An evergreen, glabrous shrub, 6-8ft., even 10-15 ft. Bark silvery grey. Wood white, moderately close-grained. Branches many, slender, dichotomous. Leaves membranous in each pair unequal, the larger 5-6 by 1-1½in., glossy, green, when dry pale beneath ; elliptic-oblong, obovate or oblanceolate obtusely acuminate or cordate, margins waved, nerves 6-8 pair, narrowed into a petiole ¼-½in., axils of petioles glandular. Peduncles solitary or in pair, l-2in., pedicels slender. Flowers pure white, fragrant, at night, often double, buds clavate. Calyx small. Calyx-lobes broadly ovate, acute. Corolla-tube ½-lin., glabrous, dilated slightly below the middle, limb 1-1½in. diam ; lobes obliquely ovate, obtuse, margins curled ; mouth, with 5 glands. Anthers inserted below the middle of the tube. Ovary glabrous. Follicles l-3in., spreading and recurved, sessile or contracted into a sort of stalk at the base, turgidly oblong, beaked or not, 3-ribbed. Seeds 3-6, oblong, striated ; axil red, fleshy. The red axil may
give a dye, says Gamble. I have not seen the double variety bear any fruit in Bombay or the Konkan (K.R.K.).
Use : —The wood is employed medicinally as a refrigerant. (Irvine).
The milky juice mixed with oil is rubbed into the head to cure pain in the eyes; the root chewed relieves toothache ; rubbed with water, it kills intestinal worms ; with lime juice it removes opacities of the cornea. (Rheede). It is very cooling in ophthalmia. (Ainslie). In Western India the milk has the reputation of being very cooling, and is applied to wounds to prevent inflammation. (Dymock.)
The fresh roots were extracted with 80 per cent alcohol. From the alcoholic extract, in addition to resins and extractives, a large amount of an alkaloida principle was isolated, soluble in ether, and giving marked precipitates with alkalies, choromate of potasb, and alkaloidal reagents, but no special colour reactions were noted. The taste was bitter, and the principle as deposited by spontaneous evaporation of an ethereal solution, was in the form of a yellowish brittle varnish. (Pharmacographia Indica, Vol. II, p. 414).
759. Vallaris Heynei, Spreng. h.f.b.i., ill.} 650.
Syn : — Echites dichotoma, Roxb. 247.
