N. 0. CUCURBITACE/E. 595 



Habitat : — Throughout India. 



A climbling, annual, scabrid herb. Root perennial. Leaves 

 5-lobed, lobes rounded, repandly and sharply toothed ; male 

 flowers crowded ; female solitary. Fruit oval, rounded at both 

 ends, obsoletely 3-angled, 10-striated, glabrous, about I|in. long 

 and ljin. thick. Lobes of the leaves very broadly obovate 

 and almost touching each other at their broadest part ; veins 

 rounded. 



The fruit is collected in many places and sold in the 

 bazars as a drug, and very probably as an adulterant for the 

 true colocynth (Duthie). 



Use: — Supposed to possess purgative properties of Colo- 

 cynth (Watt). 



It contains a principle identical with or closely related to colocynthin. 

 Var : — Pubescens. 



Vern. : — Takmaki (Bomb.). 



Use :— The seeds are considered cooling, and are applied to 

 Herpes, after they have been beaten into a paste with the juice 

 of the Durvd (Cynodon dactylon) (Dymock). 



It is considered cool and astringent ; it creates appetite and 

 removes bilious disorders (Baden-Powell). 



Var. : — C. pseudo-colocynthis, Eoyle. 



This is a synonym for Cucumis trigonus, Roxb., as cited by 

 C. B. Clarke, H. F. B. I., Vol n, p. 619. This is described by 

 Royle in his Illustrations of the Himalayan plants. 



Vern. : — Indrayan ; Bislumbhi (North India) ; Karit (Bomb.) ; 

 Hattut-tumatti (Tarn.) ; Adavi-puch-cha (Tel.). 



Habitat : — Met with throughout the Deccan and Sind to 

 Baluchistan, Kashmir and Afghanistan. 



Use : — Pulp of the fruit is very bitter and similar in quality 

 to colocynth, for which it is substituted (O'Shaughnessy). 

 Supposed to possess the purgative properties of officinal colo- 

 cynth. Dr. Gibson, however, expresses a doubt as to the cor- 

 rectness of this opinion. Experiments are required to determine 

 the point. According to the report of Dr. J. Newton, a decoc- 

 tion of the roots of these plants is used as a purgative ; it is 



