N. 0. APOOYNAOEjE. 
797 
Ail evergreen, glabrous shrub, 6-8ft. , even 10-1 5ft. Bark Sil- 
very grey. Wood white, moderately close-grained. Branches 
many, slender, dichotomous. Leaves membranous in each 
pair unequal, the larger 5-6 by l-l|in., glossy, green, when 
dry pale beneath ; elliptic-obloug, obovate or oblanceolate 
obtusely acuminate or cordate, margins waved, nerves 6-8 
pair, narrowed into a petiole i-|in., axils of petioles glandu- 
lar. Peduncles solitary or in pair, l-2in., pedicels slender. 
Flowers pure white, fragrant, at night, often double, buds 
clavate. Calyx small. Calyx-lobes broadly ovate, acute. 
Corolla-tube ^--l in., glabrous, dilated slightly below the 
middle, limb 1-lJin. diam ; lobes obliquely ovate, obtuse, 
margins curled ; mouth, with 5 glands. Anthers inserted below 
the middle of the tube. Ovary glabrous. Follicles l-3in., 
spreading and recurved, sessile or contracted into a sort of 
stalk at the base, turgidly oblong, beaked or not, 3-ribbed. 
Seeds 3-6, oblong, striated ; axil red, fleshy. The red axil may 
give a dye, says Gamble. I have not seen the double variety 
bear any fruit in Bombay or the Konkan (K.R.K.). 
Use-.— The wood is employed medicinally as a refrigerant. 
(Irvine). 
The milky juice mixed with oil is rubbed into the head to 
cure pain in the eyes; the root chewed relieves toothache; 
rubbed with water, it kills intestinal worms; with lime juice it 
removes opacities of the cornea. (Rheede). It is very cooling 
in ophthalmia. (Ainslie). In Western India the milk has the 
reputation of being very cooling, and is applied to wounds to 
prevent inflammation. (I)ymock.) 
The fresh roots were extracted with 80 per cent alcohol. Prom the 
alcoholic extract, in addition to resins and extractives, a large amount of an 
alkaloida principle was isolated, soluble in ether, and giving marked preci- 
pitates with alkalies, choromate of potash, and alkaloidal reagents, but 
no special colour reactions were noted. The taste was bitter, and the 
principle as deposited by spontaneous evaporation of an ethereal solution, 
was in the form of a yellowish brittle varnish. (Pharmacographia lndica, 
Vol. IT, p. 414). 
759 . Vallaris Heynei, Spreng. h.f.b.i., hi. 650 . 
Syn : — Echites dichotoma, Roxb. 247. 
