Crotalarm, diadelphia decandria. 261 



This veiT useful species of Crotaltiria is extensively culti- 

 vated h\ the natives in most paits of India. In the Northern 

 Circars the seed is sown towards the close of the rains, in 

 October or November ; a strong clayey soil suits it best, the 

 farmers say ; about I "20 lbs. of seed to the acre, is the usual 

 allowance. It requires no further care than being- covered 

 with the soil, which is done with the common Hindoo /larroic, 

 viz. a bush or two, which two bullocks, or buffaloes drag- 

 over the field. In February or March, soon after the flowers 

 drop, and before the .seed is ripe, it is pulled up by the roots, 

 like hemp in Europe; half dried in the sun ; then tied up in 

 bundles, and connnitled (o the water, where it is steeped, kc. 

 Tlje rest of the process being exactly similar to that of com- 

 mon hemp. Those plants that are left standing for seed, yield 

 bark of an inferior, though stronger quality, so that the time 

 of pulliiiii- must be attended to. Of this the natives make 

 their cordage, twine, fishing nets, gunny, viz. a strong coarse 

 kind of sack-cloth, &c. 



This plant, and it is the only one, is also cultivated by the 

 natives of some parts of the Northern Circars to feed their 

 milch-cows with, during the dry season. 1 have found that 

 it is very nourishing, and causes them to give more milk than 

 most other food : it only bears two or three cuttings, after 

 that the plants perish. 



The following- is an account of the cultivation of the Sun 

 plant {Croialaria juncea of Liimaeus) and preparation of the 

 fibres of its bark, called Sun by the people of Bengal, 



It is a tall annual, and very generally cultivated all over the 

 southern parts of Asia for the fibres of its bark, which may 

 be called the hemp of those countries where it is cultivated. 

 A very full and particular account of the various methods 

 of cultivation, &c. will be found in Wissett's Book on the Cul- 

 tivalion and l^icparulion of Hemp and Sun, published in 

 London in lfc>04 ; and some remarks by myself in the 22nd 

 and 24th volumes of the Transaction)i of the Society for the 

 Encouragement ofJlrts, Sec. 1 will however give a brief state- 



