MANUAL OF THK -NiLAGIRI m STRICT, 133 



CHAPTER VI I. 

 THE USEFUL PLANTS OF THE nIlAGIRIS. 



{By Surgeon-Major Bidie, m.b., Government Museum, Madras.) 



Introductory remarks. — Substances used as Food, &c. — Pulses — Cereals — Roots 

 and tubers — Fruits and seeds — Greens — Substances used in the preparation 

 of drinks— Intoxicating Substances — Spices and condiments. — Substances 

 USED IN Manufactures — Oils and seeds — Dyes and tanning substances — 

 Fibres. — Drugs. 



As a supplement to the monograph on the Flora in this Manual, CHAP. Vll. 

 I have been asked to furnish a memorandum on the useful plants of useful 

 the Nilagiris. As Colonel Beddome has enumerated the various Plants. 

 timber trees belonging to the range, it remains for me only to notice j , "T 7" . 

 other plants, used as food or medicines, or in the arts. The list of remarks, 

 these in a district presenting such varieties of climate and possess- 

 ing such a rich flora is, it need hardly be said, rather an extensive 

 one. It will be impossible therefore, within a reasonable compass, 

 to do more than notice the more important products, and even 

 these notices must be brief. The most scientific mode of 

 arranging the articles would of course be according to the natural 

 orders to which the plants belong, but as the great majority of 

 those who may have occasion to consult the list will not be 

 botanists, it has been deemed preferable to subordinate the 

 botanical classification to a practical one, grouping the plants, in 

 the first instance, according to their economical uses. Except in 

 the case of some very important products, such as cinchona, tea 

 and coffee, no notice will be taken of plants which have been 

 introduced from other countries and are merely cultivated as 

 curiosities in gardens, or to a very limited extent. The three 

 primary classes under which the several substances will be 

 arranged are therefore as follows : — 



I. Substances used as food, &c. 

 IL Substances used in manufactures. 

 in. Drugs. 



I.— SUBSTANCES USED AS FOOD, &C. Substances 



used as food. 



Of these I shall first notice pulses and cereals. 



