CUCURBITACEZ. 61 
hair from turning grey, a purpose for which “ bitter apples” 
are apparently employed in England in the present day. As 
_ regards the purgative properties of the seeds he is incorrect, 
_ for when thoroughly washed they are eaten by the Arabs in 
_ time of famine. Colocynth was familiar to the Greeks and 
Romans.* 
Description.—The Indian fruit is nearly globular, of the 
size of an orange, smooth, marbled with green and yellow when 
fresh, yellowish-brown when dry, and contains a scanty greyish- 
white pulp in which a number of brown seeds are embedded. 
This pulp in the fresh fruit is spongy and juicy, and occupies 
the whole of the interior of the frait. Peeled colocynth is un- 
_ known in the Indian market except as an import from Europe. 
The seeds are disposed in vertical rows on three thick parietal 
‘placente, which project to the centre of the fruit, then divide 
‘and turn back, forming two branches directed towards one 
another. The seeds are of flattened ovoid form, 3-10ths of an 
inch long by 2-10ths broad, not bordered. ‘The testa is hard 
and thick, with a finely-granulated surface, and is marked on 
each side of its smaller end by two furrows directed towards the 
_ hilum. The leaves are glabrous and nearly smooth above, 
_-muricated beneath, with small, white, hair-bearing tubercles, 
_ many cleft and lobed, the lobes obtuse. The root is fibrous, 
tough and stringy, of a yellowish-white colour. All parts of 
the plant are very bitter, and the dust when dry very irritating 
to the eyes and nostrils. 
Chemical composition.—The bitter principle was isolated DY =e 
Hiibschmann in 1847, by Lebourdais in 1848, and by Walz 
(1858), whotreated alcoholic extract of colocynth with water, 
and mixed the solution firstly with neutral acetate of lead, and 
subsequently with basic acetate of lead. From the filtered 
liquid the lead was separated by means of sulphuretted hydrogen, _ 
and then tannic acid added to it. The latter caused the colo- — 
eyuthin to be precipitated; the precipitate washed and dried 
* kohoxivéis, Theophr. H. P. i, 19, 22. vii., 1, 8,6; Dios. iv 
“Colocynthis, Plin. 20,8. < oe 
