516 On the Natural Products about [No. 115. 



known. The fishermen in the rains collect it, beat out the fibres, and 

 twist them for their nets. I shall endeavour, although the plant is out of 

 season, to procure a specimen of this hemp, which I shall forward ; and I 

 have left directions at Chinnore, that a parcel be sent to Hyderabad, 

 towards the end of the rains ; at which time the plant is gathered, that a 

 comparison be instituted between its strength and that of the various 

 hemps, whether the produce of this country or of Europe. It is 

 also said to yield a species of caoutchouc. I propose starting from 

 Chinnore en route to Cummurret this evening. 



Note on Timber. 



Although valuable teak is not the produce of this part of the 

 Nizam's dominions, (for the greater part growing here is adapted 

 solely for props and rafters,) yet as Madhapore is the great depot 

 from which the wood is sent to Hyderabad, &c. a brief notice res- 

 pecting it may not be deemed out of place. The teak (Tectona 

 grandis) grows to a large size in the country to the north of Chinnore, 

 about eighty miles distant; chiefly in the territory of the Raja of 

 Nagpore, along the banks of the streams tributary to the Pundeelah. 

 Other valuable timber, particularly the Diospyrus melanoxylon, yielding 

 black ebony, and another species of Diospyrus yielding green, a Dal- 

 bergia called by the natives shesum ; but which may not, however, 

 be the real sissoo, but rather its near ally the Dalbergia latifolia, for 

 from such observers accuracy the distinguishing species is not to be 

 expected — all these different woods were floated down some years 

 ago by the house of W. Palmer and Co., but at the present time teak, 

 and a very small quantity of shesum, are the only kinds cut. I have 

 merely native report as to the extent of the forests yielding these 

 woods, but they are described as of great extent. During the dry months 

 the teak- trees are felled — they are conveyed sometimes on carts, but 

 more frequently by bullocks yoked to them to Eeroo, or Agree, a village 

 fifty miles up the Pundeelah from its junction with the Godavery. 

 Nullahs in the rains are also taken advantage of for the same purpose. 

 It is well known, that the natives prefer the period when the moon is 

 on the wane for cutting timber, assigning as a reason, its liability 

 to be attacked by insects when cut at the period of the moon's 

 increase. When we acknowledge, as is now usually done, lunar influence 



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