WIII'M. SILK-COTTON li:i.l. 



I 



ERIODENDRON 



ANFRACTUOSUM 

 Kapok 



li(|ii<>r nf it, called bouzah, the same, probably.'^with the oinot 

 krtttunoB of the ancient-. This is very copiously drunk ly t!u> lower runk of 

 |irojilt." (See remarks regarding boza and mdrn under Cannabls saliva, p. 257). 

 In tin country tlm fermented liquor of 11, !,,< in called bojah or 



litijnli, and 100 years ago it was perhaps more extensively made than to-day. 

 (Tours in Gujarat, etc., 1787, 21) speaks of the adulteration of mowra liquor 

 with icwrifM runt. Tho liquor in <|iinBtion may have been the mania (Kirn*inr), 

 ourse it might have been mahua (<), which Hove in another passage 

 culls niinrr,!. In Nuimi'iM it is called daru (Bassla, soo p. 110). A similar beer 

 is iiuulii liore and there all over the Indian area of Kirn*inr, and throughout 

 11- llim.iliiya from Kashmir to Sikkim. It is, however, displaced in Assam and 

 the Naga hills by the beer made from < 'olx (dzu, see p. 396), also more recently 

 Kuropean Malt Liquors (see pp. 757-8). 



Area, Yield and Trade. The total area for all India devoted to this Total 

 crop averages from 5 \ to 6 million acres, of which nearly two-thirds are in 

 uth India. It is possible that were returns for Hyderabad (Deccan) and 

 ther States (not at present obtainable) added to the returned area, the 

 nd total would not be far short of 7,000,000 acres. The yield is variously Seven Million 

 ted at from 5 to 10 or more maunds per acre. If a yield of 400 Ib. ^ 

 be accepted as a safe mean average, expressed to the estimated acreage 

 that would show an annual production of 25,000,000 cwt. of edible grain Twenty-five 



a by no means insignificant item in India's food supply. To South * 

 India, which approximately consumes two-thirds of that amount, it is an 

 exceedingly important article of diet. There is no mention of this millet 

 in the foreign trade of India, so apparently the produce is entirely consumed 

 thin the country. 



ERIOBOTRYA JAPONICA, Limit. ; Fl. Br. Ind., ii., 372 ; D.E.P., 



Firminger, Man. Gard. Ind. (ed Cameron), 250 ; ROSACES. The loquat ul - 257 ' 

 or Japan Medlar. Loquat. 



A tree indigenous in China and Japan : cultivated in Northern and Eastern 

 India, and, like the litchi and other Chines* plants, is most successfully grown in 

 Assam. The fruit is much appreciated and comes into season about the middle 

 of March, and may be purchased almost everywhere in India for six weeks or two 

 months thereafter. 



D.E.P., 

 iii., 258-64. 



ERIODENDRON ANFRACTUOSUM, IX 1 . ; Fl Br. Ind., i., 

 350 ; MALVACEAE. This is the WHITE SILK- COTTON TREE, the KAPOK TREE 

 of the Dutch, and in India is the safed simal, senibal, katan, hatian, sham- Kapok. 

 eula, katsawar, ilavam, buruga, pur, kadami, dudi mara, pania, etc. Is 

 a moderate-sized tree fairly plentiful in some parts of Western and Southern 

 India and Burma, but doubtfully indigenous. Largely planted around 

 villages and temples, and if a demand arose- for it, of sufficient importance, 

 its production might be greatly extended. 



History. Jacobus Bontius (Hist Nat. et Med. Ind. Or., in Piso, Ind. Utri. re 

 Nat. et Med., 1658, 105) was perhaps the earliest author to figure and describe this 

 tree. He lived in Batavia in 1629, but it is not quite clear whether his Abor 

 Lanigera (which he identifies with the Gossampines of Pliny (bk. 12, ch. 10, 

 11) had been seen by him in the Malaya or in India. His engraving though 

 quaint, is unmistakable, but he describes the tree so minutely that without his 

 figure even, there would bo little difficulty in identifying the plant as i '. :</ miron. 

 The oblong pods produce wool that cannot be carded as it is too short, but through- 

 out India it is sought for as a material with which to stuff couches and cushions. 

 It is in passing worthy of remark that Bontius makes no mention of the true 

 cotton, nor of the red-silk-cotton tree, both of which he must have seen in India 

 at least. From this silence it may be inferred that the Abor Lanigera was a 

 Batavian tree. Rheede (Hort. Mai., 1682, iii., tt. 49-51) gives a sketch of it 

 not unlike that of Bontius, but his other pictures might be described as quite as 



521 



