168 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1892. 



almost included ; connate ; long-linear ; 1 one-celled, 2 two-celled ; cells 

 conduplicate, yellowish. 



Female flowers. — Solitary, often opposite a leaf; calyx and 

 corolla as in male. Style, greenish ; stigma, trifid and whitish. 



Fruit. — Apepo; 2-4 inches long; ovate, pointed at both ends; 

 with short peduncles which are incurved, dark green and shining; 

 shape oblong-rotund; carpels imperfect; externally marked greenish- 

 white in the younger stage with broken longitudinal lines from apex 

 to base. The colour of the fruit is greenish when first formed, 

 gradually changing into yellow, orange, and deep scarlet as the fruit 

 matures : pulp cream-coloured when the fruit is young. 



Seeds. — 1-| inch, compressed or corrugate ; arranged in rows of 

 three, transversely or horizontally ; large ; varying in number from 

 20 — 30 or more, surrounded by a thin foetid bitter watery pulp which 

 assumes a deep red colour when the fruit matures. Shape of seed 

 oblong-plane ; angulated at its attachment to the f unicle. The fruit 

 matures in September and October. Abundant in the neighbourhood 

 of Bombay. 



Poisonous Peorbrties. 



The plant has a distinctly emetic effect. Rheede (in HoH. Malah., 

 VoL VII., pp. 107-108) mentions that the juice of the plant pro- 

 duces vomiting. The juice of two ounces of the root acts as a violent 

 drastic purgative, not unlike Elaterium which is a product of the 

 squirting cucumber of the same ISTatural Order. The plant is said 

 to cure quotidian and quartan fevers chiefly by inducing vomiting. 

 The druo-, therefore, has to be used with caution. The leaves, root 

 and fruit are all bitter, and act equally powerfully. 



Description of Plate E. 



A branch of the plant with fruit. The leaf in the centre is 

 typical. The red fruit to the right is mature. Irregular nodes shewn 

 in two places to the left : the one below has swollen the stem ; the one 

 above in 3 globular masses has displaced a small branch. Below 

 the branch is a transverse section of the fruit through the middle 

 shewing the 3 seeds, and the creamy pulp of the three indistinct 

 carpels. 



