly esteem- 

 ed for its antispasmodic powers. The Padmdrca> 

 which I have not seen, is said to have small crimson 

 corols. The individual plants, often examined by 

 me, vary considerably in the forms of the leaves and 

 the tops of the nectary* 



30. Pichula: 



Syn. Thavaca. 



Vulg. Thau. 



Koen. Indian TaMarix ) 



Flowers very small, whitish, with a light purple tinge, 

 crowded on a number of spikes, which form all to- 

 gether a most elegant panicle. Stem generally 

 bent, often straight, and used anciently for arrows 

 by the Persians, who call the plant Gaz. The 

 celebrated shaft of Isfendiya'r was formed of it, 

 as I learned from Bahmen, who first showed it to 

 me on a bank of the Ganges, but asserted that it 

 was common in Persia. The leaves are extremely 

 minute, sessile, mostly imbricated. 6Wv.vand a 



Vol. IV. T as 



