THE POISONOUS PLANTS OF BOMBAY. 43 



of the tuber is interfered with, we find a number of small tubers of vary- 

 ing size and form instead of a whole spheroidal tuber. These small 

 tubers are generally united ; sometimes detached. Whether united 

 or detached, however, each one of these small tubers may produce a 

 separate plant if placed under favourable circumstances, such as soft soil 

 and proper manure. From such detached tubers, generally, there is no 

 flower-stalk thrown out before the leaf makes its appearance in the 

 succeeding rainy season. Thus, from such a large disorganized tuber of 

 the previous year, I have been able to obtain in my garden several small 

 but healthy plants, each springing from a partially separated or entirely 

 disjointed bulbil. It seems to me that when tubers are small, flower- 

 stalks very seldom spring forth. 



The Petiole. — I call it the petiole, for there is, as a general rule, 

 only one given out by a properly formed tuber. There may be two or 

 even more, but they are the result of improper development of the 

 tuber as noted above, i.e., where there are several bulbils of large size. 

 The rule is, one well-formed tuber, one scape, one petiole and leaf. 

 Another petiole or many more petioles may shoot forth from 

 large or small bulbils. But this is a distinct deformity in the 

 plant. The petiole of a fairly well-developed plant is radical ; 

 rough or warty externally ; slightly sheathing near its attachment to 

 the tuber, between the margins of which is a space for the mammilla 

 of the future year's flower-stalk, varying in length (or rather in 

 height) from 1^ to 2| feet ; sometimes in the cultivated variety, as 

 grown in my garden, as much as 4 feet. In the wild variety it is 

 hardly ever more than 2 feet. In thickness it is usually 2 J to 4 inches 

 in diameter, cylindrical, softly fleshy, succulent. Colour varying 

 from light to deep green, mottled with irregularly-shaped whitish, 

 pale bluish spots ; the petiole, dividing into three parts, radiately 

 diverges in a horizontal manner. The divisions are dichotomous, 

 pinnatisected, with a deep channel on their ventral aspect, roundish 

 on their dorsal aspect, slightly scabrous. There are membranaceous 

 wings along the sides of the decurrent bases of the segments of the 

 leaf. These segments are lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, the margin 

 entire, parallel veined, pale green and entirely glabrous. 



Scape. — Solitary, 2 to 4 inches long, cylindrical, greenish, mottled 

 with white spots, very thickly verrucose, invested below with two or 



