348 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



Mairnati (Assam) ; Karik, amal-bel, gidardak, drikri, vallur 

 (Pb.) ; Odki, ambat-vel (Mar.) ; Khat-khatumbo, tamanya 

 (Guz.) ; Kuru dinne, kadepa tige, kanapatige, mandulamari 

 tige, meka mettani chettu (Tab) Walratdiyalabu (Sinhalese). 



Habitat : — Throughout the hotter parts of India and as- 

 cending into the tropical Himalaya. Ceylon. 



Stems slender, much-branched, angular, quite glabrous. 

 Tendrils long, slender, wavy, branched, and opposite the leaves. 

 Young shoots glabrous, red. Leaves 3-foliate, 2-6 in., on long 

 peduncles, channelled above. Leaflets small, usually shortly 

 stalked, the middle one the largest and on longer stalk, broadly 

 oval or rotundate, rounded at base, acute or obtuse, very 

 coarsely crenate-serrate, glabrous and shining, thick. Stipules 

 small, ovate, acute. Flowers white, green, says Trimen, shortly 

 pedicellate. Cymes di-or-tri-chotomous, lax, divaricate, termina- 

 ting lateral branches. Peduncle 2J-3 in., glabrous, petals acute, 

 spreading. Berry f in., or more, depressed-globose, smooth, 

 purple, 3-or 4-seeded, very juicy. Seed acutely trigonous, 

 sharply pointed, bluntly muricate on beak, wedge-shaped on 

 the face. 



Parts used. — The seeds and roots. 



Use. — The names given to it in many parts of India denote 

 one of its most general uses, viz., the treatment of yoke sores 

 on the necks of bullocks. For that purpose, a poultice of the 

 leaves is employed (Elliot). According to Irvine the seeds and 

 also leaves are employed as an embrocation. Stewart remarks 

 that the root, ground with black, pepper, is applied to boils. 

 The root — Xamraj (H.) is used as an astringent medicine. 



303. V. araneosus, Dalz. & Gibs, h.f.b.l, 

 i. 657. 



Vern. : — Bendir, bender-wel, ghorwel (Bom.). The root — 

 Chamarmusli (Bomb.) 



Habitat : — Western Peninsula, highest ghats of the Concan 

 and Pulney Mts. Grows very freely in Thana, and is called 

 Bendri. 



