i88 improvements in India. Oct. 3, 



Is of much consequence to introduce the best mode in a 

 Country where the people are much influenced by cus- 

 tom. 



The attention jou have paid to my request in the pro- 

 mise of a reel, induces me to hope that this country, ha- 

 ving the thermometer always between seventy and an hun- 

 dred degrees, may rival the greatest establiihments in the 

 culture of silk j in Bengal, I believe the heat is sometimes 

 greater, and in China much lefs. I am, 4:fc. 



Firt St George, Jan. 19. 1792. 



From NicoJ Mein, esq. to Dr "James .Anderson. 



DiAK. Sir, 

 Mr Andrews and I have this instant returned from a trip 

 to Allitory, a village about four miles distant from this, 

 where there is a garden belonging t© the nabob, in which 

 we have found eight or ten bread fruit trees, two of wliich 

 are very stately, and have fruit upon them, which is about 

 the size of my clenched fist, and externally has the appear- 

 ance of a young jack. 



The fiuit grows from near the top of the branch, and 

 comes out of a (heath. 



The branch, on being broken, exudes a viscid milky 

 iuice. 



The leaf resembles a good deal a fig leafj but is 

 much longer and more sinuated. 



By this tappall, I send you two of the leaves enclosed, 

 in a fiieet of paper. 



I have sent for a Mootchy, to make a drawing of a 

 branch fro.'u the tree with the fruit upon it. From its ap- 

 pearance I imagine it may be propagated by cuttings, iii 

 the same manner, and as easily as thj fig. ■ 



Mr Andrews says he was informed that the trees were 

 brought from the Travancore country : five or six of the 

 trees have been much mutilated, and their branches cut 

 away. 



It exactly corresponds, in appearance, with the descrip- 

 tion and figure in Cook's voyage, where he found it at 

 Otaheite or king George iii. island. I have brought with 

 me some young fhoots, which I have ordered to be plant- 

 ed in my garden. The leaves I have sent you, arc not above 



