THE POISONOUS PLANTS OF BOMBAY. 97 



Royal Botanic Gardens of Peradynia, in his Hand Book to the Ceylon 

 Flora,* issued four years short of a century and a half after Carolus 

 Linn^us— the immortal Father of Universal Botany — gave to the 

 world his Systema Florae Zeylanicm from Upsala. Linnseus in 1749 

 spoke of the Cashew-nut plant as " arhor hodie botanieis notissima.''' If 

 the plant was so in the days of Linnseus, it is no less so in our own day. 

 It has no parallel in the vegetable kingdom. Dr. Trimen observes, 

 with reference to the prevalence of this plant in Ceylon, " that the 

 Cashew-nut is so completely established in the low country, especially 

 in the sandy ground near the sea, as to have all the look of a native 

 tree. * * * * The Sinhalese call it Cajuj an adop- 

 tion of the name used by the Portuguese, who no doubt introduced it. 

 The Tamil name for the edible part is '■Montirihay.'' t It is figured in 

 Beddome's Flora Sylvatica, t. 163. Its native country is Tropical Ame- 

 rica, and ' Acaju ' is the Brazilian name." 



" According to Blume and Miquel," says A. DeCandolle, "the species 

 is only cultivated in Java." It is known there under the name of 

 Jamboc monjet. It is frequently found in the gardens of Java, where, 

 however, it is smaller than in Surinam, as its height in Java does not 

 exceed that of an apple tree in Europe. | 



The Cashew-nut is not unknown in Singapore, Its Malayan name 

 there is Jambo irong. Its fruit is said to be coarse, and not eaten there. 

 Its nut is said to be astringent. § As regards the occurrence of this 

 plant in Burma, from the fact that it is found only " in the beach 

 forests and along sandy sea-shores and dunes of Chittagong and Tenas- 

 serim,"|| and also from the fact that it is only a cultivated plant in 

 villages, it would appear that it is an introduced plant. 



But to return to Alphonse DeCandolle's "Origin of Cultivated Plants" 

 once more. He observes that although Rheede truly says that the 

 Cashew-nut is abundant on the Malabar Coast, Rheede only quotes one 

 name which seems to be Indian— A:apa mava ; all others are derived 

 from the American name. 



* Part I, pp. 73-74, 1893. 



t In India it is pronounced as Mundirikai {vide p. 72, "Five Hundred Indian Plants," bj- 

 C. Stolz, 1891j Managalore Basel Mission Book and Tract Depository). It is known as 

 Gerumava in Dharwar,says Talbot {vide his Systematic List, 1894, p. 61). 



X Flore et Pomoiie dc Jaj;a,par Madame Bertha Hoola 7an Nooten, Brussels, 1866, 



§ Our Tropical possesions in Malayan India, John Cameron, Esq., f.r.g.s., Appendix I, 

 p. 399, 1865. 



II Kurz, Forest Flora British Burma, vol. 1, p. 311. 

 13 



