36 Brigade-Surgeon J. E. T. Aitchison's Notes on Products 



spirits. The fruit is eaten, and made into flour to be mixed 

 with ordinary flour to be made into bread. The colour of 

 the fruit T saw was orange-yellow. 



Centaurea Behen, Linn. Compositte. 



Dr G. Watt in his dictionary of the "Economic Products 

 of India," gives this as the plant from which is obtained the 

 root hahman, or huliman safed, the white bahman root, and 

 that the plant is a native of the Euphrates valley ; Boissier 

 gives Bunge as his authority for the plant, as also from the 

 hills of Khorasan. 



Centaurea moschata, Lirm. CoMPosiTyE. 

 Maia-mesh. The base leaves eaten raw or employed as a 

 ]iot-herb. 



Cercis Siliquastrum, Linn. Leguminos^. 



Judas tree — arghcavan, arghamon. The wands or annual 

 shoots of this tree shrub are of a deep red-black colour, very 

 elastic and strong, hence in the vicinity of Meshad, where it 

 abounds, they are employed in the manufacture of all sorts 

 of basket-work, ladles, sieves, and strainers. Cattle do not 

 seem to feed on the foliage. 



Cereals. 



Wheat and barley are the chief cereals cultivated through- 

 out this region. The Herat district has long been celebrated 

 for its grain -producing capabilities, and hence is generally 

 alluded to as the granary of this part of Asia. I had no 

 means of obtaining exact information concerning the yield. 

 It was, however, generally stated that wheat was raised in 

 sufficiency to admit of a very large export, in addition to any 

 local consumption ; but that barley was chiefly raised for 

 local use. As far as I was able to judge, the quality of these 

 grains did not come up to the same grown in the Punjab, and 

 on the whole appeared poor. The huskless variety of Barley 

 is occasionally cultivated near Bala-morghab and Maimanna, 

 obtaining its local name from the assumption that it originally 

 came from Mecca. The other cereals in the attached list 

 are comparatively sparingly grown, — Eice I saw only once, 

 and that was in Khorasan, it is said to be grown in quantity 



