60 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



at ends of branches of long-stalked, axillary umbels ; bracts 

 subulate. Male flowers : — Sepals nearly equal, obovate, obtuse ; 

 petals much shorter, staminal column short, summit expanded. 

 Female flowers :— Sepals acute ; petals shorter, styles subulate. 

 Fruit scarlet, solitary, sessile, small, ■§- in., compressed, 

 glabrous. Endocarp strongly tubercled on back and sides. 

 Seed curved almost into a ring. 



The head of fruit looks as if it were the produce of a single 

 flower, instead of an umbel of several sessile ones (Trimen). 



Use :— The root is regarded as light, bitter, astringent and 

 useful in fever, diarrhoea, urinary diseases, dyspepsia, etc. 

 Sir W. O'Shaughnessy speaks highly of this plant. 



47. S. rotundi folia, Lour, h.f.b.l, i. 103. 



Vern. : — Purha (Dehra Dun). 



Habitat :— Tropical and temperate Himalaya, from Sindh east- 

 ward to the Khasia Hills and Pegu. Valleys below Simla ; in 

 the ravines of Dun and the Lower Hills. Southern Hills of the 

 Western Peninsula. Siam, Cochin-China. 



A tuberous-rooted, large, climbing shrub. Roots subglobose. 

 " Wood soft, spongy, with large, loose pith arranged in wedges, 

 separated by broad medullary rays, and concentrically by a belt 

 of soft similar tissue. The bark gives fibre, sometimes used for 

 fishing lines." (Gamble), Branchlels glabrous. Leaves peltate, 

 with 9-10 radiating nerves, ovato-rotundate, broad-ovate or sub- 

 orbicular, often repand or sinuate-lobed, glabrous, 3-7 in. diam., 

 obtuse, acute or acuminate, pale beneath. Petiole 3-9 in. 

 Peduncle variable, usually slender ; of the females, stout. 

 Umbels axillary, compound, in lax cymes ; rays of umbels long 

 or stout ; bracts subulate. Flowers,, yellow or yellowish-green, 

 !-£ in. dram. Sepals narrow, cuneate, puberulous Petals 

 shorter. Drupes red, pisiform, Endocarp horse-shoe-shaped- 

 sides excavated. Cotyledons elongate, flat, scarcely broader than" 

 the radicle. 



Part used : — The root. 



Use : — Roxburgh states that the acrid root is used medicinally 

 m Sylhet, presumably for the same purpose as S. hernandifolia, 

 Walp. 



