Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/394

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
314
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS.


Vern. : — Priyangu (B, H, Mar. and Sans.)

Habitat : — Western Peninsula, from the Concan and Midnapore southwards.

A large evergreen tree (near the coast in Kanara, a shrub). Bark light brown, smooth, peeling of! in flat rectangular scales. Wood bright red, hard, very tough, close-grained, handsomely marked. Annual rings distinguished by a darker belt. Pores small, scanty, in narrow rings of whitish tissue which run concentrically and appear on a cross-section as narrow wavy lines. Medullary rays fine, numerous, evenly distributed ; the distance between them equal to or less than the diameter of the pores. Youngest shoots and inflorescences clothed with round peltate scales. Leaves 3-7in. Leaflets 1½-4½ by ⅔-3in., glabrous opposite, pale beneath ; naked part of common petiole as long as the upper portion ; petiolules 1/10 to ½in. Flowers 1/12in. diam. ; in. diam, says Brandis. Panicles rather supra-axillary, pyramidal ; elongate, pedicels short. Calyx dull yellow, often covered with stellate hairs. Petals yellow. Fruit fin. diam. : buff- coloured, very minutely pilose. Seed ovoid, surrounded with a white thick, slighty acid edible pulp, embryo green, radicle minutely pilose.

Use : — Said by the Sanscrit writers to be cooling, and useful in burning of the body and painful micturition. The fruit is described as sweet, astringent and tonic. (U. K. Dutt.)


267. Amoora rohituka, W. and A. H. f. b. i., i. 559.

Syn. : — Andersonia Rohituka, Roxb. 314.

Sans. : — Rohitaka,

Vern. :— Harin hara, harin khana (H.) ; Tikta-raj, pitraj (B.); Bandri phal (Nepal); Sohaga (Oudh) ; Sikru (Kol) ; Tanga ruk (Lepcha) ; Lota amari, amora amari (Assam) ; Shem-maram (Tam, and Mal.) ; Chaw-a-manu, rohitakah (Tel.)

Habitat:- Assam, Sylhet, Cachar, Oudh, Western Peninula, from Concan to Travancore.