72 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
about 15, closely crowded with seeds. Seeds ovoid-globular, 
ribbed with vertical lines of little tubercles, and very minutely 
transversely striate ; aril white, transparent. Seeds edible. 
The flowers are sweet-scented. They sink under water 
to mature and ripen. 
Uses : — The rootstock of this plant, says my old friend, Pandit 
Jaya Krishna Indraji, at page 16 of his Vanaspati-Varnana 
(Gujrati), is used on fast days by Hindus as a nourishing article 
of food, after boiling and mixing it with milk and sugar. The 
powdered rootstock is also given in dyspepsia, diarrhoea and 
piles. A decoction of flowers is also given in palpitation of 
heart, it is not stated in what quantity or of what strength. 
55 . N. stellatta, Willd. H. F. br. i., i. 114 . 
Sanskrit : — Nilotpal, Indiwar. 
Fern. : — (Sinhalese! Moncb; (Porebunder) Katnal.Kala Kamal, 
Kumdu; (Guj.) Nilkamal ; (Mar.) Poyani, Krishna-Kamal. 
(Hindi) Nil-padma, Lilophal, Nil-kamal. 
Habitat : — Common throughout the warmer parts of India 
and Ceylon, in shallow streams, tanks and ponds. Open all day, 
says Tri men. But some of the pale blue and drab-coloured 
varieties in Ratnagiri and Thana (Konkan) open at sunset and 
close at sunrise. They are found in tropical and Northern Africa. 
Trimen notes a violet-coloured variety from Ceylon, also 
pinkish-purple. 
Rootstock ovoid, short, erect ; leaves on long, rather slender, 
submerged petioles ; blade floating ; about 5-8 in. diarn., sagittate- 
rotund, very obtuse, with a usually narrow sinus, 2-3 in. deep 
at base, entire or coarsely sinuate, glabrous on both sides. 
Flowers solitary on long peduncles, 3-6 in. diam., sepals narrowly 
oblong-lanceolate, acute or subacute. Petals linear-lanceolate, 
acute or subobtuse. Stamens 40-50, with a tongue-shaped ap- 
pendage beyond the anthers- Stigmatic rays acute, 10-30, 
curved upwards at the ends, without appendages, in short horns. 
Fruit globular. Seeds longitudinally striate. Flowers through- 
out the year. 
Uses : — Its uses are those of N. Lotus. Roots and seeds 
edible, especially in famines. 
