N. 0. URTICACEÆ. 1197
cordate or narrowed and subcunate ; 3-5-nerved ; primary lateral nerves 3-5 pairs ; secondary nerves rather straight ; reticulations fine ; the lower surface hispid-pubescent, the upper hispid-scabrid ; length 4-9in. (in young shoots as much as 12in.) ; petioles from ½-1½in. long (in young shoots often 3-3½in.), densely hispid-pubescent ; stipules 2 to each leaf, ovate-lanceolate, pubescent externally, glabrous internally ; about ½in. long, often in shoots of four on the receptacles bearing leafless
branches. Receptacles shortly pedunculate, turbinate, ovoid, or sub-pyriform, slightly umbonate, hispid and sometimes with bracts scattered along their sides ; yellowish when ripe and from ½-lin. across ; umbilicus rather large ; basal bracts 3, borne on peduncles, 1/5-3/5in. long, in pair from the axils of the leaves, or in fascicles from shortened tuberculate branches from the old wood, or in pair or fascicles on elongate, stipular, bracteate, sometimes leafy, branches issuing from the larger branches
of the stem, and often reaching to or even penetrating the soil. Male flowers rather numerous near the apex of the receptacles containing the galls ; the perianth of 3 concave hyaline pieces ; stamen 1 ; the anther broad, filament short; gall flowers pedicillate with no obvious perianth ; the ovary smooth, globular ; style short, sub-terminal ; stigma dilated. Fertile female flowers like the galls as regards perianth ; the achene ovoid ; the stye long, lateral hairy ; the stigma cylindric tubular.
Uses : — According to Sanskrit writers the figs of this plant promote the secretion of milk. They are also supposed to preserve the fœtus in the womb. (U. C. Dutt.) The acrid milk is used medicinally in Kangra. In Bombay and the Concan, the powdered fruit heated with water to form a poultice is applied to buboes. It is also given to milch cattle to dry up their milk. (Dymock.)
According to the report of Mr. Moodeen Sheriff, the fruit, seeds and bark are possessed of valuable emetic properties. The most eligible form of administration appears to be the seeds of the ripe fruit, dried and preserved from moisture in stoppered bottles. The close is about one drachm, which in effect is equal to four or six of the ripe fruit. The emetic
