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INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS.


pair ; stipules sheathing, large, broadly ovate, connate. Flowers fragrant, peduncled, white, turning yellow ; tube l-2in., lobes 5, obovate-oblong. Fruit ovoid, crowned with persistent Calyx- limb. Pericarp thick, woody ; endocarp thick, woody, nearly 2-celled, with prominent placentas.

Use : — The tree gives a gum resin from wounds in the bark and, from leaf-buds. This is hard, opaque yellow, greenish or brown with strong smell, and is used in cutaneous diseases and to keep off flies and worms (Gamble) .

603. G. gumnifera, Linn, h.f.b.i., iii. 116 ; Roxb. 238.

Vern. : — Dekamali, kamarri, (Hind.) ; Baruri, barui (Kol.) ; Papra, kamarri (C. P.) ; Chitamatta, chitnityal, gaggaru(Tel), ; Chitta, kambia (Kan.) ; Dikemâli (Bom.).

Habitat: — Chota Nagpore, Western Peninsula from the Satpura range southward. Central and South India ; in the Central Provinces, Dekkan, Konkan, Chittagong (Gamble).

A small tree ; " a woody bush," says J. D. Hooker. Bark greyish brown, smooth, Jin. thick. Wood yellowish- white, close-grained, hard. The buds yield a resinous, bright yellow gum, transparent and pleasant to chew, used like the gum-resin yielded by G. lucida. Gamble says he has never seen the gum procured from the bark. Leaves l½-2½in., coriaceous, cuneate or obovate, shining, sessile or sub-sessile ; base acute, obtuse or cordate ; sometimes puberulous beneath ; nerves 15-20 pair. Stipules connate, truncate or mucronate. Flowers subsessile, white. Calyxlimb shortly tubular, teeth stout, subulate ; lobes 5-6. Corolla-tube l-2in., glabrous or pubescent ; limb l-3in. diam., lobes 5, oblong, obtuse. Fruit l-l½in., ellipsoid or oblong, with a stout beak, smooth ; pericarp thin, woody, endocarp 4-5-valved (Roxburgh), thin, crustuceous, nearly 4-5- celled (Brandis) ; placentas 4-5.

Uses : — The gum obtained from this plant is used internally in dyspepsia accompanied by flatulence. In veterinary medicine, it is employed to keep off flies from sores (Dymock).