1270 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS, 



The gum obtained from the unripe plantain mixed with rice 

 water is used in diarrhoea. In the Punjab, the sap of the fresh 

 stem is largely used in nervous affections, viz., hysteria, epilepsy, 

 etc. (B. D. Basu.) The ashes of the stem are useful in intesti- 

 nal worms. 



N. 0. HAEMODORACE^E. 



1254. Sansevicria Roxbiirghiana, SchulL, h.f.b.i., 



vi., 271. 



8yn>—&. Zeylanica Willd. Roxb. 294. 



Habitat: — Coromandel coast. "I suspect that it is the 

 only species indigenous to India and is confined to the Western 

 Peninsula and Ceylon, wild or cultivated." (J. D. Hooker, in 

 Fl. Br. I. vi. 271.) 



Sans. : — Murva. 



Vern. : — Murahri, Marul (H. N i; Murba, Gorachakra (B.) ; Gha- 

 nasphan, Marvel (M.) ; Murvel (Guz.) ; Marut Kalang (Tam.> ; 

 Ishaura-koda-udr (Tel.) ; Katu-kapel (Mai.) ; Heggurutike (Kan.). 



Root-stock very stout, branching stolon if erous ; stem very 

 short ; leaves about 8 or Din. a tuft, 2J-3ft. by lin. towards 

 the middle, sub-erect, dagger-shaped, rigid, pale-green, with 

 transverse bands of dark green, concave above, and striate, 

 dorsal ly rounded, Jin. thick from back to front, margins thin, 

 reddish, terminated by a terete, acute, rigid, spiniform, green 

 tip, l-2in. long. Scape a foot long, cylindric, green or pale- 

 purple, with a few linear, acuminate bracts, l-2in., long. Raceme 

 l-2ft. long by lj-2in. diam., striate, erect, cylindric. Flowers 

 in fascicles of 3-0, sub-erect, very shortly pedicelled, sweet- 

 scented ; bracts very minute, ovate, acute, pale-green ; perianth 

 pale, greenish-white tinged with violet, tube Jin., long, cylindric, 

 lobes about as long as the tube, linear-oblong, obtuse, revolute ; 

 tips purplish ; stamens erect ; filaments as long as the perianth 

 lobes ; anthers oblong, versatile, ovary trigonous, 3-lobed, 

 lobes pitted at the top ; style fliform, exserted ; stigma 

 minute. Fruit sparingly produced, globose, |in. diam., of one 



