This is the celebrated Creyat, the principal ingredient in the famous bitter tincture called drogue amère, so highly esteemed in India for its tonic and stomachic properties, and also as a febrifuge. The entire plant is employed, the intensely bitter principle being found in all parts of it. It is an annual, with stiff quadrangular stems from one to two feet high, bearing smooth lanceolate leaves, attenuated at the base. In the Telinga language it is called "Nella vemoo;" in Bengalese, "Kala-megh;" in Hindustanee, "Calapnath;" and in Tamul, "Kiriat," hence the common Indian name of the plant, Creat or Creyat.
Justicia Adhatoda, Linn. (= Adhatoda Vasica, Nees ab Essen.)
The flowers, leaves, and roots have a bitterish and somewhat aromatic taste, and are supposed to possess antispasmodic properties. An infusion of them, especially of the flowers, is given to prevent the return of rigour in intermittent fever. In Ceylon it is used as an expectorant for children. The Bengalese call the plant "Bakus;" the Tamuls, "Adhatodey;" the Cinghalese, "Paawetta;" the Telingas, "Adasara;" and in Sanscrit it is called "Vasica" or "Uroos." It forms a tree fifteen or twenty feet high, with elliptic oblong leaves, attenuated to both ends, and pale-coloured flowers with purple stripes and rusty spots.
LABIATÆ.
Ocimum sanctum, Linn.
The Tamul physicians prescribe a decoction of the root of this common Indian species of Basil in fever cases, and the juice of the leaves in catarrhal affections. The Brahmins consider the plant sacred to Vishnu, and cultivate it in the vicinity of temples, while the Malays strew it upon the graves of their departed friends. The whole plant generally has a purplish tinge, and grows about a foot high: it has long-stalked, downy, oval leaves, toothed along the edges, and small pale-purple flowers. Its Tamul name is "Toolasee;" its Bengalese, "Kala-toolsee;" and its Cinghalese "Madooroo-tallu."
Anisomeles Malabarica, R. Br. (= Nepeta Malabarica, Linn.).
"Pemayrutie" of the Tamuls; "Moga beerakoo" of the Telingas; and "Bootan Kooshum" in Sanscrit. A shrub, 2 to 5 feet high, clothed with short tomentum, and having oblong-lanceolate leaves, narrowed at the base, and purplish flowers disposed in distant whorls. The leaves are bitter, astringent, and somewhat aromatic, and are given in infusion in the later stages of dysentery and in intermittent fevers. Patients suffering under the last-mentioned disease are also made to inhale the vapour rising from an infusion of the whole plant, in order to induce a copious perspiration.
Geniosporum prostratum, Benth. (= Ocimum prostratum, Linn.).