288 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1890. 



T. palmata is a large climbing plant with woody stems, often as 

 thick as a man's arm, which grows on hilly ground in the Konkan, 

 and is common at Mahableshwar ; it is the Mahakala of Sanskrit 

 writers, who describe it as a kiud of gourd with an exterior resem- 

 bling an orange, but with pulp like cowdung. Mahakala is also a 

 name of Ganesha, the god of wisdom, the causer and remover of 

 obstacles, the son of Siva and Parvati ; and this gourd is used as an 

 ear ornament (Kundala) for the figure of Ganesha or Ganpati, 

 which is dressed up and seated in state in every Hindoo house once 

 a year. At this season large quantities of the fruit are brought for 

 sale to Bombay. The fruit is also medicinal, and is smoked as a 

 remedy for asthma ; when burnt it gives off large quantities of 

 ammonia. It also contains a bitter purgative principle somewhat 

 similar to that of colocynth. The Marathi name is Kavandal. The 

 green pulp in the interior of the fruit contains a colouring matter, 

 which has more of the red in its florescence than chlorophyll, and 

 its spectrum shows a different arrangement of bands than is seen in 

 the usual green colouring matter of plants. My friend, Mr. Hooper 

 of Ootacamund, sent some of it to Professor Michie Smith, and with 

 several other colouring matters it forms the subject of an interesting 

 paper read by him before the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 



T. nervifolia is a large climber with cordate strongly-nerved leave- 

 and ovate fruit. As far as I know, it is not used in any way in 

 this part of India. 



Lagenaria vulgaris is the bottle -gourd ; it occurs in two forms — 

 wild and cultivated. The former is known as Alabu in Sanskrit, 

 and the latter as Kadutumbi. In Bombay we call the cultivated 

 variety Sq/'cd Dudhiya or Dudhiya Bhopala. 1 1, is a much esteemed 

 vegetable, and is best cooked as a curry, cut in small pieces after 

 the country fashion. Served like vegetable marrow on toast, it is 

 insipid, but ;i capital imitation of mashed turnips may be made from 

 it with the assistance of the fruit of Momordica Charantia {Karela or 

 Karala) to communicate the necessary bitterness. Both of these 

 gourds are obtainable at all seasons of the year. The bitter bottle- 

 gourds (in Marathi Kadutumbi) has the purgative properties of colo- 

 cynth. It grows to a very large size, and may be seen in use all 

 over India as a bottle or jar for holding fluids. Very large gourds 



