158 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
* As nothing done with vegetables will be uninteresting to the 
Director of the Botanical Museum at Kew, I send, though a queer 
consignment, specimens of toasted grains as eaten by natives in Scinde, 
and indeed in India generally. They are very useful for journeys, and 
are prepared on hot sand in an iron vessel; some, as Jawar (Sorghum 
vulgare), and Muhaiee (Zea Mays), which swell and become light and 
white, are ed Phulla, i.e., swell-ies. Some, as Chaur (Rice), are 
also called phulla; but these do not turn light and white. Wheat and 
Gram are merely burut and toasted, and not changed in look 
* Gram (Cicer arietinum,* lentils), is further rolled in powdered 
sugar-candy, and becomes a kind of comfit. 
** Gram-flour is made up with sesamum-oil into a mass, which rolled 
in sugar-candy forms a kind of sweetmeat.” 
Chinese Grass-Cloth, 
It is very pleasant to receive assurances of the satisfaction with which 
our remarks on the vegetable products of plants in this Journal have 
been received by the subscribers, especially of such as are exhibited in 
the already extensive Museum of the Royal Gardens. Much of the 
value of these observations depends on the accuracy of the statements 
respecting the origin of these products, that is, the correct name and 
history of the plant yielding these useful substances; and our readers 
are perhaps not aware of the excessive difficulty of getting access to 
authentic sources on these points. An extensive museum, where com- 
parisons may be made, a rich botanic garden, a great Herbarium, a 
large and costly library, a correspondence held with individuals in 
various parts of the world, are all necessary for obtaining the requisite 
information :—and with all this, we have only to look at any Materia 
Medica, to any Dictionary of Arts and Commerce, or to any work pro- 
fessedly treating on such subjects, to be aware of the ignorance which 
exists on some of our most useful drugs, dye-stuffs, and of many other 
articles of commerce. ‘The following is an extract from the Botanische 
rsa herpes dea ae 
Map (Cicer arietinum) the, 
Dok 
tur (Lathyrus sativus)- een ma hun. 
i.e., Dat crepitus iris Cicer, at Lathyrus strepit usque." 
