THE POISONOUS PLANTS OF BOMBAY. 333 
cabinet work. The tree appears to be a native of Ceylon. My de- 
scription is mainly drawn from the specimens obtained from the two 
handsome trees growing at Bassein in the Salsette Island in a garden 
near the ruins of the old Portuguese Fort. 
Every part of the plant is exceedingly bitter, particularly the root. 
The pulp of the fruit, says Roxburgh, “ seems perfectly innocent, as it is 
eaten greedily by many sorts of birds.” Colonel Drury quotes this obser- 
vation in his “ Useful Plants of India.’’ The root has the reputation 
of curing intermittent fevers. Rheede says that when boiled and drunk, 
it is purgative. The bark is used as an antidote for snake-bite. 
Brandis says that the pulp in the fruit is orange-coloured. It is not so; 
it is white. It is difficult to understand how such a careful observer 
as Brandis says so. It is evidently a misprint or slip of the pen. 
The seeds contain 0°28 to 0°50 per cent. of an alkaloid called Strych- 
nia, mixed with another alkaloid Bructa, closely related to it. 
Igasuric acid, similar to malzc acid, is associated with these alkaloids. 
It is these alkaloids which render the plant poisonous. 
The late Professor Sir Robert Christison says that the bark might be 
advantageously substituted for the seed in the preparation of strychnia. 
The tree flowers in the cold season. Kurz in his “Forest Flora of 
British Burma,” (vol. II. pp. 166—167), says it flowers in April 
and May. It may beso in Burma. The trees in Bassein flower in 
January. The fruit is ready in the early part of the cold season. 
Kurz says that the tree sheds leaves in the hot season. It is not 
known to do so in Salsette. 
Brandis says the seeds are flat. If it be so, it is quite exceptional. 
The general form of the seed is correctly described by Gaertener when 
he calls it convexo-concave. 
Roxburgh observes in his “‘ Coromandel Plants ” that the shell cover- 
ing the fruit is somewhat hard. It is not so when mature and dry. It 
has the appearance of being so when the fruit is but half developed and 
the pulp has not yet become jelly-like, but is dense and comparatively 
drier. When, however, the fruit matures and the pulp is well formed 
and becomes almost isolated from the shell, the thinness is apparent. 
It is still more so when the fruit becomes dry ; the seed and the pulp 
then lie loose in the cavity, and the shell easily cracks with a resinous 
fracture when pressed between the fingers. 
