444 Lieut.-Col. Madden on some Plants 



fl^'Catalogue, No. 1247. Caltha'i Bismia. Bishma vel Bikhma, 

 Hamilton's Nepal, 99. Habitat inter nives Emodi. 



1248. Caltha'i Nirbisia. Nirbislii vel Nirbikhi. Ham. Ne- 

 pal, 99. Habitat cum prsecedente. Montanorum unus banc 

 pro radice indica toxicaria ostendebat, alter autem sequentem 

 afFerebat. Flores non vidi. 



1249. Caltha ? Codoa. (No specimen.) Kodoya Bisb vel Bikh, 

 Hamilton's Nepal, 99. Habitat cum duabus prsecedentibus. 

 Credo banc esse reveram Toxicariam Indorum radicem. Flores 

 non vidi. 



In Brewster's Edinburgh Journal of Science, i. 249-251, 

 "On the Herba Toxicaria," Dr. Hamilton informs us tbat 

 his specimens were collected in July 1810, near the sources of 

 the Kosi River, and therefore necessarily quite immature ; still 

 it is surprising that he should have referred them, even doubt- 

 fully, to Call ha J to which they bear no resemblance. In the 

 very short account in the Journal last mentioned, founded pro- 

 bably on the specimens before us, he says of Caltha Bismia, 

 " The Bikhma is used in medicine, and is a strong bitter, very 

 powerful in the cure of fevers*." Caltha Nirbisia " has no dele- 

 terious qualities," while Caltha Codoa includes Bish and Kodoya 

 Bish. Dr. WaUichf showed that all these specimens belong to 

 Aconitum : his 4723, A. palmatum, being Caltha ? Bishma, H. 

 Ham. ; and 4721, A. ferox, including Caltha ? Nirbisia and 

 G.t Codoa, H. Ham. 



It would be impossible to unravel this complication without 

 a visit to Nepal ; but perhaps some additional light may be 

 thrown on the subject by eliminating the known from the un- 

 known, and rejecting the specimens as misnamed. Dr. Hamil- 

 ton (p. 98) expressly says there are "four different plants." 

 We know that the Bish J proper is Aconitum ferox. Kodoya 



'*^ So in the Account of Nepal, p. 99. ^-^^^'^ 



't He left occasion for additional criticism. The description of A.JIsfdlt 

 in the * PL As. Rar/ is full and interesting, pp. 35-39 ; but the plate (t. 41) 

 and specimen 4721 A. belong to A. dissectum, Don's Prod. 197. A. ferox 

 flourishes at from 11,000 to 13,000 feet; it has beautiful deep-blue flowers 

 in August and September, and is described and figured by Dr. Balfour and 

 Mr. M'Nab in the Ed. New Phil. Journal, October 1849, plate 5, from 

 plants which first flowered that autumn in our Horticultural Garden. A. 

 multifidum is abundant at from 12,000 to 14,500 feet ; A. palmatum grows 

 at Nagkhanda near Simla in forests at 8500 to 9500 feet, and flowers from 

 May to July; A. heterophyllum at from 8500 to 13,000 feet. 



X The term vish, Sanscrit, denotes 'poison' simply, and is from the 

 same root as vishnu, ' penetrating, pei-vading.' In the mountains and the 

 north-west provinces it is pronounced Bikh ; in Behar and Bengal, Bish ; 

 but there is no diff^erence in the original word. Narbishi means ' not poi- 

 sonous/ a term from which Don (General System of Gardening, i. 63) 

 forms his genus Nirbisia to include two deadly Aconites and an innocent 

 Delphinivm, — as uncalled-for therefore in botany as it is false in etymology. 



