MATERIA INDICA

CHAP. I. M{\TEIUA INDICA. 345
CCXCIX.
PURPADAGUM LYTLJULrr8)LD (Tam.)
f'\
Purpata1cum (Tel.)
belled Pharnaceum.
Parpata qqz (Sans.) Um-
PHARNACEUM CERVIANA? (Lin.).
Cl. and Ord. Pentandria Trigynia. Nat. Ord.
Caryophyllei. Doldenblutiges Pharnaceum (Nom.
Tri v. Willd.).
The tender shoots and flowers of this low-growing
annual plant are prescribed in infusion to the quantity
of half a tea-cupful twice daily in fever cases requiring
mild diaphoretics, and the same qualities appear to be
ascribed to it in the (Hort. Mal. p. 10. p. 60.) It is a
low-growing plant; but seems hitherto to have been
but imperfectly described. Of the genus, Willdenow
says, "Cal. 5-phyllus; cor. 0; caps. 3-locularis,
polysperma." Gl"Ertner informs us, that our species
differs but little fi'om the species mollugo *'; it has a
thin-ovate capsule, with eight or ten small round
seeds in each cell, and IS a native of Spain. I perceive
by Moon's Catalogue of Ceylon Plants, that
the pharnaceum triflora has got the Cyngalese name
of patpadagan; a name so near the Yamool appella.
tion of our article, that I am inclined to think they
are the same plant, and that it is therefore doubtful
whether pharo trifIora may not be the more correct.
Three species of pharnaceum grow in Ceylon: two are
in the Hortus Bengalensis. I observe in the Flora
Indica (MSS.), th_at Roxburgh describes at length
the pharnacellm pentagynllm, a common pot-herb in
Upper India, and called in Bengalese doosera-sag.
-:J Which is the co.dang of the Cochin-Chinc8C.