437. Neptunia oleracea, Lour., h.f.b.l, ii. 285, Roxb. 420.
Vern : — Pâni-najak ; pani-lâjak (B.); Laj-alu (Patna) ; Panilajak (Bomb.) ; Sunday-kiray (Tam.) ; Niru-tal-vapu, nidrayung (Tel.) ; Nitti-todda-vaddi (Malay.).
Habitat : — In tanks, throughout the greater part of India.
An annual herb, without prickles, stout, wide-creeping, rarely throwing out suberect branches ; producing copious fibrous rootlets from the same nodes that bear the leaves and penduncles. Stems almost entirely prostrate. Leaves bipinnate, with persistent stipules and numerous small strap-shaped, sensitve, membranous leaflets. Pinnae 4-6, 2-3in. long. Rachis glandless ; leaflets glabrous, obtuse, 16-30, ⅓-½in. long. Peduncles ascending, ¼-1ft. ; bracts small ovate, sub-obtuse. Sterile flowers numerous. Staminodes ¼-⅓in,, strap-shaped, yellow. Corolla 1/24in. Pod oblique, oblong, ½-1in. long, rostrate, dry, soon dehiscing by the upper suture, 6-10-seeded.
Use : — Used as refrigerant and astringent (Irvine.)
438. Entada scandens, Bth., h.f.b.l, ii. 287.
Syn. : — Mimosa scandens, Linn., Roxb. 420.
Vern. :— Gila-gach (B.); Gârbi, kârdal, khairi (B.); Gârambi, gardul (Bomb.) ; Geredi (Uriya) ; Pangra (Nepal) ; Taktokhejem (Lepcha) ; Parinkaka-vully (Mal.).
The seeds ; Pitpâpra (Bomb.).
Habitat:— Central and Eastern Himalayas, Nepal, Sikkim, and Western Peninsula.
A very large, woody climber, stems angled and much twisted spirally. Dark-brown, rough. Wood dark brown when dry, in alternate layers of woody and bark tissue. Brandis describes the wood structure more accurately thus :— " The wood to a great extent consists of thin walled parenchyma, in which are embedded longitudinal strands of vessels, sieve-tubes, and wood fibres." Leaves tripinnate, common petioles ending in long, woody, bifid tendrils ; pinnæ stalked opposite, two
