514 On the Natural Products about [No. 115. 



It is difficult to say with any exactness, at what price these gums might 

 be procured from the collectors, as the Bunnyas are very partial to the 

 truck system, and rarely pay in money if they can avoid it ; a state of 

 things almost natural in a country like this where money is scarce. 



Gum Resin. — Frankincense of the Boswellia thurifera, the olibanura 

 of the ancients. Of this a specimen is sent. The tree is very common 

 in the jungles. 



Resins Decamully. — This substance, formerly accounted a gum, 

 has been fully proved to be a resin. It is the produce of three 

 species of Gardenia, all exceedingly common. 



I am not aware that this article is yet employed for any economical 

 purpose, but it is a substance that certainly deserves the notice of 

 the artisan. It is very much used in native medicine. 



Oils. — Both varieties of the sesamum plant, black and white, are cul- 

 tivated, and from the seeds of the Bassia latifolia and Balbergia latifolia, 

 oils are expressed and used for common purposes. Two varieties of 

 the castor-oil are cultivated. I made a trial of the quantity of oil 

 that the kernel of the nuts of the Buchanania latifolia, ( ChirongyJ 

 would yield, and obtained an English pint from two seers of seed. 



This is an oil seldom or ever used by the natives. If it possesses the 

 drying quality of nut oils in general, it may become a valuable article 

 of commerce. The kernels of the Chirongy nuts are purchased at 

 Madhapore, from six to eight seers the rupee. 



The oil-press by which the oil was obtained, was of the simplest 

 construction. It consisted of two logs of teak, with a hole in the 

 extremity of each, through which passed a stake fixed in the ground, 

 the other two ends were left free, and rested on the bifurcation of 

 a strong piece of timber shaped like the letter Y. This was also fixed 

 in the ground ; the kernels were placed in a small bag formed of the 

 liber of the Sterculia urens ; they contained about half a pound, and 

 were set one above another at the middle of the lower beam, pressure 

 was then made by means of rope tied round the free extremities ; this 

 was done four or five times, the position of the bags being altered 

 each time. The whole apparatus did not cost half a rupee ; by it the 

 Mowah oil is always expressed in this part of the country. The 

 oil mill is used for most of the cultivated oil seeds, and castor-oil is 

 obtained in the usual mode, by pounding and boiling. 



