Botanical Description.--A plant 3° high, root gray and spindle-shaped. Stem straight, few branches. Leaves scattered, sessile, partially embracing the stem, lanceolate, serrate with hooked teeth. Flowers yellow, terminal in a sort of corymb. Common calyx semiglobose, with imbricated scales, the border often bearing thorns; numerous hermaphrodite disk flowers, with corolla very long, funnel-form, 5-toothed. Style longer than the stamens. Stigma bifid. Seed large, lacking pappus. Habitat.--Cultivated in the gardens. PLUMBAGINEÆ. Leadwort Family. _Plumbago Zeylanica_, L. (_P. viscosa_, Blanco.) Nom. Vulg.--_Sagdikit_, Tag.; _Bagbag_, _Talankaw_, Iloc.; _White-flowered Leadwort_, Eng. Uses.--The root is vesicant and is used by the natives for this purpose. (_P. rosea_, L., common in India, is more powerful. The Pharmacopoeia of India states that both species are worthy of further investigation.) According to the Sanscrit authors it increases the appetite and is useful in dyspepsia, piles, dropsy, diarrhoea and skin diseases. The Filipinos use the infusion locally for itch with good results. A favorite medicine of the Hindoos for flatulence is the old recipe of Susrutas, composed of equal parts of the following substances in powder: Leadwort root, root of _Cissampelos Pareira_, _Picrorrhiza kurroa_, [6] _Aconitum heterophyllum_,1 and _Terminalia Chebula_ in dose of 4 grams a day. Dr. Oswald has employed the alcoholic tincture of leadwort in the intermittents, with satisfactory results, and claims that it is a powerful diaphoretic. [7] The mashed root is mixed with rice flour and made into a caustic paste to apply to buboes, destroy warts, etc. Women also use the scraped root to induce abortion, introducing it through the vagina into the _os uteri_. This practice should be strongly condemned on account of its dangerous consequences--metritis, peritonitis and often death. The chemical composition of the root has been studied by Dulong. [8] It includes a non-nitrogenous principle, plumbagin, existing in the form of orange-yellow needles, bitter, acrid, volatile, neutral, slightly soluble in cold water, more soluble in ether, alcohol and hot water. The aqueous solution becomes cherry-red on the addition of an alkali, which color is changed to yellow by acids. Basic acetate of lead causes the same color change.