887. Limnophila gratissima, Blume. h.f.b.i., iv 268.
Vern. —(To this as well as the next species are applied the following namesin common.): —
Kuttra (H.) ; Karpur (B.); Ambuli (Mar.) ; Manga-nâri (Mal).
Habitat. — Watery places. Cachar, Pegu, Mallacca, The Deccan Peninsula, from the Concan southwards.
Glabrous herbs growing in water or marshy places. Stems, stout, erect, simple, l-2ft., rarely branched above. Leaves 1½-2½in., opposite and 3-nately whorled, ½ amplicicaul, linear- oblong, subacute, serrulate nerves few and faint. Racemes rarely solitary, sometimes 1ft. long and paniculately branched, with flowers whorled, at others few-fid, or flower solitary and axillary. Pedicels ½-lin., glandular ; bracteoles minute. Calyx ⅓in. long, glandular, fruiting, striate, hemispheric, lobes lanceolate, acuminate, Corolla ½in. long. Capsule oblong, acute.
Use : — It is used medicinally as a cooling medicine in fever, and given to women who are nursing, when the milk is sour. (Pharmacographia Indica, Vol., III., p. 7).
888. L. gratioloides, Br. h.f.b.i., iv 271.
In the Fl. Br. Ind. are described two varieties, I. inter- media and 2 elongata.
Sanskrit :— Ambuja, " water born," and Amra-Gandhaka, having an odour of mangoes.
Vern : — The same as of the above species.
Habitat. — Throughout India, in swamps, rice-fields.
" In its most common form," says Sir J. D. Hooker, " a simple or branched, plant, 4-8 in, high, smelling of turpentine, with whorled pinnatifid leaves, ¼-¾ in. long, which in wetter places appear to acquire a few emersed opposite entire leaves at the top of the stem and numerous capillaceo-multifid ones at its base. The stems are stout and slender." Flowers axillary, solitary, pedicelled, rarely subracemose, Calyx ⅛-1/6in. long, rarely larger, hemispheric in fruit, lobes ovate acuminate, not striate, Corolla ⅛in.
