.182 ON ORISSA PROPER 



thorny shrubs, which probably have never yet been honored with a place and 

 name in any system of botany. It is remarkable that the natives have a name 

 for almost every plant, however humble or devoid of beauty, which may 

 .arise perhaps fromJthe circumstance of their consuming the wild berries and 

 fruits, to a very great extent, in aid of. their limited means of subsistence. 

 The Calamus Rotang, or ground Cane, is every where common, and seems 

 ,in many parts to ..form a sort of Nucleus, about which the other brush wood 

 and jungle collects in small patches. During the hot months and the rains 

 the rich and gaudy flowers of the Capparis trifoliata,* called by the natives 

 Barun, and the scarlet blossoms of the Palas (Butea frondosa,) interspersed 

 with quantities of the Gloriosa superba, which grows quite wild, lend an 

 air of splendour and gaiety even to these cheerless and uninviting tracts of 

 jungle. In the cold weather they receive another brilliant tinge of colour- 

 ing from a parasitical plant the Loranthus Bicolor, of scarlet and yellow 

 hue, which covers the larger trees in great profusion, and from the young- 

 floral leaves as well as the inflorescence of a sort of creeper, the Combretum 

 Decandrum, which ascends and overhangs the whole woods in large whitish 

 masses, distinguishable by .the contrast of their hue from a considerable dis- 

 tance. Amongst the bulbous, monandrous, and gramineous plants, which 

 bedeck or clothe the surface of the ground, a species of Pancratium, the wild 

 turmeric, and the Andropogon aciculatum and muricatum occur most fre- 

 quently. In the pools and marshes, water-lilies of all colours, and also the 

 true Lotus, sacred Bean Lily or Nelumbium speciosum, are found in abun- 

 dance. 



The vegetable dies procured from the hills, are chiefly the Bacam or Sap- 

 pan wood, the Aal or Achii (Morinda citrifoliaj the culture of which is little 

 attended to in the plains, and the flowers of the Butea frondosa. 



* There are two species of the Capparis in this district, or perhaps they are only varieties 

 of the Capparis Trifoliata. The one grows as a straggling shrub, and has a remarkably rich and 

 beautiful blossom, the petals of which are, when young, pale green, afterwards yellow, and the stami- 

 na of a bright purple hue. The other rises to the height of a small tree. The leaves of the latter grow in 

 threes, exactly answering to the specific character, and the flower is pretty, but less superb, than that 

 of the first mentioned sort. The natives distinguish them -by the appellations of Arun and Barun. 



