Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/322

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INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS.

to cure diabetes but is not much thought of at present. In Japan I. corunta is said to make the hair grow." (WATT.)

Throughout the Tropical and subtropical India and Ceylon. Trimen says that variety I. corunta, Linn, is considered to be the original garden Balsam. The common garden Balsam is a very variable plant.



N. 0. RUTACEÆ.

219 Ruta graveolens, Linn. Var. angustifolia, H.F.B.i., i. 485.

Syn : — R. angustifolia, Pers.

Vern: — Sudáb, pismarum ; satari ; (H) ; Sadaf (Dec) ; Arvada (Tam) ; sadapa (Tel) ; Nagadab — sappu (Kan) ; Sadap (Guz) ; satap (Bom). Ispund ; Erunel (B).

Habitat : — Cultivated in India.

" The species of the Genus Ruta are herbs or under shrubs natives of the temperate regions of the Eastern Hemisphere. The leaves are beset with small glands, containing a powerfully smelling oil : they are pinnate or much divided. The flowers are yellowish or greenish, and arranged in terminal corymbs or racemes. The Calyx has four persistent sepals ; the petals are four ; style one ; fruit capsular, 4-celled with 6-8 seeds in each cell."

The Common Rue (R. gravcolens, Linn.) a native of the South of Europe is commonly cultivated in England. It is a somewhat shrubby plant, 2-3ft. high, Avith pinnately divided bluish green leaves and yellowish corymbose flowers. The first that opens has usually ten stamens, the others have eight stamens only. These stamens are of unequal length ; each is bent inwards to touch the pistil, and after the pollen has been shed it bends back again. The powerful fetid odour and acrid taste of this plant depends on the presence of a volatile oil (M. T. Masters).

Parts used : - The leaves, herb and oil.