NOM. VULG.—Malapoko, Tag.

USES.—The entire plant reduced to a pulp and mixed with milk is used in India to treat dysentery. Ainslie states that the decoction is employed as a vermifuge and purgative.

BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION.—An herb with square stem, leaves alternate, lanceolate, nearly entire, glabrous. Flowers axillary, yellow, solitary. Calyx of 4–5 lobules.

Corolla, 4 lanceolate petals inserted between the divisions of the calyx. Stamens 8, of these 4 alternate being shorter. Ovary very long, inferior, with 4 manyovuled locules. Style the same length as the stamens. Stigma 4-lobuled. Seed vessels very long, with faint longitudinal ridges, crowned by the remains of the calyx, 4 pluriovulate locules.

HABITAT.—In the arable fields and along the banks of rivers. Blooms in January and March.