^6 irKfirovements in India. March j,, 



" If, Sir, you continue to investigate tlie use to which 

 this new substance may be applied, I (hall consider my- 

 self as obliged to you if you will send me a few pound3> 

 if it can be (hipped at a moderate expence •, in which 

 case I will endeavour to call the attention of the Court o£ 

 Directors towards it, by imparting to them the succefs of 

 all such experiments, as I may be fortunate enough to de- 

 mise, tending- to prove its utility and conser^uent value. 



I am," ib'c. 



Scbo Square, "Jdn. 31. 1 79 1. 



Letter from Dr Ja/ncs Anderson to Sir Joseph Banh, hart, 

 givi'i^ a more particular account of the white lac, and 

 mode of rearing it ; — of some other Chinese productions i 

 — and of an aconomical mode of obtaining the red lac. 



Dear Sir, 



" I AM favoured with your letter of January 31. and ob- 

 serye the just idea you entertain of the advantage that 

 may result from an attention to the white lac mentioned 

 in my letters to this government, of November 24. and 

 December ii. 1789. 



" I have now brought the v\hite lac insects from the 

 staphylcea vepretum of the forest, to feed on the wodier 

 trees in my garden, where they thrive exceedingly. As 

 the wodier is so succulent, that cut down, and exposed to 

 the open air, for a month of hot season, it may be again 

 planted with a certainty of growing, and taking root in 

 any soil, it can be propagated with great facility. 



" To this facility of its j^rowth we are indebted for the 

 road leading from Fort St George to St Thomas-mount, [a- 

 bout nine miles,] being formed into an avenue of wodier 

 trees, on which it might be easy to rear several tons of whit^ 

 lac in a season 3 for, as you justly observe, it is only ne- 



