TRICHOSANTHES 



ANQUINA 



THE SINGHARA NUT 



D.E.P., 



vi., pt. iv., 

 73-5. 



Water 

 Chestnut. 



Ain-i-Akbari. 



Seasons. 



Production. 



Races. 



Extended 

 Production. 



D.E.P., 



vi., pt. iv., 

 81-5. 



when exposed to the air (Crawfurd, Journ. to Ava, 1834, ii., 178; Collingwood, 

 Rambles of a Nat., 1868, 426.) 



The following are species of less value : 



Emyda granosa : Boulenger, I.e. 17. The bungoma is a river turtle found in 

 the Indus and Ganges. Its flesh is eaten. 



Testudo elegans : Boulenger, I.e. 21 ; Rice, Gaz. Mysore, 1877, i., 157- A land 

 tortoise, found all over India except Lower Bengal. Its flesh is eaten by the 

 Natives, and in Burma is especially esteemed as a delicacy. [Cf. Terry, Voy. 

 E. 2nd., 1655, 9.] 



TRAPA BISPINOSA, Itojb. ; Fl. Br. Ind., ii., 590; Duthie and 

 Fuller, Field and Garden Crops, iii., 32-4, t. xcviii ; Cooke, Fl. Pres. 

 Bomb., i., 518 ; Duthie, Fl Upper Gang. Plain, 1903, 358 ; Pram, Beng. 

 Plants, 1903, i., 508 ; ONAGRACE^E. The Singhara Nut, Water Chestnut, 

 singhdra, paniphal, gaunri, shingodd, kubyakam, karim-polam, etc. A 

 floating herb, found in lakes, tanks and pools throughout India and 

 Ceylon ; often specially cultivated for its edible fruit. [Cf. Cyperus 

 esculentus, p. 465.] 



This aquatic plant has been grown in India from the most ancient times. 

 Ball suggests that it may be the edible fruit which Garcia de Orta describes under 

 the name das caceras (1563, Coll., xi. ; also in Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad., 3rd ser., 1889- 

 91, i., 397), but that I am disposed to regard as a mistake. It is, however, men- 

 tioned in the Ain-i-Akbari (1590) as one of the crops on which revenue wfes levied 

 (Jarrett, transl., 1891, ii., 65). In certain parts of the country the kernels are 

 ground down and employed for making the coloured powder (gulal) used during 

 the H6li festival. The flour, moreover, is considered by the Natives a cooling 

 and useful article of food in bilious affections and diarrhoea, and it is in addition 

 employed in the preparation of poultices. Both the kernels and the flour 

 made from them are largely used as food, and in all localities where the plant 

 occurs in any quantity. In fact it may be said to be extensively cultivated, 

 e.g. in Kashmir, the United and Central Provinces, etc. For this purpose the 

 fruits or nuts are scattered over the water at the end of January and pressed into 

 the mud. In a month they begin to throw out shoots, and in June the plants are 

 thinned out and transplanted. The nut forms under water in October, and is 

 gathered in November and December. A highly instructive account of singhdra 

 cultivation will be found in Sir Walter Lawrence's Valley of Kashmir (1895, 72, 

 345, 354-5). He speaks of it as less cultivated now than formerly. Moorcroft 

 (Travels, 1823, ii., 136, 227) estimated the production at 384,000 maunds of nuts 

 a year, but in Lawrence's opinion the production to-day might be more safely 

 returned at 100,000 maunds. He observes, " Of the chief varieties the best is 

 called basmati, in honour of the rice of that name. The baamati is a small nut 

 with a thin skin, and gives one-third of kernel for two-thirds of shell. The 

 dogru is a larger nut with a thicker shell, and the kangar has a very thick shell 

 with long projecting horns and gives the least kernel of all." 



A more extended cultivation of the singhdra nut in all localities where water 

 abounds has been advocated at various times, and experimental cultivation in 

 the reservoirs and lakes of the Madras Presidency has been specially recommended. 

 The kernel abounds in starch, and is eaten either raw or cooked, especially by 

 Hindus. It may be boiled whole, after soaking a night in water, roughly broken 

 up and mad into a sort of porridge, or ground to meal' and made into chapattis. 

 [Cf. Paulua jEgineta (Adams, Comment.), iii., 378; Jones, As. Res., ii., 350-1 ; 

 Forster, Travels, 1798, ii., 29 ; Sleeman, Rambles of an Official, 1844, i., 101 ; 

 Fortune, Tea Dist. of China, 1853, ii., 11 ; Journ. Agri.-Hort. Soc. Ind., 1878, 

 n.s., v., lii.-v. ; Simmonds, in Ind. Agrist., Feb. 16, 1889, 91 ; The Bower Manuscript 

 (Hoernle, transl.), 1893-7, 106, 121 ; Agri. Ledg., 1896, No. 39, 414 ; Craddock, 

 Rept. Land. Rev. Settl., Nagpur, 1899, 68; Woodrow, Gard. in Ind., 1903, 322; 

 Firminger, Man. Gard. Ind., 1904, 233.] 



TRICHOSANTHES, Linn. ; FL Br. Ind., ii., 606-10 ; Prain, 

 Beng. Plants, 1903, i., 517-8 ; Duthie, Fl Upper Gang. Plain, 1903, 362-5 ; 

 Cooke, Fl. Pres. Bomb., i., 525-7; CUCURBITACE.E. A genus of cucur- 



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