72 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



about 15, closely crowded with seeds. Seeds ovoid-globular, 

 ribbed with vertical lines of little tubercles, and very minutely 

 transversely striate ; aril white, transparent. Seeds edible. 



The flowers are sweet-scented. They sink under* water 

 to mature and ripen. 



Uses : — The rootstock of this plant, says my old friend, Pandit 

 Jaya Krishna Indraji, at page 16 of his Vanaspati-Varnana 

 (Gujrati), is used on fast days by Hindus as a nourishing article 

 of food, after boiling and mixing it with milk and sugar. The 

 powdered rootstock is also given in dyspepsia, diarrhoea and 

 piles. A decoction of flowers is also given in palpitation of 

 heart, it is not stated in what quantity or of what strength. 



55. N. stellatta, Willd. h. f. br. l, i. 114. 



Sanskrit : — Nilotpal, Indiwar. 



Vern. : — (Sinhalese) Monch; (Porebunder) Tvamal,Kala Kamal, 

 Kumdu ; (Guj.) Nilkamal ; (Mar.) Poyani, Krishna-Kamal. 

 (Hindi) Nil-pad ma, Lilophal, Nil-kamal. 



Habitat: — Common throughout the warmer parts of India 

 and Ceylon, in shallow streams, tanks and ponds. Open all day, 

 says Trimen. But some of the pale blue and drab-coloured 

 varieties in Ratnagiri and Thana (Konkan) open at sunset and 

 close at sunrise. They are found in tropical and Northern Africa. 

 Trimen notes a violet-coloured variety from Ceylon, also 

 pinkish-purple. 



Rootstock ovoid, short, erect ; leaves on long, rather slender, 

 submerged petioles ; blade floating ; about 5-8 in. diam., sagittate- 

 rotund, very obtuse, with a usually narrow sinus, 2-3 in. deep 

 at base, entire or coarsely sinuate, glabrous on both sides. 

 Flowers solitary on long peduncles, 3-6 in. diam., sepals narrowly 

 oblong -lanceolate, acute or subacute. Petals linear-lanceolate, 

 acute or subobtuse. Stamens 40-50, with a tongue-shaped ap- 

 pendage beyond the anthers. Stigmatic rays ' acute, 10-30, 

 curved upwards at the ends, without appendages, in short horns. 

 Fruit globular. Seeds longitudinally striate. Flowers through- 

 out the year. 



Uses :— Its uses are those of N. Lotus. Roots and seeds 

 edible, especially in famines. 



