SOAP-PODS AND CASSIE PERFUME 



ACACIA 



JACQUEMONTII 



Gum 



13,557 cwt., and in 1905-6, 10,678 cwt. The Rail and River-borne 

 trade returns show Bengal as the most important receiving province, and 

 mainly from the town of Calcutta, hence doubtless Burmese. The United 

 Provinces might be called the most important exporting centre, the 

 major portion of the supply going to Bombay town and Presidency. 



D.E.P., 

 i., 44. 

 Rita or 

 Soap Pod. 



Polishing Silver 

 Plate. 



Trade. 



Tan. 



D.E.P., 

 i., 48-50. 



Cassie 

 Perfume. 



D.E.P., 

 i., 51. 



A. concinna, DC. ; Fl. Br. Ind., ii., 296. A common prickly 

 scarident bush met with in tropical jungles throughout India. 



Since the pods of this bush are extensively used, as a detergent, they are 

 often confused with the SOAP NUT (siini itfukoroxxi), and, indeed, they 

 bear, as a rule, the same vernacular names viz. rita or ritha, but are some- 

 times separately distinguished as the ban (wild), ritha, sikakai, ailah, etc. These 

 detergent pods are largely employed in washing silk and woollen goods. Some 

 of the best tinctorial results are believed to be obtained only with yarn washed 

 with this form of soap previous to being dyed. They are extensively used in 

 washing the hair, and with much advantage in cleansing tarnished silver plate. 

 In Northern Bengal they are utilised in poisoning fish. The trade in detergent 

 pods must be very considerable in India as a whole. Collective returns are, 

 however, not available, but we read of from 10 to 135 tons being imported into 

 Bombay annually, and mainly from South Kanara. The Madras Mail (Jan. 

 1898) speaks of the local supply coming from Palghat and Vaniembaby, and 

 urges that an effort should be made to place these pods on the European market. 



The bark of this bush is to some extent used as a TAN for fishing-lines, and 

 is imported for tliis purpose into Bombay from Kanara. [Cf. Gamble, Man. 

 Ind. Timbs., 1902, 291 ; Cooke, Fl. Pres. Bomb., i., 450.] 



A. Farnesiana, Willd. ; Fl. Br. Ind., ii., 292. A small tree 

 best known in Europe as the Cassie Flower, and curiously enough is 

 in India denoted by comparative or descriptive names such as wilayati 

 (English) babul or kikar, pissi-babul, gu-kikar, Jcankar, vedda vala, gaya- 

 babul, murki tumma, naga tumma, kusturi, jdli, nanlongyaing , etc. It is 

 indigenous in America and possibly cosmopolitan in the tropics, is culti- 

 vated or naturalised all over India and Burma. 



It is largely grown in France on account of the rich PERFUME obtained from 

 the flowers. Although it yields a GTJM and other products similar to most 

 species, the chief interest centres in its " Cassie Flowers." The late Sir F. Abel, 

 in a letter to the Government of India, dated July 16, 1894, gives certain 

 interesting particulars regarding the success obtained by a tea-planter in Naini 

 Tal, in producing Cassie Pomade. Although a good deal of attention has been 

 given to this subject, little progress has as yet been made towards establishing 

 a trade in the perfume. It is probable that in India a difficulty might be found 

 to exist in preventing the lard or sweet oil, employed in the manufacture of the 

 pomade, from becoming rancid. But in the lower hills or terai where this tree 

 abounds, or might easily be cultivated, it seems possible that a useful auxiliary 

 crop to tea, coffee or even indigo planting, might be found in Cassie Pomade. 

 [Cf. J. C. Sawer, Odorography, 114-6.] 



A. Jaequemontii, Benth. ; Fl. Br. Ind., ii., 293. A small 

 handsome shrub with polished stems and thorns, and flowers sweetly 

 scented. It is met with in the North- West Himalaya up to 3,000 feet. 

 In the Panjab plains, in Sind, in Rajputana and in North Gujarat it is 

 often very abundant, especially within watercourses. 



Known in Afghanistan as the hanza, in the Panjab it appears to bear, as a 

 rule, the same vernacular names as A. nrabicn, but a sample recently received 

 from Amritsar, by the Reporter on Economic Products, bore the vernacular 

 names of dhakki and chota-kikar. In Rajputana it is called baonli or gulli bonli ; 

 in Gujarat it is the rdta-bdval ; in Baluchistan harbarbara ; and in Sind khunbut. 

 Captain M. A. Tighe, Political Agent, Southern Baluchistan, speaks of the gum 

 of this tree as one of the spurious gum arabics which are known in that country 

 as khorikhor. [Cf. Rept., dated March 14, 1898.] 



For some years past a considerable trade from Baluchistan and Sind has 



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