undred to each flower, when they fall to the ground
might almost be mistaken for painters' brushes. The tree (as its name
implies) loves the shore of the sea, and its large quadrangular fruits,
of pyramidal form, being protected by a hard fibrous covering, are
tossed by the waves till they root themselves on the beach. It grows
freely at the mouths of the principal rivers on the west coast, and
several noble specimens of it are found near the fort of Colombo.

The Goda-kaduru, or _Strychnos nux-vomica_ is abundant in these
prodigious forests, and has obtained an European celebrity on account of
its producing the poisonous seeds from which strychnine is extracted.
Its fruit, which it exhibits in great profusion, is of the size and
colour of a small orange, within which a pulpy substance envelopes the
seeds that form the "nux-vomica" of commerce. It grows in great
luxuriance in the vicinity of the ruined tanks throughout the Wanny, and
on the west coast as far south as Negombo. It is singular that in this
genus there should be found two plants, the seeds of one being not only
harmless but wholesome, and that of the other the most formidable of
known poisons.[1] Amongst the Malabar immigrants there is a belief that
the seeds of the goda-kaduru, if habitually taken, will act as a
prophylactic against the venom of the cobra de capello; and I have been
assured that the coolies coming from the coast of India accustom
themselves to eat a single seed per day in order to acquire the desired
protection from the effects of this serpent's bite.[2]

[Footnote 1: The _tettan-cotta,_ the use of which is described in Vol.
II. Pt. ix. ch. i. p. 411, when applied by the natives to clarify muddy
water, is the seed of another species of strychnos, _S. potatorum_. The
Singhalese name is _ingini_ (_tettan-cotta_ is Tamil).]

[Footnote 2: In India, the distillers of arrack from the juice of the
coco-nut palm are said, by Roxburgh, to introduce the seeds of the
strychnus, in order to increase the intoxicating power of the spirit.]

In these forests the Euphorbia[1], which we are accustomed to see only
as a cactus-like green-house plant, attains the size and strength of a
small timber-tree; its quadrangular stem becomes circular and woody, and
its square fleshy shoots take the form of branches, or rise with a
rounded top as high as thirty feet.[2]

[Footnote 1: E. Antiquorun.]

[Footnote 2: Amongst the remarkable plants of Ceylon, there is