1178 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



Habitat : — Behar, Hazaribagh. Deccan Peninsula, from Bom- 

 bay southwards ; found in the open places and waste ground, 

 common in the Tropics of the Old World generally. 



An annual, glabrous herb, with the habit of an annual 

 Euphorbia ; l-2ft. high, with numerous, prostrate or ascending, 

 slender branches from the root. Leaves small, alternate, 

 distant, i-3in., by £-Jin., nearly sessile, linear, acute at base, 

 obtuse, apiculate, very minute, serrate, glabrous, often rather 

 glaucous beneath. Stipules ovate, acute, ciliate. Flowers monoe- 

 cious, yellowish, apetalous. Male very minute in short axillary 

 or leaf-opposed spikes, female solitary at base of the male, or 

 axillary. Male flower : -Calyx minute, 5-lobed, membranous, 

 not covering the stamens in bud ; stamens 1-4, filaments 

 distinct. Pistillode 0. Female flower: — Sepals 3, longer than 

 in male, obovate, acute, lacerate and ciliate, 2- glandular with- 

 in ; ovary much exserted, 3-celled, with 1 ovule in each cell, 

 styles 3, small, not bifid. Fruit under ^in., glabrous, smooth, 

 except for the two dorsal rows of spinules, thinly crustaceous, 

 sub-globosely oblong. Seeds oblong, mottled. Endosperm fleshy ; 

 cotyledons broad. (Trimen and J. D. Hooker.) 



Uses :— -The juice of the plant in wine is used as an astrin- 

 gent ; a ghrita of the plant is considered to be tonic, and is ap- 

 plied to the head in vertigo. {Pharmaeogr. Ind. III. 316.) 



N. 0. URTICACEiE. 



1166. Ualoptela integrifolia, Planch., h.f.b.l, v. 

 481. 



Vern. :-- Papri (H.) ; Vavala (Mar.), Aya (Tarn.); Navili 

 (Tel.) ; Rasbija (Can.). 



Habitat :— Outer lower ranges of the Himalaya, from Jammu 

 to Oudh, ascending to 2,000ft. From Banda and Bihar to Tra- 

 vancore. 



A large, spreading deciduous tree. Bark |in. thick, whitish- 

 grey, exfoliating in long irregular flakes, soft, with an offensive 

 smell when fresh, like the leaves and branchlets. Wood light, 



