kadalamu (Tel.) ; Bále ; bále-náru (Kan); Vâla, vazhap-pagham, vellacoi, pizaug (Mal.).
Habitat :— Cultivated throughout India.
Root-stock stoloniferous. Stem subarborescent of convolute leaf-sheaths, cylindric, erect, 8-12ft. Leaves very stoutly petioled, 4-5ft., oblong, bright-green above, paler beneath; midrib channelled ; veins horizontal. Spike decurved, usually about 2ft.-3ft., very rarely as long as the leaf, glabrous; peduncle about l½in. diam., below the inflorescence green, glabrous. Bracts large, many-fid, spathi form, bright to dark crimson. Male bracts 6 by 2½in., ovate, oblong-obtuse ; deciduous ; male flowers very many in each bract, l½in. long, nearly white. Calyx tubular, slit to the base in front, 5-toothed teeth, recurved ; 3 outer larger, yellowish-white. Calyx lobes ovate, acute. Corolla a single, convex, membranous petal, opposite the slit of the calyx, embracing the base of the stamens and style. Petal about half as long as the calyx, i.e., ½-¾in. ; tip rounded ; stamens 5, (rudimentary or 0) ; Anther £in., obtuse, 2-celled. Stigma clavate, tip constricted, truncate. Fruit 4in. long, obovate-oblong, slightly curved, suddenly constricted at the apex and at the base into a stout pedicel, ¼-½in., long, obtusely 3-5 angled, golden yellow, sweet, pulpy when ripe. Seedless in cultivated form ; full of many seeds in the wild form. Seeds about 1/6in. diam., subglobose, angled by pressure tubereted ; testa brownish-black, crustaceous, rugose, 1/6in. diam.
Uses: — The unripe fruit, called mockaka in Sanskrit, is considered cooling and astringent; it is much used in diabetes in the form of a ghrita, composed of plantain flowers, rootstock," and unripe fruits, ghi, cloves, cardamoms, and several other drugs. This medicine is generally prescribed in doses of two tolas along with some preparation of tin or other metallic drug. (U. C. Dutt.) Young plantain leaves are used as a cool dressing for blisters, burns, &c, and to retain the moisture of water dressings. They may also be used as a green shade in ophthalmia and other eye diseases. The root and stem are considered tonic, anti-scorbutic, and useful in "disorders of the blood " and venereal disease, Emerson states that the sap forms a valuable
