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INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS.


antiseptic, disinfectant and deodorant properties similar to those of eucalyptus.

The bark of this and of the following species contains berberine (K. L. Day).

223. Z. acanthopodium, D. C. h.f.b.i, i. 493.

Vern : — Nipáli dhanya ; tumra ; tejphal ; darmar (H) ; Thumbul (B) ; Bogay timur (Nepal).

Habitat : — Hot valleys of the Sub-tropical Himálaya, from Kumaon to Sikkim and the Khasia Hills.

A small tree. Bark ⅛in. thick, greyish brown, shining, studded with the large conical corky bases of the prickles, which fall off as the tree grows. Wood yellowish white, soft. Pores small, often in short radial lines. Medullany rays fine. (Gamble).

Branchlets glabrous or tomentose, leaflets 2-6 pairs, lanceolate, nerves distinct, glabrous or more or less pubescent beneath, petioles and rachis narrowly winged. Cymes very short, dense, ½-1in. long, pubescent. Flowers apetalous. Wood, with a broad septate pith, adds J. D. Hooker.

Use : — See Z. alatum above.

224. Z. oxyphyllum, Edgew. h.f.b.i, i. 494.

Habitat : — Himalaya, from Garhwál to Bhutan, also Khasia Hills.

A climbing shrub, clothed with hooked prickles. " Bark greyish brown, covered with large corky lenticels, and armed with recurved thorns on a conical corky base, often ¾in. high. Wood yellowish white, soft, porous. Pores large, usually many times subdivided radially. Medullary rays moderately broad, bent where they pass the pores. Annual rings marked by a white line " (Gamble). Leaves very variable in size, 4-12 in., petiole arched, usually very prickly along the back. Leaflets, 3-10 pair, alternate or opposite ; in young specimens ovate- lanceolate, very long-acuminate, crenate-serrate, pale ; nerves very distinct beneath, in older ones more elliptic or oblong, 2-2½in. to upwards of 4in., coriaceous, shining above. Cymes much-branched, many- flowered. Flowers the largest of the