THE POISONOUS PLANTS OF BOMBAY. 491 



iJescribing, I now proceed to examine the indigenous literature on 

 the subject. I must premise, however, that my knowledge of Sanskrit 

 is very limited ; but what I shall hereafter say regarding native 

 writers is all the result of my personal study of such writers. 



Corallocarpus epigcea does not appear to have been described by many 

 of the older Sanskrit writers, as it is not four^d iu " E^j-Nighant" ; 

 *' Madan Pal Nighant"; or " Bhav-Prakash."« It is not referred to in 

 the Ashtang-rhidaya of Wagbhat, and it is doubtful if it can be found 

 in Charak or in Sharangdhar. The only author who describes it is 

 Shodhal. He is referred to hy Kata Bhat of Juuagadh.* Kata 

 Bhat says that Shodhal flourished after Narhar Pandit of Kashmir, 

 the writer of the celebrated " Eaj-Nighant." Shodhal's work is based 

 on Dhanvantari-Nighant, although the year in which his work was 

 written is not stated. Shodhal calls the plant I am describing Nalii, 

 This word is not to be found in Bothliugk's Wortbuch or in Buruouf s 

 Sanskrit and French Dictionary. It is from the Sanskrit word Nahi 

 that the Marathi designation of NH is derived ; the prefix Kadavi 

 (which means bitter), as given by me above, merely signifying the 

 bitter quality of the mucilaginous or gummy exudation obtained on 

 section of the root in its fresh condition. Let me add here that Colonel 

 Drury says that the root has a " subacid " taste.f 



I cannot refrain from observing here that I am very much puzzled 

 how it is that Dr. Dymock aud his colleagues J have fallen into the 

 error of making the following remark : " This plant is called in San- 

 skrit Chhilihinda, Patala-garuda, and Maha-mula or Great-root," 

 I say that it is a mistake to say so ; for I am positive that all these 

 terms, embraced in my quotation from Dr. Dymock's " Pharmacogra- 

 phia Indica," are to be found in " Bh^v-Prakash" (p. Ill, Jagadishwar 

 Press edition, Bombay, 1891). These Sanskrit terms refer to a plant 

 belonging not to the N. 0. Cucurbitacece, to which belongs the plant I 

 am describing, but to the Natural Order Menispermacem. The name 

 of the plant implied by the Sanskrit terms of Dr. Dymock is Coccm- 

 lus villosus — known in Marathi as Tdnichd~Vel, i.e., the creeper 

 called Tani. In the Marathi work called " Nighanta Eatnakar"§ 



» P. 569, Section 479, Nigh ant Sangrah, 1893. 

 t " The Useful Plants of India," London, 1873, p. 88. 

 X " Pharmacographia Indica," Vol, II, p. 90, 1891. 

 § P, 123, Yol. I, Bombay Edition, 1867, 



