154 



INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



visible in the bud, Wight). Fruit 1 by fin. ellipsoid. Anderson 

 says that he never found petals in any of the buds he opened. 



Medicinal use : — Bon ton, in his Medical Plants of Mauritius, 

 says that the resin obtained from this plant acts as a " vulnerary 

 resolutive and anodyne." The oil obtained from the seeds is 

 used as medicine in leprosy and cutaneous affections, and 

 in infusion, mixed with, honey, in scabies and rheumatism 

 (WattH. 33.) 



134. Mesua ferrea, Linn, h.f.b.l, i. 277 

 Roxb. 437. 



Syn. : — M. speciosa, Chois ; M. coromandeliana, Wight. 



Sans. :— Nagakesara. 



Vera. : — Nagkesar ; naghas ( H. and B.) ; Nageshvoro, 

 nageswar (Uriya); Nahor (Assam.) ; Nagchampa ; thorlachampa 

 (Bom.; Nagchampa, thorla chumpa (Bombay); Nagachampa ; 

 nagchampha (Mar.); Naugal ; Mallay naugal ; nagap-pu ; Nagas- 

 hap-pu (Tarn.,); Naug (Tinnevelley) ; Naga Kesara ; naga 

 kesaramu ; gejapushpam ! Tel.); Naga sampigi ; Nassampige 

 (Kan. v ; Behetta-cham-pagam ; velutta-chenpakam (Mai.). 



Habitat : — Mountains of Eastern Bengal, the Eastern 

 Himalaya and the Eastern and Western Peninsulas. 



A large evergreen glabrous tree ; trunk erect, straight ; 

 twigs slender sub-4-angled. " Bark Jin. thick, reddish-brown, 

 peeling off in flat thin cakes, having a slightly roughened 

 surface. Wood somewhat resembling that of Calophyllum, but 

 much harder and heavier. Heart-wood red, dark, extremely 

 hard. Pores moderate-sized, scanty, often filled with yellow 

 resin, singly or grouped, or in oblique strings of varying length. 

 Medullary rays extremely fine, uniform, equidistant, very 

 numerous. Numerous fine wavy lines of dark-coloured tissue, 

 regular and prominent, but of very different lengths (Gamble). 

 The young shoots at first brilliant red, then pink, gradually 

 passing into dark green (Brandis). Leaves coriaceous, 2-6 by 

 1J to If in., drooping linear-lanceolate, base acute or rounded, 

 dark green and shining above, covered more or less with a fine 

 waxy meal beneath ; veins very fine, close-set and equally 



