48 INDIAN MEDICINAL. PLANTS. 



N. 0, MENISPERMACEJE. 



38, Tinospora tomentosa, Miers. h.f.b.l. l 96. 



Vern. : — Padma-guluncha (B), 



Habitat :— Tropical thickets in Bengal ; always rare. 



A climbing shrub. Bark pustular. Shoots tomentose. 

 Leaves orbicular-cordate, more or less 3-lobed, pubescent above, 

 tomentose beneath, 3-6 in. diam. Petioles as long. Racemes 

 usually simple, solitary or fascicled. Flowers fascicled in the 

 axils or deciduous bracts. Sepals 6. 2-seriate, inner longer, 

 membranous. Petals 6, smaller. Male-flowers : Stamens 6, 

 filaments free, tips thickened. Anther cells obliquely adnate, 

 bursting obliquely. Female- flowers : Staminodes 6, clavate ; 

 Ovaries 3. Stigmas forked. Drupes 1-3, dorsal ly convex, 

 ventrally flat ; fusiform, orange-yellow, Endocarp tubercled, 

 dorsally keeled, ventrally concave. Seed grooved ventrally or 

 curved round the intruded sub-2-lobed endocorp. Albumen 

 ventrally ruminate. Cotyledons foiiaceous, ovate, spreading, 



Use : — It possesses the tonic properties of the common 

 Guluncha. T. cordifolia (Prain's Flora of the Sunderbans, 

 Page 286). 



39. T. crispa, Miers. H. f.b.i., i. 96. 



Syn: — Menispermum verrucosum. Hm. Rox. Fl. Ind. 



Vern. : — Titha-Kinda (Sinhalese). 



Habitat : — From Sylhet and Assam to the Eastern Peninsula. 

 Ceylon 



Stem widely climbing and twining, strongly warted 

 Leaves 4-5 in., broadly orbicular-cordate, suddenly acuminate, 

 7-veined, glabrous on both sides, thin. Petioles 3 4 in., 

 thickened and twisted at base, smooth. Flowers I in. long, 

 green, campanulate, 1-3 together, on very" slender pedicels, in 

 the axils of fleshy, small persistent bracts, rather distantly arrang- 

 ed in slender pendent spicate racemes or panicles 4-6 in. long 

 from axils of old leaves. Male-flowers : — stamens adnate to base 

 of petals. Female-flowers :— Anthers, square, stamens adnate 



