550 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
branches yellow. Leafless during most of the hot season. 
Leaves broadly elliptic, pubescent when young, glabrous when 
full grown, blade 1 J-3|, petiole l~fin. long, secondary nerves 
8-14 pairs, tertiary nerves prominent beneath. Flower-heads 
j-iin. in diam., in on short peduncles, often in axillary racemes. 
Ripe fruit almost glabrous, nearly orbicular ; sometimes | 
(excluding the beak) by jin., including the wings, usually 
smaller, more or less rusty pubescent when young. 
Use -. — This tree yields a valuable gum, which is worthy of 
attention (Dymock). 
499. Quisqualis indica, Linn., h. f.b.i., n. 459, 
Roxb. 379. 
V ’em. : — Rangun-ki-bel (H.),; Vilayati-chambeli (Bomb.); 
Irangun-malli (Tam.) ; Rangunu-malle-chettu (Tel.). 
Habitat -. — Cultivated throughout India, wild probably in the 
Transgangetic Peninsula. 
A large, climbing, woody shrub. Bark thin, grey, peeling 
ofl in small flakes. Wood, soft, porous. Young shoots pubescent 
or villous. Leaves elliptic or ovate-oblong, acuminate, those on 
leafy rambling shoots alternate, those on flowering branches 
opposite, petioles articulate, the portion below the articulation 
persistent, being hard and woody, hooking the branches on to 
the supports. Flowers showy, first white, then red or orange, 
then varnish coloured, in different stages on one and the same 
flower stalk- Bracts leafy, ovate-lanceolate, free part of Calyx 
filiform, 2-3in. long, hairy within and on the outside. Fruit 
seldom, never, I should -say, met with in the Konkan, lin. long, 
glossy, with 5 deep furrows between the angles. I collected a 
half-ripe fruit, nearly half an inch long, in the beautiful Govern- 
ment Gardens of Sydney in 1889, March. It is still in my 
private Herbarium (K. R. K.). 
Use : — In the Moluccas, the seeds are supposed to be anthel- 
mintic. Four or five of the seeds are given with honey, as an 
electuary for the expulsion of entozoa in children (Ph. Ind.). 
In Amboyna, the leaves are given in a compound decoction 
for flatulent distension of the abdomen. In China, the ripe 
seeds are roasted, and given in diarrhoea and fever (Rumphius). 
