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19. Trichosanthes bracteata (Lam.) Voigt. Cat. Hort. Calc. 52. 1845. (Fig. 177).<br />
CUCURBITACEAE<br />
Trichosanthes pa/mat a Roxb.—Trichosanthes tricuspis Miq.—Modecca bracteata Lamk.—<br />
t'nvolucraria waUichii Ser.—Bryonia palmata Wall.<br />
Sinh. Titlahondala; Tarn. Ankoraltai, Korattai. Shavaripalam; Hindi Indrayan,<br />
Lalindrayan, Mahakal, Makal; Sans. Mahakala.<br />
Long, woody, tendril climber with angular stems and tendrils 2-or 3-fid; leaves simple,<br />
alternate, 10—12.5 cm long and about as broad, variable, more or less deeply palmately 3-or<br />
5-lobed, dark green above, paler beneath, lobes more or less dentate-serrate, glabrous, often<br />
scabrous with small scales above and on the veins beneath, base cordate; petioles 2.5—7.5 cm<br />
long, scaly-scabrous; flowers unisexual, bright pink, regular, dioecious; racemes* of male<br />
flowers 1.5—2.3 cm long, drooping, flowers large over 5 cm long, nearly sessile, distant, each<br />
in the axil of a very large broadly wedge-shaped, glabrous or pubescent, lacerate, persistent<br />
bract 2.5 cm long, often set with broad, fiat glands; sepals 5, fused into a long campanulate<br />
calyx-tube, segments leafy laciniate: petals 5, distinct, rather longer than calyx segments, 2.5 cm<br />
long, wedge-shaped with many long filiform laciniae; stamens 3, inserted on calyx-tube, filaments<br />
short, anthers connate, linear-oblong, cells conduplicate: female flowers a\illary. solitary,<br />
shortly stalked, calyx-tube nearly 5 cm long, segments acuminate, petals shorter and narrower<br />
than in the male; ovary inferior with numerous horizontal or pendulous ovules on 3 parietal,<br />
placentas, slyle long, stigmas 3: fruit large. 5- 6 2 cm long, globose with a blunt nipple, smooth<br />
brilliant scarlet-crimson, pericarp thick: seeds denselv packed. I 2 cm long, oblong, compressed,<br />
smooth, brownish-grey, each enveloped in dark green pulp.<br />
Flowers between February and June.<br />
Illustrations. Wight, III. pis. 104 and 105. 1841—50; Kirtikar and Basu, Indian Med.<br />
Plants, pt. 442B. 1933.<br />
Distribution. Occurs in India, Ceylon, Malaya and China. In Ceylon, it is rather<br />
common in the low-country dry regions.<br />
India. Pen. Ind. Orient., Herb. Wight 1134, Kew Distribution 1866—7. Ceylon. Thwaites<br />
CP. 1626. Eastern Prov., Koddiar, Herb. Peradeniya, Aug. 1885. Uva Prov., Uma Oya,<br />
Bolandawela, J. M. Silva 276. Dec. 1927; Nildandahena, J. M. Silva 245, Dec. 1927;<br />
Ekeriyankumbura, Herb, Peradeniya, Jan. 1888.<br />
Uses. The fruit is a hydragogue cathartic. The pounded fruit is applied on boils<br />
and nlcers. Boiled with coconut or gingelly oil it is applied on the scalp as a cure for hemicrania<br />
and o/uena and dropped into the ear for otorrhoea. In Bombay, the fruit is smoked as a remedy<br />
for asthma.<br />
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