156 JO URNAL, BOMB A Y NA TURA L HISTOR Y SOCIETY, Vol. IX. 



used to represent a white-flowered variety. The red-flowered variety is 

 sweet-scented (Shloka 66). Old Indian writers recognize three varieties : 

 Swet (the white), Nil or Krishna (the black), and Rakta (the red) 

 (Nighanta Prakash). Bhavaprakash mentions two varieties, white and 

 red. Udoy Chund Dutt notes that the root of the white variety is said 

 to be a stronger rubefacient, while that of the red is preferred for 

 internal use for promoting the appetite and acting on the excretions 

 (" Sanskrit Materia Medica," p. 118), In the Benares Edition of Raj 

 JSTighant (1883, p. 58) four varieties of Shegat are given, viz. : — yellow, 

 black, white and red. There is really no black variety. By the term 

 Nil or Krishna it is meant to express probably the greenish colour which 

 the petaloid sepals often assume. 



With regard to the fruit, it may be said that it is useful to the 

 natives of this country as a vegetable. The unripe capsules are cooked 

 and eaten with relish. To some Europeans it affords a good substitute 

 for asparagus, and I can say from personal experience that it is by no 

 means a bad substitute, only that it should be properly cooked. 

 Besides, it must be remembered that the fruit of different trees is 

 not alike in taste. Some capsules are distinctly sweet, others are 

 bitterish. It is the sweet variety which has the taste and 

 flavour of asparagus. Not unoften the taste of some capsules 

 is so bitter as to render a seasoned dish void of all enjoyment. The 

 leaves and flowers are often cooked as vegetables in fritters and curries, 

 but they have a mawkish taste ; the leaves are more so than the 

 flowers. 



With respect to the gum which exudes from the bark of the plant, 

 it may be observed that it is insoluble in water, and has a strong re- 

 semblance to that known as tragacanth obtained from Astragalus verus. 



The seeds, observes Dr. Hamilton, appear somewhat like pith-balls 

 when their winged papery envelope is removed. The seeds, upon 

 dividing them with the nail, says he, are found to abound in a clear, 

 colourless, tasteless, scentless oil, of which the proportion is so large that 

 it may be expressed from good fresh seeds by the simple pressure of 

 the nail. O'Shaughnessy says that the seeds contain so much oil that it 

 exudes on compression between two fingers. " Geoffry informs us," 

 says Hamilton, " that he obtained 30 \ ounces of oil from 8 pounds of the 

 decorticated seeds, being at the rate of very nearly 24 lbs. of oil from 



