FORESTS OF MYSORE DISTRICT 



purchase by' the public. Sandalwood is used in 

 India for carving and ornamental purposes, by 

 Hindoos for marking their foreheads, and for 

 burning with the dead on the funeral pyre, by 

 Parsees in fire worship, and for the extraction of 

 oil as a perfume ; while it is used in European 

 countries for the extraction from it of a perfectly 

 pure oil for use medicinally, the samples obtainable 

 locally being usually very much adulterated. 



The beeswax obtained from these forests is 

 made by three different species of wild bees, but 

 the only one which yields any considerable quantity 

 is the large and savage Apis ferox, whose combs 

 are hung upon branches of forest trees or under 

 overhanging- rocks, and are often of very large 

 size. A second species a tiny bee about half the 

 size of a common house-fly, and devoid of a sting 

 nests in hollow trees, and yields a small quantity 

 of honey of excellent quality ; while a third, rather 

 larger than the preceding, nests in holes in the 

 oround. 



O 



Myrabolams are yielded by a small tree termed 

 the gall-nut tree (Terminalia arjuna], which 

 produces an exceedingly precarious crop, varying in 

 marketable value year by year in inverse ratio to 

 its quantity, and whose value also depends to some 

 extent upon the size and condition of the nuts 

 composing it. 



A species of plant belonging to the ginger tribe 

 yields the wild or jungle saffron, which is used in 

 cooking and in colouring the skin ; but its marketable 

 value is now so low as to produce little more than 



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