N. O. MENISPERMACEÆ.
38. Tinospora tomentosa, Miers. H.F.B.I., I. 96.
Vern.:—Padma-guluncha (B).
Habitat:—Tropical thickets in Bengal; always rare.
A climbing shrub. Bark pustular. Shoots tomentose. Leaves orbicular-cordate, more or less 3-lobed, pubescent above, tomentose beneath, 3-6 in. diam. Petioles as long. Racemes usually simple, solitary or fascicled. Flowers fascicled in the axils or deciduous bracts. Sepals 6. 2-seriate, inner longer, membranous. Petals 6, smaller. Male-flowers: Stamens 6, filaments free, tips thickened. Anther cells obliquely adnate, bursting obliquely. Female-flowers: Staminodes 6, clavate; Ovaries 3. Stigmas forked. Drupes 1.3, dorsally convex, ventrally flat; fusiform, orange-yellow. Endocarp tubercled, dorsally keeled, ventrally concave. Seed grooved ventrally or curved round the intruded sub-2-lobed endocorp. Albumen ventrally ruminate. Cotyledons foliaceous, ovate, spreading.
Use:—It possesses the tonic properties of the common Gulunchâ, T. cordifolia (Prain's Flora of the Sunderbans, Page 286).
39. T. crispa, Miers. H. F.B.I., 96.
Syn:—Menispermum verrucosum. Hm. Rox. Fl. Ind.
Vern.:—Titha-Kinda (Sinhalese).
Habitat:—From Sylhet and Assam to the Eastern Peninsula. Ceylon.
Stem widely climbing and twining, strongly warted. Leaves 4-5 in., broadly orbicular-cordate, suddenly acuminate, 7-veined, glabrous on both sides, thin. Petioles 3.4 in., thickened and twisted at base, smooth. Flowers 16 in. long, green, campanulate, 1-3 together, on very slender pedicels, in the axils of fleshy, small persistent bracts, rather distantly arranged in slender pendent spicate racemes or panicles 4-6 in. long from axils of old leaves. Male-flowers:—stamens adnate to base of petals. Female-flowers:—Anthers, square, stamens adnate
