Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/609

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N. 0. ROSACE.
529


is an ornamental tree. Much cultivated at Dehra Dun and Saharanpur and in other parts of Northern India.

I used to see a solitary tree grown in the Thana Jail garden, in the early eightie's, from seed sent by my friend Mr. W. F. Sinclair, I. C. S., Collector of Colaba, over 25 years ago, from Alibag, Colaba District. He subsequently was Collector of Thana in 1894, and used to highly admire the tree for its beauty and healthy and rapid growth in foreign soil. (K. R. Kirtikar.)

A middle-sized tree, bark thin, dark-grey. Wood pink, hard, close-grained. Branches very robust, as thick as the little finger. Leaves beneath and inflorescence softly densely woolly, subsessile, narrowly oblanceolate, acuminate, nerves 10-15 pair, strong beneath (Kanjilal). Hooker says the leaves are 6-8 by l½-3in., nerves 12-15 pair. Petiole very short, woolly. Flowers dull white, dense, fragrant, ½in. across, in terminal panicles which latter are 3-6in. long and broad ; branches very stout. Calyx-tube short ; lobes ovate, subacute, petals broadly ovate. Fruit ovoid intruded at top, pyriform or globose, baccate, l-l½in. or even 2in. long, yellow or orange when ripe. Seeds 2-5, dark-brown, smooth, sessile.

Flowers in August to November and December. Fruits in March and April.

Uses : — Dr. Peokolt finds that the leaves taken in infusion, in the proportion of 30 grams to 240 grams of water, in the dose of a tablespoonful every two hours, produce a good effect in diarrhoœa. The tincture of the leaves is employed in indigestion (Ph. J. Jan. 30th, 1886.)

{{smaller|The seeds contain 0.35-0.45 p. c. of fat. Specimens of the fat, prepared by pressing (1), and by extraction with ether (II), and of the fatty acids (III) separated therefrom, had the following characters : — Sp. gr. at 15°C, I, 0.967 ; m. pt. I. 49°, II. 48°C. ; refractometer reading at 45°C, I. 75.5, II. 76 ; acid value, I. 90.5, II. 89.5 ; III. 160 ; Saponification value, I, 179.9 ; III. 173 ; Hehner value, I. 92.6, II. 92.2 ; Reichert-Meissl value, I. 5.4 ; iodine value, I. 48.7, II. 48, III. 58.5. The product obtained by the oxidation of the liquid fatty acids by Hazura's method (perm anganate, in alkaline solution) yielded to ether, dihydroxy stearic acid of m. pt. 234.5° C, ; the residue melted at 154°-154.5°C, Archidic and palmitic acids were detected in the solid fatty acids. J. Ch. I., 15th February 1911, p. 140.