220 DICTIONARY OF POPULAR NAMES INDIAN 



the Himalaya. Their bark is by a process of manufacture 

 made into sheets about a yard square, remarkable for tough- 

 ness, durability, and freeness from the attack of insects, and 

 it is in general use in India for all purposes to which paper 

 is applied. 



Indian Shot {Canna indica), a well-known ornamental plant 

 of the Arrowroot family (Marantaceas), said to be a native of 

 India, but now indigenous to most tropical countries. It takes 

 its name from the seeds being black and extremely hard, about 

 the size of swan-shot. There are many varieties which are 

 very beautiful summer decorative plants, and much used in 

 what is termed sub-tropical gardening. Canna edulis is culti- 

 vated in the West Indies, its fleshy rhizomes yielding a large 

 quantity of starch, which is used for food known as Tons les 

 mois. 



India-rubber Trees. (See Caoutchouc.) 



Indigo {Indigofera tindoria), a slender twiggy shrub of the 

 Bean family (Leguminosae), with winged leaves, attaining a 

 height of 3 or 4 feet, native of India, and an allied species, 

 I. Anil, native of the West Indies, have become very generally 

 disseminated throughout the tropics and sub -tropics of both 

 hemispheres. To obtain the blue colouring matter known as 

 Indigo the whole plant is immersed in w^ater, where it under- 

 goes fermentation and maceration by heating ; the water is then 

 drawn off and allowed to settle, the blue matter in suspension 

 falls to the bottom, the clear water is then poured away, and the 

 muddy settlement is dried and made into cakes of various 

 sizes. In Jamaica and parts of tropical America its cultivation 

 has been abandoned, India supplying nearly sufficient for the 

 demand, the import in 1880 being 59,873 cwts. (£1,698,374). 

 The recent discovery of the means of preparing artihcial 

 Indigo by a chemical process will no doubt in course of 

 time seriously affect the Indian plantations. Indigo is also 

 obtained from several other plants. 1. In Egypt from 

 Tephrosia Apollinea, and on the Niger from T. toxicaria, slender 

 shrubs of the Bean family (Leguminosi^.), allied to Indigofera. 



