1142 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



Use : —The leaves are used in infusion by the Vaidyas 

 in Southern India as a remedy for headache. (Ainslie.^ 



When soaked in water the seeds immediately become thickly coated with 

 a semi-opaque mucilage ; the kernel is oily and has a sweet nutty taste ; the 

 seeds are used medicinally on account of the mucilage which they afford. 

 (Pharmacogr. Ind. III. 265.) 



1132. P. urinaria, Linn., h.f.b.i., v. 293. Roxb. 



680. 



Sans. : — Tamra-Valli. 



Vtrn. : — Hazar munee (B. and H.);Yerra userekee (Tel.) ; 

 Lal-bhuin-anvalah (H. ) ; Badar-zhapni (Santal) ; Shirappunelli 

 (Tarn.) ; Chiru-kizhukanelli, chukanna-kizhanelli (Mai.). 



Habitat: — Throughout India, from the Punjab to Assam 

 and Ceylon. 



An annual low or tall, diffusely branched, erect or decumbent 

 herb (becoming perennial in some soils), slender, glabrous. 

 Leaf-bearing branchlets short, flattened or shortly winged, 

 often tinged with red. Leaves numerous, closely placed, dis- 

 tichously imbricate, nearly sessile, small J-^in., oblong, rounded 

 at base, apiculate, paler or silvery beneath. Stipules peltate, 

 very acute. Flowers yellowish, all the year round, numerous, 

 very minute, nearly sessile, solitary. Sepals green, ciliolate, 

 those of the male's sub-orbicular ; of the females oblong, not 

 enlarged in fruit. Fruit very small, scarcely Jin., depressed 

 globose, scarcely lobed, muriculate or echinate. Seeds transver- 

 sely furrowed. Styles with hooked arms. Filaments very 

 shortly united. Anthers erect, didymous, not apiculate. 



Use : — Medicinal properties similar to those of P. Niruri. 



In Chutia Nagpur, the root is believed to be sudorific, being 

 given to sleepless children along with Zornia diphylla. 

 (Campbell.) 



1133. P. simplex, Betz., h.f.b.i., v. 295; Roxb. 

 678. 



Vern. :— Tandi meral (Santal); Bhuiavaii (Mar.); Uchchi 

 usirika (Tel.). 



