494 JOURNAL, BOMBA Y NA TUBAL HISTOHY SOCIETY, Vol X. 



to the old Sanskrit writers I prefer to reserve this term, originally 

 known as Lingini or LingiM for the ground-seeking creeper bearing 

 a much smaller fruit, in size not larger than a pea, and known 

 in the Konkan as Kavalioh^-dhoie {Bryonia laciniosa*)^ 



Let me observe here that Dr. Dymock and his colleagues have 

 fallen into another slight, yet unhappy, e'rrorf regarding the inter- 

 pretation of the Marathi term Shivalingi or Lingini. It is as 

 follows :■ — They say that " The Marathi name signifies the Linga of 

 Shiva, and is an allusion to the shape of the fruity Nothing of the 

 kind. As already observed, the fruit of Corallocarpus epigma is ovoid, 

 roundish, or conical. It is the seed of Corallocarpus epigcea that has 

 the shape of the Linga of Shiva. 



POISONOUS PROPERTIES, 



The observations of Dr. Dymock and his colleagues, as embodied in 

 their '* Pharmacographia Indica/' are extremely useful in understand- 

 ing the active principles contained in the tuber of Corallocarpus epigcea. 

 They have practically decided the question that the bitter principle 

 contained in this plant is Bryonin, which Walz discovered in the Euro- 

 pean Bryony root. Dr. Dymock and his colleagues say that they have 

 beeii " able to conlirm this, by finding in the decomposition products 

 two resinoid bodies, differing in their solubility in ether. Bryonin is 

 a glucoside resolved by boiling with dilute sulphuric acid into 

 glucose and two ainorphous bodies, Bryoretin^ soluble in ether, and 

 Eydrohryoretiii^ insoluble in ether but soluble in alcohol." The 

 formula they give are as follows : — 



G,,-R^^6,. = 0,,H3,0, + Cs, H3,0, -f CeHi2 Oe 



Bryonin Bryoretin Hydrohryoretin Glucose. 



It would be useful here to show the various /ormw^ce given by other 

 writers for Bryonin : 



Dragendorff's Bryonin has this formula :-— C^gHgoOj g 

 Sohn's(Walz) „ „ „ C!.4 8H8oOi9 



* See Kata Bhat's " Nighant Sanghra.h," Junagadh, 1893, pp. 122 and 123 ; and Apfce'a 

 edition of " Dhanvantari Nighant," p. 3ri0. 

 t " Pharmacographia Indica," Vol. Hi p. 91 •; Bombay, 1891. 



