1364 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
is believed to neutralise’ the miasma of the air and to purify 
water when boiled like tea with a small quantity of Coix flour 
and set by to cool before being used. In India Coix can hardly 
be said to enjoy any reputation for medicinal virtues. The Rev. 
Dr. Campbell tells us that among the Santals the root is given 
in strangury and in the menstrual complaint known as silka. 
Dymock (Veg. Mat. Med.) says the seeds are sold in the drug 
shops of Bombay under the name of kassgi bij. The Pharmaco- 
graphia Indica says that the wild form only is used medicinally 
and that it is considered strengthening and diuretic. (Watt). 
The following detailed analysis gives the composition of the grain in 100 
parts, as published by Professor Church and subsequently by the Haarlem 
Museum authorities, by Mr. Hooper of the Indian Museum Keport and by 
Drs. Paton and Dunlop in The Agricultural Ledger No. 6 of 1901 page 50. 
Professor Church. 
Haarlem 
Museum, 
1901 
(cultivated 
grain). 
Indian 
Museum, 
1901-02 
(cultivated 
grain). 
Paton and 
Dunlop, 1904 
(wild plant). 
1886 
(wild plaut). 
1901 
(cultivated 
grain). 
Water 
18-2 
14-8 
18.91 
8-00 
10-74 
Albuminoids... 
18-7 
16-6* 
21-72, 
22-46 
18-81 
Starch 
58-8 
60-1 
55-29 
61-82 
59-55 
Oil 
52 
-5-8 
1-80 ' 
4-92 
6-2 
Fibre 
15 
0-9 
1 48 
•70 
1-28 
Ash 
2 1 
1-8 
1-79 
210 
8-4 
1333. Zen Mays, Linn., h.f.b.i., vri. 102. 
Vern Makka, Bhutta (H). 
Habitat : —Cultivated throughout India. 
A tall annual grass- Stems 4-10 ft. high, smooth, striate, 
solid, the central portion soft and spongy. Leaves numerous, 
close together ; sheaths large and full, somewhat compressed, 
auricled at the base, upper part hairy ; ligule short, truncate, 
torn ; blade of leaf 1-1 J ft. long, linear lanceolate, acute, smooth ; 
midrib prominent below ; margins wavy, ciliate. Flowers 
unisexual; spikelets monoecious, 2-flowered ; male spikelets 
many, arranged in pairs on the spike-like branches of a large 
terminal drooping panjcle ; glumes 2, about equal, tinged with 
* 2'66 nitrogen. 
| 8*47 nitrogen. 
