$26 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS.
"It is reputed to be an emetic and expectorant, being em- ployed in capillary, bronchitis of children. An Asst.-Surgeon tells me he has used it with good results in diabetes" (Surgeon French Mullen, in Watt's Dictionary).
883. Linaria ramosissima, Wall, h.f.b.i,, iv. 251.
Habitat : — Throughout India, on rocks and stony places, from the Punjab and Scinde to Chittagong and Ceylon.
Perennial herbs, nearly glabrous. Branches 1-2 ft. long, pro- strate, slender, filiform, numerous, spreading from the rootstock. Leaves alternate, membranous i-2im, petioled, ovate-cordate, sagittate. Pedicels capillary, longer than the petioles, l-ljin. Flowers yellow. Sepals narrowly lanceolate. Corolla Jin. long, spur shorter than the Corolla-tube, hairy ; upper lip shorter. Capsule with sub-equal lobes. Seeds minute, ovoid, scabrons.
Use : —Highly valued as a remedy for diabetes (Murray).
884. Schweinfurthia sphoerocarpa, A. Braun. h.f.b.i., iv. 252.
Vern. : — Sonpat (Sind) ; Sanipat (H.).
Habitat : — Sindh, in rocky places.
A perennial, robust, glabrous or hairy herb. Branches 6-12in. Leaves nearly always alternate, l-ljin. ; orbicular ovate or spathulate, fleshy, glaucous, obtuse or subacute, narrowed into a short petiole. Flowers small axillary. Pedicels very short. Sepals ovate-lanceolate, acute, Jin. long equalling the Corolla- tubes, enlarged in the fruit. Corolla dirty white. Filaments hairy at the base. Capsule J-iin. diam. Seeds pale (J. D. H.).
Uses : — The drug which consists of the fruit and the powder- ed leaves, together with portions of the stem, has a slightly bitter, somewhat tea-like taste, and is prescribed by Native practitioners to patients suffering from typhoid symptoms. The powder is snuffed up for bleeding at the nose (Dr. Stocks).
In Hindu medical literature and in popular use, San-nipata is a term which signifies a combined derangement of the three humors, Vata, Pitta, and Kafa (air, bile, and phlegm), which is supposed to produce Sannipata-jvara, or fever with typhoid
