N. O. COMPOSITE. 
697 
Bom.) ; Mechitta (13.); Nakasinkani, shikani (Mar.); Afkur 
(Sind'. Bedi Acbim (Santal). 
Habitat : — Tlirougliout the plains of India. 
Annual, prostrate, glabrous or sparsely woolly herb. Stems 
excessively numerous, spreading from the root, 4-8in. long, 
slender, leafy. Leaves ovate-oblong, spathulate, jj-iin. long ; 
teeth sharp, 2 on each side. Heads solitary, globose, axillary 
jVJ-in. diam , subsessile. Corolla of female flower a very 
minute cylindric tube, hairs of achenes simple. Achenes 
minute, tipped with persistent style, bristly on the angles, says 
Trimen. 
Uses : — The minute seeds are used as a sternutatory by the 
Hindus, also the powdered herb. It is administered in ozoena, 
head-aches, and colds in the head (Dymock ). Boiled to a 
paste and applied to the cheeks, it is employed in the cure of 
tooch-ache (Stewart). 
Used for hemicrania (Surg.-Maj. Robb, in Watt’s Diction- 
ary II). 
The natives of India consider it a hot and dry medicine, 
useful in paralysis, pains in joints, and special diseases; also 
as a vermifuge (‘Cyclop of India ’). 
Called “ Sneezeweed” in southern New South Wales. 
The following letter from the Rev, Dr. Wools (then of Richmond, N. S. W.), 
to the Editor of the Sidney Morning Herald, appeared in that journal on 
Christmas Day, 1886. It is given in full, as if the plant only partially realizes 
the expectations formed of it. It will be a valuable addition to our indigenous 
vegetable materia medica. 
" Some weeks since the Rev. S G Fielding, of Wellington, called my at- 
tention to a weed (known to botanists Myrioggne minutu of the Composite; 
Order, which he said had been used with success in cases of blight. Being 
anxious to test the efiicacy of the remedy, and to ascertain whether any bad 
effects would arise from its application, I placed some of it in the hands of 
Dr. Jockel of this town, who had furnished me with the following remarks: — 
‘ I have much pleasure in testifying to the efiicacy, in cases of opthalmia, of 
the plant which you so kindly seut me. A case came under my notice a few 
days ago of a drover who was suflering from a severe form of purulent opthal- 
mia, contracted up the country. 1 made an infusion of the plant according to 
the directions, and the first local application seemed to have almost a magical 
effect. The man expressed himself as relieved at once of the intense smarting 
which he had previously suffered. Ho got on so well that in two days he was 
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