CARUM ROXBURGHIANUM. 



39 



It is cultivated in native gardens all over India, the aromatic pungent-tasting seeds 

 being much used both as a medicine and a spice. Medicinally the seeds are used as a 

 remedy for indigestion, also in catarrh, and for rheumatism and colic. Waring says 

 that the seeds are considered to combine the stimulant quality of capsicum or mustard 

 with the bitter property of chiretta, and the antispasmodic virtues of assafcetida. 

 According to Dr. Gr. Watt it was first mentioned in Europe as having been brought 

 from Egypt about the year 1549. From the seeds has been obtained a crystalline 

 principle similar to menthol. 



In the Gazetteer of the Bareilly district, (p. 559,) it is said that a moth (tirha) 

 which attacks the rice plants in that district, is destroyed by the smoke of ajwain 

 kindled in mustard oil. 



In the Saharanpur bazar the price per seer is 3 annas. 



Explanation of Plate LXXIII. 



1. Portion of fruiting' umbel. I 4. 1 . , „ , , , v 



> single flowers (enlarged). 



2. i ruit (enlarged). 5. J 



3. Vertical section of fruit. I 



CARUM ROXBTJRGHIANUM, Benth 



Ajmud, ajmod (Hind.) ; ajamoda (Sans.). 

 "Natural order Umhelliferce. 



This plant is cultivated in many native gardens for the sake of its aromatic 

 fruits, which are used as a flavouring ingredient in curries, and also medicinally as a 

 carminative stimulant in dyspepsia. The leaves are made use of by some Europeans 

 in this country as a substitute for parsley, which it somewhat resembles in taste, with, 

 as Dr. Dymock remarks, the additional flavour of anise. It has not been found in 

 a wild state, and Mr. C. B. Clarke says that it is probably a cultivated form of 

 C. stictocarpum, a Concan species, which it exactly resembles except as to the fruit, 

 which is hispid. 



* References :-- n. Br. Ind., II., 682 ; Watt, Diet. Econora. Prod., II., 201 ; Atkinson, Econom. Prod., N.-W. Prov., 

 V., 28 ; Him. Disk, L, 705 ; Pharmacogr. Ind., II., 121. Apium involucratum, Roxb., Fl. Ind., (Clarke's lid.), 273. Ptychotis 

 BoxburgMana, DC. ; Royle, 111. Him. Bot., 229. 



