N. O. VERBBENACEtf:. 1009 



Habitat : — From Sikkim and Assam to Tenasserim frequent, 

 Mts. of S. Deccan Peninsula ; Kumaon, wild. 



A glabrous shrub 4-8ft., branches virgate. Stems herbaceous, 

 fluted, hollow. Leaves in whorls of 3-5, 6-9 by 1-lfin., narrow 

 lanceolate, subentire glabrous, rather hard, base tapering. 

 Petiole 0-J-in. Flowers white, fading into yellow, in rigid 

 terminal panicles, 9-18in. long. Pedicels £-l|in. Calyx |in. 

 long, divided f way down dark red and enlarged in fruit. 

 Segments oblong, acute. Corolla-tube 3-4 by Tain., drooping ; 

 lobes i-fin., oblong-ovate. Corolla glabrous, white. Drupe 

 ovoid, dark-blue, about Jin. long, supported by the spreading 

 red Calyx. 



Uses : — " The root considered useful in asthma, cough and 

 scrofulous affections " (Dutt). The wood is slightly bitter and 

 astringent and the resin employed in syphilitic rheumatism 

 (Baden-Powell). The expressed juice of the leaves and tender 

 branches is used with ghi, as an application in herpetic eruptions 

 and pemphigus. The branches cut into small pieces and threaded 

 like heads, are put on the necks of children suffering from these 

 diseases as a charm, and it is believed by the natives that the 

 smell of this plant is sufficient to cure these diseases (Dr. 

 Thornton, in Watt's Dictionary). 



967. Avicennia officinalis, Linn., h.f.b.i, iv. 

 604. 



Syn. : — A. tomentosa, Facy. Roxb. 487. 



Vern. : — Bina (B. and H.) ; Timmer, cheria (Sind) ; Tivar 

 (M.) ; Nalla-mada, Mada-chettu (Tel.) ; Upputti (Mai.) 



Habitat : — Common in the mangrove swamps of the Deccan 

 Peninsula. Also in the swamps near Bombay and Kurla, 

 (K.R.K.) 



A large evergreen shrub or tree attaining 20ft., and a great 

 girth, found in salt marshes, coast and tidal forests of India, 

 Ceylon, Burma, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Sundar- 

 bans, often gregarious. " This tree, like other mangroves," 

 says Gamble, " has the property of sending out very numerous 

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