162 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BOTANY OF . [ Simarubee. 
or doura tree Sterculia acuminata, the Kola; and a species of Pentadesma, called the 
tallow-tree, might all be introduced into India: while Khaya Senegalensis, Mammea 
Africana, and the African teak, to'whatever genus (possibly Dalbergia) it may belong, 
would form additional’ useful timber trees. Anona Senegalensis, Chrysobalanus Icaco, 
Sarcocephalus esculentus, Blighia sapida, Parinarium excelsum, Codarium. acutifolium, 
the cream-fruit' yielded by one of the Apocynee, and Safu by one of the Amyridea, 
might form useful additions to the fruits of the warmer parts of India; while Unona 
Ethiopica, Monodora Myristica, and the Amomum yielding Melaguetta pepper, might 
be cultivated as drugs; and as Africa has adopted the use of the Cassava, and the 
cultivation of Voandezia (Glycine) subterranea, so might they be introduced as articles 
of food into India. 
Eastward from Egypt and Nubia, we have the southern parts of Arabia, which were 
at one time supposed to abound in all the riches of the East, but for which we now know 
she was chiefly indebted to her commerce with India. But. coffee, its most valuable 
indigenous product, if it be not originally a native of Abyssinia, has been most success- 
fully introduced into the opposite coast of Malabar (v. p. 4); and senna of excellent — 
quality is grown both at Tinnivelly and Saharunpore, separated by more than 20° of ° 
latitude. The ‘balsam of Gilead and the myrth-tree, the latter probably, as is the 
former, a species of Balsamodendron (v. Terebinthacee), might also be cultivated ; as well 
as the best aloes manufactured in many parts of India. This, as well as myrrh, is said 
by Persian authors to’ be produced in the island of Socotra. 
On the other hand, it would not be difficult in the northern parts to grow cotton as 
good as the Egyptian,* and at the same time acclimate some of its useful. productions: 
as Acacia nilotica and Seyal, yielding gums superior to that produced in India; the 
different kinds of senna, of which one has already been successfully introduced, as 
well as the date; the doum palm would succeed. in every part, as it does in the Penin- 
sula; sowould the true sycamore ; and Alexandrian clover (Trifolium Alexandrinum), 
(which, as well as Fenugrec, is cultivated for food and fodder) would probably succeed 
better than the European species which I introduced into the Saharanpore Botanic 
: Garden. 
’ * While this sheet is passing through the press, I have had the pleasure of hearing from my friend, Mr. 
Charles Groves, now of Liverpool, that lately four bales of cotton from Bombay, grown in one of the Com- 
pany’s experimental gardens, had sold for one shilling a-pound, which was more than three-fourths of the 
American cotton was selling for. This, he justly. observes, connected. with the fact of Mr. Hughes continuing 
to grow his superior Tinnivelly cotton, is sufficient to settle the point of India being capable of producing very 
‘superior cottons. He also mentions a fact, which will be new to many, that merchants give about thirty 
shillings per ewt. for American, and not more than fifteen shillings for East-India rice ; so that, if the latter 
were not protected by a duty of fifteen shillings, it would be entirely driven out of the market. It will not 
surely be said, that India is incapable of producing the superior kinds of rice! But there is one difficulty, and 
that is, India being a great consumer, .as well as grower, of both rice and cotton; and. therefore the best 
kinds of the former, or large quantities of the latter, may not be sent to England. | It is apposite and 
not uninteresting to mention, that the present intelligent ruler of Egypt, in lately sending an unlimited 
order for plants to be sent to-him from England, particularly specified the useful plants of India! 
