1888-89-] Notes on Natural History in India. 203 



pigeon - pea ( Cajmms fiavus or 0. hicolor). This is a legu- 

 minous shrub, growing sometimes ten feet high. It is sown 

 in June, and not reaped till March or April, so that it is 

 nearly the whole year in the ground. The twigs are used for 

 making baskets, and the seeds of the pod are much eaten. 

 Each pod contains four or five spotted seeds. All through 

 the winter, fields of this tall shrub, with its brilliant yellow 

 flowers, are conspicuous on the Banda plains. Another plant 

 extensively cultivated is the Sesamum orientale, mentioned in 

 the story " Open Sesame " in the ' Arabian Nights.' This is 

 generally sown along with cotton. It is a herb with a white 

 irregular flower and many small seeds. These seeds yield an 

 oil nearly equal to olive-oil. They are also eaten scattered on 

 bread or made into sweetmeats. Sugar-cane, one of the most 

 important crops in most parts of India, is not cultivated in 

 Banda. Perhaps the soil is not suitable for it, but more 

 probably the objection to its cultivation is the deficiency 

 of water, or the number of white ants. As far as I know, 

 rice is not cultivated at all. I never saw a single field of it 

 in Banda. 



The uplands in the southern part of Banda are very differ- 

 ent from the plains in the north of it. The sandstone plateaux 

 are almost entirely covered with magnificent forests ; but here 

 and there there are clearances in the forest where Paspalum 

 scrobiculatum, Panicum miliaceum, and Lathyrus sativus are 

 cultivated. If the seeds of the last-mentioned plant are much 

 eaten for any length of time, paralysis is apt to occur. This 

 observation has been made both in Greece and in India. In 

 India I have myself seen hundreds of cases. One strange 

 circumstance connected with this disease, which has never 

 been explained, is that males undoubtedly suffer more than 

 females. Judging from my own experience, I should say that 

 the male paralytics were, to the females, about five to one. 

 The cultivated ground in the uplands is, however, of small 

 extent compared with the forest and moorland. The forests 

 are composed of tall, noble trees, especially the Nauclea, a 

 sacred tree in Hindi mythology, the Pentaptera, the Allan- 

 gium, the Schrebera, and the ebony tree. Then there is the 

 Bassia tree, from the flowers of which an intoxicating drink is 

 made, very nasty to the taste, but very cheap and very intoxi- 



