184L] On the Geology, Sfc. Sfc. 475 



best sago, the natives make it into bread and boil it into thick gruel ; these 

 form a great part of the diet of those people, and during the late famines 

 they suffered little, while those trees lasted. I have reason to believe this 

 substance to be highly nutritious. I have eaten the gruel, and think it 

 fully as palatable as that made from the sago we get from the Malay coun- 

 tries.' 



The fronds make a better cordage than those of the Elate sylvestris 

 commonly used by the Coonbies. 



The worst property of this palm is the only one with which the natives 

 are familiar, the inexhaustible supply of Toddy which it yields. 



Butea Frondosa (Palas) Butea Superba. 



Both these, and especially the last, which is a magnificent climber with 

 a trunk of the thickness of a man's body, yield the palas gum or East 

 India kino as it has been called ; of this a specimen is sent. Dr. Royle has 

 lately estimated the quantity of tannin, which this gum yields at no less 

 than 50 per cent, two per cent more than that yielded by the Catechu of 

 Bengal. 



Tannin is the substance which, by combining with the gelatine of hides 

 forms leather, and is that which gives to oak bark, Aleppo galls, Valonia, 

 &c. their high commercial value. Although every second tree in this 

 part of Telingana is the Palas, there is not one ounce of gum collected, 

 being reckoned wholly useless and unprofitable by the natives* 



I cannot help thinking that this production will soon be looked on as 

 very valuable in the arts, should this happen, they will not be wanting a 

 supply from Telingana, where both Buteas are so common. 



Rohuna tree — Swietenia Febrifuga. 



The bark of this tree is the well known febrifuge— On the authority of 

 Dr. Ainslie, certainly very respectable — Dr. Lindley, in his valuable works 

 has stated that given in large doses it is apt to produce nervous symptoms 

 and hence objects to its use — does not the very same objection apply to 

 Cinchona ? 



Besides the evidence of any one physician on the febrifuge properties 

 of a medicine is wholly insufficient, for what is so common as head affec- 

 tions in tropical fevers. With the permission of the resident, I shall send 

 a parcel of the bark to the medical store-keeper of H. H. the Nizam's 

 Army, that it may be sent to Britain for trial in the less bulky form of an 

 extract. 



Wrightea Antidysenterica. 



The bark of this small tree is the once celebrated Conessi bark, 'it is 

 said to have got into disuse from other inert barks being substituted for 



O 



