N. 0. EUPH0RBIACE.E. 1137 



cracks, exfoliating in rectangular woody scales. Wood dark, 

 reddish-brown, tough, hard, close-grained ; heartwood small. 

 Branches spreading, rigid, twiggy, smooth or pustulate. Foliage 

 bright-green. Leaves coriaceous, orbicular, broadly ovate or 

 elliptic; tip rounded or retuse, glaucous beneath, l£-4 by 

 lj-3in., pale when dry, loosely reticulate, young, membranous 

 and faintly pubescent beneath, old 4-8 pair, spreading, very 

 slender ; petiole iin. Flowers yellowish-green, in small axillary, 

 silky clusters ; calyx-lobes lanceolate, or ovate-lauceolate. Calyx 

 ^in. male, pulvinate, of female conical with a thick margin. 

 Ovary quite glabrous, globose, styles free thick ; stigmas fleshy, 

 lobed. Capsule -Jin., obscurely 3-lobed, woody sessile ; rarely 

 4-lobed, dark-brown, shining and wrinkled when dry, top not 

 lobed. Seeds 3, |in. diam., globose chestnut-brown ; albumen 

 scanty. 



Uses : — The bark or outer crust of capsule said to be exceed- 

 ingly poisonous (O'Shaughnessy.) 



In Chutia Nagpur the fruit and bark are employed to poison 

 fish ; the latter is also considered a useful application in 

 cutaneous diseases. For severe headache, the head and upper 

 part of the body are bathed in water in which the leaves have 

 been steeped (Revd. A. Campbell.) An extract of the leaves 

 and fruit acts as a violent gastro-intestinal irritant. 



1128. Andvachne cordifolia, Muell., h.f.b.l, v. 



283. 



Vern. :— Kurkni, gurguli, kurkuli (Pb.). 



Habitat : — Central and Western Temperate Himalaya, from 

 Nepal westwards to Murree. 



A small shrub with slender branches. Young shoots, 

 petioles, and underside of leaves hairy. Wood white, moder- 

 ately hard-grained. Leaves l-2in. long, ovate-oblong, obtuse or 

 mucronate, pale when dry, nerves very slender. Petiole 

 filiform, J-f in. Flowers fin. diam., monoecious, axillary on long, 

 filiform pedicels, i-ljin long. Calyx segments obovate, acute, 

 enlarged in fruit. Petioles keeled, spathulate ; disk of 5 flat, 



bifid, membranous glands. Fruit }'m. diam., depressed, globose, 

 143 



