VEGETABLE POISONS. 333 



effect being almost instantaneous. When, in October, 

 1860, I revisited Cakaudrove, a poisoner had just been 

 strangled by orders of the ruling chief; he having been 

 detected in putting a certain drug into a cigarette, which 

 proved fatal to the smoker. The poisoner, on finding 

 himself condemned to die, not only pleaded guilty to 

 this crime, but also confessed to having been instru- 

 mental in bringing about the death of no less than three 

 hundred people, all victims to his infamous art. 



There being no chance of gaining any direct informa- 

 tion about the more subtle poisons from the lips of the 

 natives themselves, an examination of all plants possess- 

 ing narcotic properties would supply the deficiency, if it 

 were not for an anomaly, as yet insufficiently explained, 

 that certain species shunned as poisonous in one country, 

 are eaten with impunity in another. There are mush- 

 rooms which in England are absolutely noxious, and on 

 the Continent wholesome food. In Fiji, the leaves of 

 the Boro yaloka ni gato (Solanum oleraceum, Dun.), 

 a spiny species, closely allied to Solatium nigrwn. Linn., 

 and those of the Boro dina (Solatium antliropophagorum, 

 Seem.) as well as the fruit of the latter and that of the 

 Bora Sou or Sousou (Solanum repandum, Forst), are 

 eaten ; the latter in soups or with yam. I was in some 

 measure prepared for this, having seen quantities of 

 the first-named species, as well as another nightshade 

 (Solanum nigrum. Linn.), exposed for sale in the market 

 of Port Louis, Mauritius, and learnt on inquiry that they 

 were common pot-herbs, eaten both by the white and 

 coloured population, as intimated by Bojer in his Hortus 

 Mauri tanus. Stryclmos colubrina, Linn., is met with in 



