POISONOUS PLANTS. 339 



with the boiled leaves of the Colocasia esculenta, which 

 we found very palatable. One of the seamen, thinking 

 they were equally good in an uncooked state, incautiously 

 chewed some of the leaves, thereby producing great pain 

 and swelling of the tongue, with an inflammation of the 

 fauces, that lasted several days. At Hong-Kong, where 

 the tubers of the same plant are eaten, under the name 

 of Cocoas, several marines came to me with the same 

 symptoms. It is a curious fact, that most edible roots are 

 yielded by plants possessed of poisonous qualities. The 

 Potatoe is allied to the Deadly Nightshade ; one species 

 of Sweet-Potatoe, the Batatas paniculata, is a violent 

 cathartic ; the nutritious Cassava and Tapioca, are pre- 

 pared from a root, the expressed juice of which is dange- 

 rously poisonous; and it would be easy to multiply 

 examples, proving the same fact. In Hampshire, the 

 poor people gather the leaves of the " Lords-and-Ladies " 

 (Arum maculatum), which belongs to the same natural 

 order as the Colocasia, and esteem them, when boiled, 

 excellent eating. 



A ramble at a little distance from the village, furnished 

 me with a very handsome Lamia, allied to Ceratites, of a 

 dark-brown colour, with numerous yellow eye-like spots 

 on the elytra, most probably an entirely new species. 

 The dark purple Pachyrhynchus moniliferus, with nume- 

 rous small ultramarine markings on its gibbose elytra, and 

 another species, of a light chesnut-brown, were found 

 clinging to the leaves of the low bushes ; and lurking 

 under loose bark, was a species of Uloma, one of the 

 Tenebrionidfs, with reddish antennae, and black polished 

 elytra. In the river that runs through the village, 



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