soma2 (soma)

[ plant, with jointed woody stems of the size of a quill, numerous succulent branches which ar are pendulous when unsupported. The flowers are small, greenish white, and fragrant, in elegant small umbel-like cymes ends branchlets. The plant yields a mild acidulous milky juice, which appears to have formed the basis of the drink called soma (see def. 1). The juice of more than one species may have been thus used. The plant grows in dry rocky places in India and Burma, Also called moon - plant (from mythological a ociations) and swallowwort. 3. In later Hind. myth., the moon, or [ cap.] the deity of the moon.