618 



THE POISONOUS PLANTS OF BOMBAY. 



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



Civil Surgeon, Thana. 



Part XVI. 



{With Plate R.) 



{Continued from Vol. X, page 502.) 



PLUMBAGO ZEYLANICA— (Zmw.) 



Natural Order — PLUMBAGiNEiE. 



MARATHI— 1%^¥ {Chitrak). 



An evergreen perennial herb or undershrub, growing in gardens, 

 but not wild, in Thana. 



ROOT. — Long, succulent, often much contorted and substantial. 



STEM. — 2-5 feet, spreading, cylindrical, glabrous, striate, often much 

 branched. 



BRANCHES.— Diffuse, striated longitudinally. Length of the 

 branches, often 4-5 feet. Procumbent branches, on reaching the soil, 

 often strike root. 



LEAVES. — Alternate, exstipulate, entire, sessile ; 1|-3|- inches 

 long, 1 inch broad, oval or ovate-oval ; " much tapering towards the 

 base, but there dilated to form rounded, amplexicaul, stipule-like 

 auricles, acute at apex, undulate, glabrous, thin, somewhat glaucous, 

 and finely scurfy beneath " — (Trimen).* Clarke says the leaves are 

 puberulousf or glabrous, acute, 3 X 1| inch. 



Petiole. — f inch ; base dilated, amplexicaul (Clarke). 



Vernation. — Involute. 



Inflorescence. — Spikes 4-12 inches long ; often branched. 



FLOWERS. — Scentless, white, regular, bisexual ; *' on very short 

 peduncles, in erect spicate terminal racemes ; rachis and bracts glandu- 

 lar " (Trimen). Bracts and Bracteoles, persistent, leafy, shorter than 

 the calyx. 



Bracts. — Though shorter than the calyx when the flowers mature 

 and expand, they usually sheath the flower-buds completely in the 



• Tritaen's Hand-book of the Flora of Ceylon, Vol. HI, p. 65, 1895. 



t C. B Clai'ke's urticls iu Hooker's " Flora of British India," Yol. HI, p. 481. 



