TEE POISONOUS PLANTS OF BOMBAY. 625 



had to do, to be able to write this paper after close studjj either to 

 contradict or verify my assertion. I am quite prepared to accept any 

 view. Rheede says that the colour of the flowers is " completely white " 

 (Latine — coloris in totiim candidi). Rheede wrote his description over 

 two hundred years ago, under a different sky — more southerly in direc- 

 tion. I mention this particularly by way of an apology as my plate, 

 painted by the skilful hand of Mr. Isaac Benjamin from nature under my 

 direct supervision, has a faint dash of the azure tint, not far removed 

 from the light blue of Plumbago capensis. The natural size of the 

 illustration [Plate R. accompanying this letter-press) will be amply 

 sufficient to show that even if Plumbago zeylanica^ at times under 

 climatic influences, assumes a slightly bluish tinge, it can never 

 approach the pretty bluish tinge — more strongly marked in Plumbago 

 capensis. The latter is altogether a larger-flowered plant, most easily 

 differentiated from Plumbago zeylanica. 



The root of the plant requires some special remarks, as that is the 

 part which is mostly used for criminal purposes. A full description 

 of the dry and fresh roots is given in the *' Pharmacographia Indica,"* 

 which it would be quite appropriate to quote here. It runs as 

 follows : " The roots of Plumbago zeylanica are from :| to 2 or more 

 inches in diameter, seldom branched. When dry, the external sur- 

 face is of a dark reddish-brown colour, somewhat shrivelled and 

 marked here and there by small warty projections ; internally it is 

 brown and striated ; the fracture is short, the taste acrid and bitino-." 

 Let me observe in passing that Rheede says [opus cit.) that it is less 

 acrid than the root of Plumbago rosea (Tambido-Citroko, i.e.^ the red 

 Chitrak), — (K.R.K.). To continue the remarks oC Dymock and his 

 collaborateurs {opus cit.) as regards Plumbago zeylanica, they observe 

 thus: "Wood hard, reddish, close-grained. A section of the fresh 

 bark, when magnified, shows numerous bundles of bright yellow stone- 

 cells forming an irregular zone towards the inner part of the muddle 

 layer of the bark. The cells of the parenchyma are large and con- 

 tain much starch. In the dried root the yellow Plitmbagin is seen 

 in the cell- walls of both the parenchyma and the woody tissue, but 

 not in a crystalline form (Flilckiger and Gerock).''^ 



* Vol. II, p. 331 (Dymock, Warden and Hooper). " Pliamacographia Indica,'''' 1891. Bom- 

 bay Education Society's Press. 



