74 On Jungle Products used as articles of food. [No. 2, 



found that the relative proportion of deserted houses and villages, the 

 result of the famine, to those still inhabited, would be much greater in 

 the open, cultivated parts of the district than in the densest jungles. 

 Indeed the jungles may be regarded to a certain extent as the saving 

 of the lower races of the population ; did they not afford nutritious 

 food in abundance, the result of a famine like that of 1866-7, would 

 probably be not merely decimation, but utter depopulation through- 

 out extended areas. 



It is not to be supposed that even those who are in the habit of using 

 this description of food regularly, for a greater or less portion of every 

 year, regard it as in any degree an equivalent to rice. Many have 

 spoken to me of eating Mhowa, which is by far the best of these 

 products, as being only better than suffering from absolute famine, and 

 they always consider themselves legitimate objects of charity, when 

 they can say they are living on it alone. 



The list which is appended to this paper, includes nearly 80 

 distinct species of plants which furnish articles of food. Owing 

 to the difficulty of identifying the fragmentary specimens which were 

 all that I could in some instances obtain, it has been impossible to 

 make it fully complete. I believe, however, nothing of importance has 

 been omitted. 



To S. Kurz, Esq. curator of the Herbarium in the Botanic gardens, 

 I am indebted for considerable assistance which has enabled me to 

 bring forward this paper sooner and in a more correct form than 

 would have been otherwise possible. 



The species mentioned are of course of varying importance, some 

 being merely edible, and in a few cases injurious if eaten in large 

 quantities ; while others, as the Mhowd, Sal, Bier. Bur, Pipdl, Singdrd, 

 Chehur, various roots of the species of Dioscorea, and many of the 

 varieties of Sag (leaves) may be considered as bond fide staple articles 

 of food. 



Bassia latifolia, Roxb. Mhowa, H. & B. 



The Mhowa is found in Bombay and Bengal ; those who have 

 not visited the more remote portions of one or other of these presiden- 

 cies, can hardly realize the importance of this tree as a source of food 



