THE BORI FOREST 307 



from one tree, forest products of vast importance, which, 

 if exploited systematically, should bring in vast wealth 

 to the exchequer, and afford employment for the poor in 

 their collection. 



Even to enumerate all the products of all the trees and 

 plants of the jungle would require a volume. Among 

 them would be included tea, cinchona, indiarubber, 

 gums, frankincense, catechu, and various drugs ; wild 

 silks from ten or twelve different silkworms, besides 

 that of the mulberr\^ ; rhea* or china grass (which 

 from China is worth £60 a ton as a substitute for silk), 

 lac, and cochineal, which is a red insect found in the 

 forest. 



Among the products of trees is oil from the chaulmugra- 

 tree,t a specific against consumption ; thymol ; anti- 

 septic kino, from the Butea frondosa ; camphor, resin, 

 besides dye-stuffs and tan-stuffs innumerable. J The 

 frankincense-tree {Boswellia thurifera) grows very com- 

 monly on the Mahadeo hills. It has white, pinkish, 

 smooth bark like a naked limb, branches spreading in 

 ungraceful curves with a few leaves at the points, and 

 is tapped largely for its fragrant gum. Solomon sent 

 ships to Tarshish for this product, along with gold, apes, 

 and peacocks. As the Mysore forests produce the whole 

 list to the present day, it is probable that Tarshish was 

 Mysore. The old workings, which have been found 

 200 feet below the surface in the mines there, are a won- 

 derful proof of the advancement of engineering know- 

 ledge in the days of the wise king. We may find that 

 Mysores were boomed and quoted on the Jerusalem 



* Made from a kind of nettle, Urtica tenadssiJiia. 

 f Gynocardia odorata. 



% S&t Journal of the Society of Arts, March, 1879, paper by John 

 R. Jackson. 



20 — 2 



