( 15 ) 



constantly met with it in my travels up to the twenty-sixth degree 

 of north latitude. 



20. Among the other works of jail industry, the manufacture of 



rope and gunny-bags from the roselle 

 jail manufacture of ropes and fibre seemed of most importance. 



gunny from roselle fibre. The pknt grows everywhere ill 



Burina, and the idea of utilizing the fibre, I believe, was first 

 started, in September 1873, by Mr. Miller, the Jailer. At present 

 the absence of machinery of any sort renders the work far more 

 expensive than it would otherwise be ; but, even under these 

 unfavourable circumstances, it is, I believe, found a profitable occu- 

 pation. 



21. The roselle (Hibiscus Sabdariffa) is the Indian sorrel ; the 



people sow it either in the rains or cold 

 ablt ab p£ts gro^g Z\^l weather, and the leaves serve as a very 

 ance in tbe province, for tbis agreeable culinary vegetable. From 

 purpose- the calyx, tarts are made, and a deli- 



ciousjelly, which serves as a capital substitute for red currants, is 

 also prepared. There are many other fibrous plants, indigenous, 

 which grow all over the province in abundance — such as the Calo- 

 tropis, Agave, Urena, &c, to which attention might be turned with 

 considerable profit. It may be remembered it was from the 

 leaves of the Agave that the natives of Mexico, before the 

 Spanish Conquest, prepared their paper ; and I have seen most 

 excellent twine made from it. 



22. In Sind, nearly all the fishing nets are made of twine 



manufactured from the Calotropis 

 me C d!cm74i^r i7 ' 0M " _1 ' epUted Hamiltonii, which is proof against the 



decaying principle of water. Among 

 my notes on the medicinal properties of plants in India, I find the 

 following quotation regarding this plant : "On the banks of the 

 Ganges, the larger white-flowered subarboreous species prevail ; 

 in the interior, also, the smaller purple- flowered kind is seen. 

 Dr. Davis states he has been in the habit of using the medicine 

 copiously, and vouches for the cure of eighty cases, chiefly of 

 leprosy, by the white variety, gathered on the Ganges, whilst the pur- 

 ple of Kotas and the neighbourhood was quite inert. A Dr. Irvine, 

 again, used only the purple, and pronounced the white inert. As 

 a rule, I believe, a preference is always given to the white." 



23. My attention was next called to some experiments that had 

 •n , . , , .,.__,. been made in the cultivation of Ha- 



Data on experimental cultivation "^^ i j- L "' __...,, 



of tobacco, cotton, Carolina rice, vannah and V irgmia tobaccos: nei- 

 and sorgbam, obtained from Mr. ther variety looked very promising ; 

 Parrott - but evidently great care and attention 



