33 
Randia dumetorum, a stiff spinous shrub. Nile land, 
Mozambique district; occurs commonly in most parts of 
India, and extends to Ceylon, Hong Kong, and the Malay 
Archipelago. R. Kraussii, Harv., from Natal, appears to 
belong to this very variable species. The fruit is said to 
act as a fish poison. 
Morelia Senegalensis, an evergreen shrub of 12 to 30 feet, 
often arborescent and producing aérial roots. Upper Guinea— 
Senegambia, Aboh, Sierra Leone, Nupe, Old Calabar river— 
Nile land, Djurland, Bongo land. Used to intoxicate fish. 
In ‘The Annals and Magazine of Natural History,’ 
No. 117, Sept. 1867, there is a translation of a most in- 
teresting article on Venomous Fishes, by M. Auguste 
Duméril, brought about by the many instances of poisoning 
due to the use of certain fishes as food, and, as allusion is 
made therein to the custom in some countries “to cast 
noxious plants into the water in order to render the 
fisheries more rapid and abundant,” I venture here to 
invite my hearers to a reference to the views therein 
expressed. | 
It is stated, and condemned, that the Indians bruise the 
fruits of the Cocculus suberosus and many shrubs of the same 
genus, confounded under the name Coguedu Levant. “Mix 
them with a species of crab, and make them into pellets of 
the size of a cherry, which the animals take with great 
avidity. The effect is very immediate.” Of sucha practice 
it is said by M. Boullay on the subject: “Fish taken with 
the aid of such a bait putrefy very readily, and if not 
cooked or prepared immediately may become venomous.” 
Doubt has been thrown on this by M. Duméril, who has 
advanced that the Cogue du Levant is frequently employed 
in India in fisheries whose products are intended fot 
consumption. 
[33] b 
