ERUCA SATIVA, Lam. 



[Vide Plate XXXVI.] 



Description. 



Origin. 



DistributioD. 

 Mixtures. 



Aren. 



Season. 



English, none ; Vernaculae, duan, sahwan, tira, tara, taramira, also dua and chara (Kum- 

 aun) ;t Sanscrit, siddartha.f 



Natural order Cruct/erce, tribe Brassicece. An erect branching herb 3-4 ft. high. Stem solid 

 terete, striate, hispid below with stiff reflexed hairs. Leaves dark green or glaucous ; lower onea 

 6-12 in. long, on long petioles, lobed or sub-entire ; upper deeply pinnatifid with the terminal 

 lobe broadly ovate lyrate or oblanceolate ; petioles with a deep channel above, from the winged edges 

 of which the leaf segments proceed. Inflorescence corymbose when young ; rachis somewhat 

 flexuose. Pedicels about i in. Calyx quadrangular, tubular, twice as long as the pedicels ; sepalg 

 erect or slightly divergent when in flower, lateral ones gibbous at the base. Petals 4, greenish 

 yellow, with dark often purple veins. Stamens 6, tetradynamous. Pods closely adpressed to the 

 stem, about 1 in. long, ovoid oblong, turgid, smooth, with a flat ensiform seedless beak half the 

 length of the valves. Seeds numerous, in two series, oblong to sub-globose, compressed, light red- 

 dish brown. 



A native of S. Europe and N. Africa. 



The oil obtained from this plant is used for lighting purposes and for anointing 

 the hair ; it is also consumed to a great extent as human food. 



Its cultivation is most general in the western portions of the Provinces. It is 

 most commonly grown mixed with gram or barley, or the combination of gram and 

 barley known as hejliar, taking with these crops the place which rape fills in wheat fields. 

 It is occasionally grown alone on land which has become too dry for the germination 

 of any of the cold weather cereals, and it is very frequently sown in cotton fields, its 

 seed being scattered over the ground before the cotton receives its first weeding, in which 

 process they are buried. No returns are available of the area on which duan is grown 

 mixed with rabi crops, although it is known to be very large, especially in the western 

 districts. Taking into account only the land on which it is grown by itself or in com- 

 pany with cotton, it is reported to occupy some 14,000 acres in the Meerut, 17,500 in 

 the Agra, and 8,500 acres in the Eohilkhand Divisions. In the Allahabad Division it 

 is only grown alone or with cotton on between 300 to 400 acres, and in the Jhansi and 

 Benares Divisions its cultivation seems to be almost unknown. 



Duan may be sown at any time between the beginning of September to the end of 

 November, and ripens about the same time as the rabi cereal harvest commences. The 

 oil is pressed out in the ordinary oil mill, a Jcolhu, (^see til, page 35,) by the profes- 

 sional oil presser {ieli), who returns to the cultivator in oil from one -fourth to one- 



* References :— Fl. Brit. Ind. i. 158 ; Gaz. N.-W. p. Vol. X. 771. Brassica Eruca, Linn. B. erucoides, Koxb. Fl. 

 Ind. iii. 117. Sinapis Eruca, C\-A\xy ; Baden-Powell Punj. Prod. 419. 

 t Akinsoa Gaz. N.-W. P. Vol. x. p. 771. 

 X Piddington Index 14. 



