196 



POPULAE ECONOMIC BOTANY. 



this respect alone did the poor creature think herself very 

 unfortunate^ for her poverty she did not feeL Rent to the 

 Eajah^ tax to the police^ and rates to the Brahminee priest, 

 are all paid from an acre of land, yielding so wretched a 

 crop of barley, that it more resembled a fallow-field than a 

 harvest-field. All day long she is boiling down the catechu- 

 wood cut into chips, and pouring the decoction into large 

 wooden troughs, where it is inspissated.^^ 



Dr. Hooker thus describes the Acacia Catechu : — " The 

 plant is a little thorny tree (dire enemy of mine), erect, 

 and spreading a rounded coma of well-remembered prickly 

 branches. Its wood is yellow, with a dark brick-red heart : 

 it is most productive in January, and useless in June.''^ 

 ■ The catechu made from the Acacia Catechu is also called 

 Cutch and Terra Japonica. The first of these names is 

 derived from cate, a tree, and cht, juice. The term Cutch 

 is said to be also from the native language, in which it is 

 called Kiitt. The term Terra Japonica was applied by 

 European pharmaceutists when the substance was first im- 

 ported as a kind of astringent earth from Japan. In com- 

 merce one variety is termed Catechu, and another Cutch, 

 although the source is the same. The former has been poured 

 out upon mats, when about the consistency of honey, and 



