550 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



branches yellow. Leafless during most of the hot season. 

 Leaves broadly elliptic, pubescent when young, glabrous when 

 full grown, blade 1J— 3J, petiole J- fin. long, secondary nerves 

 8-14 pairs, tertiary nerves prominent beneath. Flower-heads 

 J-f-in. in diam., in on short peduncles, often in axillary racemes. 

 Ripe fruit almost glabrous, nearly orbicular ; sometimes f 

 (excluding the beak) by iin., including the wings, usually 

 smaller, more or less rusty pubescent when young. 



Use : — This tree yields a valuable gum, which is worthy of 

 attention (Dymock). 



499. Quisqualis indica, Linn., H. F.B.I., II. 459, 

 Roxb. 379. 



Vern. : — Rangun-ki-bel (H.) ; Vilayati-chambeli (Bomb.) ; 

 Irangun-malli (Tarn.) ; Rangunu-malle-chettu (Tel.). 



Habitat : — Cultivated throughout India, wild probably in the 

 Transgangetic Peninsula. 



A large, climbing, woody shrub. Bark thin, grey, peeling 

 off in small flakes. Wood, soft, porous. Young shoots pubescent 

 or villous. Leaves elliptic or ovate-oblong, acuminate, those on 

 leafy rambling shoots alternate, those on flowering branches 

 opposite, petioles articulate, the portion below the articulation 

 persistent, being hard and woody, hooking the branches on to 

 the supports. Flowers showy, first white, then red or orange, 

 then varnish- coloured, in different stages on one and the same 

 flower stalk. Bracts leafy, ovate-lanceolate, free part of Calyx 

 filiform, 2-3in. long, hairy within and on the outside. Fruit 

 seldom, never, I should say, met with in the Konkan, lin. long, 

 glossy, with 5 deep furrows between the angles. I collected a 

 half-ripe fruit, nearly half an inch long, in the beautiful Govern- 

 ment Gardens of Sydney in 1889, March. It is still in my 

 private Herbarium (K. R. K.). 



Use : — In the Moluccas, the seeds are supposed to be anthel- 

 mintic. Four or five of the seeds are given with honey, as an 

 electuary for the expulsion of entozoa in children (Ph. Ind.). 



In Amboyna, the leaves are given in a compound decoction 

 for flatulent distension of the abdomen. In China, the ripe 

 seeds are roasted, and given in diarrhoea and fever (Rumphius). 



