168 JO URNAL, BOMB A Y NA TURAL HISTOR 7 SOCIETY, Vol. IX, 



natural orders Moringa -pterygosperma should finally belong. In 

 monographic papers of the sort I am writing in this series, it seems 

 desirable that all that is worth knowing should be stringed together ; 

 that is my only apology for such lengthy extracts. 



I might add a distinct chapter describing the various savoury 

 Indian dishes that could he turned out of the fruit, flower, and leaf of 

 Moringa, with the requisite flavouring ingredients, such' as pepper 

 (red. and bladt:)? salt, cdcoanut scrapings, cumin seed, onions, &c, 

 but it would be foreign to the purposes of the paper to do so. In 

 feet, knowing how valuable the whole of this plant is from a 

 culinary point of view, and judging from my own personal taste 

 and experience what a substantial article of diet the Moringa capsule 

 is, I am conscious I shall be asked why I include this tree among 

 the poisonous plants of Bombay. Not only will the captious critic, 

 but even the earnest inquirer,, the careful student in search of botani- 

 cal knowledge, ask me to explain what is apparently a paradoxical 

 statement, viz.^ that the plant is both poisonous and wholesome. This 

 I shall try to explain in the following remarks. 



THE POISONOUS PROPERTIES. 



It is not by any means to be supposed that, because one 

 part of a plant is edible, any other part of the same plant 

 is not poisonous, using the word poison in its broadest sense to 

 signify whatever is hurtful to the human body. Instances are 

 not unknown among other plants, where one part of the same is safely 

 used for culinary purposes, whereas another has proved to be distinctly 

 poisonous. French beans, for instance, are known to serve as an 

 excellent vegetable. Few will believe, however, that the root of the 

 French bean runner when eaten is poisonous. Mr. Bartlett has 

 recorded an instance (Pharmaceutical Journal^ Yol. II, page 721, 

 1842-43), in which the poisonous effects of the root were distinctly 

 noted. " A customer of mine," says he, "last Christmas was digging 

 up some roots of the French beans or Scarlet runners and,observing them 

 to be very large and look very white when broken, thought he would 

 taste them, thinking there could be no harm in partaking of the root 

 of a vegetable which had formely supplied his table. His family and 

 maid-servant being also in the garden, all partook of some, pro- 



