974 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
Uses : — Used as a substitute for true Pit-pdpra (Fumaria), 
which it resembles in having a faintly bitter, disagreeable 
taste (Dymock). The juice of the leaves is squeezed into the 
eye in cases of ophthalmia (Ainslie). 
935. Adhatoda Vasica, Nees, h.f.b.i., iv. 540. 
Syn. : — Justicia Adhatoda, Linn., Roxb. 43. 
Habitat: — From the Punjab and Assam to Ceylon and 
Singapore. 
Sans. : — Arusak (not angry), Vasa (giving perfume), Vrisha 
(chief), Sinha-mukhi (lion-mouthed), Sinha-parui (lion-leaved), 
Sinhakatpat (lion-eradicator), Ruksha (dry.) 
Fern. : — Arusha, adulasa, adulaso (Hind, and Bom.); Bakas, 
vasaka (Beng.) ; Bhekkar, basuti, tora bujja, bashang arus, 
(Himalayan names) ; Bansa (Pers.) ; Adhadode (Tam.) ; Adasara 
(Tel.); Atalotakam (Mad.) 
An evergreen, dense shrub, 4-8ft., sometimes arborescent, 
even 20ft., with a fetid smell, says Kanjilal. The Bombay 
plant lias no fetid smell. Leaves 4-Sin., entire, minutely pubes- 
cent especially when young, lateral nerves 8-12 pair. Petiole 
1-lfin. Inflorescence a dense, short, pedunculate, bracteate 
spike, 2-4in. long, terminal often several together. Bracts f by 
fin., ovate or elliptic sessile ; bracteoles f by fin., falcate, oblong. 
Calyx J-£in. deeply 5-lobed, lobes equal, lanceolate. Corolla-tube 
f-{- by f-fin. broad, white, lower portion short and funnel-shaped ; 
lower lip with two lines of oblique purple bars. Stamens 2 ; 
filaments dilated ; anther-cells acute at the apex, scarcely 
spurred at base. Capsule fin. clavate, longitudinally channelled, 
pubescent, 4-seeded. Seeds Jin. diam., glabrous, tubercled. 
Wood white, moderately hard. Every part of the plant is exceed- 
ingly bitter. 
Uses: --The leaves and the root of this plant are considered 
a very efficacious remedy for all sorts of coughs, being adminis- 
tered along with ginger. “The medicine was considered so 
serviceable in phthisis that it was said no man suffering from 
this disease need despair as long as the vasaka plant exists’’ 
