74 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIISTORY SOCIETY, 1892. 



tlie odour may prove not particularly agreeable — mawkish if any- 

 thing. The fruit is seldom if ever pyriform, a form which has 

 been observed by some writers. Dr. Dymock says the number of 

 seeds ranges from 60 — 100. This is rather a high average for the 

 Konkan, where perhaps the fruit is smaller. 20-30 is as good an 

 average as I can strike. The whole fruit of the plant — the rind 

 and pulp included — is intensely bitter, but, as has been noted above, 

 the kernel of the seed is sweet. Dr. Dymock says the vine is 

 wo^ &i^^er (wf/e " Pharmacographia Indica," Vol. II., p. 71). I have 

 now a section of the stem of the male plant before me. The 

 bark and the wood are both bitter, but not half so bitter as the 

 fruit. 



In passing I may here observe that the size of the fruit, as 

 growing in India and as noted by all Indian Botanists, is much 

 smaller than that of the same fruit growing in Australia. Baron 

 Sir Ferd. Von Mueller, the accomplished veteran Government 

 Botanist of Victoria, notes that the Trichosanthes Palmata growing 

 near Burnett River bears fruit 3-6 inches long, 2-3 inches broad 

 (p. 187, Vol. VI., Fragmenta Phytographise Australias), 



The Poisonous Peopeeties. — The poisonous properties of the 

 plant exist in the pulp and fruit-shell. The pulp acts like a dras- 

 tic purgative when taken internally as a mere laxative. In pro- 

 ducing this effect the plant partakes of the drastic properties of 

 its congener Ecbalium Elaterium (Syn. Ecbalium o-Qzcinarum) 

 commonly called the squirting cucumber, which furnishes the 

 British Pharmacopoeia with one of its most powerful purgatives, 

 known as Elaterium, which is the dried sediment of the expressed 

 juice of the fruit. It may be noted that these purgative properties 

 of the respective plants do not suffer on drying. The pulp and 

 shell of Trichosanthes Palmata, even if dry, retain all their dele- 

 terious element intact. They soon soften when moistened with 

 water, and are as potent as fresh fruit. It seems to me that Tricho- 

 santhes Palmata is more powerful in its action than Citrullus 

 Oolocynthis — another of its congeners from the CucurbitacecB, which 

 is a recognized purgative in English and Indian Medicines 

 According to Charak, an ancient standard authority on Indian 

 Materia Medica, Trichosanthes Palmata is a blood-purifier and a 



