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Habitat : — From Sikkim and Assam to Tenasserim frequent, Mts. of S. Deccan Peninsula ; Kumaon, wild.

A glabrous shrub 4-8ft., branches virgate. Stems herbaceous, fluted, hollow. Leaves in whorls of 3-5, 6-9 by 1-l½in., narrow lanceolate, subentire glabrous, rather hard, base tapering. Petiole 0-1/6in. Flowers white, fading into yellow, in rigid terminal panicles, 9-18in. long. Pedicels ½-1½in. Calyx ½in. long, divided ¾ way down dark red and enlarged in fruit. Segments oblong, acute. Corolla-tube 3-4 by 1/10in., drooping ; lobes ½-⅔in., oblong-ovate. Corolla glabrous, white. Drupe ovoid, dark-blue, about ½in. long, supported by the spreading red Calyx.

Uses : — " The root considered useful in asthma, cough and scrofulous affections " (Dutt). The wood is slightly bitter and astringent and the resin employed in syphilitic rheumatism (Baden-Powell). The expressed juice of the leaves and tender branches is used with ghî, as an application in herpetic eruptions and pemphigus. The branches cut into small pieces and threaded like heads, are put on the necks of children suffering from these diseases as a charm, and it is believed by the natives that the smell of this plant is sufficient to cure these diseases (Dr. Thornton, in Watt's Dictionary).

Syn. : — A. tomentosa, Facy. Roxb. 487.

Vern. : — Bina (B. and H.) ; Timmer, cheria (Sind) ; Tivar (M.) ; Nalla-mada, Mada-chettu (Tel.) ; Upputti (Mal.)

Habitat : — Common in the mangrove swamps of the Deccan Peninsula. Also in the swamps near Bombay and Kurla, (K.R.K.)

A large evergreen shrub or tree attaining 20ft., and a great girth, found in salt marshes, coast and tidal forests of India, Ceylon, Burma, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Sundarbans, often gregarious. " This tree, like other mangroves," says Gamble, " has the property of sending out very numerous