640 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



or oblong-rhomboid, glabrous above, 2 by ljin., scarcely acum- 

 inate ; with, the base cuneate or rounded, 3-nerved ; margins 

 remotely toothed ; axils of the primary nerves, with tufts of hair 

 secondary nerves, 3 or 4 pairs, transverse, conspicuous beneath 

 Petiole i-iin. long. Corymbs terminal, subumbellate, stellate 

 pubescent, 2-4in. diam. 4-8-rayed, peduncled ; bracts and bract 

 eoles numerous, hairy, from linear-oblong to spathulate-oblong 

 Calyx-tube glabrous. Calyx-teeth minute, triangular. Corolla 

 lobes T ^ in. diam., round, white. Drupe ^ by |-in., compressed 

 subacute, red. Seed dorsally 2-grooved, ventrally 3-grooved, and 

 hardly concave. 



Use: — It is acrid, bitter and astringent, and used as an 

 emmenagogue. (S. Arjun) 



" It is customary for Hindoo women, who have been confi- 

 ned to hang a branch over the room in which they lie, as a 

 protection against evil spirits and post-partum haemorrhage." 



Another superstition is, that if seven pieces of the stem of 

 this plant are knotted into a thread made from cotton picked 

 by a virgin, the necklace thus formed will cure scrofulous-glands. 

 A cake made from the flour of eighteen kinds of grain with 

 narwel juice, is scraped on one side while hot, well moistened 

 with the juice and applied to the head in headache. A wine- 

 glassful of the juice of the leaves is administered internally in 

 menorrhagia daily, also in post-partum haemorrhage. It is re- 

 markable that V. primifolium, an American plant, has also been 

 found useful in all uterine diseases characterised by loss of 

 blood and in threatened abortion (Dymock). 



591. Lonicera glauca, H. F. and T. III. II. 



Vern. :— Shingtik ; Shea ; Shewa (Pb. and Hindi). 



Habitat : — Temperate N.-W. Himalaya ; Nubra, Zanskar and 

 Piti. Titail in Kashmir ; Garwbal and Kumaon. 



An erect, glaucous, densely-branched, wiry undershrub, 

 glabrous except as to the margins of the leaves. Leaves f by \ 

 in., obtuse, oblong, base hardly rounded. Petioles T \ in. Bracts 

 large, ovate, flat \-\ in., glaucous, hispidly ciliate on the margins, 

 usually free, or, when the fruits coalesce, sometimes much connate. 



