The Materia Medica of the Hindus, compiled from Sanskrit Medical Works c5.s22.t1.2

c5.s22.t1.2

THE dried leaves used by Kavirajas under the name of *tálisapatra*, were identified at the herbarium of the Royal Botanic Garden to be the leaves of *Pinus Webbiana*. They are single, spirally arranged all round the branchlets, flat, narrow, linear, one to three inches long, one line broad, narrowed into a short terete petiole, under side with two longitudinal furrows on either side of the raised midrib, upper side shining. The Sanskrit term *tálisapatra* has been hitherto translated by most writers on Botany and Materia Medica, as *Flacourtia cataphracta*. The error originated probably in Wilson's Sanskrit-English dictionary and has since been repeated by subsequent writers. This medicine is regarded as carminative, expectorant and useful in phthisis, cough and asthma.