K. 0. MAGNOLIA0EJ3. 41 



Habitat ; — Common ly cultivated, but wild in the forests of 

 the Temperate Himalaya, from Nepal Eastward, 



A small evergreen tree. Bark grey, smooth, f in. thick. 

 Wood soft even-grained ; sapwood white, heartwood light olive- 

 brown. Young shoots silky ; branclilets pubescent. Stipules 

 convolute. Leaves 8-10 by 2^-4 in. shining above, pale and 

 glabrous or puberlous beneath. Petioles slender, f-lf in. 

 Flowers 2 in. diam., pale yellow or orange, fragrant ; some 

 consider the flowers strongly scented. Peduncles short. Buds 

 silky. Perianth-leaves 15, deciduous, imbricate, in whorls of 3 ; 

 the outer oblong, acute ; the inner linear. Fruiting spike 

 compact, 3-6 in. long. Carpels sub-sessile, ovoid, blunt, lenticil- 

 late, coriaceous, dorsally dehiscing. Stamens numerous, many- 

 seriate ; filaments flat ; anthers linear, adnate, introrse, bursting 

 longitudinally. Gynophore stalked ; styles short. Capsules 

 f in ; bark brown. Seeds 1-2, brown when old, bright scarlet 

 or rosy when just mature, polished, variously angled, rounded 

 on the back, pendulous by a white thread-like funicle, after 

 dehiscence of the capslue, embryo minute in an abundant oily 

 albumen. 



Parts used : — The flowers, fruit, leaves, roots, root-bark, 

 oil, bark. 



Uses : —According to Sanskrit writers, the flowers are bitter 

 and are useful in leprosy, boils and itch. 



The flowers and fruits are considered bitter and cool remedies, 

 and are used in dyspepsia, nausea and fever. The leaves, 

 anointed with Ghi, and sprinkled over with powder of Cumin 

 seeds, are said in the Baroda Darbar Catalogue Col. and Ind. 

 Exhib., to be put round the head in cases of puerperal mania, 

 delirium, and maniacal excitement. 



Taylor states {Topography of Dacca) that the flowers mixed 

 with Sesamum oil form an external application, which is often 

 prescribed in vertigo. The flowers beaten up with oil are also 

 applied to foetid discharges from the nostrils. According to 

 Rumphius, the flowers are useful as a diuretic in renal diseases 

 and in gonorrhoea. Rheede states that the dried root and 

 root-bark, mixed with curdled milk, are useful as an application 



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