N. 0. RUBIACEiE. 645 



examined the bark of the Kymenodyctyon excelsum, but must have been deal- 

 ing with some other bark. 



596. Oldenlandia corymbosa, Linn, h.f.b.i., ill. 

 64. 



Syn. : — 0. biflora, Lamk., 0. vamosa, Roxb. 142. 



Sans. : — Kshetraparpati ; Parpata. 



Vem. : — Daman-papar ^H.); Klietpapra (B.) ; Paripat (Mar.) ; 

 Popato, Kazuri (Goa), 



Habitat: — An abundant weed throughout India, from the 

 Punjab, Southward and Eastward, to Ceylon and Malacca. 



A slender herb up to 1ft. or more high, but often diminutive 

 and straggling. Leaves sessile, l-2in. long, linear or linear- 

 lanceolate, erect, or spreading; margins scabrous and often 

 revolute; stipules short, membranous, dentate or bristly. 

 Peduncles axillary, solltaiy, slender, shorter than the leaves, 

 usually 2-3-Oowered ; pedicels filiform; bracts, subulate. Calyx- 

 teeth subulate, nearly equalling the tube when in flower. Corolla 

 white, its tube short. Capsule usually broad, didymous or 

 globose or narrowed to the base, not ribbed, the crown not rising 

 above the base of the calyx-teeth. 



Jt is an extremely variable plant, and some of its forms, 

 cannot easily be distinguished from 0. diffusa (Duthie). 



Uses : — By Sanskrit authors it is considered a cooling 

 medicine of importance in the treatment of fevers supposed to be 

 caused by deranged air and bile, that is, remittent fever, with 

 gastric irritability and nervous depression. The entire plant is 

 prescribed in decoction, and is combined with aromatics. 



In Goa, it is much used combined with Adiantum limatum 

 and Hydrocotyle asiatica as an alterative in. low forms of fever. 

 In the Concan, the juice is applied in burning of the palms of 

 the hand and soles of the feet from fever ; in burning at the pit 

 of the stomach the juice is given internally with a little milk 

 and sugar (dose 1 tola of the juice obtained by pounding the 

 plant with water). The decoction is given in remittent fever, 

 and is also applied to the surlace of the body. It is also given 

 internally to cure heat eruptions (Dymock). 



