COTTON-WOOL. 



341 



plant is reckoned inferior to the common dessy. A quan- Appendix, 

 tity of this plant grows about Jeneda and Cullygunge in 

 Mahomedskye. 



I have heard of a fifth species of dessy kupas, called 

 beechun, which grows in Boosna. It is said to be sown 

 in Bysaak (April- May) with ouse-paddy, and to produce a 

 crop of about one and a-half maunds in Baudun (Aug.- 

 Sept.). It grows to the height of from twenty to thirty 

 inches. The seed of this crop put into the ground in the 

 month of Kautik (Oct.-Nov.) following will produce an- 

 other crop in Bysaak (April-May), of from two to three 

 maunds, and the plant of the second crop grows to the 

 height of four and a-half feet. Were it not for the small- 

 nessof the crop in Baudun (Aug.- Sept.), I should suspect 

 that this and the soondy are one and the same plant. 



The produce of each of these different plants is under- 

 stood to come under the description of dessy kupas. 

 They are either indiscriminately mixed before they are 

 brought for sale, or sold separately, as circumstances 

 render either expedient. 



Whether the several species I have mentioned include 

 the whole which come under the description of dessy 

 kupas, or not, I cannot pretend to say. I have seen a 

 muster of what was called the finest Dacca kupas, which 

 was said to have grown on the banks of the Lucka river, 

 and from w^hich the finest Dacca cloths, those particularly 

 , of Soonargong, are made. 



The kupas of this muster was all of one species, and 

 therefore finer than any of the musters of kupas I had 

 procured, which ^vere all evidently composed of different 

 sorts. It however did not appear superior, either in soft- 

 ness or texture, to some of the kupas of which my musters 

 were composed, and as the plant from which it was 

 I gathered was reported to be not higher than from twenty to 

 thirty inches, to be of a very tender nature, and to yield 



only 



