VEGETABLE OILS OF SOUTHERN INDIA. 109 
slope of the hills, or a deeper inclination of the plains, occasion a last- 
ing accumulation of water, and with it a luxuriant verdure of the turf ; 
the Callitris-trees increase, and with them, nutritious plants, about 
which the scattered flocks of sheep and cattle assemble from the salt- 
marshes. 
Further delineations would lead me too far beyond the limits of this 
sketch; but what I have here pointed out, as constituting the physiog- 
nomy of the northern Flora, may be sufficient to show,that we can scarcely 
venture to receive quite unconditionally the judgement of the distin- 
guished R. Brown on the physical character of the vegetation in these 
. districts, still less on the display and analysis of its details. The plant- 
world here, scanty indeed in species, is indemnified by the richness of 
the masses, by the variety, and even by the profusion of many forms, 
which, it is true, are not always brilliant. The great savant, who half 
a century ago published the earliest scientific notices of this part of 
the country, visited cursorily a few widely separated points of the south 
coast, and that too at the most unfavourable season: neither have T 
had the opportunity of fully exploring this neighbourhood ; yet I feel 
assured, that at a later period, and when more readily accessible, it will 
greatly enrich our collections, and thus mitigate the sentence as to its 
paucity of plants. 
D 
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Tur FIXED VEGETABLE OILS oF SOUTHERN INDIA. 
The following interesting particulars have lately appeared in the 
‘Madras Atheneum,’ for September 28, 1852: and when we consider 
the enormous consumption of Vegetable Oils, Waxes, and Tallows, for 
candle-making and a variety of other purposes, we cannot too highly 
appreciate the importance of such a communication as that of Dr. 
Alexander Hunter. 
* The list of oleaginous products common to the Madras Presidency 
is unequalled for variety and excellence. Tt embraces almost every oil 
known to commerce, and under a wise administration might be made 
equal to the supply of the whole world. In the majority of instances 
the raw material requires neither skill nor care in the growing, and can 
be reared in most cases on any kind of soil. If the state of things 
under which we lived was favourable to the employment of English 
