1394 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



FUNGI. 



1372. Agaricus campestris, Linn. 



Vern.:— Alombe, khumba (Bom.) ; Kagdana chhatra (Guj.); 

 Kuti lenbha, Khumba (Sind). Bheoephore (Pb) ; Manskhel 

 (Kashmir) ; Moksha (Chamba) ; Khumbah, shambur, chattri 

 {Afg. Bazar names) ; Kumbh samarogh (Stewart) ; Herar, 

 poisonous forms. 



Habitat :— Abundant in fields in many parts of India, especi- 

 ally in the Pan jab. Very largely prevalent in the Thana district, 

 Salsette Island near Bombay. (K.R.K.) 



Pileus 3-6 inches across, globose, then convexoplane, dry, 

 silky, floccose or squamulose, white becoming reddish-brown 

 when cut, giles free but rather close to the stem, £-f inch 

 broad pink then flesh-colour, finally blackish-brown, sub- 

 deliquescent ; stem 3-4 inches long, j-1 inch thick, subequal, 

 white stuffed, ring median persistent, more or less torn. Spores 

 purple-brown, elliptic, 7-9 by 6 inches. 



Use.— The small dried mushrooms are officinal in the Panjab 

 and are sold as " Mokshai" being regarded as alterative. 



1373. Boletus Nitus Arto-earpalis, K. B. Kirtikar. 



Vern. : — Phanasa-alombe, or vulgarly phansamba. 

 Habitat: — Is common on old jack trees in Bombay. 

 Uses.: — It is ground to a paste with water and applied to the 

 gums in cases of excessive salivation. It appears to have much 

 the same properties as amadon, and to be a useful styptic. It 

 is also given internally in dysentery and diarrhoea, and applied 

 to the mouths of children suffering from aphthse (Dymock.) 



In form this fungus resembles the hoof of a horse. Externally it is of a rich 

 orange-brown colour when fresh, and has a sweetish, styptic taste, but when 

 long kept it turns to a dull brown colour. The fungus consists of a number 

 of laminae upon the under surface of which the hymenium is situated. 



Colonel K. R. Kirtikar wrote the followiug note published at p. 73 of the 

 First Volume of the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society :— 



" The fungus described by Dr. Dymock in his Vegetable Materia Medica 

 of Western India (p. 704, 1st Edition) * is called Phanasamba in Marathi and 



*P. 898, 2nd Edition, and p. 



