30 



65. Crotalaria juncea : natural order, Leguminosa. For botanical de- 

 scription see Field and Garden Crops, 



Bam, synonym Ban. ~f _. , , , T ________ A ' 



part I, page 82, and plate LXXXII. 



This leguminous plant, -which, is grown in small patches for its fibre, 

 should be carefully distinguished from sankukra (also called san and sinjubdra), 

 which is Hibiscus cannabinus, natural order Malvacece, also grown for fibre, 

 which is planted as a hedge round cotton and cane fields. It is stated in 

 " Field and Garden Crops " that in the United Provinces the tops of sani are 

 cut off and given to cattle when the plants are in full flower, and Mr. Duthie 

 notes in his Flora of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, page 206, that the green plant 

 as well as tho seeds are sometimes given as food to milch cows. 



There are several species of Crotalaria which occur as wild plants in 

 the Punjab. The only two included in the list of fodder plants in the 

 Dictionary of Economic Products are Medicaginea and C. linifolia, but C. 

 burhia is valued for fodder in Rajputana (Flora of Indo-Gangetic Plain, 

 page 202), and it is unlikely that cattle neglect the others. 



66. Lepidiwm sativum : natural order, Cruciferce. For botanical de- 

 Halon scription see Hooker's Flora of British 



India, volume I, page 159, and illustra- 

 tion II appended. 



It is a very unimportant rabi crop. A few scattered plants are some- 

 times seen mixed with other crops. The seeds contain a good deal of oil. 

 Its use as fodder is not referred to in the " Field and Garden Crops of the 

 United Provinces" (part III, page 49), but Purser on page 185 of the 

 Jullundur Gazetteer mentions it as one of the spring iodder crops. It was 

 apparently introduced into India from the West, but its relation, Lepidium 

 draba, is a weed of cultivation in the Punjab and is one of the English wild 

 flowers. No doubt it is one of the plants weeded out of the fields, which finds 

 its way into the cattle trough, for it is greatly valued as green fodder at 

 Quetta, where it is a common weed (Dictionary of Economic Products, 

 volume III, page 415, and volume IV, page 626). 



67. Cichorium intybus : natural order, Composites. For botanical de- 

 K -, ni scription see Hooker's Flora of British 



India, volume III, page 391, and 

 plate LXXIV in Fuller and Duthie's " Food and Garden Crops." 



Chickory is an English wild plant and also grows wild in the North- 

 Western Himalaya. It is. found apparently wild in the Punjab plains, but 

 is there perhaps originally an escape from cultivation. 



It is grown alone or mixed with sarson as a fodder crop on wells in 

 Gurgaon and the Jhajjar tahsils of Eohtak. 



68. Carthamus tinctor'ws : natural order, Composites. For botanical 

 Ku,umbh, synonym kharar. description see Fuller and Duthie's Food 



and Garden Crops, part I, page 51, 

 and plate XIII. 



^ In the last twenty years the cultivation of safflower for the sake of the 

 dye yielded by the flowers has been killed by the introduction of aniline dyes. 

 About 1885 the area under safftower in the Hoshiarpur district exceeded 6,000 

 acres ; in'rabi 1911 47 acres were sown. The area in Ambala was nearly 5.000 

 acres in 1887-88. 



In Gujrat and Jhelum safflower is sown in lines in wheat fields like 

 sarson, and the plants are pulled out and fed to the cattle in January and 

 February. 



The ripe seed used to be valued in the United Provinces for its oil, 

 which was used to adulterate 'ghi, and the refuse made an excellent oil-cake 

 (Field and Garden Crops, page 51). But in Gujrat only enough is allowed to 

 ripen to provide for the next sowings. 



