414. OCCASIONAL NOTES. 
root of Randia dumetorum, Lamk, which is rather common 
through India, Java and Sumatra, and which it is well to 
record now from the Malayan Peninsula, as I have found it 
erowing in the Kinta district, is used as a fish-poison. Walsura 
piscidia, Roxb, is much used for the same purpose,so 1s Anamirta 
cocculus, W. ‘A. , commonly called by former botanists Menis- 
permum pocculs: L., to which Malays give the name ot [han 
tuba, as ikan tuba would go to signify anything that kills fish. 
This name being appropriated to Anamirta cocculus in works 
which speak of Malayan usages, is not so exclusive as to be 
taken to signify no other plant having the same properties. 
From the fact, therefore, that a plant is ¢kan tuba, we cannot 
legitimately conclude that it is Mentspermum cocculus, L., and 
soit was not Jenispermum cocculus or more rightly Anamirta 
cocculus, the plant which had appended to it the vernacular 
name of Ikan tuba and the scientific name Menispermum coc- 
culus. Any slight acquaintance with the order of Menisper- 
mace would have persuaded a simple tyro in botanical science 
that the specimens, although devoid of fruit or flowers, and 
representing only the foliage, could not belong to any Menis- 
permiad. Pinnated leaves as the specimens showed, do not 
indeed, even as an exception, occur in any Menispermaceous 
form. I would be rather inclined to refer the plant in ques- 
tion to some Derris among the Leguwminose. It is very in- 
teresting to know that besides the Anamirta cocculus, there is 
another J/kan tuba just as effectual as the very Anamirta. It 
would give me great pleasure, were any person so kind as to 
communicate some flowering or fruiting specimens, or, better 
still, both, in order to refer the plant to its natural order 
and specific position.” 
[It sometimes happens that the authors of papers pub- 
lished in this Journal use Malay words without translation 
or explanation. Such a practice, if general, would be found 
inconvenient by many readers of the Journal who do not 
understand Malay. It falls to the editor (the Honorary 
Secretary) to insert translations and, where no English equi- 
valent of a word (e. g., a tree or plant) exists, the botanical 
name has sometimes been given on the authority of good 
dictionaries. 
