Leaves 6-10in., elliptic, oblong-ovate or oblong, acute or acuminate. Petiole ½-1⅓in. Flowers in dense corymbose terminal cymes. Male flowers ¼in. long, tubular campanulate, pedicelled, 5-toothed, stamens 8. Female flower much smaller ; stigma pedicellate. Fruit flower much smaller. Stigma pedicellate. Fruit ½-¾in. long, long-pedicelled, narrow club-shaped, 5-angled, angles with one row of prickles.
Use : — The fresh leaves, moistened with Eau-de-Cologne, are used to subdue inflammation of an elephantoid nature in the legs and other parts. (Sakharam Arjun.)
N. 0. AMARANTACEÆ.
1032. Celosia argentea, Linn., h.f.b.i. iv. 714. Roxb. 228.
Vern. : — Debkoti, sufaid múrgha, sarwari siráli, ghogiya (H.) ; Sirgit arak (Santal) ; Salgâra, chilchil, sil, sarpankha(Pb.) ; Swet murgaâ (B.) ; Sarwali, ucha-kukur (Sind.) ; Lâpadi (Guz.) ; Kudhu, kurdu (Bomb.) ; Kúrdú kurada (Mar.) ; Gurugu, panche chettu (Tel.). (Several of these vernacular names imply white coxcomb).
Habitat : — Central and Northern India.
A glabrous erect annual herb, l-3ft, stout slender, simple or branched. Leaves l-0in., narrow, linear or lanceolate. Spikes solitary, few or many, 1-8 by ¾-lin.; peduncles slender. Flowers ⅓-½in., white, glistening ; bracts much shorter than the acute sepals ; style filiform. The top of the spike sometimes branches out in a coxcomb form.
Uses: — The seeds are officinal, being an efficacious remedy in diarrhœa. The Revd. A. Campbell says the Santals extract a medicinal oil from them. The amount of oil extracted by ether amounts to only about 7 per cent. The author of the Muffaridat-i-Násiri states that 180 grains of the seeds with an equal quantity of sugar-candy taken daily in a cup of milk is a most powerful aphrodisiac. (Dymock )
