a plant described as "often cultivated and half-wild--a shrub used
in medicine."
The selection of this plant is said to be due to its reputation for
scaring demons (`alamat menghalaukan hantu). So great is its efficacy
supposed to be, that people who have to go out when rain is falling
and the sun shining simultaneously--a most dangerous time to be abroad,
in Malay estimation,--put a sprig of the gandarusa in their belts.