U46 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



deciduous. Leaves rather membranous, pinnately distichous, 

 2-3in., petioled, obliquely ovate, acute, pale beneath ; base usu- 

 ally rounded. Nerves 5-8 pair, arched. Petiole iViim; stipules 

 toothed. Flowers brownish-red, minute, most densely clustered, 

 Am. diam. ; clusters axillary or in slender racemes from the thick, 

 old branches, shortly pedicelled ; occasionally 2-sexual, sometimes 

 3-4-merous ; pedicels capillary, J-iin. Sepals 1, orbicular ; 

 filaments free. Disk of male, of large glands ; of female, annular 

 crenate. Stamens 4, recurved ; anthers shortly oblong, slits 

 lateral. Ovary ovoid ; styles 3-4, reflexed from the contracted 

 top, 2-partite ; arms subulate, acute. Fruit globose, often crowd- 

 ed. Pericarp fleshy, acid, seed-lobed, generally 6-S grooved. 

 Endocarp 3-4-celled ; parts 1-celled, 1-seeded. 



Use : — The fruit is acid and astringent, the root is an active 

 purgative, and the seed is also cathartic. 



1136. Fluegqia microcarpa, Blume., h.f.b.i., v. 

 328. 



Syn. :— Phyllanthus leucopyrus Koen., Roxb., 679. 



Vern. : — Parpo (Goa). Paudharphali, kante puwan (Bomb). 

 Dalme (H.) ; Rithoul (Dehra Dun). 



Habitat: — The Punjab Plains. Deccan Peninsula, from 

 Canara southwards. 



A small, deciduous tree or large shrub. Bark smooth, thin, 

 rusty or reddish-brown. Wood red, hard, close-grained. "A 

 graceful little tree of slow growth," says Gamble. Glabrous, 

 unarmed ; branchlets slender, angled and compressed, marked 

 with small, white specks. Branches straight and regularly fluted 

 or angular. Leaves very variable, l-4in. long, elliptic-ovate, 

 obovate or orbicular, membranous, but tough, rather glaucous 

 beneath ; tip rounded, obtuse or acute, rarely acuminate or re- 

 tuse ; lateral nerves 6-8 pair, very slender; petiole to-iin., slender. 

 Flowers dioecious, very small, pedicelled, usually in axillary 

 fascicles. Sepals 5, imbricate. Male flowers: — Stamens 5, 

 alternating with disk-glands, but opposite to the sepals ; pastil- 

 lode large, 3-fid. Female flowers: — Ovary, ovoid, on an annular 

 disk ; styles 3, 2-fid. Fruit of two sizes, mostly small and dry, 



