o!\ T SELECT INDIAN PLANTS 319 



small, milk-white. Calyx first pale pink, then 

 bright carmine. Petiols narrow-winded. Leaves 

 oblong-oval, pointed, nerved, dark and glossy 

 above, mostly three-fold, sometimes paired, of- 

 ten four-fold near the summit \ margins wavy. 

 Few shrubs in the world are more elegant than the 

 Chandra, especially when the vivid carmine of the 

 perianth is contrasted not only with the milk-white 

 corol, but with the rich green berries, which at 

 the same time embellish the fascicle : the mature 

 berries are black, and their pulp light purple. 

 The Bengal peasants assure me, as the natives of 

 Malabar had informed Rheede, that the root oi 

 this plant seldom fails to cure animals bitten by 

 snakes, or stung by scorpions ; and, if it be the 

 plant, supposed to assist the Nacida, or Viver.ia 

 Ichneumon, in his battles with serpents, its to 

 synonyma have been strung together in the follow- 

 ing distich : 



J^aculi, Surasd, Ra'sna, Suganda Gandhandc. 



JSaculeshtd ' , Bhujangdcshi ', C/Y ha tried. Suvaha; 

 , nava. 



The vulgar name, however, of the ichneumon- 

 plant is Hasan ; and its fourth Sanscrit appellation 

 signifies well-scented', a quality which an ichneu- 

 mon alone could apply to the Ophioxylum', since 

 it has a strong, and rather foetid odour. 1 : 

 fifth and sixth epithets, indeed, seem to imply that 

 its scent is agreeable to the Nacula; and the 

 seventh (according to the comment on the Am 

 iicush) that it is offensive to snakes.. It is asserted 



by 



