2 Mr. John Lindley on the 



specimens of the Prangos Hay itself, were forwarded from India 

 to this country, and presented by the Honourable Court of Di- 

 rectors to the Horticultural Society, with the correspondence be- 

 tween Mr. Moorcroft and the Indian government. Having had the 

 honour to receive permission to use these important documents 

 for the purpose of publication, I have prepared the following ac- 

 count of tliis remarkable plant, which may possibly become an 

 object of great importance to our colonies in an agricultural point 

 of view, whether we consider its amazing produce, its beneficial 

 effects as a food for cattle, or the little care which is requisite in 

 its cultivation. 



The following are extracts from Mr. Moorcroft's letter, dated 

 from Wakha, left bank of the Molbee Ches, 15th August, 1822:— 



" The plant called Prangos is employed in the form of hay, as 

 a winter fodder for sheep and goats, and frequently for neat 

 cattle ; but its seed, when eaten by horses, is said to produce in- 

 flammation of the eyes and temporary blindness. The properties 

 of Prangos as a food appear to be heating, producing fatness in a 

 space of time singularly short, and also to be destructive to the 

 Fasciola Hepatica or Liver Fluke, which, in Britain, after a w^et 

 autumn, destroys some thousands of sheep by the rot, a disease 

 that, to the best of my knowledge, has in its advanced stages 

 hitherto proved incurable. Tlie last-mentioned property of itself, 

 if it be retained by the plant in Britain, and there appears no 

 reason for suspecting that it will be lost, would render it especially 

 valuable 'to our country. But this, taken along with its highly 

 nutritious qualities, its vast yield, its easy culture, its great 

 duration of life, its capability of flourishing on lands of the most 

 inferior quality, and wholly unadapted to tillage, impart to it a 

 general character of probable utility unrivalled in the history of 

 •agricultural productions. When once in possession of the ground, 

 and for which the preparation is easy, it requires no subsequent 

 ploughing, weeding, manuring, or other operation, save that of 

 cutting, and of converting the foliage into hay. Of its duration 

 I have two facts, viz.y one of its seeds having been carried west- 

 ward along with those of Yellow Lucerne, above forty years ago, 



