BASELLA RUBRA — BETA BENGALENSIS. 19 



BASELLA RUBRA, Willd. 



Indian spinach ; poi, pui, koi, lal bachlu (Hind.) ; ban poi (Beng.) 



Natural order Chenopodiacece. A twining perennial fleshy herb, with broad entire alternate 

 leaves. Flowers white or red, arranged in spikes. It is propagated by seeds or by cuttings, and 

 requires some kind of support on which to climb. 



Koxburgh mentions five varieties, two of them found wild and three cultivated ; 

 of the latter, one is red, another pale green, and the third is a much more luxuriant 

 kind, which is propagated by cuttings. 



This plant appears to be used a good deal in these Provinces as a pot-herb, hut 

 not so extensively as in Bengal. At Saharanpur it is mixed with cltana flour and made 

 into patour, i.e., the above named mixture rolled up in the leaves of gliuiyan (Colo- 

 casia antiquorum). It is also cooked separately and with meat, or fried with onions, 

 garlic, and chillies. 



It is stated that by eating the punisak (Basella alba?) on the 12th (day of the 

 lunar fortnight) a man incurs the guilt of killing a Brahman. — N. Indian Notes and 

 Queries, No. 38. 



The plant is used as a cattle fodder in Bengal. 



The boiled leaves are used as a poultice, and the juice of the leaves is said to be 

 demulcent and cooling. 



BETA BENGALENSIS, Roxbt 



[ Vide Plate LXX.] 



Country spinach, or Indian beet; palak (Hind.) ; palung (Beng.) ; selg, silq (Arab.) ; 

 palunki (? Sans.) 



Natural order Chenopodiacece. An annual or perennial succulent herb with erect stems and 

 alternate ovate or oblong nearly entire leaves. Flowers in slender panicled spikes, sessile, usually 

 in pairs. 



* References :— Fl. Br. Ind., V., 20 ; Watt, Diet. Econom. Prod., I., 404 ; Atkinson, Econora. Prod., N.-W. Prov., V., 

 42 ; Him. Dist, I., 708. B. alba, Linn. ; Roxb., Fl. Ind. (Clarke's Ed.), 275 ; ttiarmacogr. Ind., III., 148. 



t Roxb., El. Ind. (Clarke's Ed.), 260. B. vulgaris, Linn. ; Fl. Br. Ind , V., 5 ; Boiss., Fl. Or., IV., 898 ; Stewart, Pnnj. 

 PL, 177 ; Atkinson, Econora. Prod., N.-W. Prov., V., 21 ; Kim. Dist., I., 703. DC, Orig. Cult. PI., 58. B. maritima, Linn. ; 

 Watt, Diet. Econom. Prod., I., 448. 



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