H O. AllAIUTACOifi. 
1063 
in snake-bite. (Pharm. Indica.) Used in cases of abscess ; its 
ashes are used in cases of astlnna and cough. (Ibbetson’s Gujrat). 
In Sind, it is used by the native foresters as an application to 
wounds caused by Babool thorns (Murray, p. 101). To an 
infusion of the root is ascribed a mild ast ringent virtue 
(Honigberger, Vol. II., p. 222). The flowering spike made into 
pills with a little sugar is a popular preventive medicine 
in Behai* for persons bitten by rabid dogs. (Balfour.) As an 
ash,' however, there seems no reason to think it possesses any 
virtues other than those of the simple alkali of our shops. 
“ The drug may be useful in all conditions arising from ner- 
vousness. Thus it is used as a talisman in hysteria, and 1 know 
personally of cases that were benefited by it. How it acts in 
such a way, I cannot say ; it may be possible that the good effects 
are obtained by ionisation only, if anything of such nature there 
is in the drug. But that it is undoubtedly useful in hysteria 
and such nervous disorders, there is no gainsaying. In hysteria 
what we find is that there is extreme nervous sensibility attended 
with muscular contraction, either violent or mild; it is preceded 
generally by irregular heart or palpitation” (Dr. Lai Mohan 
Ghoshal, in ‘Food and Drugs ’ for Oct. 1912 pp. 84-85.) 
1040 . Alternanthera sessilis, Br., h.f.b.i., iv. 731 . 
Syn. : — Achyranthes triandra, Roxb. 221 . 
Vern. : — Moku-mi-wanna (Singh.); Ghardughi (Rohilkhand); 
kdnchari (Bomb.). 
Habitat : — Throughout hotter India in damp places, ascend- 
ing the Himalaya to 4,000 ft. 
A prostrate or ascending, nearly glabrous, herb, branching 
from base, 0-18in. Leaves opposite, nearly sessile, narrowly 
oblong or ovate, l-3in., obtuse. Flowers minute, white, crowded 
in shining, very short head-like sessile axillary spikes. Perianth 
scarious 5-parted ; segments acute. Stamens 5, the alternate 
ones sometimes without anthers ; filaments united at base ; an- 
thers 1-celled. Ovary ovoid, notched at top ; style very short, 
stigma capitate. Fruit a dry, flattened utricle, enclosed by the 
perianth and containing a single seed. 
