154 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
visible iu the bud, Wight). Fruit 1 by ^in. ellipsoid. Anderson 
says that he never found petals in any of the buds he opened. 
Medicinal use : — Bouton, in his Medical Plants of Mauritius, 
says that the resin obtained from this plant acts as a “ vulnerary 
resolutive and anodyne.” The oil obtained from the seeds is 
used as medicine in leprosy and cutaneous affections, and 
in infusion, mixed with honey, in scabies and rheumatism 
(Watt ii. 33.) 
134. Mesua ferrea, Linn, h.f.b.i., i. 277 
Roxb. 437. 
Syn. M. speciosa, Chois ; M. coromandeliana, Wight. 
Sans. : — Nagakesara. 
Vern. N&gkesar ; naghas (H. and B.) ; Nageshvoro, 
nageswar (Uriya) ; Nahor (Assam.) ; Nagchampa ; thorlachampa 
(Bom.; Ndgchampa, thotla chumpa (Bombay); Nagachampa; 
nagckampha (Mar.); Naugal ; Mallay naugal ; nagap-pu ; Nagas- 
hap-pu (Tam.) ; Naug (Tinnevelley) ; Naga Kesara ; naga 
kesaramu ; gejapushpam 'Tel.); Naga sampigi ; Nassampige 
(Kan.'; Behetta-cham-pagam ; velutta-chenpakam (Mai.). 
Habitat : — Mountains of Eastern Bengal, the Eastern 
Himalaya and the Eastern and Western Peninsulas. 
A large evergreen glabrous tree ; trunk erect, straight ; 
twigs slender sub-4-angled. “ Bark £in. thick, reddi§h-brown, 
peeling off in flat thin cakes, having a slightly roughened 
surface. Wood somewhat resembling that of Calophyllum, but 
much harder and heavier. Heart- wood red, dark, extremely 
hard. Pores moderate-sized, scanty, often filled with yellow 
resin, singly or grouped, or in oblique strings of varying length. 
Medullary rays extremely fine, uniform, equidistant, very 
numerous. Numerous fine wavy lines of dark-coloured tissue, 
regular and prominent, but of very different lengths (Gamble). 
The young shoots at first brilliant rbd, then pink, gradually 
passing into dark green (Brandis). Leaves coriaceous, 2-6 by 
1^ to lfin., drooping linear-lanceolate, base acute or rounded, 
dark green and shining above, covered more or less with a fine 
waxy meal beneath ; veins very fine, close-set and equally 
