conical. Follicles 4-5 by ⅓in., thinly coriaceous, slightly diverging, narrowed to the base, tip fine, straight. Seeds flattened, 1/6-¼in. long, ovate.
Use : — Water passed through a bundle of Somalatâ and a bag of salt, will extirpate white ants from a field watered by it. The ancient Hindus used to prepare an intoxicating liquor from the juice of the plant mixed with barley and ghee (Bird-wood).
This does not seem to be the soma plant of the Vedas. (B.D. B.).
779. Gymnema sylvestre, Br. h.f.b.i., iv. 29.
Syn. : — Asclepias geminata, Roxb. 256.
Sans. : — Mesha-sringi.
Vern. : — Mera-singi (H. and B.) ; Gurmar (H.) Kávali, wákándi (Bomb.); Shiru-kurunja (Tam.) ; Poda-patra, putla-podra (Tel.); Parpatrah (Dec); Chhota-dudhi-latâ (B.).
Habitat : — Banda, Dekkan Peninsula, from the Konkan to Travancore ; Ceylon, low country.
A stout, woody climber, covering high trees. Branches slender, very numerous, cylindric, softly and shortly hairy. Leaves l-2½in. or 1¼-2in., rather small, ovate, obovate or elliptic, rounded at base, rarely cordate, acute, shortly acuminate, hairy on the veins, especially beneath. Petiole ¼in., hairy, slender or stout. Cymes ½in. diam., subglobose, 2-nate, peduncled, nearly flat ; pedicels slender. Bracts obsolete, says J. D. Hooker, but says Trimen, probably after examining the plant in the fresh and not dried condition, that the bracts are numerous, minute, hairy. Calyx segments ovoid, rounded or obtuse, hairy. Corolla about 1/6in. diam., pale-yellow ; lobes about as long as the tube, acute, recurved, coronal scales in the throat of Corolla, fleshy, blunt, produced downwards as double ridges on the tube ; Column small ; stigma ovoid, prominent. Follicles small (one usually suppressed) l½-2in ; slender tapering (Trimen) ; 2-3 by ⅓in., glabrous, terete, rigid (J. D. Hooker). Seeds narrow, ½in. long, narrowly ovoid-oblong, flat, with a broad thin wing,
