1144 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
An annual weedy herb, 6-18in. bigb, branched from the base, 
with an erect stem, naked below, and slender leafy, angular 
branches above, glabrous. Leaves numerous, crowded, distichous, 
somewhat imbricated, spreading, nearly sessile, s-|in., oblong- 
oval, obtuse thin, pale beneath, Stipules very acute. Male 
flowers : — sepals join, long, rounded ; stamens 3. Female 
flowers: — sepals oval, subacute, with broad, white margins. 
Fruit very small, lVigin., depressed globose, faintly 3-lobed, 
quite smooth. Seeds with slender ribs. Flowers all the year, 
yellow (Trimenl. 
Uses : — The young shoots in infusion are given in dysentery. 
The leaves are stomachic. (Watt.) The juice of the stems mixed 
with oil employed in ophthalmia. Leaves and root pulverised 
and made into poultice with rice-water said to lessen ucdematous 
swellings and ulcers. (Drury.) “ The Rev. Dr. John informs 
me that he has known the fresh root prove an excellent remedy 
for the jaundice ■ About half an ounce, while fresh, was given, 
rubbed up in a cup of milk night and morning, the cure was 
completed in a few days without any sensible operation of the 
medicine.” (Roxb.f 
“ Phyllanthus Niruri, Linn., and P. urinaria, Linn., two plants 
indigenous throughout India, are held in considerable repute 
by the natives as diuretics, and as such are much employed in 
dropsical affections, also in gonorrhoea, and other genito-urinary 
affections. They have been mentioned favourably by Horsfield 
and others, but they do not appear to possess any special 
claims to notice. 
“ The decoction of the root and leaves is very bitter and is a 
favourite remedy among the natives of Porto Rico, for the cure 
of intermittent fevers. I have myself many times proved its 
efficacy in preventing the expected paroxysm. I was accustom- 
ed to employ a tincture made by myself with the'whole plant, 
the dose being two drachms in the morning. Sometimes I re- 
peated the dose, which acted upon the bowels as a slight purga- 
tive and this is very useful in inveterate intermittents with 
infarcts of the spleen and liver. The infusion of the root and 
leaves is a good tonic, and a diuretic when taken cold in repeat- 
