538 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



soft, close-grained, reddish-brown. Leaves 2-4 by l-2in., 

 elliptic-oblong, narrowed into petiole, l-2in. long, quite entire, 

 dark-green above, reddish-brown beneath, glabrous. Peduncles 

 about l|in., erect, twice-branched, dichotomously in 'cymes. 

 Flowers white. Calyx surrounded at base by bracteoles, 

 connate into a cup, lobes 5 or 6, linear, J-f in. long. Petals 

 bifid, the lobes divided into numerous capillary segments. 

 Stamens numerous, anthers small, filaments slender. Ovary 

 half-inferior, prolonged beyond the calyx into a fleshy cone, 

 one-celled. Ovules six, style slender, stigma 3-lobed. Fruit 

 lin., conicovoid, girt at the base by the reflexed calyx- 

 lobes, 



Use : — The bark, mixed with dried ginger or long pepper 

 and rose-water, is said to be a cure for diabetes (Rheede). 



N. 0. COMBRETACEiE. 



490, Terminalia Catappa, Linn, h.f.b.i., ii. 444, 

 Roxb. 380. 



Sans. :— Ingudi. 



Vern. : — Jangli-badam (H. and Bomb.) ; Nattoo-vadamcottay 

 (Tarn.) ; Vadam (Tel.) ; Adamarram (Mai.) ; Taru (Kan.) ; Badam 

 (B.) ; Bengali-badam, jangli-badama, hatbadam (Mar.) 



Habitat : — Largely planted in all India, wild in the lowlands 

 of Malaya and perhaps of the Transgangetic Peninsula. 



A tall, deciduous tree. Branches horizontally- whorled. 

 Stem often buttressed. Attains 80ft. Wood red, with lighter 

 coloured sapwood, hard. Leaves beautifully green, turning red 

 before falling ; clustered at the end of branchlets, glabrous ; 

 petiole and midrib more or less hairy, obovate from a narrow 

 cordate base, 6-10in. long, petiole short, stout and channelled. 

 Flowers white, in slender axillary spikes, shorter than the leaf. 

 Male flowers at the top, hermaphrodites below. Drupe glab- 

 rous, ellipsoid, somewhat compressed, keeled all round, 2in. 

 long, pericarp fibrous and fleshy, endocarp hard, oil expressed 



