368 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
Habitat : — Throughout India, from the Indus eastwards, 
and southwards to Ceylon aod Malacca. 
A gregarious evergreen shrub or small tree. Bark thin, 
grey, exfoliating, in long thin strips. Heart-wood extremely 
hard and close-grained, dark brown, with an irregular outline, 
sometimes mottled with black ; sap-wood pale. Pores very 
small, scattered or in short radial lines. Medullary rays fine, 
very numerous, the distance between them equal to the diameter 
of the pores (Gamble). Shoots terete or somewhat angular. 
Leaves more or less viscid, with shining yellowish resin, very, 
variable in breadth, 1-5 by 1 -l^in., undivided, oblanceolate, 
glabrous, subapiculate, base cuneate-alternate, subsessile, 
margin, revolute, entire or nearly so. Cymes terminal, short. 
Flowers regular, yellowish, polygamous, inconspicuous. Sepals 
oblong, 5-2 imbricate or valvate, xVs 111 - long. Petals absent. 
Stamens usually 8, as long as sepals in male flowers, shorter 
than the sepals in hermaphrodite flowers; filaments much 
shorter than the anthers. Disk inconspicuous. Ovary 3 or 4- 
celled, 2 ovules in each cell. Style cylindric, 2-lobed on top. 
Fruit a membranous capsule, with 2-4 broad wings from base to 
style, | in. long and fin. across, including the wings, separating 
septicidally into as many valves as cells, each valve winged on 
its back. Seeds opaque, dark brown or black, with a thickened 
funicle. 
Parts used : — The leaves. 
Uses : — The leaves of this shrub are viscid, and have a 
somewhat sour and bitter taste (Dymock.) 
Lindley says the leaves are used in baths and fomentations. 
It is believed that the powdered leaves applied over a 
wound will heal it without leaving a white scar. It is applied 
in burns and scalds. Said to be useful also in rheumatism 
(C. J. Peters in Watt’s Dictionary.) Said to possess febrifuge 
properties. 
In the Punjab, it is used in snake-bite. For this purpose, 
the leaves are bruised and applied to the bitten part ; juice of 
the leaves is also given internally (B. D. B.). 
