J 52 BOTANY OF INDIA. 



ASPHODELE^. 



Very few examples of this family occur in India, and of 

 those we shall only speak of the bowstring-hemp {Sanse- 

 rtcra Zeyhnu a), v. mch Dr. Roxburgh thought migh be 

 cultivated to great advantage for the sake of its tibre. It is 

 a Dlant with one to four radical semi-cyhndncal leaves, one 

 to four feet long, with the flowers produced on a scape about 

 two feet in heiiht. The leaves contain a number of very 

 stron<^ white fibres, from which the natives manufacture 

 their "best bowstrings. Roxburgh obtained from eighty 

 Dounds of the fresh'leaves one pound of clean dry fibres, 

 and from h»lf the quantity of better leaves, in a second 

 experiment, the same weight of fibre ; and this quanti y 

 misht be produced on three square yards of ground. 1 

 am inclined to think," says the same naturalist "that the 

 fine hne called china-grass, which is employed tor hshing- 

 lines, fiddlestrings, and other purposes, is made from these 

 fibres." 



PALM.^. 



On some of the Indian species of this magnificent tnbe 

 we have already made some observations ; but they torm 

 too important a feature in the vegetation of the country, and 

 are too extensively useful to mankind, not to demand a more 

 particular notice. The fruit of the Areca catechu is the 

 Celebrated betel-nut, esteemed, both for its narcotic qualities 

 and as a fine preservative of the teeth and gums, by the 

 inhabitants of the East. It resembles a large nutmeg 

 enclosed in a thick membranaceous covering : when used it 

 is cut into small pieces, and eaten with the pungent leaf of 

 riper betel, spread over with chunam or delicate shell- 

 lime The palmvra-tree {Borassus flabelHformis), for- 

 merlV aUuded to as one of the largest Indian palms, is not 

 onlv a splendid but a most useful plant. The fruit forms 

 an 'article of food in various states of preparation, and 

 abundance of toddy, or palm-wine, is obtained by <lividing 

 the voun- spadix or branched receptacle of the fructifica- 

 tion; and collecting the juice which flows from the wounded 

 part. In old trees the wood, or that part which consti- 

 tutes the shell or circumference of the trunk, 1/ "f ^mgular 

 hardness and durability, and is much employed for the mak- 

 ing Of rafters for roofs, &c. The centre is composed only 



