THE POISONOUS PLANTS OF BOMBAY. 203 



11. Myrmicaria mhcarinata {Eraerj) § X 9 



12. do. do. X 9 



13. do. do. X 9 (head). 

 (Note. — In Plate D, Figs. 1, 6 and 7, owing to my bad drawing, 



it looks as if there were 5 segments in the abdomen proper, instead 

 of 4.) 



THE POISONOUS PLANTS OF BOMBAY. 



BY 



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



PAET II. 



{With Plate G.) 



{Read before the Bombay Natural History Society on July Uth, 1892.) 



K^MPFERIA ROTUNDA— (ii«w., WillcL). 



{Natural Order — S('itamineje.) 

 • Marathi— BHUI-CHAMPA. (wf^Tr-) 

 Roxburgh has described this species accurately. I have generally 

 followed him and interspersed his description with a few details, 

 whenever found necessary, from Rheede's description of the plant 

 in his Hortus Malnbaricus (Vol. XI, t. 9, page 17). 



A very elegant plant throughout, cultivated in gardens on account 

 of the beauty and fragrance of its flowers. Flowers appear in March 

 and April just before the leaves are thrown out. 



Root. — Biennial — (I think it is annual) ; bulbous or tuberous ; 

 outside brownish-yellow, covered with a coriaceous membrane ; 

 inside yellowish-white ; dense; juicy; with numerous white rootlets 

 two or three inches long ; bearing fascicles of numerous oblong bulbs 

 of the thickness of the thumb, varying from an inch to two inches in 

 length ; the bulbs are glabrous, inside mucilaginous. 

 Stem. — Absent. 



Leaves, radical ; petioled ; oblong, lanceolate ; smooth; never ex- 

 ceeding a cubit in length under ordinary cultivation ; usually a foot 

 long in good soil ; from four to six inches broad. Very prettily 

 coloured underneath — rich purple ; green on the ventral surface. 

 Petioles sheathing, uniting into what appears a short stem, as in 

 Curcuma. 



