COMPOSITÆ.
Verbesina cinerea, Less. (= Conyza cinerea, Linn.).
A low-growing annual plant, widely spread throughout the tropics of the old world, and considered by the Hindus to possess medicinal virtues, a decoction of the entire herb being administered in febrile affections in order to promote perspiration. It is the "Seera shengalaneer" of the Tamuls, and the "Gherutti Kamma" of the Telingas.
Aucklandia Costus, Falc.
In an elaborate memoir upon this plant, Dr. Falconer has shown it to be the source of the celebrated "Costus" of the ancients, which was previously referred to the Costus Arabicus, Linn. (= Costus speciosus, Sm.), a plant belonging to the order Zingiberaceæ. It is a gregarious herbaceous plant with a perennial root sending up annual erect stems six or seven feet high, bearing large, somewhat lyrate pinnatifid leaves. Costus-root is collected in large quantities in Cashmere, but the only use made of it there is for perfuming bales of shawls, and thus protecting them from insects, the great bulk of it being exported to China and Persia, in both of which countries it is highly esteemed as a medicine, the Persian doctors regarding it as an efficacious remedy in nearly all the ills human nature is heir to. Ainslie says that the native practitioners in India prescribe an infusion of it as a stomachic and tonic, and also in the advanced stages of typhus fever. In Cashmere it is called "Koot," which agrees with the Arabic "Koost:" in Bengal it is known by the name of "Putchuk."
Emilia sonchifolia, D. C. (= Cacalia sonchifolia, Linn.).
"Shudimudi" of the Bengalese, or "Kadoo-para" of the Cinghalese. An annual, with erect or spreading, branching stems, and variously shaped leaves, the lower ones being usually lyrate, and the upper more or less amplexicaul, with blunt or sharp auricles. On the Malabar coast the native practitioners, according to Rheede, consider a decoction of this plant to possess antifebrile qualities.
EBENACEÆ.
Diospyros Embryopteris, Pers. (= Embryopteris glutinifera, Roxb.).