340 BCRMA, ITS PEOPLE AND PRODUCTIONS. 



HEitiDEsjirs, R. Brown. 

 H. WAi.Licnri, Wight {'SI.). 



Myriopteeox, Griffifh. 

 M. rAxrcuLATUJi, Griff. (M.). 



This Order is not a very useful one to man. Most species abound in an acrid, 

 milky juice sufficiently virulent in some species to be used for poisoning arrows, 

 hence the names Wolf's-bane, Dog's-bane. In Gi/imiema lacfiferum, however, or 

 the Ceylon Cow-plant, the juice is innocuous and potable. Some species of the 

 Order are purgative and emetic ; but the most important medicinally is Heinisdemius 

 IiuJicus, the root of whicli forms an esteemed substitute for sarsaparilla. Some 

 species yield a good caoutchouc. Marsdmia tincioria yields a blue dje, and several 

 species of Mnrsilenia, Orthanthera, and Calotropis yield excellent fibre. The powdered 

 bark of the root of Ca/otropi's gigautea is an excellent substitute for ipecacuanha, 

 and is so used in the Bengal Pharmacopccia. The milk and other parts of the plant 

 are also esteemed for skin complaints and leprosy, and in early stages of that 

 complaint have been considered beneficial (Waring). No more effectual remedy, 

 however, for this dread disease appears to have been hit upon, than the one some- 

 times adopted in India when the leper gets himself bitten by a cobra, a plan which 

 never fails to arrest the disease— so unamenable to less heroic treatment. 



It is from a plant of this Order, Sarcosteinma acidum or i-iminiale, that the celebrated 

 Soma juice, so lauded in the Yedas, was extracted according to some writers, though 

 it is by no means clear if the original Yedic plant is now known, and the use of other 

 plants in lieu thereof is now sanctioned in India, one of them being Casiilpinia hoiiduc. 

 Of the ' Soma' De Gubernatis remarks : " Soma cuivro reellement les dieux au ciel, 

 en renouvelant sans fin le triomphe de la lumiere ; lo sacrifice terrestre du soma n'est 

 qu'une pale, naive et grotesque reproduction de ce miracle divin ; de meme (ju'on 

 Grece, au lieu de statues, on offrait a Heracles de petits Heracles de pate, de meme 

 aussi peu-etre, dans les temps vediques et posterieurs, en chantant les louanges du 

 soma divin, on jiresentait aux dieux pour la form quelque breuvage economique, que 

 personne no buvait, non pas seulement parce qu'il etait reserve aux immortels, mais 

 tres-probablement aussi parce qu'aucun mortel n'en aurait voulu. Dans I'histoire dcs 

 sacrifices, on trouvcrait un grand nombre de substitutions de cet geni'e." — Mythologie 

 de-i Plantes, vol. ii. p. 351. 



Without, however, attaching much importance to modem identifications of the 

 Vedic ' Soma ' plant, the high esteem in which, for symbolical or other reasons, it 

 was held, is a curious and undoubted fact ; and yet in those remote days, some three 

 centuries before the birth of Christ, there were not wanting acute minds, which 

 pierced deeper into the mystery of being than the vulgar herd of mankind has ever 

 done, or probably aspired to do, and in the Mahabharata the ' soma ' sacrifice is 

 spoken of as suited rather to man's spiritual ignorance than as essentially worthy of 

 respect. As a splendid exposition of a noble pantheism which will cause many a 

 chord to vibrate responsively even in the Christian breast, the passage here quoted, 

 wherein the 'soma' is alluded to, is probably unsurpassed. It is addressed as a 

 doctrinal exposition of Divine truth by Krishna to Arjun: 



" I, whose form no eye belioldeth, I stretched out this mighty whole ; 

 In me live and move all creatures, of all life the living soul. 

 Tlu-ough my care live birds, beasts, fishes, through my care are rocks and trees. 

 All this changeful world of being still revolveth as I please. 

 But the sons of darkness scorn me, wearing thus a human frame, 

 Blind with idle priile of knowledge, swoU'n with idle lust of fame. 

 I pour forth tlie gladdening sunshine, I withhold and give the rain, 

 I am that which is, and is not, I am nectar, I am bane. 

 Those who reverence the three Vedas and who pour the Soma wine, 

 By me led to Indra's heaven, drink their fill of joys divine, 

 But when spent their stock of merit, down they fall again to earth. 

 This the fate of Veda lovers, ceaseless death and ceaseless birth. 



