stated to be milder in its operation than the pulp of the fruit, and to cause less irritation (Ph. Ind., p. 96).
542. C. Melo, Linn, h.f.b.l, ii. 620 ; Roxb. 700.
Vern. : — Kharbûzâ (H.) ; Kharmuj (B.); Vellari-Verai (Tam.); Mulam-pandu (Tel.) ; Dungra (C. P.) ; Chibunda (Mar.) ; Gidhro (Sind.) ; Zaghun (Ladak) ; Sardâ or Sirdâ paliz (Pushtu) ; Re-mo (Naga.).
Habitat: — Cultivated throughout India.
Annual herb. Stems prostrate, scabrous. Leaves rounded, angled ; male flowers, with the Calyx- tube slightly ventricose at the base and dilated at the apex : stamens included, anthers shorter than the connective. Bisexual flowers with the anthers as the male ; stigmas 3-4, shortly 2-lobed. Fruit ovate or somewhat globose, 8-12-furrowed, fleshy, indehiscent or irregularly bursting. Seeds ovate, compressed, not margined, acute at hilum.
Uses :- — The seeds are supposed to be a cooling medicine. They are edible, nutritive and diuretic, and used in painful discharge and suppression of urine.
The fruit is considered cool and astringent, and is given in cases of dyspepsia. The oil from the seeds is said to be very nourishing.
Not only the seeds, but the pulp of the fruit, is a powerful diuretic, very beneficial in chronic, and also in acute, eczema. I can, from personal experience, recommend those subject to chronic eczema to eat a whole fruit daily when procurable (Surgeon-Major Shircore, in Watt's Dictionary).
The root of the melon is said by Dr. Heberger to possess emetic and purgative properties, and Dr. Torosicviez has obtained from the roots a crude emetic principle by treating the aqueous extract with alcohol. • * From experiments made with this substance in the military hospital of Lemberg, it would seem that a solution of 9 centigrams of it, is sufficient to cause vomiting. The powered root of the wild plant acts, according to Dr. Langewicz, as an emetic, in doses of 50 to 75 centigrams (Ph. J, 26th Feb., 1887, p. 687).
