Commonly used in Bombay as a garden fringe-plant. The leaves have a pleasant taste, says Triman. It is questionable
if they are so ; for on chewing them I find them distinctly possessed of a disagreeable oily taste (K.R. Kirtikar).
Uses : — The Malays employ it as a febrifuge (Motley, in Hooker s Journ. of Bot., 1855, vol. vii. p. 166). According to Horsfield (Asiat. Journ., vol. vii. p. 266), emetic qualities are ascribed to it in Java. The leaves and tender shoots, which, when bruised, emit a strong but not unpleasant odour, are, according to Ainslie (Mat. Ind. vol., ii. p. 68), prescribed in decoction in chronic rheumatism. Its action is apparently that of a diaphoretic. Our knowledge of its virtues rests principally on native testimony (Ph. Ind.).
An oil prepared from the leaves when applied locally is said to be useful in eczema, and an infusion of the leaves is given internally in cephalalgia, hemiplegia, and facial paralysis (Surg.-Major Houstan, in Watt's Dictionary).
The juice of the fresh leaves is dropped into the ear for earache, and into the corresponding nostril on the side of the head affected with hemicrania (P. Kinsley, in Watt's Dictionary).
934. J '. procumbens, Linn., h.f.b.l, iv. 539. Roxb. 45,
Vern. : — Gháti-pitpáprá, pitpápada (Bomb.)
Habitat : —South Western India, extending as far north as the South Konkan.
Stems diffuse, slender, with many divaricate branches, rooting at lower nodes, furrowed, nearly glabrous, with a few long hairs below the nodes, or with spreading hair. Leaves ¾-1½in., oval or ovate-oval, obtuse at both ends, entire or slightly crenate, softly hairy-pubescent on both sides ; elliptic or lanceolate, says C. B. Clarke. Flowers very small, in rather dense cylindric terminal spikes ; ½-l½in. long. Bractlets linear, long, ciliate. Sepals linear- filiform, strongly ciliate, as long as bractlets, one shorter or absent. Lower lip of Corolla broader than long, lobes shallow, obtuse. Capsule 1/6in., with a short, solid base. Flowers pale, violet, pink, the lower lip spotted with darker pink. The flowers vary in size, being larger than the hill forms.
