680 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
habitat : — Upper Bengal, at Cawnpore, Oudb, and west- 
ward to the Punjab and Scind. 
A shrubby, hoary- pubescent plant. Branches rather slender. 
Leaves l-2in., sessile, very coriaceous, oblong oblanceolate, 
pungent, quite entire, strongly nerved ; pale when dry ; nerves 
very obliqqe on both surfaces. Heads in compound corymbs, 
longer than broad. Involucre contracted at the mouth, bracts 
short, rounded : outer bracts hoary. 
Use : — The leaves are aperient, and are used as a substitute 
for Senna (Murray). 
641 . Sphceranthus indieus, Linn. H.F.B.I., III. 
275 . 
Syn. : — S. mollis, Roxb. 608. 
Sans. : — Mundi ; Munditika. 
Vern. : — Mundi. Gorakhmundi (H. and Bomb.) ; Murmuria, 
Chagul-nudie (B.) ; Kottak-karandai (Tam.) ; Boda-tarapu (Tel.) ; 
Miran-gani, attaka manni (Mai.). 
habitat : — Tropical Himalaya, from Kumaon to Sikkim ; 
Assam, Silhet, and southwards to Ceylon ; common in rice 
fields. 
A low annual, about 1ft. high, with spreading branches, 
long, divaricate, ascending, with toothed wings, glandular to- 
mentose or villous. Stem cylindrical, strongly winged with 
the sharp-toothed decurrent bases of the leaves. Leaves l-2in., 
sessile, decurrent, oval, slightly tapering at the base, obtuse 
or subacute, sharply spinous-serrate, very glandular, and also 
with long white hair on both sides, glaucous-green ; compound 
heads f-fin., ovoid, globose, on winged peduncles, heads very 
numerous, densely packed, purple bracts, linear acuminate, 
rather shorter than flower-heads, ciliate at the end ; achenes 
stalked, smooth. 
Farts used : —The seeds, root, bark and flowers. 
Uses : — The oblong seeds and the root are considered by the 
Hindus to have anthelmintic properties. 
