88 JOURNAL, BOMB A Y NA TUBAL LIISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. X. 



THE POISONOUS PLANTS OF BOMBAY. 



By Surgeon-Major K. R. Kirtikar, i.m.s., f.l.s.. 



Civil Surgeow, Thana. 



PART XIH. 



{With plate 0.) 



{Continued from Vol. IX, page 36 5*) 



(Read before the Bombay Natural History Society on 19th Sept., 1895.) 



ANACARDIUM OCCIDENTALE— (Lmn.). 



Natural Order — Anacardiace^.. 



MARATHI— ^sr {Kdju). 



This is the Cashew-nut tree of English writers. It is quite an 

 ornamental tree when in full blossom and fruit, displaying the most 

 gorgeous colours in various shades. It is an evergreen, throwing 

 out fresh foliage every year. From all the evidence I can gather, 

 it is a tropical American and West-Indian plant naturalized in the 

 Eastern tropical regions. In India, and especially in Western India, 

 it is largely met with along the sea-coast and its adjacent sandy tracts, 

 and in the rich moorum soil inland. It thrives very well in the Thana 

 district. 



It varies in height from ten to twenty feet. The tree blossoms once 

 a year regularly, in the cold weather, even as early as November. 

 The flowering often lasts till April and even later. The seed is ripe 

 in May and June ; not unfrequently as early as February. 



Generally speaking, it is something short of a tree, and something 

 more than a mere shrub. 



TRUNK. — Short, thick, and regular up to three or four feet above the 

 ground. Beyond that, it is crooked, and very irregular in branching. 

 The branches, however, taken altogether, make it a very graceful plant, 

 quite fit to be introduced into any garden in India which would like to 

 display splendid colours in foliage, flower, and fruit. The crooked 

 branching is no bar to its garden-beauty. 



BARK.— Considerably rough. In old trees, says Sir William 

 O'Shaughnessy, " It is deeply cracked," The juice from the stem is 



