THE rOISONOUS PLANTS OF BOMBAY. 



BY 



SurctEOX-Major K, R. Kirtikar, I. M. S. 



{With Plates A. and B.) 



(Bead he/ore the Bombay Natuml Histonj Society on 5th Aj^ril, 1892.) 



When four years ago Brigade- Surgeon Lieutenaut-Colouel I. B, 

 Lyon did me the lionoiir of asking me to supply him with a few 

 concise notes on the Botanical Characters of Indian Poisonous Plants, 

 which he has embodied in one of the Miscellaneous Appendices of 

 his deservedly successful work on Indian Medical Jurisprudence, I 

 thought if an independent series of accurate, well drawn, and properly 

 coloured illustrations were placed into the hands of persons interested 

 in the study of the poisonous plants of Bombay, it would be a great 

 help towards the ready identification of such plants. Such a series 

 would serve as a companion to Dr. Lyon's work, which is now exten- 

 sively read all over the Presidency, without attempting to rival it or 

 mar its usefulness. It would, moreover, I thought, enable me to add 

 a few useful hints regarding the plants which I could not then do 

 from the nature of the work assigned to me hj Dr. Lyon, and from 

 the necessarily limited space placed by him at my disposal. 



Having been engaged for some years past in getting up the illustra- 

 tions of some of the most tj^pical and useful forest and garden plants 

 commonly seen in and around Bombay and Thana, and happening 

 to have in my possession the illustrations of some of our poisonous 

 plants drawn at m}^ request and under my personal supervision by 

 Mr. Isaac Benjamin, I broached the sub j ect of publishing some of 

 them in the Society's Journal to our energetic Secretary, and placed 

 at his disposal my illustrations, offering at the same time to write the 

 letter-press. Mr. Phipson, with the promptness which marks every- 

 thing he does, whether in connection with the Natural History 

 Society or any other Institution, at once accepted my offer, and pro- 

 mised to supplement my ilkistrations with a few more drawn by 

 Mr. Benjamin expressly for this series, under my supervision. My 

 original pictures are all of the natural size. Most of them, therefore, 

 have to appear as reduced copies of the original to suit the size of 

 the Journal. In each case, however, at the foot of each illustration a 



