516 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



scaly buds on the previous year's wood. Calyx cainpanulate, 

 segments woolly. Drupe downy or glabrous. Pericarp tender, 

 succulent, stone deeply and irregularly furrowed (Brandis). 



Use : — The fruit is given as a demulcent, an antiscorbutic, 

 and a stomachic. 



The natives of the Punjab believe the fruit to be useful in 

 worms, Ascaris lumbricoides (Balfour.) 



The flowers are purgative. 



Like other species of Prunus, the kernels yield an oil, used by the natives 

 of North-West Himalaya for cookery, illuminating purposes, and- as a dressing 

 for the hair. The kernels contain 32—35 per cent, of a pale yellow oil 

 similar to almond oil. In Europe the oil enters into the composition of 

 " French almond oil." 



461. P. Armeniaca Linn, h.f.b.i., ii. 313, 

 Roxb. 403, 



Fern.:— Chuari, zardakij khobani (H.) ; Hari, gardali, shiran 

 (Pb.); Iser (Kashmir); Chuaru, chola (Kumaon); Zardalu (Push.) 

 (to.) 



Eng.: — The apricot. 



Habitat : — Cultivated and almost naturalised in N. W. 

 India. 



A middle-sized, deciduous tree. Bark dark-brown, rough 

 with narrow longitudinal clefts. Sapwood white ; heart wood 

 greyish-brown, mottled with dark-brown streaks, moderately 

 hard. Leaves convolute in bud, appearing after or with the 

 flowers, broadly ovate, nearly as broad as long, acuminate, 

 crenate ; petiole glandular, half the length of the leaf ; stipules 

 lanceolate. Flowers pinkish white, solitary or fasciculate, from 

 scaly buds on the previous year's wood. Peduncles short. 

 Drupe downy or glabrous ; pericarp tender, succulent, in- 

 dehiscent. Stone smooth, with a thickened sulcate margin. 



Use : — It is stated that apricots form antidotes to hill sick- 

 ness. In Tibet, they are applied after mastication in ophthal- 

 mia ; and Bellew mentions that the dried fruit is in Afghanistan, 

 used as a laxative and refrigerant in fevers, &c. (Stewart). 



