1370 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
obscure. Panicle 4-12 in., conical, erect, rachis stout and erecto- 
patent filiform flexuous branches glabrous or scabei ulous. Spikes 
•slender, joints and pedicels about = the sessile spikelets. Sessile 
spikelets grey, green, yellow or purplish, in., slightly curved, 
glabrous, callus obscurely bearded ; glumes I coriaceous, acute, 
2-4-nerved ; II coriaceous, 1-nerved, margins hyaline, keel muri- 
cate ; III lanceolate, acuminate, 2-nerved, margins inflexed 
ciliolate ; IV=II1 ciliate ; palea very small, obtuse, glabrous. 
Pedicelled spikelets like the sessile but glume I smooth, IV awn- 
less. (Hooker). 
Uses : — By Sanskrit writers the root is described as cooling, 
refrigerant, stomachic and useful in pyrexia, thjrst, inflammation, 
irritability of stomach, etc. It enters into the composition of 
several cooling medicines. * * A weak infusion of the root is 
sometimes used as a febrifuge drink. Externally it is used in 
a variety of ways. A paste of the root is rubbed on the skin 
to relieve oppressive heat or burning of the body. This use of 
the drug appears to have been popular with the ancients. * * 
An aromatic cooling bath is prepared by adding to a tub of 
water the following substances in fine powder, namely, root of 
Andropogon muricatus, Pavonia odorata (bal&) red sandalwood, 
and a fragrant wood called padma kashtha. The same medicines 
are reduced to a thin emulsion with water and applied to the 
skin. (U. C. Dutt.) 
An infusion of the root is given as a febrifuge and a powder 
in bilious complaints. It is regarded as stimulant, diaphoretic, 
stomachic and refrigerant. The essence (or otto) is used as a 
tonic. A paste of the pulverised roots in water is also used as 
a cooling external application in fevers. 
Antispasmodic, diaphoretic, diuretic, and emmenagogue pro- 
perties have been assigned to it ; but beyond being a gentle 
stimulant diaphoretic, it^eems to have no just claims to notice 
as a medicine. An account of the uses to which it has been 
applied in Europe is given by Pereira {Mat. Med., Vol. ii., P., i. 
p. 132'. Its uses in native practice are detailed in the Taleef 
Shereef, p. 14, No. 47. According to the analysis of Geiger, 
