Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/603

Sans.: — Nirvisha.

Vern. :— Nirbisi (H.) ; Svetagothubi, nirbishi (B.) ; Mottenga, peemottenga (Mal).; Mustu (Mar.).

Habitat -From N-W. India and Sind to Bengal, Burma and Ceylon.

Leaves as long as (rarely longer), but usually shorter than, the stem, 1/1 -1/6 in. broad, linear, acute. Spikes ovoid-oblong or subcylindric, usually 3 together (rarely solitary), the middle one the largest, 1/6-¼in. in diam.; rhachis clothed, after the fall of the spikelets, with the persistent lower glumes ; bracts beneath the head 3-4, leaf-like, up to Sin. long. Two lower glumes hyaline, the lowest lanceolate, acuminate, 1/20in. long, the second, anceolate or suborbicular, the third and fourth herbaceous membranous, green, not speckled with brown, ovate-lanceolate, obtusely apiculate, strongly nerved, the uppermost (fourth) rather the longest, 1/12-1/10in. long. Stamens 2. Nut oblong or ellipsoid-oblong, yellowish-brown, much compressed, 1/16in. long ; style with 2 filiform stigmas, together nearly as long as the nut. (Cooke).

{{c|1325. K. monocephala, Rottb. h.f.b.i., vi. 588, Roxb. 61.

Habitat : — Common throughout India.

Sparsely hairy , stems 2-12in., usually solitary, erect from a creeping rootstock. Leaves shorter than the stem, 1/10-1/6in. broad. Spikes solitary rarely, two or three, the lateral very small, medium ¼-⅓in. diam ; rhachis naked or pitted after the fall of the spikelets, the lowest glumes being for the most part deciduous ; bracts long, narrow ; spikelets 1/10in., 1-fid ; glumes : I, lanceolate, very variable in length and venation acuminate, with sometimes a capillary point. II, broadly ovate, tip rounded, veins few. Ill and IV, green, sparingly speckled with brown, cuspidately acuminate, keel dorsally winged about the middle, wings spinulose, veins 6-8 in each, upper longest, more or less