N. O. CTPERAOEiE. 
1357 
practice they are held in great esteem as a cure for disorders 
of the stomach and irritation of the bowels. The bulbous 
roots are scraped and pounded with green ginger, and in this 
form, mixed with honey, they are given in cases of dysentery in 
doses of about a scruple. (Taylor’s Med. Top. of Dacca.) In the 
Concan, the fresh tubers are applied to the breast in the form 
of lep as a galactagogue. (Dymock.) The roots are in Chutia 
Nagpur used in fever. (Campbell.) 
Arabian and Persian writers describe the drug as attenuant, 
diuretic, emmenagogue and diaphoretic. They state that it 
is prescribed in febrile and dsypeptic affections, and in large 
doses as an anthelmintic, and externally as applied to ulcers 
or used as an ingredient to warm plasters. (Dymock.) 
1329 . C. esculentus, Linn., h.f.b.i., vi. 616 . 
Vern. : — Kaseru, dila (Pb.). 
Habitat From the Punjab to Nilgiri Mounts scattered, 
but not common. 
Stem at base erect. Stolons lateral, long, very slender, with 
small pale scales, often disappearing after the tubers are 
formed ; tubers (ripe) woody ; more regularly zoned than those 
of C. rotundus. Leaves and bracts long. Spikelets yellow or 
yellow-brown. Glumes over nearly their whole breadth plicate- 
striate; (otherwise as C. rotundus). Glumes in fruit slightly 
rigid, so that they are less closely imbricated (than in C. rotun- 
dus), the spikelets more turgid. So close to G. rotundus that 
it is much mixed with it in many herbaria. (C. B. Clarke.) 
Use : — In the U. P. the root is officinal as kaseru (Stewart). 
It so closely resembles 0. rotundas that it is highly probable the reputed 
discoveries of it in India and elsewhere are iu some instances at least due to 
mistaken determinations. ]t has, however, been recorded as found in one or 
two localities in the Punjab and in the Nilgiri hills, but nowhere common. It 
thus no doubt exists in India, but until fresh Investigations have been made 
it is perhaps desirable to leave the matter in this position. Repeated efforts 
have, however, been put forth (so it has been affirmed) to introduce the culti- 
vation of this plant, but with absolute failure everywhere. The present 
species, therefore, contributes no known portion of the supply of edible 
Cyperus tubers in India. Of other countries it is reported the tubers are 
often roasted, then ground to a powder, and used in the preparation of chufas 
coffee or chufas chocolate. [Cf. Kew Mus. Guide, 1895, No. 1 , 59.] (Watt.). 
