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India. On thelower hills and serubby forest lands the collection of 
such articles as lae, cutch, india-rubber, wild silks, s, dyeing and 
tanning materials, medicinal products, paper-making grasses, etc., etc., 
afford by no means an insignificant contribution to the resources of the 
people who inhabit such regions. These non-agricultural crops 
they might be designated) are too numerous to be separately dealt with, 
and returns of the areas devoted to them cannot be ascertaine 
few countries in the world do wild products assume such importance as 
in India. Not only do the poor eke out their daily subsistence by wild 
"mers cera 
India for many years past. : 
It is hardly necessary, however, to specialise here and there the wild 
or semi-wild products that deserve consideration. Indi count 
attempt to acclimatise the plants of other countries. Much might, for 
example, be done by encouraging the people to grow, as hedges ro 
their fields, useful bushes instead of useless plants that have the exclusive 
or sources of dyes, tans, fibres, and other such products. This idea 
seems to be gaining ground far more in the Bombay Presidency than in 
other parts of India. It is not uncommon in Guzerat and Kathiawar, 
for example, to find miles of road-sides planted with the ornamental 
and useful bush, Cassia auriculata. But it may safely be said that in 
Western and Central India, thousands of square miles of country have 
he A 
serving no useful purpose at present, while the fibre from the bark 
might be found of value. Opuntia Dillenii (the prickly pear), though 
it affords an inferior fibre, might be utilised; it is a noxious weed, the 
utilisation of which would be of immense advantage to extensive tracts 
of country, especially in Southern India. Bauhinia Vahlii (the malu 
fibre) is a prevalent climber in the jungles of the lower hills, and might 
at little cost be cultivated over rocky country at present next to useless. 
Its fibre has the advantage of being capable of being bleached and dyed 
by the same processes as wool. At least one, if not two, species of 
Abutilon are wild plants in very nearly every district of India. Their 
fibres very much resemble that of Sida. Another bast fibre, Pavonia, 
is probably superior to Sida. Malachra was once on a time experi- 
mentally grown in Bombay as a substitute for jute, and reported a 
ilure; but even if that opinion be correct, it might very possibly be 
found a success in Madras or Burma. 
These are only a few out of the many fibrous plants of India, and a 
similar enumeration might be given of dyes, tans, oils, medicines, and 
