616 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XI. 



Firminger says that this plant is unquestionably a "Handsome flower- 

 in o- shrub," along with its congener C. Hamiltonii (which, by the way, 

 is no other than C. procera), and " nothing but their extreme common- 

 ness in the jungle and by the way-side excludes them from admission 

 into the garden. ("Manual of Gardening/' p^ 532, H. St. John Jackson's 

 Edition, Calcutta, 1890). 



Surgeon- General Balfour of Madras speaks of a Manna produced from 

 this plant [op. c^.), under the name of Maddr-ka-Shakar. Dr. Dymock 

 has the following remark to make a propos of this sugary exudation, in 

 the Pharmacographia Indica (Vol. II, p. 430) : — " According to Burhan, 

 ' (Jshr ' is a Persian name for all plants having a milky juice, and 

 especially for the plant known in Hindustan as Ak. It would therefore 

 seem that Ushar is not an Arabic word, as generally stated in the 

 dictionaries, but of Arian (Aryan? K.R.K.) origin, and perhaps 

 connected with the Sanskrit ' Ush ' to burn." * * * " The 

 author of the Minhaj describes Sakar-el-Usliar as a gum which 

 exudes from the inflorescence of the plant and gradually hardens. 

 He remarks that people say that it is a dew which falls upon the 

 plant and concretes like manna. 5 ' I have examined hundreds of plants 

 of Mudar — (Calotropis giganlea), but I have failed to find the manna 

 on any part thereof. When quoting the popular belief about the exuded 



the Saharanpur District in the month of February." This is reproduced f iom the Tropical 

 Agriculturist, Colombo, page 478, January, 1898. Contrast with this the following from the 

 pen of M. Cathiravalo in the same Journal at page 472. This writer after trying the 

 experiment of growing the plant on " Temple Bar," Sir Gramme Elphiostone's Estate on 

 Pallai sent to England some cotton produced on the estate. Of course by cotton is meant 

 the silky comose tuft on the top of the seeds. Mr. Cathiravalo says it was pronounced 

 excellent. He adds:—" I have seen fishermen getting the fibre and making ropes out of it 

 for their nets." At page 473 of the same Journal another writer signing himself B, writes 

 thus about the fibre of Calotropis gigantea :— I sent home a sample of this fibre some ten 

 years ago unnamed. It was prepared by hand, regardless of cost, and the brokers classed it 

 as the finest Rhea, value I think £ 36 or £ 38 per ton. I do not remember the percentage 

 of fibre from the weight of stems cut, but it was rather higher than that from Bhea stems 

 obtained at the same time: the latter were grown though under shade. The Calotrop is 

 would doubtless be improved by cultivation. (The Italics are mine.— K". R. K.). Read in this 

 connection the concluding portion of Mr. Gleadow's remarks— " As to cultivation I con- 

 sidered the matter twenty years ago, and catre to the conclusion that it could not pay, and 

 think so still, principally on the ground that the plant is ci a straggling light- demanding 

 habit, and could probably not be grown d^nse enough io give any considerable yield, but 

 I made no experiments on the point, and that is the only reliable source of information. ," (1 he 

 Italics are mine. — K. R. K.). 



