MORINDA TINCTORIA. 



55 



the rest during the autumn months, and the same plants continue to yield for 20 or 

 25 years. The selling price of the leaves averages a rupee for 12 seers, so that the value 

 of the crop per acre is about Es. 66. After the first year the expenses of cultivation 

 do not much exceed those of other crops. The produce of the mendhi grown in this 

 district is nearly all carried across the Jhelum and sold in the Northern districts, none 

 of it finds its way to the south. 



" The dye obtained from its leaves is chiefly used by native women, who dye their finger nails 

 " a dull orange colour with it. It is also used for dyeing the hair. Used in combination with a 

 " decoction of myrtle leaves a purplish black colour is obtained. * * * A decoction of the 

 " leaves is occasionally used in dyeing cloth ; the only colour reported to be produced from it is a 

 " shade of light reddish brown known as mdlagiri." (Buck, Dyes and Tans, North- Western Pro- 

 " vinces, p. 29). 



Dr. Dymock says that this plant is much esteemed by Mahomedans. The leaves 

 are applied to the soles of the feet in small-pox, and are supposed to prevent the eyes 

 being affected by the disease. They are also considered to promote the healthy growth 

 of the hair and nails. An infusion of the flowers is said to cure headache, and a pillow 

 stuffed with them is used as a soporific. 



MORINDA TINCTORIA, Roxb. 



FORMA EXSERTA.f 



\_Vide Plate LXXXIX]. 



Ach-root, or Dyer's Indian Mulberry ; al (the dye), achhi (the plant) 'Hind.; ; alakta (Sans.) 



Natural order Rubiacea. A small tree. Leaves opposite, oval or broadly elliptic, acute at 

 both ends, not shining. Peduncles solitary or two together, leaf— opposed or in the axil of a 

 reduced leaf. Flowers white, closely compacted. Fruit of many fleshy drupes combined into an 

 oval mass. 



Morinda exserta is described by Roxburgh as a distinct species, which he says 

 may be immediately known by its exsert stamens, half-concealed stigma, and broad 

 pointed leaves. Sir Joseph Hooker, however, in the Flora of British India, remarks — 

 " Under Koxburgh's descriptions and the above citations (given under forma exserta) are 

 " included various forms of Morinda with exserted anthers, of which some are referable to citrifolia 

 " and others to the varieties of tinctoria; and as the character of the anthers is sexual, this form 

 " must be abandoned even as a variety, as Thwaites has pointed out." 



* References :— Fl. Br. Ind., IIL, 156 ; Watt, Diet. Econom. Prod , V., 261 (under M. citrifolia, Linn.), M. exserta ; 

 Roxb., El. Ind. (Clarke's Ed.), 183; Ijrandis, For. FL, 276 ; Econom. Prod. N.-W. Prov., III., 15 (under M. citrifolia) ; 

 Wright, Mem. Agri. Cawnpore, 57 ; Pharmacogr. Ind., II., 226. 



f 1 am indebted to my friend Dr. David Prain of the Royal Botanical Garden, Calcutta, for the correct name of the plant 

 represented in Plate LXXXIX., which was drawn from a Bundelkhand specimen. 



