962 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
Piwala koranta or koreta (Mar.) ; Lal-phul-ke-kolse-ka-patta 
(Duk.) ; Vajra daul (Cutch) ; Shemmuli, varamulli (Tam.) ; Muli- 
goranta (Tel.) ; Keletta vitla (Mai.) ; Mullu-gorante, Mullu- 
madarangi, Kollate-vettila (Kan). 
Habitat : — Tropical India, from the Himalaya to Ceylon. 
There are white and blue flowered varieties growing in 
the Thana and Ratnagiri districts (K.R.Iv.) 
A small perennial bush or shrub, often planted for a fence, 
2-4 or 5ft., much branched. Bark white. Branchlets cylindrical, 
swollen above nodes, glabrous, with slender, very sharp spines 
in the axils, each with 3 divaricate branches, densely scabrid, 
lineolate sometimes puberulous. Leaves 3|-5in., entire, passing 
into bracts above, ovate, tapering below, acute, mucronate, gla- 
brous above, slightly pubescent on veins beneath, copiously 
lineolate ; venation pellucid, lateral venation promirfent beneath. 
Flowers bright, pale-orange, yellow, sessile, rather large, solitary, 
opposite, becoming spicate above. Bractlets linear, rmicronate, 
stiff, almost spinous, spreading. Sepals longer than bractlets, 
acuminate, mucronate, glabrous, outer pair ovate, inner linear- 
lanceolate. Corolla about Lin., tube cylindrical, pubescent 
outside, limb l-l^in. diam. lobes nearly equal, rounded, recurved, 
the two lateral ones broader. Stamens 4-2, minute or sterile. 
Filaments of two rudimentary stamens very short. Disk annular, 
small, entire. Pistil glabrous. Capsule about fin.-lin., ovoid, 
with a solid tapering beak, compressed. Seeds 2, -jin. diam., 
ovate, much compressed. 
Uses : — The juice of the leaf is used by the natives in Madras 
in catarrhal affections of children, accompanied with fever 
and much viscid phlegm. The ashes of the burnt plant, 
mixed with conjee and water, are used in dropsy and anasarca, 
and also in coughs ( Ainslie). In Bombay, the natives apply the 
juice of the leaves to their feet in the rainy season to prevent 
cracking. In the Conean, the dried bark is given in whooping 
cough, and 2 tolas of the juice of the fresh bark with milk in 
anasarca. Dr. Bidie observes that it acts as a diaphoretic and 
expectorant. A paste is made of the root which is applied to 
dispeise boils and glandular swellings, and a medicated oil, 
