Ixviii APPENDIX. 



to be fit for the purposes either of dyes, of medicine, or of food. They will endeavour 

 •to ascertain the nature of the plant in the south-east part of Ceylon which was supposed 

 by the late governor Van Der Graaf to be a species of the tea plant, and procure his 

 report upon the best means of rearing the real tea plant in that island. They will 

 also try to procure the very able and interesting report which was drawn up about 

 sixty years ago by the head of the Dutch medical department in Ceylon, stating it as his 

 opinion that a substitute for almost every vegetable used in Europe for medicine could 

 be found growing upon that island. 



They are collecting information relative to the teak and the poon tree, to the 

 indigo plant, the chayah root, and the sapan wood : to all the vegetable productions of 

 India which are supposed to be substitutes for the medicines of Europe ; to the cinnamon 

 and other spice trees, to the tobacco plant, the bread-fruit tree, and all the different spe- 

 cies of palms ; they are endeavouring to ascertain which of these are the original growth of 

 India, which of them have been introduced from other countries; the different persons, 

 Arabs, Portuguese, Dutcli and English, to whom India is indebted for the principal 

 foreign plants or vegetables which have at different times been introduced into the 

 country, and the political, moral, and commercial effects, which may be attributed 

 to their introduction amongst the natives of India. 



The extensive consequences which have followed the introduction of the potatoe 

 into Europe and the sugarcane into the West-Indies, shew the great influence which 

 such events may have upon the comfort and happiness of mankind ; and the present con- 

 dition of whole classes of people in the East-Indies, is a powerful illustration of this 

 subject. The cultivation of the palm called the jaggery tree, of the cinnamon tree, 

 and of the chaya root, have given rise to three distinct castes amongst the people of 

 Ceylon, each of which has many remarkable and peculiar habits and usages, the 

 origin and history of which, if attentively considered, must afford an interesting subject 

 of reflection to the philosopher and tlie statesman. 



Ath. Tlie Zoology of India. 



• The Committee have obtained, through the assistance of Mr. Clift, the set of instruc- 

 tions which the Royal College of Surgeons have drawn up for persons who are employed 

 in making collections in Zoology. These instructions specify the particular description 

 of quadrupeds, birds, fish, &c. which are still wanted ; the countries in which they are 

 likely to be found, and the means by which the specimens when procured may be pre- 

 served and sent in safety to England. The Committee have forwarded copies of these 

 instructions to each of the governors, and to some of their correspondents in India. 

 The labours of Messieurs Diard, Devauccl, and Leschanault de la Tour shew what a 

 field India affords for the researches of the Zoologist. The introduction into France 

 from Asia, by Jaubert, of the breed of Cashmerian goats, should encourage others' to 

 imitate his example in so useful an undertaking. The Committee have therefore insti- 

 tuted inquiries respecting the goats from the wool of which tlie fine Cashmere shawls 

 are manufactured, and the animal which produces the musk. 



