xl PROCEEDINGS. 



multiplied like Dharba grass which is one of the most prolific 

 plants in the vegetable kingdom. 



We have still another set of sacred trees which are sacred to 

 the nine forms of Kali. The Kali represented in India in ancient 

 days the same as the old Eoman patricians and refer to the ghosts 

 or shades of ancestors. It will be noticed that some of those plants 

 which are referable to deities are also to these spirits, such as 

 Aegle marmelos, Ocymum, etc. But there are certain of special 

 ones also, Musa sapientium, Curcuma longa, Saraca Indica. 

 Punica granatum. 



Musa sapientium, Vern. "Khela." The cultivated plantain. 

 Its appearance is now probably well known all the world over 

 now-a-days, and need hardly be described. Its specific name 

 conveys an allusion to one of Theopharastus' statements concerning 

 a fruit which served as food for the wise men of India, supposed 

 to have been the plaintain. 



It is worshipped by .the Hindu woman on the 4th of Kartik 

 Shudh in order that their husbands may survive them. Bunches 

 the fruit are used in festivals and ceremonies, and are placed at 

 the entrances to their houses on such occasions, especially at 

 marriages, as appropriate emblems of plenty and fertility. 



Some people consider it to have been the forbidden fruit of 

 Eden and again that it was the grape of the Promised Land. 



Curcuma longa, Vern. "Haldi." Twemerie. Herbaceous. 

 The leaves are long, broad and lanceolate, the leafy stem is four 

 to five, feet high. The flowering bracts pale green and the corna 

 a beautiful pink. The plant is known in Bombay by its Hebrew 

 name "Karkam," and it was evidently known in England as early 

 1710 or earlier. The uses of twemerie are well known, and I 

 only intend to say that the oil is used by the natives in small-pox 

 and chicken-pox. The rubbing of the oil is an essential part of 

 Hindu wedding ceremonies and the root enters into many religious 

 ones. By the root, I mean tuber underground. Mixed with lime, 

 it forms the liquid used' in the Arati ceremony of warding off the 

 "evil eye." With lime juice, the Hindus of the sect of Vishnu 

 prepare their yellow Tiruchurnum, with which they make the 



