698 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



able to start back up country again, and could hardly express his gratitude 

 for the very great relief afforded."— Louis C. Jockel. 



" I find from a communication of Baron Mueller, that for some time past 

 he has had an idea that Myriogyne might be used for medicinal purposes, and 

 that he had actually submitted it to Dr. Springthorpe, an eminent' physician 

 in Melbourne, for purposes of experiment. The Baron, however, was not 

 aware of its efficiency in simple opthalmic inflammation, and he regarded the 

 discovery as interesting. I mention this as a matter of justice to Dr. Jockel, 

 who, I believe, is the first medical man in Australia who has proved the 

 value of M yriogyne, in a case of ophthalmia. This weed, growing as it does 

 on the banks of rivers and creeks, and in moist places, is common to all the 

 Australian colonies and Tasmania, and it may be regarded as almost co- 

 extensive with the disease which it is intended to relieve. In the document 

 relating to the Inter- Colonial Exhibition of 1886-7, it is noticed as remarkable 

 for its sternutatory properties, and recommended for the manufacture of 

 snuff." 



The Rev. Mr. Hartmann says (Brough-Smyth's ' Aborigines of Victoria,' 

 ii., 173) that this plant is used as medicine by the aborigines of Lake Hind- 

 marsh, but he does not say for what complaint 



Baron Mueller prepared a snuff from this plant many years ago 

 (J. H. Maiden, F. L. S., &c, Ph. J. Sept. 1, 1888, p. 178-179). 



662. Artemesia scoparia, Waldst and Kit. h.f.b.i., 

 hi. 323. 



Syn. : — A. elegans, Roxb., 599. 



Vern. : — Jhan, lasaj, biur, durumga, dona, marua, pila jan, 

 king khak durunga (Pb.). Churi saroj ; Danti (Bazar name). 



Habitat: — Upper Gangetic Plain and westwards to Scind 

 and the Punjab, Western Himalaya, from Kashmir to Lahaul. 



A faintly scented, very slender-branched, glabrous or pubes- 

 cent annual or perennial herb, l-2ft, (or 3-6ft. Duthie) high. 

 Stems slender, grooved, usually tinged with purple; branchlet 

 often almost capillary, glabrous below, hoary or villous. Radical 

 leaves l-3in. long, petioled, broadly ovate, 1-3-pinnatisect, 

 segments linear, distant, spreading ; cauline leaves filiform 

 or setaceous. Heads sessile, or on short capillary pedicels, 

 minute, tVtV 11 -* secund in slender, panicled racemes, involucre- 

 bracts glistening oblong, obtuse scarious, with narrow green 

 disks. Outer female flowers fertile, inner hermaphrodite flowers 

 sterile and with larger corollas. Achenes ^in. long ("perhaps," 



