MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 425 
investigated, There is a strong popular belief in the South Konkan 
regarding its value as an antidote in.cobra poison, and it is much used 
in dyspepsia, colic, cholera and fevers. Its present popular uses agree 
quite closely with those given 330 years ago by Garcia d’Orta, who says, “ this 
root is bruised and given by the natives in snake-bite in water, and we give it 
in wine or some cordial water and it soon produces its effects ; it is also beaten 
up with sandalwood and applied to the bitten part. . . . . The people of 
this country use it in intestinal worms, in small-pox and measles, and in 
cholera. It is also said to be very useful in chronic fevers,” The native name 
of this plant in the South Konkan is Atki,* It is very common in the South 
Konkan ; it flowers at the commencement of the rains and produces fruit in 
August and September. 
(2) “‘ There is in Ceylon another plant, which, when it grows alone, attains 
the height of a pomegranate tree, but when it grows near a tree or in the 
forest it becomes a creeper like the gourd plant and climbs over the highest 
trees. . . . Its leavesare yellowish, very beautiful ; the bark is covered with 
blunt spines, and it is whiteand thick. , . . . Thistrecissaid to grow in the 
Island of Goa, but I have not seen it,” There i is hardly any doubt that this 
description refers to Strychnos colubrina,t Linn., N.O. Loganiacew, Tt grows in 
this Presidency on. Chorla Ghats to the east of Goa, and it is also a native of 
Ceylon, Garcia d’Orta says that the wood, the bark and the root are the 
parts used in snake-bites, but that the root is preferable. He had also some 
cups made of the wood, similar most likely to the quassia cups of the 
present day, and they were given to patients who were supposed to suffer 
from chronic poisoning ; no doubt it was one of the ways of administering 
small doses of strychnine, The wood of this plant is generally identified with 
the true Lignum colubrinum, Even now it is held in high esteem by the 
Portuguese. Walking-sticks made of it are supposed to drive away all 
serpents! That this serpent’s Wood or its alkaloid strychnine is a valuable 
medicine in the bites of some poisonous snakes has been clearly proved by some 
Australian doctors, and evidence is forthcoming that it may be useful, if 
properly administered, in some cases of cobra-bites. Bombay obtains its 
supply of this wood from the Malabar Coast. 
Strychnos Beddomei, Clarke (S. cal., Wl.), resembles closely the previous 
species except in its corolla tube, which is larger. Itis a native of Ceylon 
and Travancore. This plant probably furnishes a portion of the true Lignum 
colubrinum. 
Van Rheede in his “ Hortus Indicus Malabaricus,” Vol. WEIN op, 47,4. 8, 
describes under the name of Modira carinam “ Pao de Cobra” or “ Pao de 
Solor” of the Portuguese, a species of strychnos which has been named 
* Athi is the common native name, at Mahableshwar, of Mesa indica,—Ed. 
¢ There isany amount of it on Matheran below the cliffs, near “ Birdwood Walk,’ 
leading from Chauk Plateau to Little Chank Point,—Ed, : 
