728 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



Habitat: — Sea-shores of India, from Sind to Ceylon, and 

 from Burma to Malacca. 



A large shruby plant with thin loose bark ; stem and branches 

 stout. Leaves 3-5in., alternate, entire or rarely obscurely cre- 

 nate, silky or glabrescent, tufted in the axils, petioled, obovate- 

 oblong, obtuse, herbaceous. Flowers white, tinged with purple. 

 Cymes axillary, much shorter than the leaves. Bracts small. 

 Calyx-lobes i-}tn. linear-lanceolate, obtuse and enlarged in fruit. 

 Corolla-tube fin., oblique split to the base behind, narrow 

 pubescent ; lobes J-iin., lanceolate, anthers free. Indusium of 

 the stigma ciliate ; ovary 2-1 celled, with 2 erect ovules. Drupe 

 i-Jin., subspherical, very succulent ; endocarp long. 



Use : — The juice of the berries is instilled by the Amboy- 

 ans into the eyes to clear off opacities and take away dimness 

 of vision (Rumplins). 



N. 0. CAMPANULACEiE. 



702. Lobelia nicotiancefolia, Heyne., h.b.f.i., hi, 

 427 ; Boxb. 170. 



Vern. : — Deonal, Bokenal, Dhaval (Mar.). 



Habitat: — Malabar; on the Ghauts, from Bombay to Tra- 

 vancore. 



Tall herbs ; stems usually much branched upwards, 5-1 2ft., 

 erect, somewhat pubescent or glabrate ; below an inch and a half 

 or more in diameter, and almost solid ; the upper portion is a 

 hollow tube ending in a crowded head of flower spikes which 

 are about a foot in length. Leaves mostly radical, resemble 

 those of the tobacco ; narrowly obovate-lanceolate, lower often 12 

 by 2in., upper gradually smaller, subsessile, serrulate herbaceous, 

 glabrous or nearly so above, pilose or glabrous beneath. Inflor- 

 escence compound ; racemes dense, more or less pubescent ; 

 peduncles i-lin. and upwards. Flowers large and white. 

 Calyx-tube glabrous or pubescent ; teeth Jin.; linear, gland- 

 denticulate. Corolla f-l^in., glabrous or pubescent. Anthers 

 glabrous, on the back rarely a little hairy. Capsule i diam., 

 subglobose, two-celled, each cell containing a fleshy placeuta. 



