N. o. cucurbitace^:. 605 



Perennial herbs, climbing, with 2-fld tendrils. Rootstock 

 large, tuberous. Stems very slender, glabrous, often spotted 

 with darker green ; internodes very long. Leaves 3-5in., ovate- 

 rotundate in outline, very deeply cordate at base, cut nearly 

 to the base into 5-lanceolate or linear-acute, coarsely serrate 

 segments, the two basal ones deeply pedate, glabrous, thin, 

 the upper surface slightly rough, with minute scattered scales. 

 Petiole 1-liin. Flowers very pale yellow, in small clusters of 3-6, 

 on short pedicels. Calyx-segments linear, filiform. Corolla- 

 segments oval-oblong, acute, pubescent. Fruit globose, over fin. 

 diam., smooth, bluish green, with broad, white, vertical stripes. 

 Seeds Jin. gibbous at sides, with a prominent raised band round 

 the edge. 



Use : — The whole plant is collected when in fruit for 

 medicinal use. It is bitter and aperient, and is considered to 

 have tonic properties (Dymock). 



550. Mutea seabrella, Am. h.f.bj., ii. 623. 



Syn. : — -Bryonia seabrella, Linn., f. Roxb. 702. 



Vern. : — Bilari, agumaki (H.); Gwala-kakri (U. P.); Chirati, 

 bellari (Sind.) ; Musu-musuk-kai (Tarn.); Kutarubudama, 

 putribudinga (Tel.) ; Chirati (Mar.). 



Habitat : — Common throughout India. 



Perennial herbs ; tendrils simple. Stems climbing, long, 

 slender, much-branched, angular, very hispid, with spreading 

 bristly hairs, young parts covered densely with white hair. 

 Leaves variable in size, usually 3-4in., but often only lin. or 

 less, deltoid-ovate, very deeply cordate at base, with a white 

 sinus, and the rounded lobes often overlapping, acute or obtuse 

 at apex, rather shallowly 5-lobed, coarsely dentate-serrate, 

 usually scabrous, with stiff hairs on both sides. Petiole fully 

 half as long as the leaves, cylindric, very hispid. Flowers very 

 small, males on sessile peduncles as long as calyx ; females 

 nearly sessile. Calyx hairy, segments linear. Petals ovate, 

 ciliate, a little longer than Calyx-segments. Berry about Jin., 

 broadly ovoid, apiculate, with a few scattered hairs. Fruit scarlet 



