458 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII. 
Cerbera thevetia, according to the most recent researches, are known 
as Thevetin and Theveresin. These active principles render the plant 
highly dangerous. It must not, however, be supposed that all the 
plants of the order Apocynacee are of such a nature. Owing to the 
absence of one or other of the acrid principles, the milky juice of a 
plant belonging to this order may be perfectly innocuous. Royle 
mentions, on the authority of Lindley, a plant of this order which is 
perfectly harmless. It is the milk-tree or Hya-hya of Demerara, 
ealled by Mr. Arnott Tabernemontana utilis. Royle mentions other 
harmless plants, such as the Melodinus monogynus, which isa native 
of Northern and Eastern India, and the orange-like fruits of which 
have a sweet edible pulp ; the Carissa edulis of Nubia ; and the 
Cream fruit of Sierra Leone ; all these yield edible fruit. The 
Willoughbia edulis growing in India and the Carissa carandas 
growing wild all over the Thana ‘District, are instances of plants 
bearing perfectly harmless fruit. There are, on the other hand, other 
plants of the same order, such as Cerbera Manghas and Cerbera 
Tanghin, which are highly dangerous. The seeds of Cerbera Manghas 
are narcotic, The seeds of Cerbera Tanghin (the Tanghin tree of Mada- 
gascar) are said to be so powerfully poisonous that a single seed may 
be sufficient to destroy twenty persons (Royle). 
The bark of the plant, administered internally, has been, since the 
days of Lindley, considered to be a powerful febrifuge, 2 grains of it 
only being considered to be equal to a dose of cinchona. It is used 
in countries where it grows wild for poisoning fish. 
I must not omit to mention here the observations of Mr. A, Smith 
in the “Treasury of Botany,” which are as follows :—“Its fruit is regard- 
ed as noxious, though, according to Dr. Seeman, a gentleman ate four of 
them, when a boy, without injury.” Possibly this was due to idiosyn- 
crasy, by virtue of which the boy’s constitution withstood the effects 
of the poison, or that he ate the quantity of the fruit on a loaded 
stomach, which possibly diluted the poisonous element to such an 
extent as to render it inert. Again, we are told that it was the fruit 
that was eaten. Weare not aware to what extent the fruit, i.e., the 
pulpy part, contains the poisonous element, nor do we know that the 
pulp is ever. used for extracting the poisonous principles. Perhaps 
