SUPERSTITIONS OF THE NATIVES. 129 



grant, and beautiful yellowish-white flowers are produced in 

 vast numbers amid the dark-green foliage, and are suc- 

 ceeded by oblong cones of purple capsules, from which the 

 scarlet seeds are suspended by delicate white threads. This 

 noble tree will bear, there is little doubt, the climate of 

 Great Britain ; and to try the experiment, at least, is one of 

 the many laudable objects to which Dr. Wallich looks for- 

 ward on his return to India. 



The flower of the champac, which is either a species of 

 Magnolia or Michelia, is frequently praised by Sanscrit 

 poets for its elegant appearance in the black hair of the In- 

 dian women. A blue-flowering champac is said to exist ; 

 but the Bramins insist that it flowers only in Paradise. 



MALVACEAE. 



Malvaceous plants abound in the tropics, forming, ac- 

 cording to Humboldt, one-fiftieth of the flowering plants. 

 In India they are very numerous, and many species are put 

 to economical use. In China the well-known Hibiscus 

 Rosa Sinejisis is used by the people to blacken their eye- 

 brows and the leather of their shoes. The difterent species 

 of Gossypmm which furnish the cotton of commerce, and 

 some of which are cultivated in India, belong to this place. 

 Hibiscus cannabimis, the gong-kura of the Telingas, is 

 much cultivated by the natives. According to Roxburgh, 

 its leaves are used as an esculent vegetable, tasting like 

 sorrel ; and the bark is converted into a substitute for hemp, 

 to which, however, it is in every respect greatly inferior. It 

 is an herbaceous plant, from three to seven feet in height, 

 with handsome flowers. 



DIPTEROCARPEjE. 



The saul-tree {Sharea robusta) is a magnificent and much- 

 esteemed forest-tree ; it is indeed regarded as a staple 

 timber of Hindostan, and produces the best resin in the con- 

 tinent of India for naval and other purposes. The natives 

 also prefer it to bum as incense in their temples. Lord 

 Teicnmiouth and Sir William Jones collected evidence of 

 this tree being employed in some of the superstitious prac- 

 tices of the country, which are too interesting not to trans- 

 cribe : " To ascertain with a degree of certainty the per- 

 sons guilty of practising witchcraft, the three following 



