68 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



IE we consider the distribution of the races of Mustard culti- 

 vated ill the same region, we tiud that our familiar Bras^slca is 

 known iii Behar as it is elsewhere in Upper India as ' Sarson.' 

 In the Lower Gangetic Plain, where the language is Bengali, the 

 corresponding word is ' Sarisha.' But while, as a matter of 

 linguistics, the two names are identical, we find that the Hindu 

 * Sarson ' and the Bengali ' Sarisha ' are entirely distinct plants, 

 and the incidence of the two names never varies in either region. 

 The striking feature in this case is that both plants are equally 

 widely grown and equally well known in the two areas, but that 

 in Bengal the Hindu ' Sarson ' is termed ' Dhepo,' in Behar the 

 Bengali ' Sarisha ' is termed ' Latni.' We learu then that, though 

 linguistically two names may be the same and though the general 

 siguifieance of the two may be similar, their specific application 

 may be quite distinct. 



in North-Eastern Bengal one finds that, while there as elsewhere 

 in this alluvial rice-swamp the staple monsoon field-crop is almost 

 necessarily Oryza saliva, in the winter months the people grow as 

 garden rather than as field crops a number of plants unknown in 

 cultivation elsewhere in India. These include among others a 

 chrysanthemum yielding an oil-seed ; a cabbage ; mustard ; a 

 mallow, elsewhere a field-weed, here a deliberately cultivated 

 mucilaginous vegetable; a form of China-grass, grown for its 

 fibre, so as to supply strong ropes for the haulajje of country boats 

 against the stream in the summer floods. The climate even in 

 winter is not particularly well suited for any of these, and the 

 conclusion to wliich one is irresistibly led is that we see here, even 

 if the people themselves be unaware of it, a parallel to the efforts 

 of European denizens in India to grow, in the winter months, 

 wallflowers, stocks, violets, and the like, not because these plants 

 can be grown easily or grown well, but because they are associated 

 with "home." Hindu as to faith, Bengali in speech, it Avould 

 surprise these people if it were suggested that racially they are 

 entirely unlike their Bengali neighbours south and west of the 

 Ganges. But when it is realized that the winter garden crops in 

 question are Chinese and not Indian ones, the idea suggests itself 

 that the people who grow them also came into India across the 

 north-eastern frontiers. Here, then, the economic botanist finds 

 himself in contact with the ethnologist, and in this particular 

 instance can apply evidence confirmatory of a hypothesis suggested 

 by the facts obtained from head-measurements. 



These are but instances to show that economic botanical studies, 

 apart from their direct interest, which in itself may be sufficiently 

 fascinating, particularly when the material available admits of 

 their being cai-ried to completion, may lead to results that are of 

 interest to the historian, the scholar, the ethnologist. But before 

 leaving the subject it may be permissible to allude to an instance 

 where a botanical study — this time, however, scientific, and not 

 economic — seems to supply food for thought to those interested 

 in folk-lore. 



In the garden of a native gentleman near Calcutta occurs a 



