446 Miscellaneous. 



Dr. Lush on the Madi, or Chili Oil-seed, Madia sativa. — " We in- 

 sert a paper by Dr. Lush, of the Medical Establishment of this Pre- 

 sidency, which brings to notice a new seed, called the ' Madi, or 

 Chili Oil-seed,' which promises to be a valuable adjunct to the plants 

 of that class in this country. It appears to flourish in a high and 

 dry land, and will probably succeed in the Deccan and Southern 

 Mahratta country. Dr. Lush has presented it to the Agricultural 

 and Horticultural Society in Bombay, by whom it will be tested and 

 its uses fully developed. 



'* The demand which now exists for oil-seeds from British India 

 has caused much attention to be drawn towards such products as 

 may be raised in sufficient quantities, and at such a price, as may 

 ensure them a permanent place among Indian exports to England. 

 On the western side, or the districts under Bombay, we find, that for 

 field produce as oil-seeds we must look out for such articles of cul- 

 tivation as will not require irrigation, seeing that the sesamum, the 

 kerday, the linseed, and the castor-oil are all produced in different 

 districts of our Presidency as dry crops. Besides those already men- 

 tioned, we find a quickly-growing plant in the Deccan, sown usually 

 with the ordinary crops of bajree and pulse, viz. the Verhesina sativa 

 (since called Guizotia oleifera), or Black Til. This plant is valuable 

 to the natives from its quick and hardy growth in a dry climate and 

 scanty monsoon ; but from the small quantity of oil in proportion to 

 the bulk, and the inferior quality of that oil, it is not a plant likely 

 to attract attention beyond local wants. 



** The Madi {Madia sativa) is a plant of the same habit, and allied 

 in botanical characters to the Verhesina. It has lately been grown 

 in England by one or two experimentalists, in the hope of obtaining 

 an indigenous oil of a superior quality. Professor Lindley, who has 

 grown a portion at the Horticultural Society's garden at Chiswick, 

 is of opinion that the climate of England is too damp and cold for 

 the Madi ; and on my requesting to be furnished with seed for trial 

 in the dry parts of India, he kindly sent me a liberal supply (which I 

 have brought here overland), and agrees with me in the opinion that 

 it will stand a good chance in the high and dry lands of the Deccan 

 and other similar districts of India. A plant requiring no more care 

 in the cultivation than the black til of the Deccan, and producing an 

 oil second only to that of the almond and olive, and superior to the 

 sesamum (the common * sweet oil' of Western India), must prove a 

 valuable addition to the produce of the country, and as such I com- 

 mit it to the care of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of 

 Bombay without further recommendation, merely subjoining a notice 

 of what has already been mentioned by authors about this hitherto 

 neglected plant. 



"DeCandolle, in his 'Prodromus,' gives a full description of the plant, 

 and notices shortly that the seed is used for making an oil. This 

 oil, however, does not seem to have attracted the notice of commer- 

 cial persons, and the only account of it I could procure in London 

 was kindly pointed out to me by my friend Professor Don, in a work 

 published in the year 1711 (in the library of the Linnfcan Society of 



