962 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



Piwala koranta or koreta (Mar.) ; Lal-phul-ke-kolse-ka-patta 

 (Dak.) ; Vajra daul (dutch) ; Shemmuli, varamulli (Tarn.) ; Muli- 

 goranta (Tel.) ; Keletta vitla (Mai.) ; Mullu-gorante, Mullu- 

 madarangi, Kollate-vettila (Kan). 



Habitat : — Tropical India, from the Himalaya to deylon. 



There are white and blue flowered varieties growing in 

 the Than a and Ratnagiri districts (K.R.K.) 



A small perennial bush or shrub, often planted for a fence, 

 2-4 or 5ft., much branched. Bark white. Branchlets cylindrical, 

 swollen above nodes, glabrous, with slender, very sharp spines 

 in the axils, each with 3 divaricate branches, densely scabrid, 

 lineolate sometimes puberulous. Leaves 3|-5in., entire, passing 

 into bracts above, ovate, tapering below, acute, mucronate, gla- 

 brous above, slightly pubescent on veins beneath, copiously 

 lineolate ; venation pellucid, lateral venation prominent beneath. 

 Flowers bright, pale-orange, yellow, sessile, rather large, solitary, 

 opposite, becoming spicate above. Bractlets linear, mucronate, 

 stiff, almost spinous, spreading. Sepals longer than bractlets, 

 acuminate, mucronate, glabrous, outer pair ovate, inner linear- 

 lanceolate, dorolla about lin., tube cylindrical, pubescent 

 outside, limb 1-l^in. diam. lobes nearly equal, rounded, recurved, 

 the two lateral ones broader. Stamens 4-2, minute or sterile. 

 Filaments of two rudimentary stamens very short. Disk annular, 

 small, entire. Pistil glabrous, dapsule about -fin.-lin., ovoid, 

 with a solid tapering beak, compressed. Seeds 2, |in. diam., 

 ovate, much compressed. 



Uses : — The juice of the leaf is used by the natives in Madras 

 in catarrhal affections of children, accompanied with fever 

 and much viscid phlegm. The ashes of the burnt plant, 

 mixed with conjee and water, are used in dropsy and anasarca, 

 and also in coughs (Ainslie). In Bombay, the natives apply the 

 juice of the leaves to their feet in the rainy season to prevent 

 cracking. In the doncan, the dried bark is given in whooping 

 cough, and 2 tolas of the juice of the fresh bark with milk in 

 anasarca. Dr. Bidie observes that it acts as a diaphoretic and 

 expectorant. A paste is made of the root which is applied to 

 dispei se boils and glandular swellings, and a medicated oil, 



