614 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XI. 



is to be found in Rheede's " Hortus Malabaricus " (Vol. II, p. 53), 

 where he says that the odour of the flowers is by no means unpleasant ; 

 it is similar to that of lilies. I fully endorse this view, with this 

 remark, that you have to smell the flowers just as they open, for the 

 odour is evanescent. If that is not done, you will have to say with 

 Brandis, that the flowers are inodorous. Brandis is one of our most 

 accurate observers in botanical phenomena, and I have always held 

 him in very high esteem. If, therefore, in agreeing with Rheede I 

 contradict Brandis, it must be considered entirely due to my personal 

 appreciation of the delicate odour of a fresh-blown flower. Moreover, 

 I find that a Sanskrit writer, Bhav Misr, distinctly describes it as 

 sweet-scented (Sanskrit, Madhurd). [See Bhav Prakash, p. 101, 

 Bombay ed., 1890.] 



I am limited as to space, or else I would enter on the description of 

 the Folklore of this plant, as prevalent in India among the Hindus. 

 I would merely rest content with briefly saying that it is used on the 

 third day of the bright fortnight of Bhadrapad — (Shukla-paksha, when 

 the moon is waxing) during the worship of Sakhi and of Parvati, the 

 wife of Shiva. This day is a general fast-day for all Hindu females. 

 The most rigid observers of this fast live on nothing but the leaf of 

 Calotropis gigantea and a little sugarcane. The others abstain from their 

 usual daily food and eat nothing but plantains, and Chibud (Cucumis 

 Mehj Linn.) ; and drink no water save what is contained in immature 

 coconuts, and popularly, but mistakenly, called " Coconut Milk." The 

 real coconut milk is the rich thick milk-like juice obtained from the 

 matured " Kernel" or fresh " Kopra " of the coconut. The leaf of 

 this plant is besides used by Hindu ladies on the 5th day after ac- 

 couchement in the worship of Sati and JiwatL Surgeon- General 

 Balfour of Madras, in his " Cyclopaedia of India " (Vol. I, p. 553), says 

 that this plant is by the Hindus held sacred to Shiva. " Its buds," says 

 he, u also form one of the five flowers on the darts with which Kama, 

 the Indian God of Love, is supposed to pierce the hearts of mortals." 

 In Bombay the Hindus offer the flowers to Hanuman, the Monkey- 

 god. 



The economic uses of the plant are varied. The root, says Col. Drury, 

 i3 used in the manufacture of gunpowder charcoal. Brandis says 

 that in Katty war and in the Dekkan young branches are used for that 



