Foreign Notices : — India, America, 379 



in the tree, which draws the sap to that part, and the tree is then cut for fire- 

 wood, reserving this portion filled with turpentine for candles. I was sur- 

 prised to find how long they burned ; during a meal, a piece is placed between 

 two stones, and it burns with a large flame and a black smoke for half an hour. 

 At jEzani they brought some of this resinous wood to light our fire ; and when 

 any one of our party quitted the room, he, with his large knife (a weapon which 

 all carry), split off a sHp which served him for a candle. We met people 

 in the streets at Kootaya carrying them ; but the rich use tallow candles, 

 in the excellent and elegant lantern of the East, made of folded paper." 

 {Journey, 8fc., p. 140.) 



INDIA. 



Education in Travancore. — The rajah of Travancore has done what has 

 not been done in England, Scotland, or Ireland ; he has established a 

 school in every village of his dominions, and he gives education to every 

 child, male and female. There is not a child in his dominions, that has 

 reached eight years of age, who is not capable of reading and writing. The 

 rajah is only twenty-eight years of age, and he was educated by his prime 

 minister, a Brahmin, who was educated by Elias Swartz, the author of Flora 

 Botnnica. (Sir David Brewster, at the British Association in Glasgoiv; as reported 

 in Lit. Gaz., Oct. 31. 1840.) 



The Roses of Ghazeepore. — In the beginning of July we embarked on the 

 Ganges, now full to the brim. If any person wishes to luxuriate among roses, 

 let him repair to Ghazeepore, where the whole country, for some hundred or 

 two of square miles, is thickly covered with them. Rose-water and the ex- 

 quisite attar of roses are, consequently, cheaper here than in any other part of 

 India; though the latter, when genuine, must always be a most expensive 

 article, from the enormous consumption of roses in its preparation. It takes 

 a prodigious quantity of the petals to make an ounce of attar; and to produce 

 a quart bottle would require, I suppose, a heap about as big as St. Paul's. 

 {Trifles from my Portfolio, by a Staff Surgeon, vol. i. p. 184.) 



AMERICA. 



Ma2Jle Sugar. — In a former communication I alluded to the great blessing 

 which, thanks to a kind Providence, the people of the middle, western, and 

 northern states enjoy, in the excellent hght-coloured sugar made by them 

 very early in the spring, by tapping the sugar maple tree. Immense quantities 

 are annually made. The following fact on this subject is just published. 

 " General Chauncy Eggleton has the most extensive sugar camp in the State 

 of Ohio ; it is situated in Auburn, Geauga County, His sugar-house is 

 furnished with fixtures and apparatus for manufacturing 500 lb. of sugar daily. 

 A reservoir capable of containing 60 or 80 barrels receives the sap, whence 

 it is drawn into iron pans placed over a furnace, to be boiled down, and trans- 

 ferred again to a large kettle for ' sugaring off.' 2700 trees have been tapped 

 this year, though the season has not been favourable for making sugar. In 

 some seasons he has made as much as 10,000 lb. The quantity made by him 

 in one season, three or four years since, brought ;^1230." The expense of the 

 fixtures, apparatus, and capital is trifling, compared with the requisites for 

 the beet sugar manufactory, at which no attempts have been made in the 

 United States. — J. M. Philadelphia, April 16. 1841. 



Royal Botanic Garden, Berlin, June 11. 1841. — Very near three j'ears 

 have passed since I had the pleasure of writing to you. Since that time I 

 have seen a good deal of foreign countries. Before I left home, October, 

 1838, I mentioned to you that I was preparing for an expedition to the 

 Havannah, with the intention of collecting plants, and other objects of natural 

 history. Dr. Pfeiffer, the author of the Monograph of Cactece, went with me : 

 his intention was particularly to discover some new Cacti, and also shells, as 

 he is at the same time a good conchologist. Unfortunately he did not find a 



