728 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
Habitat : — Sea-shores of India, from Sind to Ceylon, and 
from Burma to Malacca. 
A large shruby plant with thin loose bark ; stem and branches 
stout. Leaves 3-5in., alternate, entire or rarely obscurely cre- 
nate, silky or glabrescent, tufted in the axils, petioled, obovate- 
oblong, obtuse, herbaceous. Flowers white, tinged with purple. 
Cymes axillary, much shorter than the leaves. Bracts small. 
Calyx-lobes flin. linear-lanceolate, obtuse and enlarged in fruit. 
Corolla-tube fin., oblique split to the base behind, narrow 
pubescent; lobes f-f in., lanceolate, anthers free. Indusium of 
the stigma ciliate ; ovary 2-1 celled, with 2 erect ovules. Drupe 
f-Jin., subspherical, very succulent ; endocarp long. 
Use : — The juice of the berries is instilled by the Amboy- 
ans into the eyes to clear off opacities and take away dimness 
of vision (Rumplins). 
N. 0. -CAMPANULACEiE. 
702. Lobelia nicotiancefolia, Eeime., h.b.f.i., hi. 
427 ; Roxb. 170. 
V ern. : — Deonal, Bokenal, Dhaval (Mar.). 
Habitat: — Malabar; on the Ghauts, from Bombay to Tra- 
vancore. 
Tall herbs ; stems usually much branched upwards, 5-12ft., 
erect, somewhat pubescent or glabrate ; below an inch and a half 
or more in diameter, and almost solid ; the upper portion is a 
hollow tube ending in a crowded head of flower spikes which 
are about a foot in length. Leaves mostly radical, resemble 
those of the tobacco ; narrowly obovate-lanceolate, lower often 12 
by 2in., upper gradually smaller, subsessile, serrulate herbaceous, 
glabrous or nearly so above, pilose or glabrous beneath. Inflor- 
escence compound ; racemes dense, more or less pubescent ; 
peduncles f-lin. and upwards. Flowers large and white. 
Calyx-tube glabrous or pubescent ; teeth ^in.; linear, gland- 
denticulate. Corolla f-lfin., glabrous or pubescent. Anthers 
glabrous, on the back rarely a little hairy. Capsule f diarn., 
subglobose, two-celled, each cell containing a fleshy placeuta. 
