THE POISONOUS PLANTS OF BOMBAY. 63 



Indica (Indian hemp) or a cold infusion of its leaves, may not suffer 

 anything more than a mere temporary excitement or inebriation which 

 may pass off without remedy. The same quantity, however, may in 

 the novice or uninitiate produce double- vision, profound narcosis and 

 even death by coma. This illustrates the popular adage that "what 

 is one man's food may be another's poison." This will also explain 

 why I have in the present series tried to illustrate plants and include 

 them among the poisonous, such as have not hitherto been included 

 in the noxious category, nor indeed are even suspected as being- 

 possessed of deleterious properties. " Forewarned is forearmed." 

 In describing poisonous plants, therefore, it will be my endeavour to 

 embody in this series, not only such plants as have been reputed 

 poisonous from time immemorial, but also those which, within my 

 experience, have struck me as having proved deleterious sometimes to 

 some individuals, although used harmlessly by others. 



To District Officers, and particularly to those on whom devolve the 

 magisterial duties of trying cases of clandestine poisoning, and to 

 Medical Officers on whom lies the sole responsibility of identifying 

 and naming the poisonous plants, and thus occasionally helping in 

 the cause of the administration of justice, it is to be hoped that these 

 illustrations may be of some use in a country, the vegetation of 

 which is essentially different from that of the land of their birth and 

 education. 



I am conscious that the illustrations fall far short of what they 

 might be, though, as I have already said, every attempt has been 

 made to secure accuracy. What merit or artistic beauty they possess 

 is entirely due to the facile pencil of Mr. Benjamin, who has been 

 my valued collaboratcur in my illustrations of the Bombay Flora, 

 Phanerogamic and Cryptogamic, and whose eye to details is as trust- 

 worthy as it is capable of delineating a charming copy true to nature. 



No attempt is made to describe the plants according to their natu- 

 ral orders. Nor indeed is there any order as regards their aj)pearance 

 in this Journal. The plants are depicted just as I came across them, 

 regardless of their virulence or severity of action on the human 

 frame. But each plant as it appears here will be accompanied with 

 a letter-press giving a detailed description of the plant, to enable 

 the reader to identify it. 



