Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/388

supported by the enlarged calyx. Seeds broadly trigonous, dorsally rounded.

Use : — The twigs and leaves are said to kill cattle when browsed in the early morning on an empty stomach. (Stewart).

Sans. : — Krishna-kamboji.

Vern. : — Panjoli, mâkhi, buin-owla, kâle-madh-kâ-per (H.) ; Panjuli (B. and Pb.); Kabonan (Raj.) ; Kâmohi, fruit =pika- pirû, leaves = kâmohi jopun, bark = kâmohi jochodo (Sind); Pâvana (Bomb.) ; Datwan (Guz.) ; Pulavayar-puttay, pillanji, karappu-pillânji (Tam.) ; Nalla-puruguddu, purugudu, nella- purudûdû, phulser (Tel.).

Habitat : — Throughout tropical India, in the plains from Sind, Behar, Rohilkund, Sikkim and Assam to Travancore.

A large straggling or climbing shrub, 8-10ft. Bark brown, thin. Wood reddish or greyish-white, hard, close-grained. Shoots glabrous or finely pubescent. Branches lenticillate, numerous, stout ; woody branchlets long, drooping. Leaves l-2in., oblong or elliptic, tip rounded, acute or obtuse ;"variable," says Trimen, "lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, nearly rotundate, glabrous or slightly pubescent, somewhat paler beneath;" nerves 6-8 pairs; slender. Petiole 1/12-1/6in. ; stipules small, subulate, persistent, hard. Flowers pink, solitary or several together on slender, axillary peduncles. Calyx- segments ovate, membranous, alternating with glands of the disk. Male flowers : —Stamens 5, filaments of the 3 inner longer, connate. Female flowers: — Ovary, 5-10-celled (Brandis), 4-5-celled ( Trimen ) ; styles short, minutely lobed ; stigmas short ; ovules 2 in each cell, superposed. Fruit a purple berry, sweetish when ripe, shining, smooth, depressed, globose. 1/6-⅛in. diam., often racemose on leafless branches. Seeds 8-14, triquetrous, finely granulate, superposed in each cell, bluntly trigonous.

Uses : — The leaves are employed as a diuretic and cooling medicine in Sind. (Stocks.) The bark is considered alterative