332 



JOURNAL R. A. S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. HI. 



One of the supposed plants, the "Jews' Mallow," (Ghor- 

 chorus olitorhis), is indigenous here ; but in passing from 

 Alexandria to Cairo in Egypt lately, and keeping my eyes 

 open, particularly with reference to such subjects, I saw 

 several plots of ground planted with the real Mallow, and 

 cultivated evidently with great care, while I did not detect 

 any of "the Jews' Mallow" so cultivated. 



There is no species of the genus to which the Mallow 

 belongs indigenous here,* but those gorgeous flowering Holy- 

 hocks now so common in our gardens, and the ®gs3 9©«3.ICj 

 maha-anodd of the Sinhalese (Abu ti Ion Indicum) so very 

 commonly used by the Natives as a Medicine, are no unlit 

 representatives of the Mallow. Another of the plants which 

 the original word in Job may indicate, is the Sahola Indica, 

 and which, according to the testimony of the late Dr. Rox- 

 burgh, " saved the lives of many thousands of the poor natives 

 of India during the famine of 1791-2-3 : for while the plant 

 lasted, most of the poorer classes who lived near the sea had 

 little else to eat." In years when the Rice crop fails in the 

 Island of Delft, in the Northern Province, the natives have 

 recourse to the roots of a small grass-like plant called 

 silinti in Tamil, and kalanduru by the Sinhalese [Cy perns 

 geminatus). 



Bramble. 



" Then said all the trees unto the bramble, Come thou and 

 reign over us. And the bramble said unto the trees, If in 

 truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your 

 trust in my shadow, and if not, let fire come out of the bram- 

 ble and devour the cedars of Lebanon." (Judges ix. 14, 4;").) 



We have no less than seven species of Bramble indigenous 



* Since the above was written, I paid more attention to the identifi- 

 cation of a common road-side plant in Colombo, which I find to be a true 

 Mallow, and 1 think M. ioinattoxo., Linn. 



