HOWARD AND HOWAKi). 18 



1903-04 being 2 lakhs of rupees. Wiesner' considers that the 

 fibre, if more carefully prepared, might give a useful product and 

 lays stress on the fineness of the fibres. The crop is an easy one 

 to grow and is widely distributed in India so that if a good price 

 could be obtained in London there is no reason why an export 

 trade should not be maintained. 



2, Pollination and natural cross-fertilization. 



In 1906, five samples of seed of this crop were obtained from 

 Madras by the Fibre Expert to the Government of Eastern Bengal 

 and Assam. Three were named, fadd]! (jogii, vegetable gogu, 

 Ougole gogu, and two samples from Coconada were unnamed. 

 These were handed to us for botanical examination and were 

 sown in the botanical area at Piisa in July of that year. These 

 five samples proved to be mixtures of several distinct varieties, 

 some of them being so different as to suggest a mixture of species. 

 Purple stemmed plants with entire leaves, green stemmed plants 

 with similar leaves, and purple and green stemmed plants with 

 divided leaves as well as other less distinctive forms were found. 

 The same varieties occurred in all the plots and no great differ- 

 ences could be found between the plots as a whole. In 1907 two 

 more samples of seed were sown, Bengal patsan and desi patsan 

 from Lyallpur but no new forms were detected. The crop as 

 grown in Bihar and in many parts of Northern India appears 

 to be generally of one variety, a green stemmed type with green 

 palmately divided leaves. 



Seed (produced under bag and also from free-flowering plants) 

 of all the forms identified was collected from several individuals. 

 The seed of each plant was sown separately the following season. 

 Some of the cultures thus obtained were uniform and resembled 

 the parents in every respect, but from some of the unbagged 

 seed the progeny was not uniform, for example, seed from an entire 

 leaved plant gave both plants with entire and with divided leaves. 



I Wiesner. 1. c. 



