n. o. "composite. 697 



Bom.); Mecbitta (B.) ; Nakasinkani, sliikani (Mar.); Afkur 

 (Sind). Bedi Acbim (Santal). 



Habitat : — Throughout the plains of India. 



Annual, prostrate, glabrous or sparsely woolly herb. Stems 

 excessively numerous, spreading from the root, 4-8in. long, 

 slender, leafy. Leaves ovate-oblong, spathulate, ^-|in. long; 

 teeth sharp, 2 on each side. Heads solitary, globose, axillary 

 xV-s-in*. diam., subsessile. Corolla of female flower a very 

 minute cylindric tube, hairs of achenes simple. Achenes 

 minute, tipped with persistent style, bristly on the angles, says 

 Trimen. 



Uses : — The minute seeds are used as a sternutatory by the 

 Hindus, also the powdered herb. It is administered in ozoena, 

 head-aches, and colds in the head (Dymock ). Boiled to a 

 paste and applied to the cheeks, it is employed in the cure of 

 tooch-ache (Stewart). 



Used for hemicrania (Surg.-Maj. Robb, in Watt's Diction- 

 ary II). 



The natives of India consider it a hot and dry medicine, 

 useful in paralysis, pains in joints, and special diseases ; also 

 as a vermifuge ('Cyclop of Tndia '). 



Called " Sneezeweed" in southern New South Wales. 

 The following letter from the Rev, Dr. Wools (then of Richmond, N. S. W.), 

 to the Editor of the Sidney Morning Herald, appeared in that journal on 

 Christmas Day, 1886. It is given in full, as if the plant only partially realizes 

 the expectations formed of it. It will be a valuable addition to our indigenons 

 vegetable materia medica. 



" Some weeks since the Rev. S. G Fielding, of Wellington, called my at- 

 tention to a weed (known to botanists Myrioggne minntu of the Composite 

 Order, which he said had been used with success in cases of blight. Being 

 anxious to test the efficacy of the remedy, and to ascertain whether any bad 

 effects would arise from its application, I placed some of it in the hands of 

 Dr. Jockel of this town, who had furnished me with the following remarks : — 

 4 1 have much pleasure in testifying to the efficacy, in cases of opthalmia, of 

 the plant which you so kindly sent me. A case came under my notice a few 

 days ago of a drover who was sufilering from a severe form of purulent opthal- 

 mia, contracted up the country. I made an infusion of the plant according to 

 the directions, and the first local application seemed to have almost a magical 

 effect. The man expressed himself as relieved at once of the intense smarting 

 which he had previously suffered. He got on so well that in two days he was 

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