CORCHORUS 



OLITORIUS 



Jute 



THE JUTE PLANT 



A Weed of 

 Cultivation. 



Edible Form. 



Error 

 committed. 



Descrip- 

 tion. 



African versus 

 Indian. 



Habitat. 



Claim to being 

 Indigenous. 



Races. 



f. 2810 (but fruit a little too pointed) ; Richter, Codex. Bot. Linn., 1840, 

 525 (shows that Linn, first included Pluk., t. 127, f. 3, under this species 

 and subsequently placed it under C. cestuans, Sp. PL, 1762, 746 ; but 

 Linn, cites in addition Browne, Triumfetta, in Nat. Hist. Jam., 232, t. 25, 

 f. 1 a plate that in my opinion is rather C. acutangulus) ; Martius, 

 Fl. Bras., 1842, xii., pt. iii., 126 ; Prain, Beng. Plants, i., 286 ; etc., etc. 



The vernacular names usually given to this species cannot be accepted 

 as separately distinguishing it, though ban-pat is its most general name 

 a circumstance indicative of its frequency as a weed of cultivation. So 

 also the fibre of this form is perhaps that very generally designated as 

 desi pat or tosha. Moreover the plant is (even in India) the edible species of 

 authors, and it is just possible that it corresponds with the Jew's Mallow and 

 even the melochia of the early writers. Mukerji (Handbook Ind. Agri., 1901, 

 298) would, however, seem to think C. capsularis is the vegetable and 

 C. olitorius the medicinal form. It is thus possible that the tender 

 shoots of both species are eaten. The Indian names ndlita (a corruption 

 of the Sanskrit nadika), nutia, narich, sag, etc. may, however, be accepted 

 as mainly denoting the present species. It is, therefore, somewhat sur- 

 prising that the plant figured by Rumphius as the sag of Bengal should 

 have been C. capsularis. This was most probably a mistake due 

 to his not having personally investigated the Bengal plant. The Ganja 

 saliva of Rumphius (his cultivated species) is undoubtedly, however, C. 

 capsularis, while his Ganja agrestis (or the wild form) is not a species of 

 Corchorus at all. It would thus seem fairly certain that Linnaeus was 

 in error when he identified the latter as C. olitorius, and to this 

 error very possibly is attributable the statement, made perhaps more 

 emphatic than the facts justify, viz. that C. olitorius is indigenous to 

 India. But it is curious that Rumphius should have regarded C. 

 capsularis as the special cultivated form, since in Egypt, Africa, America 

 and India, C. olitorius is the edible and hence the cultivated plant of 

 most non-Indian authors. Sir William Jones while discussing the sand 

 (Crotalaria juncea] incidentally speaks of the " Capsular Corchorus," so 

 that by 1795 the two forms may be assumed to have been accepted by 

 Indian botanical authors as distinct. 



The leaves of c. oiuarins are usually glabrous, except on the petioles 

 and veins of the undersurface ; the flowers are seemingly larger than in ('. 

 fni>nniarin ; the capsule is elongate, cylindrical, usually not materially tapered 

 at either end, glabrous, smooth, beak long, straight, cells and valves generally 

 four but five not uncommon. It would seem that the fruits are longer, thicker 

 and smoother in the African than in the Indian forms, though apparently the 

 fruit is smooth when collected mature and warted when immature. Some of 

 the African and Egyptian forms have the fruit tapered at both ends : this is 

 not true of the Indian plant. 



Habitat. In the Flora of British India (I.e. 397) it is observed of this species 

 that it is indigenous in many parts of India, and distributed by cultivation to all 

 tropical countries. The chief centres of its Indian cultivation are the districts of 

 Bardwan, Khulna, 24-Parganas, Hughli, etc., but it is met with here and there 

 completely acclimatised on roadsides and margins of fields all over India and 

 Burma. Its claim to being strictly speaking indigenous, however, rests on 

 doubtful evidence. It is certainly more frequently and more widely met with 

 in India than is C. captmiHrift. It seems also fairly certain that in India it is 

 a much less variable plant than the " Capsular Corchorus." But it may be said 

 that while all the forms met with in the Indian jute area do not (on the botanical 

 standard) amount to more than cultivated races, there are numerous allied forms 

 met with in Africa, Egypt and America that perhaps deserve to be recognised 

 as definite varieties. But on the other hand several plants described by botanists 



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