N. 0. MAfiNOUACEAJ. 
41 
Habitat : — Commonly cultivated, but wild in the forests of 
the Temperate Himalaya, from Nepal Eastward. 
A small evergreen tree- Bark grey, smooth, f in. thick. 
Wood soft even-grained ; sapwood white, heartwood light olive- 
brown. Young shoots silky ; branchlets pubescent. Stipules 
convolute. Leaves 8-10 by 2£-4 in. shining above, pale and 
glabrous or puberlous beneath. Petioles slender, f-lj in. 
Flowers 2 in. diam., pale yellow or orange, fragrant ; some 
consider the flower’s strongly scented. Peduncles short. Buds 
silky. Perianth-leaves 15, deciduous, imbricate, in whorls of 3 ; 
the outer objong, acute ; the inner linear. Fruiting spike 
compact, 3-0 in. long. Carpels sub-sessile, ovoid, blunt, lenticil- 
late, coriaceous, dorsally dehiscing. Stamens numerous, many- 
seriate ; filaments flat ; anthers linear, adnate, introrse, bursting 
longitudinally. Gynophore stalked ; styles short. Capsules 
fin; bark brown. Seeds 1-2, brown when old, bright scarlet 
or rosy when just mature, polished, variously angled, rounded 
on the back, pendulous by a white thread-like funicle, after 
dehiscence of the capslue, embryo minute in an abundant oily 
albumen. 
Parts used : — The flowers, fruit, leaves, roots, root bark, 
oil, bark. 
Uses : —According to Sanskrit writers, the flowers are bitter 
and are useful in leprosy, boils and itch. 
The flowers and fruits are considered bitter and cool remedies, 
and are used in dyspepsia, nausea and fever. The leaves, 
anointed with Ghi, and sprinkled over with powder of Cumin 
seeds, are said in the Baroda Darbar Catalogue Col. and Ind. 
Exhib., to be put round the head in cases of puerperal mania, 
delirium, and maniacal excitement. 
Tavlou slates {Topography of Dacca) that the flowers mixed 
with Sesamum oil form an external application, which is often 
prescribed in vertigo. The flowers beaten up with oil arc also 
applied to foetid discharges from the nostrils. According to 
Rumpuius, the flowers arc useful as a diuretic in renal diseases 
and iii gonorrhoea. Rheede states that the dried root and 
root-bark, mixed with curdled milk, are useful as an application 
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