98 JOURNAL, BOMBA Y NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. X\ 



I have, 1 think, sufficiently indicated in the foregoing remarks that 

 the Cashew-nnt plant is an exotic naturalized in the entire Eastern 

 tropics. As already observed, the ancient Sanskrit writers make no 

 mention of it. In the Sanskrit-French Dictionary of Burnouf and 

 Lenpol (Paris, 1856), and in the still more recent Sanskrit Worter- 

 bnch of Otto Bothlingk (Petersburg, 1879), no Sanskrit equivalent of 

 Anacardium occidentals is to be found. Both these dictionaries are 

 replete with names of Indian plants with their botanical equivalents. 

 The plant is not mentioned in Raj-Nighant, nor is it to be found in 

 Madan Pal-Nighant. There is no reference to it in Dhanvantari- 

 Naghanta either. The only reference to it in Sanskrit that I find is 

 a solitary shloha quoted by three different compilers. The works of 

 these compilers are of very recent dates, namely : — (1) J^i(jhant 

 luUii.alar, published in 1867 (Bombay) ; (2) Gunadoslia Prakash, 

 published in 1892 (Poena) ; (3) JSfighanta Sangrah, published in 1893 

 at Junagadh, by Raghunath Indraji alias Kata Bhat. This learned 

 writer, in citing a passage mentioning some of the qualities of the 

 plant, refers the passage to Bhav Prakash ; but I am at the present 

 moment unable to verify this quotation. Even supposing the passage 

 is to be found in Bhav Prakash, it being a recent work, it would 

 in no way militate against the fact that the Cashew-nut plant is in 

 India an introduced plant. 



Both Mr. T. N. Mukarji and the Rev. Mr. A. K. Nairne make the 

 mistake of saying that the fleshy peduncle when fully developed is of 

 only one colour. " It is of a bright scarlet colour," says the former ;* 

 " the fruit is red," says the latter.! As a matter of fact it is not only 

 scarlet and red, but orange and lemon- coloured, with all the shades 

 between. The tint ranges from light canary to the brightest scarlet 

 one can imagine under the dazzling sun of the Indian sky. Baillon has 

 said that " the colour is white, yellow, or red," according to variety. 

 I have not seen a white kaju in this district ; I may observe, however, 

 that the colour, whatever it may be, is not determined according to variety, 

 as Baillon supposes, for, on one and the same plant one may find the 

 fully-developed fleshy peduncle in all shades of colour ; often so, on one 

 and th(? same branch. The colour is a mere matter of accident. 



* HiiudbiMjk of Indian Products, p. 74, I88;J. 



t The Flowering Plants of Western India, p. 68, 1894. 



