N. 0. URTICACEÆ. 1185
basal nerves 3-5. Flowers monoecious, the sexes often on distinct branches. Spikes short, under 2 inches. Perianth of male flowers : — Sepals hairy, elliptic. Sepals of females 4, the 2 inner flat or concave, the outer more or less keeled. Female spikes ovoid, pedunculate. Styles free, short. Fruiting spikes peduncled, white or red, sweet.
Use:— The sweet, deep-red juice of the white or red form of the fruit is used for sore-throat, and acts as a pleasant refrigerant in cases of fever. The fruit is employed, by hakims, as remedy for sore throat, dyspepsia and melancholia. The bark is considered purgative and anthelmintic. (Punjab Products.)
The seeds, on extraction with ether, yield 33 per cent (A) and on pressing 24 p. c, (B) of a thick golden-yellow oil with a faint odour and a pleasant taste. It is very soluble in boiling 95 p. c. alcohol, soluble in an equal volume of absolute alcohol at 39°C. or of acetic acid at 41°C ; easily soluble in all fat solvents.
1174. M. nigra, Linn., h.f.b.i, v. 492.
If specifically distinct, this plant, cultivated in Baluchistan, is allied to M. alba, Linn. The leaves are broader, firm, thick, 5-nerved, sub-sessile ; sepals and styles densely hairy, purple. Fruit acidulous-sweet.
Uses : — It is used like the other species of this genus.
1175. Ficus gibbosa, Blume., h.f.b.i., v. 496.
Syn. : — F. excelsa, Vahl., Roxb. 641.
Sans. : — Udumbar.
Vern. :— Dátir (Bomb.); Umbar (Guz. and Mar.) ; Koudajuvee ; Tellabarin ka (Tel.).
Habitat : — Bases of the hill ranges throughout India from Kumaon eastwards to Burma and southwards to Ceylon.
A small or at times large tree, erect, often epiphytic or climbing, enclosing the trunk of trees in a perfect network of branches or creeping along the walls and on the sides of wells. "Bark thin, smooth, greenish-yellow. Wood light-brown or grey, soft to moderately hard, divided into alternate, broad, hard, dark, and narrow, light, soft, more or less wavy, concentric rings.
