ft O. AMAUATACCE. 1063 



in snake-bite. (Pbarm. Indica.) Used in cases of abscess ; its 

 ashes are used in cases of asthma and cough. (Ibbetson's Grujrat). 

 In Sind, it is used by the native foresters as an application to 

 wounds caused by Babool thorns (Murray, p. 101). To an 

 infusion of the root is ascribed a mild astringent virtue 

 (Honigberger, Vol, I1. 3 p. 222). The flowering spike made into 

 pills with a little sugar is a popular preventive medicine 

 in Behar for persons bitten by rabid dogs. (Balfour.) As an 

 ash, however, there seems no reason to think it possesses any 

 virtues other than those of the simple alkali of our shops. 



' The drug may be useful in all conditions arising from ner- 

 vousness. Thus it is used as a talisman in hysteria, and 1 know 

 personally of cases that were benefited by it. How it acts in 

 such a way, I cannot say ; it may be possible that the good effects 

 are obtained by ionisation only, if anything of such nature there 

 is in the drug. But that it is undoubtedly useful in hysteria 

 and such nervous disorders, there is no gainsaying. In hysteria 

 what we find is that there is extreme nervous sensibility attended 

 with muscular contraction, either violent or mild ; it is preceded 

 generally by irregular heart or palpitation" (Dr. Lai Mohan 

 Ghoshal, in ' Food and Drugs ' for Oct. 1912 pp. 84-85.) 



1040. Alternanihera sessilis, Br., h.f.b.l, iv. 731. 



Syn. : — Achyranthes triandra, Roxb. 227. 



Vevn. : — Moku-nri-wanna (Singh.); Ghardughi (Rohilkhand); 

 kanchari (Bomb.). 



Habitat : — Throughout hotter India in damp places, ascend- 

 ing the Himalaya to 4,000 ft. 



A prostrate or ascending, nearly glabrous, herb, branching 

 from base, 6-18in. Leaves opposite, nearly sessile, narrowly 

 oblong or ovate, l-3in., obtuse. Flowers minute, white, crowded 

 in shining, very short head-like sessile axillary spikes. Perianth 

 scarious 5-parted ; segments acute. Stamens 5, the alternate 

 ones sometimes without anthers ; filaments united at base ; an- 

 thers 1-celled. Ovary ovoid, notched at top ; style very short, 

 stigma capitate. Fruit a dry, flattened utricle, enclosed by the 

 perianth and containing a single seed. 



