Habitat : — (Brandis) Sub-Himalayan tract and outer hills from the Jumna eastward, ascending up to 6,000 ft. in Sikkim. Khasi Hills, Lower Burma, Andamans. Tonkin, Cochin China, Malay Peninsula and the Archipelago.
An unarmed, climbing shrub ; branches glabrous ; leaves 3-4 by 1¾- 2 in., ovate, acuminate, slightly cordate at the base, coarsely crenate-serrated, glabrous : racemes interrupted, axillary or in terminal panicles, elongated, pubescent when young, afterward glabrous. Flowers on very short pedicels, polygamous. Disk glabrous, stellate ; accessory angles partly adnate to the calycine-lobes, free and acuminated towards the 2-horned apex. Fruit, glabrous, shortly winged.
Use : — The leaves are used by Lepchas to make poultices for sores (GAMBLE.)
N. 0. AMPELIDÆ.
296. Vitis quadrangularis, Wall., h.f.b.l, i. 645.
Syn. : — Cissus quadrangularis, Linn. Roxb. 136.
Sans. : — Asthisanhari, vajravalli.
Vern. : — Harshankar, harjora, kándawel, Mhoisvel, nallar, Khárbuti (H. and Bomb.) ; Hâd Sânkal, Hadsankal (Porebander and Guj.); Pirandal (Tam.) ; Nulle rotigeh, Nallera (Tel.) ; Tsgangelamparenda (Mal.). Hiressa (Singhalese).
Habitat : — Throughout the hotter parts of India, from the foot of the Western Himalayas in Kumaon to Ceylon and Malacca. Malay Peninsula, Java.
Stems very long, not woody, thick, sharply compressed, quadrangular but scarcely winged, the sides concave, much branched, jointed by contractions at the nodes, glabrous, green, fleshy, the younger ones square on section and with winged angles. Tendrils long, slender, simple. Leaves distant, few, 1-2 in., broadly ovate or rotundate-deltoid, truncate at base, very obtuse, distantly spinous-crenate, glabrous, thick. Petiole ¼- ½in., sub-quadrangular ; stipules small, in small umbels on branches of short paniculate cymes. Petals ovate, acute. Style short, blunt. Berry globose, apiculate, red.
Parts used :— The stalk and leaves.
