Edible Products. 



[March 1907* 



treacle, the juice of the ash-pumpkin or the leaves of the Batala (sweet-potatoes). 

 Besides these, there are other effective decoctions and stimulating ointments used, 

 which any Kandyan village doctor of ordinary intelligence would prescribe on 

 reference. 



OTHER PLANTS OCCASIONALLY POISONOUS. 



Beside the Cassava, there are many other food-stuffs which also produce a 

 poisonous or morbid effect upon life, always preceded by a sensation of intoxication. 

 These cases occasionally result in a fatal termination. Of the Cycads (Cycas cir- 

 cinalis) the flowering species, known as " Mai madu" is unwholesome, while the 

 Gedi madu, the fruit-bearing variety, is relished as a palatable dish. The " Madu " 

 should be boiled in rice-dissolved water (Halpan-Watura). Patients suffering from 

 piles take it with great advantage. 



Among the following kinds of grains and cereals, there are both good and 

 noxious varieties of each kind. They bear a very close resemblance to each other, so 

 that their selection depends upon the proper exercise of the judgment of the eaters. 

 Very frequency on the spur of the moment, the bad kind is chosen and the result 

 is disastrous. In Honda (a creeping plant that clings to trees by means of tendrils ; 

 Modecca tuberosa), the variety called Potu-honda is decidedly poisonous, and the 

 Kekiri-honda is the eatable variety. Last year, two Kandyan boys of Unambuwa, 

 a village near Gampola, died of eating Potu-honda fruits. The best efforts of the 

 local District Medical Officer were of no avail. The variety of Amu. known as 

 Bada Amu, the kind of Bimmal (mushroom) known as Pmoakbada, Nai, and Polon 

 Bimmal, the Vel Avara * (sabre-podded beans), Potu Dambala, Datuk Dambala, and 

 El Dambala being the good varieties ; W adura Mc, Karal Batala, the Ginitilla, Kandu 

 Aliyana, etc., all afflict the eaters with distress, frequently terminating in pre- 

 mature deaths. 



At Polwatte Pansala, Gampola, several priests suffered from eating the 

 bad variety of Bimmal, and at Galaha estate a cooly died of eating Wadura Me. 

 Only the other day at Sinhapitiya a man was cut off in his early youth by having 

 very injudiciously eaten some Potu Dambala pods. It is a known fact that 

 venomous snakes also infest some of these plants, as Amu, Madu, &c. A scientific 

 analysis of the food stuffs found risky for human consumption would be an 

 interesting and useful research. And the publication of such results embodying 

 the necessary hints as to cultivation would very considerably reduce cases of 

 accidental poisoning to a minimum, and lead to the extended cultivation of 

 many neglected food-plants among the Kandyan population. 



[In the West Indies, where Cassava is more universally cultivated than in 

 Ceylon, the tubers are nearly all of the poisonous kind, which is considered to 

 give a better return, but instead of being eaten as yams, they are grated up small, 

 and hung in a bag made of woven palm leaves, with a heavy weight at the end. 

 This squeezes most of the juice out, the rest being easily dissipated by heat. The 

 juice is boiled down, and becomes non-poisonous, forming a useful antiseptic known 

 as ca.8sareep, which may be used for preserving meat, &c— Ed. " T.A."] 



L-PASPALUM DILATATUM: AN AMERICAN FODDER-GRASS. 

 Paspalum dilatatum, Poir., commonly known as "Hairy-flowered Pas- 

 palutu," " Large water-grass," and s in Victoria, as " Leichardt grass," is indigenous 

 in Braaih Uruguay* and the Argentine Republic. According to Doell {Flora 

 brasiliensis) the plant has also been collected in Chile, but it is improbable that it 

 is native on that side of the Andes. It is widely distributed in the Gulf States of 



* "Gas Avara " is the edible Variety, 



