Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/360

A glabrous shrub. Leaves 1-1½in., sub-opposite, oblong, thinly coriaceous, oblong or obovate-oblong, tip rounded, base caneate ; brown when dry ; nerves numerous, very slender. Flowers few, in terminal subsessile fascicles. Perianth ½in. long, glabrous, greenish-yellow. Disk-scales usually united in pairs. Fruit ¼in. long, ovoid, scarlet.

Uses : — In his Madagascar drugs, in Ph. J., 12th Aug., 1882., Mr. E. M. Holmes writes under Hazomafanu : " The pounded bark given in doses of 1 dram, mixed with salt and ginger, as a purgative. It probably possesses similar properties to Daphne Mezereun, and would be worthy of a trial as a substitute for it in the native materia medica." There is no record of the use of this drug in any part of India.

Vern. :— Ramethâ (M.) ; Râmi (Kan.); Naha (Sing.).

Habitat : — Deccan Peninsula ; on the Ghats from the Concan southwards, ascending to 7,000 ft. on the Nilghiris.

A large shrub or small tree. Bark grey, rather smooth, inner bark fibrous. Wood white or yellowish- white, hard, much-branched. Branchlets usually purplish. Leaves 2-3 by ¾-lin., sub-sessile, lanceolate-oblong, opposite or scattered, not coriaceous ; nerves very slender and oblique. Flowers thickly clothed with white or bluff, long, silky, villous hairs, in dense globose heads, l-2in. diam., supported by silky, involucral bracts, shorter than flowers. Perianth ½-¾in. long, yellow ; tube slender ; lobes 4-5, oblong, obtuse ; scales at its mouth very variable, alternating with the lobes, oblong or cordate, or bi-fid. Fruit dry, included in the lower persistent of the perianth (hollow receptacle).

Uses: — A powerful vesicant, but very uncertain in its action. A tooth-brush, made of the young branch, is said to cause falling out of the teeth (Sakharam Arjun). The bark is used to poison fish. In the Deccan the leaves are applied to contusions, swellings, etc. (B. D. Basu.)