TRAPA BISPINOSA. 



crop is yielded by the October sowing. Wright, in his " Memorandum on Agriculture 

 in the District of Cawnpore," says : — 



" The ground for baingan is, if necessary, manured •with about 160 maunds per acre, and 

 " ploughed three or four times. It is sown in Asarh (i.e., at fall of the rains), 1 It. seed per acre 

 " being sown in seed beds and the seedlings planted out. The plant is dug up twice and weeded 

 " eight or nine times, and as it occupies the ground the whole year, it is -watered every week after 

 " the rain ceases to fall, and nona (or saline earth) is applied to the roots. * * * It is much 

 " grown by kewats ( makahs ) on the kachhdr lands of the Jumna." 



Wright gives 17 maunds as the outturn of one acre, and the value at 10 to 

 12 rupees. 



It is used by natives as a vegetable, and is cooked with spices or made into a 

 curry. It is sometimes fried and minced up with buttermilk. A preparation called 

 bari or barya is made by cooking it with urd dal, with which it is mashed up when wet ; 

 this mixture is then separated into small bits and dried in the sun. A pickle is some- 

 times made of this vegetable. In Saharanpur the bazar rate is one anna per seer. In 

 Cawnpore 2^ seers can be purchased for one anna. 



In Grorakhpur the eating of this fruit is said to be inauspicious. This statement 

 may possibly have some reference to the proverb mentioned in " North Indian Notes and 

 Queries," No. 38, where it is said that if brinjal is eaten on the 2nd day of the lunar 

 fortnight, privation of food is the consequence, and if a man eats this vegetable on the 

 13th day his children are sure to die. 



Explanation of Plate XCV. 



1. Outline oViruit. i 3. Cross section of fruit. 



2. Flower. 4. Vertical section of flower. 



TRAPA BISPINOSA, RoxlC 



[ Vide Plate XCVIII.] 



Caltrop or water-chestnut, singhara, pani-phal (Hind.) ; gaunri (Punj.) ; shringataka 



(Sans.). 



Natural order Onagracea. A floating herb with two kinds of leaves ; submerged root-like, pinna- 

 t.ipartite. with filiform segments ; the floating ones rosulate, rhomboidal, with a spongy swelling near 

 the apex of the stalk. Flowers axillary, solitary, peduncled, white. Fruit of a brownish colour, 

 bony, 1-celled, obovoid, with four angles, two of which terminate in spines. 



* References :— Roxb., PL Ind. (Clarke's Ed.), 144: Fl. Br. Ind., II., 590 ; Atkinson, Econom. Prod., N.-W. Prov., V., 

 1" , Wright, Mem. Agrt., Cawnpore, 7 (under T. nutans) ; RhceJe. Ilort. Mai., XI.. t. 33. 



